Of
all the places I’ve visited in my life, Egypt has been the most fascinating.
I’ve
explored almost the whole country: Cairo and the Pyramids, Alexandria, the
temples of Luxor and Karnak, the Valleys of the Kings and the Queens and the
Nobles. I’ve travelled to Aswan and all the way down to Abu Simbel in the far
south.
I’ve
also been to Sharm-el-Sheik, and from there into the Sinai, where I visited St
Catherine’s Monastery. Sadly, this area is currently off-limits to travellers
as the Foreign Office warns against visits.
If,
like me, you’re interested in history, Egypt is a place of wonders. It’s the
land of many civilisations, including Greek, Roman, Christian and Muslim. So
many ancient structures are still brilliantly intact; they invite you to
understand a completely different way of looking at life
This
was a civilisation that depended on renewals: the renewal of the day; the
renewal of the harvest; the renewal of the river, which made the surrounding
countryside fertile. It was a civilisation that was drawn towards the idea of
reincarnation. There is so much to see, but many holidaymakers are worried
about safety.
The
Foreign Office’s principal source of anxiety is Sharm-el-Sheik airport – UK airlines
are not currently flying there for security reasons. The
area in and around Sharm-el-Sheik itself, however, is considered safe, as is
Cairo, Luxor and the resort of Hurghada. As far as flying to Sharm-el-Sheik is
concerned, the British position has not changed since last October, when a
Russian passenger jet was brought down.
The
positions of some other national authorities have altered, so you can fly there
from Belgium, Germany and Turkey, for example, and British airlines seem to be
lobbying to resume flights.
If
you are a fan of my BBC series Great Continental Railway Journeys, you’ll
probably not be surprised to learn that one of my great aspirations is to
travel on Egypt’s railways. There
are trains from Suez, Alexandria, Port Said and various point on the Nile
Delta, allowing travellers to pass through Cairo and Luxor. It’s an obvious
journey for us to do, particularly as Egypt is included in the 1913 guide used
by George Bradshaw that we feature in our programme.
We’ve
already been to what Bradshaw calls the Holy Land and we’ve also headed to
Morocco. The British built the railways: Egypt was a very important place
strategically because of the Suez Canal and its Mediterranean ports. And
in 1913, the British would have been extremely worried about the growing
alliance of Turkey and Germany, which gave rise to a very important theatre in
the First World War. I can’t wait to get back to Egypt to film my journey.