Luxor

I went to Luxor this weekend to finish my brief foray into Egyptology and ancient Egyptian history. Luxor is certainly the place to do this, as it sits on top of the ancient capital city of Thebes (literally on top in some places). As a result the area's rife with temples and tombs and statues and people trying to sell you things (these aren't original from Thebes, but I can't imagine they've changed much since then).



A chunk of Luxor, viewed from the roof of a hotel. The biggest difference between US and Egyptian skylines is all the minarets. That and the palm trees, I guess.

The Westernized name Luxor is actually a transliteration of the Arabic name for the city, الاقصور, which translates to 'the palaces'. Supposedly the new city was named this after the ancient temples throughout the area, though really at the time it would have been more accurate to name the city 'the half-submerged pillars sticking out of the garbage and sand'. Perhaps they were being optimistic. Today all of the temples have been dug up from their half-submerged state and some have been restored to something resembling their original grandeur. The extent of the ruins really brings home the extent of surplus resources and manpower possessed by the pharaohs that got swallowed up in massive bureaucracies and make-work projects. Or maybe it just shows how badly they mismanaged their budget, devoting colossal amounts of money and manpower to unnecessary public works. Fortunately neither of these problems is one faced by Egypt today.

I did not make these observations to our tour guide. He presented a very interesting version of ancient Egypt that can be summed up as follows: The ancient Egyptians were all fabulously wealthy and lived a life of luxury. Everyone was happy. However, this lifestyle consumed all of the resources of Egypt, making the Egyptian populace today universally poor. This version of history conveniently omits the slave system that made the luxurious lifestyle of a tiny percentage of Egyptians possible, and avoids talking about the (ironically enough) pyramid-shaped social structure Egypt had then and continues to have today.



Here's an example of unnecessary public works. You see the sphinxes lining the path behind me? This is outside the temple at Karnak. There's a similar set outside the temple at Luxor, some 5 miles away. Originally there would have been an avenue connecting the two with intricately hand-carved sphinxes lining the entire distance.



This is also from Karnak. Nothing particular to say about it, but man! Look at those columns! Those are big.



From somewhere in the grounds of Karnak Temple, looking at the main mass of ruins. The entire temple covers a square mile.



The Luxor Temple. You'll notice that one of the obelisks outside is very conspicuously missing. This is, of course, the one that got taken to France and is now in the Place de la Concorde. Our tour guide was very vocal about this sort of thing as well. Any Egyptian artifact that left the country was referred to as "stolen" by the Europeans, though most were eventually "recovered and returned to their rightful owner." The obelisk in France was a bit of a sore point for him.



I mentioned earlier that the modern Luxor had been built very literally on top of the original Thebes. The above is a mosque that was built into the Luxor Temple. Pretty cool.



The Romans, having no sense of history or preserving archeological finds, painted over a chunk of the Luxor Temple.



More defacing of ancient monuments by those bloody Romans (1), though in this case more recent generations don't appear to have learned anything about proper archeology. A more recent graffiti artist was Jollois (2), who is presumably Jean-Baptiste Prosper Jollois, one of the scientists accompanying Napoleon's army and one of the writers of the Description de l'Egypte. Still more recent was Becky(3). Becky has yet to get her name into any history books, but she's still hoping.



The Valley of the Kings. The white cliffs surrounding it reflect heat down onto the floor of the valley, raising the temperature to truly ungodly levels. By law no one has to work if the temperature rises above 110 degrees Fahrenheit, which it pretty much always is, so the government does not release temperature information for Luxor during the summer. Word on the street, however, is that it was about 120 degrees the day we were there.

Up to this point in the summer I've been following my father's high-impact tourism practice of taking a rock or other memento from memorable locations I visit: a rock from the necropolis at Giza, a shell from the Mediterranean, coral from the Red Sea, etc. Here, however, I decided that enough was enough - it was time to give something back. So, undoubtedly helped along by some bad kushari that I'd eaten the night before, I threw up in the tomb of Ramses IV. Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by the 120 degree heat.



The temple of Hatshepsut, which is being restored to resemble its original appearance. Hatshepsut's actual body was thought to be lost, but a few days after we got back from Luxor they found it. Figures. Our tour guide was a big fan of Hatshepsut, and went into great detail about how evil her step-son (who was also her nephew and son-in-law) was for deposing her. His greatest praise, however, was for Akhenaten, who tried to convert the Egyptian polytheistic system to a monotheistic system of sun-worship, or, as our guide put it, "was the first Egyptian to believe in God."

And that's all I have to say about Luxor.

Return to Giza

I went back to Giza last night for some additional sight-seeing.

Not having a university-organized bus to take us there, we attempted to take a taxi, assuming that every taxi driver in the city would be used to taking tourists to the pyramids. Our taxi driver, however, was not. We told him we wanted to go to "ilbirameeds fi Giza" which translates pretty much exactly to "the pyramids in Giza." His assumption, however, was that we were talking about a hotel restaurant or club somewhere in Cairo named 'The Pyramids'. After 45 minutes of driving around, with him pointing out various hotels and restaurants, we cleared up this hilarious miscommunication and went to the actual pyramids.

The original purpose of this trip was to go to the sound and light show that is put on every night for the pyramids and the Sphinx. Due to our taxi troubles, we'd missed the start of the show by about half an hour (this didn't matter as much as you might think - the show was in Italian). We decided not to buy the ludicrously overpriced tickets to the actual show, and left to find another way in.

This plan looked pretty feasible after talking to some very helpful Tourism and Antiquities police. We were given a complicated set of directions that would lead us to some different police, whom we could ask to let us into the sound and light show without paying. This sounded pretty promising, so we set off. Twenty minutes later we still hadn't found this second set of police, but we did find a very well-placed Pizza Hut with a terrace high enough to clear the rest of the buildings in the area and provide a perfect view of the lit-up pyramids. Pictures follow.



OK, actually just one photo. All the rest look pretty much the same.

After the show was over we decided we wanted a closer look. We returned to where we met the group of policemen, and found only one of them still on duty. We asked him again if we could get any closer, and he allowed that we probably could. Following this there was a rousing bout of haggling to decide exactly how much we wanted to see the pyramids closer up.

I have no doubt this would have been more enjoyable if I was able to speak more Arabic. Our discussion was essentially limited to saying numbers back and forth, and lacked the full flavor of being able to make comments like "Your willingness to take bribes is an indication of deeper problems with Egyptian national cohesion and political corruption. LE 175." Perhaps it's just as well.

After a brief and very furtive tour out to the feet of the Sphinx, we came back about LE 280 poorer and decided to head back to the dorm. On the way we ran into a mob of 13 or 14-year-olds playing soccer in the street, and ended up playing with them for another half hour or so. It was great fun (the fact that we were 7 years older than them more or less balanced out the fact that they had been playing soccer obsessively since they could walk).

As we left, amid the flurry of Arabic and English farewells one of the kids did the cheek kiss thing that all the Egyptians do to each other. For those of you keeping score at home, this evening saw me check three items off my list of things to get done this summer: bribe a public official, play soccer with Egyptian kids in the street, and get cheek-kissed by an Egyptian. It was a good night.

Giza

I went to see the pyramids at Giza this morning. They're very large and very difficult to take good pictures of, but I've done my best. Here again I'm not going to say very much historical or factual, but here it's primarily because I've really got nothing to say beyond what everyone already knows about the pyramids. They are very large. They're an engineering marvel. Behold.



1st pyramid (this is what the Egyptians call it. Europeans have given it all sorts of Cheops-related appellations, but this is nonsense. 1st pyramid is a much better name) with a member of the tourism police riding around on a camel in the foreground. While the tourism police do have a real purpose, and are not supposed to just add to the local flavor, I'm convinced this guy was put on a camel to please the tourists. He certainly didn't look happy to be there.



More of the same. I believe this is actually the 2nd pyramid, though. These guys were also in a foul mood about being put on camels, and rode a tourist down for trying to pose with them. I unfortunately didn't get a picture of that.



The obligatory picture of me with pyramids in the background. You can see the city right behind them. The picture's a bit small, but you should hopefully be able to make out the solid layer of smog descending on the city.

The Sphinx has been overphotographed to the point of cruelty, and there's no picture I could take of it that would meaningfully add to the collection. This is not to say that I didn't take any pictures of the Sphinx, but I'm not going to put them here. The remains of the temple at the feet of the Sphinx, however, have only been used as framing around the Sphinx's feet, and it's time for that to change.



The interesting thing to note here is the snug fit of the stone blocks. The Egyptians had no metal tools at this point in time, so they were fitting rocks together by hitting them with other slightly harder rocks until they broke correctly. I exaggerate only slightly. Using this method they managed to make stone blocks that fit snugly (seen everywhere in the picture) and in many cases wrap evenly around corners (indicated by the arrow).

Old Cairo

I spent the afternoon today in Old Cairo (so named because it's old, but that doesn't really distinguish it from the rest of Cairo. The appellation 'old' is more or less meaningless). There's a nice collection of churches, mosques, synagogues, etc. Actually, that's it - Egypt has outlawed all religions besides those alluded to above. Thanks for playing, Ba'hai Fellowship.

I'm not really going to go into the historical aspect much here, because
a) it's late, and;
b) that would require work
But I'll give you some pictures, and I'll tell you what they're of, and I'll provide you with a link to a great website (called Wikipedia) that should be able to answer any questions you might have.



We hit the Coptic and Eastern Orthodox churches first. The actual churches are surrounded on three sides by an overflowing graveyard (not literally overflowing, of course... interesting mental picture, though, isn't it? But it's quite full). It was hard to pick a single picture to sum up the graveyard, but I finally settled on the above.



This is from a crypt beneath the Coptic church. Purportedly this is where Mary, Joseph, and Jesus stayed while hiding in Egypt. I have no idea how this was determined later, as I would assume that since they were hiding they wouldn't have announced their presence. But there it is.



Next was the Church of St. George right next door. I was initially surprised at seeing the patron saint of England so far from home, but apparently he's the patron saint of a dozen different countries (Egypt isn't on the list, but George was supposed to have grown up in Palestine, so maybe he came down on vacation sometime) and the Boy Scouts. You learn something new every day. The interior of the church is pretty standard Eastern Orthodox, arches and marble and gilt everything, and the lighting was terrible, so no pictures. Above is a pretty impressive frieze of St. George and the dragon, though.

Our last stop was the first mosque to be built in Egypt. The title is actually a bit misleading, as parts of it have been rebuilt or replaced since its establishment - another mosque built in the 10th century is the oldest actual building. Anyway, you can probably tell what some of the more recent additions have been.



A renovated minaret, complete with an array of loudspeakers for a 21st century call to prayer.



Something resembling the original facade, with a 21st century neon الله أكبر. Picturesque.

Exploration

For the past two days I've been walking around Cairo trying to get my bearings on where things are and practicing at crossing streets (which is much more exciting than it sounds).

Yesterday I wandered around in the Sahafiyeen and Mohandiseen districts on the west bank of the Nile. Sahafiyeen, the region around Ahmed Urabi Street, is primarily small shops and restaurants. Not particularly interesting, really, except that it features all four of what appear to be the major professions in Cairo, listed in no particular order:
1. Private streetsweepers. Every restaurant and shop has an employee who will continually sweep, hose down, dry off, and resweep the area of sidewalk in front of the business. Most of them appear to be told to either get rid of the trash or get it off of that business' piece of sidewalk, leading to piles of debris accumulating on the border between adjacent businesses. The other main repository for this trash is the street along the curb, necessitating the employment of...
2. Public streetsweepers. Cairo apparently has a MASSIVE guild of streetsweepers who actually dispose of the trash swept off the sidewalks. They wear somewhat ludicrous green and purple uniforms and can be found everywhere.
3. Police. They're everywhere, and it's usually difficult to tell what they're doing. About half are ostensibly directing traffic, but there is very little traffic-directing and far more standing around chatting except at the very largest intersections. This helps the traffic situation to no end. Most of the other half are stationed in front of upscale establishments for security.
4. Taxi drivers. They're everywhere. Enough said.

Mohandiseen is the area surrounding 26 July Street. At this point the street is divided into three sections: a central section for thru-traffic with corridors to either side for access to side streets. These side corridors have an above-average level of parked or broken-down cars - of the four lanes on each side only one is being used. Sheep and chickens are kept on the sidewalks. There is a noticeable lack of police of any sort.

Today I wandered around Zamalek and southern Gezira, then crossed the river to the east side to look at everything on Tahrir Square. I was hoping to take some great pictures of all the various buildings in this area, but a ban on photos that I had been told applied to bridges and military bases apparently extends to also include anything remotely interesting. However, I've gotten some good stock photos of everything I saw.



The Mogamma. Absolutely massive building on Tahrir Square. I walked a lap around it, and there is a pretty solid ring of police watching it. I'm not sure how effective they would be at preventing a terrorist attack against the building, but I'll be damned if they don't do a good job of keeping people from taking pictures.



The Egyptian Museum, a very beautiful red building framed artistically by palm trees. A very cheerful man offered to help me across the street to the museum, but couldn't take me for two hours, during which time there was a very nice shop I should take a look in. I declined his very kind offer.



And, of course, the American University. This is actually just the one building, but several more buildings, and in fact entire campi, are scattered around a few blocks around Tahrir Square.

Initial impressions, etc.

Flying into Cairo we flew over miles of buildings clustered around the Nile. Each time I saw such a cluster I assumed we were now coming over Cairo proper, only to have the buildings be replaced by cropland for a few hundred yards, then return. Apparently there is no such thing as undeveloped riverfront. Finally we flew over the pyramids at Giza (which are not quite as isolated as I thought they were - Cairo is growing around them, and there is a wall of buildings beginning maybe 100 feet from them), and I knew I had arrived. For some reason I failed to take a picture of them flying in (we were descending quite rapidly at the time, so probably I wasn't supposed to be taking pictures anyway), but here's a satellite image to give you some idea of what I'm talking about.

The pyramids are circled if you had any doubts.

The ride from the airport to the dorm was illuminating. Most of the streets in Cairo were originally designed to have five lanes of traffic. Two of these are permanently occupied by parked or broken-down cars, leaving three lanes for active traffic. This doesn't really bother anyone, as they still manage to fit five lanes' worth of traffic in. If Egypt is in other another war it's set: give everyone with a car a gun and set them loose - they are utterly without fear of death. There is a constant shuffle of cars weaving around each other, usually with about 4-6 inches of space between in any direction. I have yet to see an accidental collision, and I'm convinced that their system might actually function more efficiently than ours if cars didn't break down quite so often - at any given time one or two cars are breaking down and being pushed to the side of the road to join others. Traffic, of course, doesn't stop for this. I remember learning a few years ago that Muslims had a specific prayer for boarding a means of conveyance or beginning a journey. Now I understand why.

Upon arriving at the dorm I got a room that's actually significantly better than my room at UNC. There are three of us in a room that's about three times the size of my room in Cobb.

The room is so big my camera couldn't capture it all. This should give you some idea, though.

The dorm had organized a felucca (small sailboat with a lateen sail) ride that evening, for which I had arrived just in time. We got in a van (riding around is even more exciting when the driver's vehicle has more mass than anyone else's and the driver knows it) and headed down to the Nile. Low bridges prevent feluccas from travelling too far up or down the river, but we wandered around for half an hour or so before returning.

My Travels - Getting to Cairo

I was in the Charlotte airport at some point in the last 48 hours, reflecting on the fact that I was living my last hours in the United States for the next few months. It was a sobering thought. I decided to listen in on the conversation of the family behind me to soak in one last bit of the US culture that I love so very much.

Son: My nose is running...

Mother: Here, take two of these.

Father: Those won't really help with a runny nose - they're antihistamines. Pretty much all they do is... eh... be against histamine...

Son: Oh. (He ponders this for a while.) Can I call Grandma? It wouldn't be charged as an international call from Charlotte to Alabama, would it?

Father: Nah. Give me some of them peanuts, boy.

Still, I thought, however many rednecks there are infesting our airports, we're a country of hardworking people with unrivalled technological ability. The airplane I'm about to be riding in was built here - it's a massive flying testament to US power. I was pretty proud. Then I got on the airplane.

The above is a picture of the wing. If you can't tell, the arrow is pointing at a piece of wood that has apparently been wedged into place in repair.

It was, I concluded, high time I went abroad to gain some perspective.

Genesis

Behold! I have brought forth life. Where there was nothing, now there is a blog.