The City of Wonders of Lower Egypt

  Cairo, Egypt
Saturday, November 18, 2006

GPS Coordinates:
N 30°02'36.9"
E 031°13'00.9"

Temperature: 20.3°C
Humidity: 64.2 %
Pressure: 101.6 kPa
Altitude: -21 m

Hey! (Been so long since I worked on my "Canadian" accent)

Ricky B in Cairo

I took the ovenight train from Luxor to Cairo. Even though it's just a few hundred kilometres away it stops every so often so it took several hours to get there. It was weird to share a sleeper car with a perfect stranger (A Swede called Daniel) but it wasn't the first time I met nice people during this trip...

A pre-arranged driver called Mahmoud picked me up at the train station and after a short stop at the hotel we picked up a man in his 60's who would be my guide for the next two days. He was called, get this... Mohammed Ali!... Sorry! he said, he had no relation to the famous boxer but apparently worked as a guide for Charlton Heston way back when he was in Egypt filming "some famous movie?". He apparently keeps regular contact with him...!? Anyways, Mohammed was a very nice respectful man and very knowledgeable.

The Step Pyramid of Saqqara

We immediatly started our hectic day by visiting Saqqara which is slightly south of Cairo. Saqqara was the huge cemetery site of ancient Memphis. It served as an active burial ground for more than 3500 years and covers several kilometres. It includes 11 major pyramids and several mastabas. Mastabas were the predecessor of pyramids. They were essentially underground tombs made of perishable materials (i.e. mud bricks, wood) and then covered by desert sand. Suffice to say that the elements / erosion made short work out of them and most are now partially or fully destroyed but some were restored. I visited the pyramid of Teti (6th dynasty) and the tomb of his high priest Mereruka. I then visited Zoser's Funerary Complex which includes the famous and impressive "Step Pyramid". It is the first and oldest pyramid made out of stone in Egypt and in the World! It was Zoser (not personally mind you, but Imhotep his chief architect) who was credited with the bright idea of using stone as a new tomb building material. This way the "departed" pharoah's legacy could reign for a very long time. Consequently, the development of this new technology was observable (i.e. trial and errors) on the construction of other pyramids (e.g. "Bent" pyramid (not shown here)).

On our way to Memphis...! (YEAH! HUH! Teddy Bear... Bear! OH!? not Tennessee?) we stopped at an Egyptian carpet factory / school. They explained how they make the carpets. The school show kids with their nimble little fingers / hands to knit carpets and earn apparently a "fair" wage to help contribute to their respective poor family. I am not sure if this would constitute child labor? Apparently, this place was government "approved". There was amazing looking carpets of all sizes here from the "cheap" cotton, to wool, to the very expensive silk $$$ (biggest was 28,000$ USD!!!). Again, I couldn't resist buying myself a gift...

The "King" of Memphis

Statue of Ramses II in Memphis

Memphis was the ancient capital of unified Egypt. Unfortunately there is not much to see here anymore because everything was destroyed or disappeared ages ago. At the time Memphis was a very prosperous city but it vanished due to the same reasons that affected the complex presided by the Colossi of Memnon (See previous entry). The sphinx (see pic) was "apparently" exactly found there and other bits and pieces were assembled from all around to be shown to visitors.

Panoramic view of the Giza Pyramids

The Pyramids of Giza

We then drove to the site which I so wanted to see for as long as I can remember, well...! since "forever" or at least since I was a teenager; the Pyramids of Giza!!! I was actually looking forward to this since I started talking about my trip two years ago. Suddenly, there it was... the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) and it appeared just like in the pictures / movies / TV. It is so big (137 m, 2.3 million stones, and completed around 2570 BC) that I couldn't fit it all in my camera's field of view from the back of the parking lot... Yes! there is a parking lot. This site is on the outskirts of Cairo and is very touristy, not in the middle of the desert like some might think. It used to be smoothly covered by a carved limestone casing but the stones have since broken away and left the larger stones underneath uncovered. I took a picture from the top of a few stones because you cannot scale the pyramid anymore. I did not go into this one because according to my guide it wasn't worth the $$$, trouble, and waiting time but he promised me I would be able to go inside the second pyramid Khafre (Chephren).

The Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops)

The Pyramid of Khaphre (Chephren)

I walked towards the pyramid of Khufu's son, Khafre, with a sense of wonder, amazement, and awe. It was so old and historic yet it stood there motionless in front of my eyes. It seems larger than the Great Pyramid of Khufu but it is an optical illusion because the pyramid of Khafre stands on higher ground and its peak is still capped with a limestone casing. Originally all three of the big pyramids were totally encased with a polished white limestone casing. I then went inside this pyramid. Claustrophobes please refrain from reading onward... I entered a small passageway going down (a little more than 1.5 metre high), hunched and almost on my hands and knees for several hundred metres. After a short open room, I then took a similar passageway going up to Khufu's burial chamber. The more I was going in, the more the air was getting hot (not warm...) and stale, there was no air circulation in there and it became a little hard to breathe with the physical activity and everything (At this point I was drenched with sweat!). Was this the Mummy's curse...?! Anyway, the burial chamber was open, with a high ceiling, and still contained Khafre's large granite sarcophagus (Probably because they couldn't get it out!). On my way back out I crossed many panting tourists and one poor women having an asthma / anxiety / claustrophobic attack, not fun... It felt really weird in there... I then took an outside look at the third pyramid of Menkaure (Mycerinus). It is the smaller of the three pyramids and not as impressive.

Martin Lawrence of Egypt

The Sphinx of Giza

I followed this extraordinary visit with a camel ride into the less visited areas of the desert surrounding the pyramids. It is from here that I took the panoramic picture of the Great Pyramids of Giza beside the other smaller, not as well known, pyramids. I then went to see the mysterious Sphinx. Legends and superstitions abound about the Sphinx, and the mystery surrounding its long-forgotten purpose is almost as intriguing as its appearance. It is carved from the natural bedrock at the bottom of the causeway leading to the pyramid of Khafre (approx. 1 km away). Scientific surveys indicate that the Sphinx was most likely carved during pharoah Khafre's reign. Apparently, the nose was hammered off sometime between the 11th and 15th centuries, although some still like to blame Napoleon the "conqueror". These days, the Sphinx was diagnosed with the rock equivalent of a slow "cancer" and was quarantined off from close contact with tourists. Scientists are looking into the possibility of stabilizing and / or restoring it. I then stayed around for the sound and light show which was entertaining but situated a little too far from the pyramids to be amazing.

Speaking of damages caused to these marvels of history... On a side note, you might have noticed on several of the pictures included in the last 3 entries from Egypt, that the depicted carvings and hieroglyphs sometimes seemed to be carved out / defaced. Well, I was LIVID (shocked, angry, disappointed) to learn the reasons of these sacrilegeous (to me...) offences. Bottom line is, religions are once again involved in illogical acts all in the name of faith. Let me explain... Since Egypt changed hands many times throughout history (i.e. european descent christians, persian / arab muslims, etc...) the "invaders" couldn't accept the fact that an ancient and "pagan" multi-god belief system was still visible on most monuments in Egypt so they eagerly decided, to show their supreme "civilized" power, to attack the defenseless walls of a long gone religion because there could only be "one" god... Apparently, the christians were the worst... (Refer: The Crusades...!) There was also plenty of carved graffiti everywhere like for example "Napoleon was here 1789!" and in one instance troops used the carved eye of some gods as a bullseye for target practice. STUPID STUPID STUPID! OK! I'm finished venting now... 

Egyptian Museum

The next day my driver and guide picked me up to go to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo proper. This museum is huge and includes so many artifacts of ancient Egypt that it would take many, many days to visit (Sorry! Once again no pictures allowed inside). Almost every piece that was discovered across Egypt in the last hundred years seemed to have been sent here. I saw the dried and shrivelled mummy remains of many pharoah's (e.g. Ramses II). An experience of special importance was seeing Tutankhamon's vast collection (almost everything that was in his tomb when it was discovered by Carter in 1922) which included his golden sarcophagus and famous solid gold burial mask. VERY COOL! A very weird event happened to me on my exit from the museum. I was exploring the front gardens where a statue of Horus, the falcon-headed god, stands and low and behold a true to life falcon sweeps in and lands on the statue of Horus just beside me. It looked at me a few seconds while I was starring at it in disbelief and then it flew away. Was that Horus watching over me? 

Mohammed Ally Mosque

Court of Mohammed Ally Mosque

We then drove to Salah Al-Din citadel. It is an old military installation that surrounds Mohammed Ally mosque. We visited inside after removing our shoes. Like many mosques it is a sacred place of worship and is very nice and opulent. The actual tomb and body of Mohammed Ally, an important figure in Egyptian Islamic society, is situated here. Standing at the outside walls offer a nice panoramic view of old and Islamic (mosques) Cairo. Apparently there is close to 16 million people living in Cairo and 16,000 mosques to serve them and call them to prayer five times a day (sunrise, 10 am, noon, 3 pm, sunset).

Inside Mohammed Ally Mosque (Roof)

View of Old Cairo

 I left here to visit Coptic Cairo (If you remember past entries, it refers to catholic influences of Alexander the Great's empire, descendants, and following Roman empire) and a little bit of the rest of Cairo along the way. I visited old churches and cathedrals. One was built (Hanging Church) on top of the walls of an old roman fort and suprisingly has no real foundations so it is really propped up in the air. This was the last sightseeing of the day and actually the last tour / visit of my whole crazy, dream of a lifetime, adventure in Africa.

For your information... Egyptians ask for "backsheesh" all the time, for everything, and it was starting to really get on my nerves. Wait a minute you dope heads, backsheesh is not a kind of wacky tobacco that you put in sheesha water pipes! but it sure made my head spin once or twice (Not that I would know what the real thing would feel like anyway...). It is the annoying trend of asking for tips all the time even though no services were rendered or for ridiculous reasons. For example, they would require money before having their picture taken or even sometimes after saying it was OK to take their picture or blatantly inserting themselves in your pictures. Similarly, it would be asked at the exit of a "public" toilet even though the person didn't supply me with toilet paper and sure as hell surely didn't help me pee...! They seemed to always have a valid (according to them) reason to take advantage of tourists. It's not the amount of money that's a concern but the concept of it all. Render a service, help me with directions or something and I'll be glad to give you a tip. Anyway...

Next chapters: Well this is it... it's been grand but it's time to go back home...!

Martin