خد الرفيق قبل الطريق
Khod el rafiq abl el tariq
Translation: Pick your traveling companion before picking the route.
Meaning: A good companion is better than a good road. When animals were the only means of transportation, a traveler traveled on average no more than 30 km per day. Long distance travelling, north to south, was done in boats in the Nile, but travelling east or west had to be done by land, and a trip to Suez would take four days or so. Most of the long-distance land travelling was done in caravans for security reasons.
Source: ُEgyptian proverbs, (Al-Ahram Center For Translation and Publishing, 1986) by Ahmed Taymour Pasha,
Translated by: Nabil Shawka
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