Thursday, May 29, 2003 (Cairo - Egypt)
A fan of the new fan. An Egyptologist no less!
The very first pyramid. Isn't it just paper anyway? The building made from the
pyramids themselves. Our route through the Nile Valley is all laid out and paid
for. A belly dancer and a man with a skirt?
Day 78. With the new addition of a very fast
fan in our room, I enjoyed a much better night last night compared to the night
before. Sandy was unhappy about the noise but at least we both got a better
night’s rest. Even with the fast flowing air across my body, however, I
still managed to rack up another few mosquito
bites.
Our guide and driver for the
day arrived on time to pick us up and would turn out to be an Archaeologist and
not an Egyptologist as I first thought. He was a pleasant enough fellow and we
discussed the plan of attack for the day before setting off. We knew that it was
going to be a very long day if we tried to take in all three of the pyramid
sites (Saqqara, Memphis & Dashur) just South of Cairo, so we decided upon
doing just the most interesting two of the sites and instead of the third, we
would come back to Cairo to spend an hour or so at the
Citadel.
Although Memphis and Saqqara
were interesting sites, none of the pyramids that we saw today were anywhere
near as impressive as those on the Giza plateau the other day. At Memphis, there
was an outdoor museum with some interesting statues whilst Saqqara boasted the
earliest know pyramid in all of Egypt. Our guide was very articulate in
explaining the history of the pharonic era and the various kings and deities and
such. We tried to remain interested as much as we could during the day but the
combination of the intense heat together with the steadily increasing winds that
were starting to blow up a real sandstorm, were causing us to be very lethargic
and it was difficult to concentrate. I can now fully understand why most of the
various staff members and security guards at the site entrances are all so very
slow and sluggish to move about. At first, I thought they were simply
disinterested in their work but after having spent just a couple of hours going
through what they have to do many hours each day, it certainly has put things
into a different light.
In addition
to visiting the pyramid sites, our guide offered us the opportunity to do
several things, including a visit to a carpet factory, which we were
uninterested in, as well as a visit to a government controlled papyrus outlet
where, although it was fixed pricing, it would be a guarantee of genuine
papyrus. Just about every tourist attraction and street corner in Cairo boasts
numerous touts all selling fake papyrus that they would swear on their
mother’s graves in the real thing. After the bulk of our tour was over
with, we headed back to Giza to visit the papyrus
outlet.
We spent the better part of
an hour and a half in the papyrus outlet and were given a personal demonstration
of how the plant grows, is cultivated and eventually manufactured into paper.
Apparently, the top end of the plant has long, thin, stamens which, when looked
at from above, resembles the rays of the sun and thus related directly to Ra,
the sun god. The long stem of the plant has a triangular cross-section that
relates directly to the shape of the pyramids. For these reasons, the plant
plays an important role in Egyptian history and this is largely why papyrus
paper is so relevant to Egyptian society – and the flocking tourists. We
learned everything you might ever want to know about papyrus but were too afraid
to ask and were subsequently invited to peruse their substantial collection of
Egyptian artwork on papyrus paper. Some of the artwork on display there was
quite stunning and if ever there were an authentic Egyptian souvenir, this would
truly be it. Accordingly, we purchased twelve pieces in all ranging from the
very small to the very large and spent somewhere in the neighbourhood of $175.
I’m sure we would have paid substantially more for these same items if
purchased anywhere else in the
world.
After having our recent
purchases double packed in two layers of stiff, cardboard tubing, we stopped
briefly at an Egyptian fast food stall just a little farther up the road. We
ordered some shawama wraps and a hamburger at this counterpart to the British
chip shop and it was delicious.
Our
final stop on the day’s tour was the citadel in the older quarter of the
city. Parts of this Egyptian heritage site are built from the outer layer of
alabaster stone that was removed from the Giza pyramids hundreds of years ago.
The very tip of the largest of the Giza pyramids still has the smooth, outer
layer of this alabaster stone in tact, which is probably the most recognizable
feature of these most famous pyramids. Just across the way from the Citadel
complex, we could see where the stones that were used to build the Giza pyramids
were originally quarried. Even today, you can still see the marks in the rock
face where the slabs of stone were carved and removed
from.
Our guide answered all our
questions that we put to him and we had a very interesting discussion about
Islam and the five pillars of faith – appropriate as we were in the
Mohammed Ali mosque at the time (that’s the monarch figure and not the
boxer).
Our departure from the
Citadel marked the end of what was, in the end, a very good, guided tour of some
of Egypt’s most important archaeological sites and we tipped our guide
accordingly.
Back at the hostel,
Mustafa had our train tickets ready and waiting for us for tomorrow’s
excursion down into Upper Egypt – so called because of its elevation,
which is apparently also why the Nile flows from South the North. We will be
departing late in the evening and so this should give us plenty of time to take
in the Cairo museum.
After freshening
up a bit, our American friend from yesterday arrived at the hostel and we all
got ready to go on the dinner cruise up and down the Nile that we had arranged
yesterday. One of the hostel staff members accompanied us the entire evening and
arranged our taxi rides and so
on.
The cruise itself was not that
impressive as we could not see too far into the distance through the still hazy
atmosphere due to the sand being whipped about be the high winds. The food was
OK and the entertainment took the form of a mediocre belly dancer and a rather
impressive, spinning, male dancer that did some amazing things with his
cloak.
The ship photographer was all
over the place and was taking photos of every table, requested or otherwise.
During the evening, he would come around and hand out the cardboard-frames
photos to the respective tables with the assumption that we would buy them.
Mustafa had already forewarned us about this and we politely refrained from
bowing to the sales pressure and declined – much to the distain of the
photographer. The photos were really not that great
anyway.
After two hours on the Nile,
the boat arrived back at the dock and we hailed a taxi back to the hostel. We
got out part way through the trip to stop off at the Internet café for a
while before bidding a final farewell to our American friend and heading back to
our room for the evening. It will be interesting to read his column covering his
visit to Egypt in a couple of months when it is due to be
published.
Posted: Thu - May 29, 2003 at 08:25 AM