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Roger Moore’s third outing “The Spy Who Loved Me” in 1977 featured Egypt, one of the film location countries long on our bucket list. With recent tourist investments, such as a new Egyptian Museum and enhanced security measures in the country, we were thrilled to finally visit this ancient land.
While many tour Egypt on their own, we chose a blend of our own itinerary along with a group tour organized by Trafalgar tours, which we found to be an excellent operation with incredibly knowledgeable guides.
As this report is singularly about the film locations of James Bond, we’ll skip reviewing the many temples, mosques, shops, restaurants and experiences we had and would insist anyone visiting Egypt be sure to do. We’d be happy to provide more information via email.
Our adventure begins in Cairo, checking into Le Meridian Pyramids Resort, literally across the street from the Pyramids of Giza. Our ride from the airport was a feast of sights, sounds and smells as Cairo is a 24/7 traffic jam of cars, trucks, vans and camels!
We booked our guide for our personal 007 location hunt through Trafalgar and mapped out the locations we had on our list. We thought with the guide, it would be prudent and secure to do so. Interesting enough, the US Embassy also insists armed security join any American on tour, so we had a bodyguard, with a Glock, following us safely behind!
We began our Bond tour at the Ibn Tulin Mosque, a beautiful and accessible courtyard easily recognized as the walkway Bond strolls through on the way to see Fekkesh. As it is a mosque, unlike 007, you will be given coveralls for your shoes. From the Mosque, you enter the Gayer Anderson Museum, a definite must for your visit. You’ll enter at the top of the stairs, where in silhouette Bond arrives, note that now there is a metal detector and guard at the entry (as you will now find at all sites).
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