I.
Ancient Egypt
II.
Cairo & Modern Egypt
III.
Pictures
I.
Ancient
Egypt
In anticipating my visit,
I expected to experience a foreign culture and to see pyramids. I did
not expect to come away feeling that I had taken a true journey
through time.
Geographical background:
if it were not for the Nile River, Egypt would not exist as it did in
the past, nor as it does today. With just ~six rainy days per year,
Egypt does not get enough precipitation to support crops to feed a
nation. The Nile River is fed from the precipitation over and waters of
other more southerly countries in Africa, and then flows north through
Egypt into the Mediterranean Sea. [Hence “Upper
Egypt” means the southern part of
Egypt because it’s upstream, and “Lower Egypt”
means the northern part of the country.] Viewed from an airplane, much
of Egypt appears as a desert, with a green strip going through it from
south to north as irrigation supports growing crops on either side of
the Nile throughout the country. Interestingly, in ancient Egypt, each
year’s tax rate was determined by how high the annual flood of the Nile
was. The higher the water level, the more water available to support
crops, the more people could afford to pay in taxes, and so the higher
the tax. The lower the flood level, the lower the tax. Quite simple!
One picture online shows a flooded corridor used for measuring the water
level.
Our guided tour was
roughly a chronological progression, starting with the Pyramids of Giza
located just outside of
Cairo,
on a plateau above the
Nile which appeared as
a desert. The oldest pyramid there is ~4,500 years old, a wonder of the
ancient world and, like all the rest of the archaeological sites we saw
on this trip, in unbelievably well-preserved form. ~Three million stone
blocks weighing thousands of pounds each were excavated from a quarry
upriver, and then during flood season were floated downriver to near the
building site. Ramps of mud bricks were built and raised as the pyramid
grew, and stones were moved up the ramps and put into place. Each
pyramid was prepared before the pharaoh (Egyptian king) for whom it was
built died; when he died he was mummified (a 70-day process), put into a
sarcophagus (stone tomb), adorned with jewelry, furniture, and many
other things which were deemed necessary for the him to use in his
afterlife with the gods, and put into secret rooms via secret
passageways into the pyramid. Final stone blocks then were put in place
to seal the passages and hide their locations. The pyramid then was
finished off with a limestone layer of stones on all surfaces, to
further hide the entrance. The limestone wore off over the years except
at the top of one of the pyramids (see pictures).
In time, people found
their way into the pyramids and looted kings’ possessions. In 500 or
1,000 years, pharaohs of these later dynasties realized the insecurity
of the pyramids and instead built underground tombs in places including
the “Valley
of the Kings.” In areas of the steeply hilly rock covered by desert sand
away from the
Nile in southern
Egypt,
pharaohs had secret tunnels and rooms dug out of the rock to serve as
burial chambers for their mummified selves and all precious adornments
necessary for a good afterlife. The tombs’ entrances were sealed with
stones, covered with sand and hidden. To date 63 such tombs have been
discovered in the area called the “Valley of the Kings.” Sadly, most of these tombs were discovered and looted. At
least one, however, was not robbed: the tomb of King Tut Ankh Amen,
popularly known as “King Tut.” King Tut reigned just until his early
death at age 19. His tomb was not discovered until recent years,
however, and his mummy, jewelry, furniture, etc. all were found intact
and preserved. It is incredible to see many of these items at the
Egyptian Museum in Cairo, including the solid gold mask which covered
his mummified head, and his coffin made of a few hundred pounds of solid
gold.
The pharaohs also built
numerous massive temples throughout
Egypt, places where only the pharaoh and his high priest could enter to
worship and make offerings to the Egyptian Gods. Ancient Egypt had its
own religion, comprised of numerous gods, and a hierarchy with “Ra” the
sun god at the top. Every column and every stone of every wall in each
temple had, and after thousands of years continues to have in incredible
remarkably good shape, hieroglyphic carvings depicting the stories of
the religion, and scenic carvings typically showing the pharaoh making
offerings to various gods. The gods in turn are shown offering the
kings protection and eternal life. Most interesting to me is Horus, the
god of protection, with body of a man and head of a falcon. Falcons
circle the land flying around up in the sky, and then they see food they
dive-bomb straight to it very quickly to attain it. In ancient Egyptian
religion, the falcon god was seen as protection for the king: it would
circle around up in the air looking out for enemies, and dive-bomb
straight down when it saw an enemy approaching the king. Also
fascinating to me is the symbol of the Ankh, which the gods often are
holding in the carved scenes and occasionally giving to the pharaoh. It
is the key to and symbol of eternal life.
For me, the carvings were
the most fascinating part of the trip. We were fortunate to have an
Egyptologist guide who explained what different scene carvings meant,
and then it became very fun and interesting to try to decipher what
other scenes meant as we came across them. The carvings used to be
wonderfully painted; most of the coloring has worn off. In a few places
here and there however, one can see the hints of the colors that once
existed (see pictures). In some temples the faces in the scene carvings
sadly have been vandalized and chiseled off. As years went on,
outsiders and other religions entered
Egypt. One pharaoh came to favor Christianity, which created some
change in the nation. Greeks and Romans invaded the country, and there
even was a period when the
Greece
won and a Greek person became King -- in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo,
there is a statue showing an Egyptian King who does not look like any of
his predecessors -- it depicts a curly beard, and a face with Greek
features. Timing: 4th century B.C. As time went on and foreign
influence increased, Christianity took hold, some groups hid out in or
used Ancient Egyptian temples as their churches, defiled easy-to-reach
face carvings and in some places carved crosses into the stones which
used to have other scenes or hieroglyphics (see pictures). Sadly,
eventually the religion of Ancient Egypt -- so well-preserved in
hieroglyphic- and scene-carvings throughout the temples (which thus
turned out to be far more fascinating than the pyramids) -- completely
died out, such that it is now a dead religion. So truly sad to see such
magnificence die away. I do keep in mind, however, that I saw and
learned about just one side of things, from the perspective of the
pharaohs -- I don’t know what life was like for the commoner; perhaps it
was good, perhaps not. I’d like to think that it was relatively good,
since the period lasted for thousands of years. What will be the state
of our current world’s religions a few thousand years from now?
As previously noted, our
tour started in
Cairo
at the nearby Pyramids of Giza. It then continued as a cruise up the
Nile
from Luxor to Aswan, with stops in these towns and at places along the
way to see the other sites of interest. This was a wonderful, easy way
to see all of the sites in roughly chronological order. Finishing up
with a few days in Cairo to learn about and visit historical sites of
more modern times (such as churches and mosques up to ~1500 years old)
and to experience modern Egyptian culture made for a nice finish in this
journey through time.
II.
Cairo
& Modern
Egypt
I started out with a
cultural immersion into the Islamic section; Lonely Planet
Egypt suggests “the best way to explore is ... wandering through the
narrow streets and twisting alleyways” so that’s just what I did. Here
are impressions from speaking with our airport pick-up person, and from
an evening of wandering through Islamic Cairo:
- ~80% to 90% of the
residents are Islamic; ~10% to 20% are “Coptic Christians” -- a form of
Christianity which was the predominant religion in
Egypt prior to the arrival of Islam. Lonely Planet says, “Islam shares
it roots with Judaism and Christianity. Adam, Abraham (Ibrahim), Noah,
Moses and Jesus are all accepted as prophets, although Jesus is
recognized as a mere prophet and not the son of God. Muslim teachings
correspond closely to the Torah (the foundation book of Judaism) [the
Old Testament] and the Christian Gospels. The essence of Islam is the
Quran and the Prophet Mohammed ... Islam was founded in the early 7th
century by Mohammed, who was born around AD 570 in Mecca. Mohammed
received his first divine message at about the age of 40. The
revelations continued for the rest of his life and were transcribed to
become the holy Quran.”
- Traditional / government
job hours from ~8am to ~3pm, with breakfast beforehand, lunch
afterwards, and dinner in late evening -- building of strong family
ties, as all meals can be enjoyed together. More and more private
sector jobs, however, require working until
5pm or
6pm, cutting out 1/3 of family meals
shared together.
- Cairo is huge at ~20
million people, and unlike any American city of that size, “you can walk
almost wherever you like in Cairo, at any time of day or night, as long
as you are properly dressed and a little street-smart” (-Lonely
Planet). Perhaps as a safety measure, LP did go on to say the
following: “That said, single women should still be careful when
walking alone at night,” but still -- wow, very safe,
relatively-speaking. Additional quotes from the LP book: “Theft is not
a big problem ... Pickpockets are rare ... Despite the overwhelming and
at times grinding poverty experienced by the majority of Egyptians, the
country’s violent crime rate is lower than the United States and Britain
... Egypt has a relative lack of violent crime, particularly rape and
murder. This is especially puzzling in
Cairo where millions of people contend daily with dense living
conditions, a high unemployment rate and urban malaise.”
- Lanes in streets are “to
show traffic direction only” a guide told me somewhat jokingly. The
lanes seem irrelevant: cars, buses and trucks share the roads with
humans pulling hugely stacked carts, occasional donkey-drawn carts, and
pedestrians (including the occasional woman balancing a bag/package on
her head). Car horns have a language; different durations and numbers
of times in succession mean different things such as “careful, I’m here”
or “I like my music” or “You $%#@&.” Once when crossing the street I
felt exactly like George Castanza in his Frogger-style crossing of the
street episode. Check out the video file in the photo gallery (linked
below).
- Nearly all taxis are
late 1970s / early 1980s Peugeots (French), Ladas (Russian?), and Fiats
(Italian). Traffic jams are commonplace, and the scent and haze of air
pollution are strong.
- A taxi I entered had
thick carpeting on the dashboard, and Islamic prayers sounded from the
speakers.
- Main traffic artery
streets aside, small streets weaving through continuous concrete
buildings often have their downstairs occupied by small shops after
adjacent small shops, and upstairs serving as residences. People and
sale-items lined the streets; some areas tourist nick-knacks, some areas
fruit and vegetables, some textiles, a bread-maker here and there ...
everything one would need. Lots of people in the streets at night,
along with occasional mopeds and human-drawn huge carts attempting to
weave their way through the crowd, or even more challengingly, past each
other when it came to two carts heading for each other. The entity of
the crowd usually seemed to have a way of bubbling out just enough to
let the carts barely pass.
- Mosques are open to the
public. I entered a large one, following others and watching what
customs they followed on entering so that I would know what to do
without committing any faux pas. This mosque had a huge outer chamber
room, and a small inner chamber room with holy items ornately gated in
the middle. People were gathered in the room, some standing or sitting
facing the holy items, others kneeling and praying. One side of the
room was blocked off with its own separate entrance; that side had all
women in it wearing robes, heads covered, and some with all facial
features except eyes covered. The area I happened to enter was all men;
they occupied three sides of the room, and a boy of about 8 years was
slightly swaying from side to side as he chanted prayers. A wild cat
lay warmly by one wall, facing the holy items, head raised but eyes
closed as if it were meditating.
- Soccer is the most
popular sport; hot apple tea and smoking apple-scented tobacco (or other
flavors or plain) in a hookah are ingrained in the culture. Some
sidewalk cafés have many hookahs in use; one inside place I saw had many
men smoking hookahs and watching a soccer game on TV.
- A large portion of
moussaka-tasting-like food (tasty!) at a sidewalk café cost 3.5 Egyptian
pounds (64 cents US). I received a 1/2 Egyptian Pound paper note (9
cents US) as change.
- Traveling off the beaten
path is not easy. Neither the Metro nor the public buses went somewhat
directly from my hotel to the area I wanted to visit; taxis are cheap so
I opted for one and a hotel employee spoke with the driver (in Arabic)
and let him know where to go. The hotel employee gave me a map with
Arabic words on it for my taxi return, however that didn’t work well --
I showed it to a return taxi driver I found, and it was not of help to
him -- he didn’t know where to go. Surprisingly a passer-by asked me if
I spoke French, and I asked him in French to help me out and I was on my
way in no time. Why weren’t the printed directions helpful? Later I
remembered Lonely Planet’s note about the illiteracy rate being at
around 50% of the population; perhaps that was the cause in this
circumstance. // Another time I took a taxi, I was able to communicate
the destination location just fine, and then before getting in I asked
“how much” in Arabic and motioned for pen and paper so he would write
down the price (it’s a good idea to negotiate the price up front --
there are no meters). So he wrote it down. In
Eastern Arabic numerals. Which are very different that the “Arabic”
numeral system in use in Western countries. So I held up two fingers
and then made a zero with my thumb and forefinger, to signify “20”
Egyptian Pounds, he nodded, and I got in. Then I realized that though
the two fingers held up could only represent “2,” the zero I made might
have been nonsensical to him because the Eastern Arabic zero might not
be a circle. When I paid him 20, he seemed happy with the amount.
- Most or all of the
sights have metal detectors at their entrances, some staffed by security
people, some completely unstaffed but humorously with the hand bag x-ray
machine running and no one watching the display screen. It comes to be
a funny experience -- everyone just walks right through, the buzzer goes
off, and everyone just carries on. Greater care is taken at the
airports. In fact airport security is higher than that at most airports
in the
USA. I never understand how we think our airports are secure when you
can go through the security station, then go to a restaurant where you
could have a collaborator sneak you a butcher knife from the kitchen of
one of the many restaurants near your gate, and get on the plane. In
Cairo you go through one security screening to enter the airport, then
there are the duty-free shops and restaurants, and finally each gate has
a security screening station before entering the plane. Now that makes
good sense.
III. Pictures
So, there (above) you have
some thoughts and observations about the journey through time, from
ancient history to modern day. Now it’s time to enjoy these
pictures. Please note that in many places -- including the
insides of the pyramids, underground tombs, some temples, and the
incredible
Egyptian Museum in Cairo -- photography is not allowed. Hence a visit
to the country is in order! One OASCer took advantage of the
OASC 5% discount on an Intrepid Travel trip to Egypt and wrote
afterwards, “Matt - Intrepid was fantastic. The trip may have been the
best I've ever done.”
Cambodia ~ Thailand
~ Malaysia ~ Singapore
~ China ~ Mt. Fuji ~
Japan ~ Egypt
