When most people think about the Red Sea resort town of Hurghada, Egypt they likely imagine relaxing on the beach, scuba diving, adventuring in the desert, golfing, and lounging at a big resort. Hurghada does have all of that. Rarely, however, does one think about fresh markets and a taste of local Egyptian culture. It’s there in Hurghada, if only you look hard enough. You won’t find that local culture on Sheraton Street, an area which many .. more ..

Photos by author Karen Dion left some concerned family at home to travel to Egypt. Here’s her report. I .. more ..

Hello and welcome to this month’s live chat. I’ll be discussing post-revolution and solo-female travel to Egypt with my guest Giulia Cimarosti.

Whales with legs? In the desert? That’s what you’ll find in the Valley of the Whales (Wadi El-Hitan) in Fayoum, Egypt. More accurately, you’ll find the over 35 million year-old fossilized remains of whales with short legs, appendages marking their evolution from land mammals to sea mammals. It’s hard to imagine today, but the entire area you see in the panorama below was submerged, covered by the Tethys sea. Makes you rea .. more ..

Mummies of the World Exhibition opens at MOSI in Tampa, Florida, today. Details here. The exhibition includes mummified humans and animals from several places around the world in addition to those from Egypt. According to local television reports, the exhibit runs through September 9, 2012. In the photo below we see a mummified Ibi .. more ..

Do you remember learning about ancient Egypt in elementary school? I do. I recall images of Cleopatra, mummies, hieroglyphics, and women with black bobbed hair and men dressed in kilts, all strutting. I remember pyramids that seemed too big to be real, as if aliens must have been the ones to deposit them in the middle of the desert. And I remember an episode of Asterix and Obelix, a favorite childhood comic book of mine, where Obelix climbs onto the Sphinx .. more ..

Egypt’s national gas company

The picture below shows a scribe from ancient Egypt. The statue from Saqqara dates to the 4th or 5th dynasty — about 2600 to 2350 B.C. The limestone statue is painted with encrusted eyes of rock crystal. The statue is on display in the Louvre.