While working in a travel bookstore after college, I came to recognize different countries by their colors. We sold a large selection of glossy hard-cover books, and all the books on a particular country seemed to come in a distinctive color: China was red, both for communist propaganda and Imperial grandeur; Uganda was green for lush jungles and flooded plains; and Egypt was a lifeless sandstone, for sunburnt desert and wind bitten ruins. With these khaki book-bingings in mind, I arrived in Egypt expecting a landscape leeched by the sun of color. But looking out the window as my train rumbled toward Aswan, I was confronted by a glittering landscape of fields dripping neon green, and houses painted in pastel hues.
4 comments:
I took that same cheesy train while in Egypt! . . . Great way to think about color and also deconstruct those preconceived ideas.
Anne
Beautiful photos. Makes me want to go there.
I love the colour combinations you've created there! Gorgeous photos!
Like the others said, you captured some nice colours there! Egypt's a great place for finding those pastel colors contrasting against the khaki of the sand.
I don't know if you had the chance while you were in Egypt (and if you didn't then next time you're there (if you go back) then I'd recommend this) to go on any trips into the desert? Even just a day trip to see the dunes, etc. Better yet is a couple of days camping, in particular visiting the white desert and the black desert in the western part of the country (around Siwa oasis). True, the sand might be the same color, but with the rocks you get a surprising amount of variation and on top of that the light is always changing. In the evenings the sunsets are phenomenal, adding even more color.
I spent a year and a half in Egypt and, in case you can't tell, I still miss the place. :P
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