In February, I was fortunate enough to spend a few weeks in Sudan before the world shut down in March. Since then, I’ve been doing everything I can to alleviate some of my homesickness for the African continent. When you can’t travel to Egypt in real life, here are five ways you can visit from home.

1. Cook an Egyptian dish

Unlike other international cuisines, Egyptian food doesn’t get nearly as much press as it should. Most cities will have a fair share of Ethiopian food, sushi, Mexican food, Thai food, and Italian restaurants, but it’s much harder to find an Egyptian food restaurant.

Here in Toronto, my partner and I were thrilled to discover Maha’s Egyptian Brunch. Now we know that on the days we miss Egypt the most, we can have lentil soup and listen to Oum Kalthoum to help us feel as though we aren’t millions of miles away. They also serve shakshuka, an egg and tomato dish that has been a favorite of mine to make for breakfast at home since we lived in Cairo. Make yourself a cup of hot black tea (extra sugar!) and try one of these Egyptian recipes in your kitchen at home:

• Egyptian Koshary | The Mediterranean Dish
• Fava Bean Falafel | Sense & Edibility
• Beef Shawarma Wrap | Feel Good Foodie
• Moussaka bel bechamel | Amira’s Pantry
• Ful Medames Shakshuka | The Egyptian Epicurean

2. Watch an Egyptian film or documentary

Last month I reviewed Netflix’s new documentary Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb. With a cup of hot tea in one hand, for a couple of hours I almost forgot that I didn’t get to spend my summer in Egypt this year. If you’re looking for a fiction film that is more culturally authentic than Brendan Fraser’s The Mummy, I recommend watching the films by Egyptian film director Shadi Abdel Salam: The Eloquent Peasant (1970) and The Night of Counting the Years (1969). Both films deal with ancient Egyptian material and both do an excellent job of transporting you to the Egyptian desert from your couch.

 3. Explore virtual tours of Egyptian sites

When the replica of Tutankhamun’s tomb was opened beside Howard Carter’s House in Luxor, many of my friends asked me what the point of visiting a replica was when the original was located just a few minutes away. Aside from the obvious (alleviating the strain that moisture and carbon dioxide puts on the three-thousand-year-old paintings) replicas allow for endless reproductions and curated educational displays. You can touch replicas! You can photograph replicas easier! You can hang up panels inside a replica! I always recommend, if possible, that people visit both the original and the facsimile of Tut’s tomb as they are quite different experiences.

In exactly the same way, a virtual tour of a tomb is not the same as visiting the tomb itself, but in some ways it’s better. You can visit all of these sites, from Alexandria to Luxor, before you even finish reading this blog post:

• Kom el Shoqafa Catecombs (Alexandria)
• Tomb of Meresankh III (Giza)
• Pyramid of Unas (Saqqara)
• Tomb of Khety I (Beni Hasan)
• The Red Monastery (Sohag)
• Tomb of Menna (Luxor)

 4. Share your photos of previous trips 

My photo archives have become much more organized since we started Nile Scribes a few years ago, but I still have unsorted folders of photos that stretch back to 2006. In a recent email, a dear friend mentioned that she is finally scrapbooking the trip to Petra she took over a decade ago and in doing so, she is reliving the whole experience. Not all of us were born with the patience to scrapbook, but there are definitely a few trips for which I’ve considered having some photo albums printed (I recommend Blurb or Shutterfly). Barring that, maybe it’s finally time to sit down and sort your photos to share with friends and family via Facebook or Flickr. You would be surprised how much about your past trips that you’ve forgotten.

Joining @aaronmdesouza’s talk for the @TheEgyptCentre virtually today! pic.twitter.com/dgnXvJc1mn

— Taylor Bryanne (@BBinCairo) May 26, 2020

5. Enjoy a virtual lecture (or twenty!)

In the midst of the necessary isolation and cancelled plans of the COVID pandemic, one very good remedy has emerged: putting recorded lectures online for anyone to watch for free. Since March, Egyptological organizations like the Egypt Exploration Society and the American Research Center in Egypt, along with numerous universities and museums, have hosted dozens of virtual lectures and generously shared many of those lectures on YouTube. The result is unprecedented access to some of the best minds and most varied research in Egyptology no matter where you live on the planet! This is something I desperately hope we continue to do after the world opens back up again, even if not on the same scale. I put together a watchlist on YouTube (click HERE) of some recent Egyptology lectures to get you started.

All photos courtesy of the author unless otherwise indicated. 

Taylor Bryanne Woodcock

Taylor Bryanne Woodcock is an Egyptology Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto, where she also teaches Middle Egyptian. She currently works in Egypt at the South Asasif and in Sudan at Gebel Barkal.