Africa For A Weekend 7: Egypt🇪🇬

I spent this weekend in Egypt, figuring out how the Pyramids were really made.

And I think I've finally cracked the code.

It's incredible that no one has been able to explain how the Pyramids were made, even with all our technological advancements.

This makes them that much more impressive, especially as years go by, and they've remained one of the 7 wonders of the world... until now.

Africa For A Weekend, Episode 7, found me in Egypt🇪🇬, and the Pyramids are just one of the fascinating things I witnessed on this weekend trip.

Let me break down the key takeaways from my trip:

One of the highlights of my trip was seeing how diverse Egypt is. In fact, people from different parts of Egypt are very different in terms of culture, accents and even language with different variations of Arabic. There are also a lot of people from other nearby countries, Iran, Sudan, South Sudan, and more. But the sad thing is that a lot of those from Sudan are actually in Egypt seeking refuge from their currently ongoing war which, since starting about a year ago, has resulted in a mass migration of Sudanese into Egypt. While most of us may have heard about other ongoing wars, like the war in Ukraine, and the war in Israel, it's these silent wars that unfortunately go unnoticed. Fortunately however, Egypt has been welcoming and many Sudanese have formed close communities, started businesses, got employment, and are benefiting from security and hope for a better future in Egypt.

Another very interesting insight was during my tour of the Egyptian Museum. I had a tour guide who was very helpful. I learned about the extensive and rich history of Africa and ancient Egypt. I learned about how Africa, specifically Ancient Egypt, was the number 1 leader in many things at one point, medicine, science, mathematics, agriculture, architecture, engineering, design, and so much more! Of course, history has many messy details, with some parts being intentionally hidden by oppressors, but it's great to see all this history coming back to the surface in recent years. I definitely recommend getting a tour of the Egyptian Museum for the full picture. Special thanks to my tour guide an Egyptologist, Ahmed Marei.

"Africa is the leader of human heritage" - Ahmed Marei, Egyptologist

One other unconventional thing I learned about Egypt, specifically Cairo, is that contrary to my belief that Egypt was a modest country and Cairo a modest city, particularly in regards to nightlife. I couldn't have been any more wrong. For research purposes, I decided to investigate how hard people in Egypt really party. My findings were shocking. People would start partying at 11pm, and they'd party until the last party closes at 1pm (in the afternoon, that's at least 14 hours!). Frankly, I've never seen anything like this, anywhere I've been, I didn't even know it was possible, let alone in Egypt of all places. But here we are. If you are a party animal - Egypt has you covered, and then some.

Now, my Egypt trip was not all sunshine and Pyramids. There were a few challenges.

The first was the fact that right out the gate, in order for me to pay for my visa on arrival, I had to use cash, but they didn't accept their own local cash. It had to be foreign cash that I had withdrawn before landing in Egypt. They accepted card, but in order to access my online banking, I needed Internet, but the airport (Sphinx International Airport) didn't have any guest WiFi (I've never seen something like this before). Lesson: Buy your visa before you get to Egypt, and get ready to buy a local sim card for internet access at the airport, or face roaming charges. The second was the language barrier, everyone spoke Arabic, and rightly so, it's their country! In fact, I'm probably being selfish with this one by visiting a foreign country and expecting people to speak MY language. But the problem still stands, if your Arabic language skills are near zero, this WILL cause severe friction on your trip. Heck, even the licence plates are written in Arabic, this means that finding your uber will really test your Arabic skills as you play "Spot The Difference" between the Arabic writing on each car's licence plate, and the licence plate on the Uber app, to identify which car is your Uber.

Another common issue foreigners like myself have with Egypt, is getting scammed, overcharged or simply out-negotiated. But fortunately, I have been able to master the art of negotiating in foreign lands, from my previous but brutal trip to Morocco🇲🇦 where I was a repeat victim of high prices and overcharging. The solution is really to set a price up-front, and stand firm on it no matter what. And when I say no matter what, I mean it, because I had one guy try to fight me and call the police on me because I wouldn't pay him extra. Be careful out there!

Besides the obvious challenges, I believe my trip was worthwhile. I learned a lot, and finally got an answer to the famous question: "how were the Pyramids made?". And how were they made, you ask? Well, the answer is simple, they used: Futuristic Ancient Technology (FAT). Get this, the Ancient Egyptians were world-class in pretty much every field at the time (engineering, architecture, science, mathematics, etc). If you combine this world-class knowledge with a world-class workforce, you get magic.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” - Arthur C. Clarke

With this magic, or Futuristic Ancient Technology, it's clear that the Ancient Egyptians were simply way ahead of their time, which makes me wonder where Africa would have been today if they were able to maintain their momentum. We'd probably have a real-life Wakanda in Africa by now.

Overall this trip was a great experience, I learned a lot.

On my next visit I would:

• Learn Arabic.
• Visit more of the Pyramids in greater depth.
• Visit different parts of Egypt like Alexandria, Luxor, etc.
• Learn Arabic.
• Do a longer and more in depth guided tour of the Egyptian Museums to learn more about human history
• Learn Arabic.
• Learn Arabic.
• Speak to more locals leveraging my Arabic speaking skills to better understand their stories