EGYPT  2001:

After viewing the construction of the large water passage, our group headed for the project headquarters.  Here we learned what the Toshka Project was, the schedule and sections of completion, and what the project would do to help the people of Egypt.  I learned that the Toshka Project was a major undertaking to pump water from Lake Nasser to fill a massive man made canal in order to irrigate the desert land of Egypt.

The ultimate plan for the project is to stretch the canal all the way north through Egypt and finish in the Mediterranean Ocean.  The plan for the next few years is to fill the sections of the canal that are completed in order to begin irrigating the land in southern Egypt.  The Egyptian government hopes to provide farm land for the people in order to move Egyptians out of overpopulated Cairo and into the new area created by the project.

After learning about the plans for the project, we headed out to see the enormous pumping station that was being built in order to fill the canal.  The area around the enormous structure was dry at the time we saw it, but will be mostly submerged under water when finished.  The pictures at the bottom are of the huge dredging machines used to dig a channel to connect the lake to the pumping station.

This was our final day of sightseeing in Egypt.  When we finished seeing the Toshka project, we headed back to the airport to fly back to Cairo for our last night before heading home.  We arrived in Cairo later that day, said thank you and good bye to our wonderful and extremely knowledgeable guide Fathy, and ate our last meal in Egypt.  Although I took a nap for a few hours, mainly because I ran out of Egyptian money, a few others spent the short night at the bar.  We had such a short night because we left the hotel at 2:00 in the morning to head to the Cairo airport for a horrible flight aboard Alitalia for our trip home.

Like I said on the first page of this site, I am very glad I spent the money to go on this trip and I would do it again if I had the chance.  Despite a few minor problems, the trip went extremely well.  We had a great group of people, a great professor leading our group, a great guide, and a great schedule.  Overall, I had an excellent time in a far away land with an extremely rich history and culture.  The trip was an excellent learning experience and I recommend that everybody visits Egypt some time in their lives so they can experience what I have experienced.  I hope that this web site will provide a general guide for anyone traveling to Egypt and help them prepare for some of the different situations I encountered on my trip.  Please e-mail me about any questions, comments, or concerns about this site or my trip.

Brian Czarnecki: cubmc4@eiu.edu