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Showing posts from October, 2004

Cairo : A city beyound pyramids

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This is my fourth visit to Cairo in current year and I am still unable to feel the pulse of this country. Geographically being part of Africa, culturally part of Middle Eastern and economically similar to India makes Egypt and in particular Cairo an interesting place to visit. Often story of Cairo begins and ends with Pyramid. I didn’t find Pyramid that glamorous on first visit. Perhaps I was overburdened with great expectations. My image of Pyramid was that of being in the middle of desert in hostile environment with an ambience and opulence as that of movie “sphinx”. It is incongruous to see this magnificent creation of man at stones throw from brick-laid stacked up houses, crowded street with loads of vehicles. But this is what it is. Pyramids are in Giza and Giza is part of Cairo. You can practically make a visit to Pyramid every day. A mere look at Pyramids doesn’t give the magnitude of human endeavor till you hear story of thousands of laborers bringing unchisseled rocks over riv

Sanaa: takes my breath away

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I often wondered what it must be like being in 16th century and talking a walk on Chaandni Chowk amidst backdrop of Red Fort, Jama Masjid and being part of the Islamic milieu. I got this chance when I visited San’a–Yemen last week. Old San’a city takes you backward travel of many centuries. Just take out automobiles, mobile phones, electric gadgets and you have in front of you a piece of history. Not many people would know that San'a is one of the first sites of human settlement and still inhabited in every inch. Now UN has now taken over the old city under its patronage with no owner allowed to neither make any modifications nor sales transactions. This old city is walled from outside has tarred road embankment from all sides. This turn into canal during heavy downpour. Old ancient city is the attraction for all tourists. The gate to the city is known Bab Al-Yemen. The houses inside the sof the old city are several stories high with nicely ornamented from the outside.They all line