Random and Interesting Things We Observed in Egypt

Besides seeing the big-name tourist sites, we love to experience local life and observe the differences or unique things from the area we are visiting. Often subtle, and sometimes surprising, here are a few random things we have observed, enjoyed, or experienced in our twenty-eight days in Egypt.

Aish Baladi – we love this Egyptian flatbread. Kind of like a pita, it is a little chewier, and we think, more delicious. It is eaten at almost every meal and is commonly available on the streets fresh out of the oven.

Ful Medemas – this breakfast staple of fava beans is great! I think we saw this or had this for breakfast almost every single day. You scoop some of the fava beans into a bowl and then add other items to taste, stir it up and enjoy. The common add-ins are raw onions, raw red or green peppers, chopped tomatoes, cumin, crushed chili peppers, tahini sauce, salt, and olive oil.

Zebibah or prayer bump – after the first day or so in Egypt, I noticed that many of the older men had a mark on their forehead that at first looked like a birthmark. I asked one of our guides about it, thinking it might be due to years of putting their forehead on the mat during daily prayers. Our guide replied, “No, it is because his wife hits him!” He was joking, of course. It is a callus or mark from praying. Muslims are supposed to pray five times a day. Part of the prayer involves prostrating yourself and touching your forehead to your prayer mat. The forehead can touch 34 times a day. We have spent time in other Muslim majority countries, but Egypt is the only place I have seen this. Not sure if it is partially a product of the typical Egyptian male hairline, a more vigorous prostration, or some other reason, but it is certainly widespread in Egypt.

Tourist Police – tourist police are everywhere with the goal of keeping tourists safe. In the 1990s, there were a few incidents of attacks and the killing of tourists. During the Arab Spring of 2011, tourism basically shut down in Egypt. Despite these events, Egypt is a very safe country. During our trip, we saw lots of armed tourist police at the historic sites. We did extensive traveling and visited many sites that tourists seldom visit. We had to submit copies of our passports days before our journeys for the tourism company to register our trip with the tourist police. During some parts of our journey, we were escorted by police, one car in front of us and one behind us. There were times where we had to stop by the side of the road and wait for another set of escorts to take over as we crossed over governate lines (kind of like county or state lines) and into the jurisdiction of another division of the Tourist Police. We felt very safe, but it was definitely an unexpected experience.

Donkeys and horses – within our first few hours in Cairo, we saw donkey carts. The use of donkeys, and sometimes horses, but mostly donkeys, became much more prevalent the further we got into the countryside.

Black and yellow Lada taxi cabs in Alexandria – although there are some recognizable brands of cars for us in Egypt, there are quite a few that are not common to North America – Geely, Chery, Renault, etc. One sight that surprised us in Alexandria was thousands of black and yellow Lada taxi cabs. Lada is a Russian auto brand. One of the articles I read on the web about the taxis said that most of them are 2015 or 2016 models, although, to me, they look a lot older than that. I guess taxis do get lots of miles put on them and can wear out quickly.

Lush vegetation versus desert sand – from the air, on Google Earth, or just driving along the countryside, the stark contrast of the lush, green land along the Nile river and delta and the dry, barren surrounding desert really stands out. There is no gradual change in landscape as we have seen in other parts of the world.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Egypt. Despite some very aggressive vendors and touts surrounding the tourist sites, we found the Egyptian people friendly and kind. I hope you have found our observations interesting.