Day 5: The Holy Family was here, so was I!

  Aswan, Nile River Valley, Egypt
Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Chapter 32: Coptic Cairo!

Having spent the night with Cleopatra (the painting) staring at you, I woke up feeling quite exhausted. (C'mon, wouldn't you feel uncomfortable when someone is watching you the whole night?) My flight to Aswan was in the late afternoon so I had the whole morning free to explore around Cairo. Having visited the Islamic Cairo last time, this would be an opportunity to check out the Christian side (Coptic Cairo), especially in a Muslim country. The breakfast was no thrills as it was basically the same thing as before. (...still it was ok to me, much better than the same single "stick" of French bread I had for 3 breakfasts while I was in Spain... never knew why I didn't have any food poisoning then!)

By now I knew the area (around the hostel) quite well that I no longer needed my treasure map. (In fact I had already returned it back to the porter for the next "fortunate" soul.) The journey to the Coptic Cairo area was simple - The metro stopped by there and so there was no dispute with any taxi drivers; but the downside would be a struggle with the crowd to get on and off the train, even after the morning rush hour!

When I said Islamic Cairo was old, then Coptic Cairo must be ancient! It is the oldest part of the city. It is THE area where you could still(!) find Orthodox Christianity in Cairo, not just one or two churches but the whole area of them! This is quite surprising as Egypt is considered an Islamic country and finding other religions in the country would not be that easy. According to tradition, St. Mark, one of the 12 Apostles, introduced Christianity into Egypt in 1st AD. By the 4th Century, Christianity was the official religion
of Egypt.

This entire compound lied within the Roman fortress walls of the 3rd AD where at one time there were more than 20 churches clustered within less than 1 square km; however now only a handful survived!

Once I got off the metro at the Mari Girgis station, while walking along the footbridge my attention was drawn towards the birthday cake-like exterior of St. George's Church. So I swiftly took out my camera and started framing photos. However, as I was still in the proximity of the station, I immediately got interrupted by an uniformed man. (still not sure whether he was a police, a military soldier, a tourist police or just a plain station guard, there were so many different types of uniforms roaming around the streets of Cairo!) But no matter what he was, his don't-mess-with-me look
clearly put his message across quite well. So I "obediently" put away my camera and left with bowing and apologies. (Well at least he wasn't the type that would "fine" you for taking pictures... unlike those I encountered later on in Giza)

Chapter 33: The Hanging Church of Babylon!

The first and the most beautiful church that I went to was the Hanging Church. Like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, I could never understand why it was ever called "hanging" as the church was not suspended by any means at all! Ok it was built on top of a gatehouse of the Roman Fortress, and that was it. The pearl-white twin bell towers and the facade looked very picturesque and gave a very postcard feel but damn it the sun was at the wrong place at the wrong time. No matter how hard I tried and how much I fiddled with the filters and camera settings, the results were still unsatisfactory. At the end I gave up and went inside in a really bad mood.

Once inside I was surprised to hear people speaking in Cantonese. I saw three young Asian listening to an English speaking tour guide. As it was really rare to meet fellow countrymen in this foreign land, I immediately approached them revealing my true identity...

They were also surprised to meet someone from Hong Kong travelling alone in Egypt. Actually they were students (2 boys and 1 girl) travelling around Europe, and took a detour just to visit Cairo for a couple of days, and then would go all the way back up to Europe. (Gosh! They must be really obsessed with the pharaohs and the pyramids to have to come all the way down from Europe just for a couple of days!) But unluckily they also met the sandstorm yesterday and
couldn't go to Giza (where all the famous pyramids are) so they would go to try their luck again this afternoon.

Seeing that their guide was getting impatient I bid goodbye to the trio (this combo of 2 men and a woman forms the Chinese word "angry" and statistics had proven that this combination would usually end up this way too!) and went to explore other places in the compound.






Top: The very beautiful front view of the Hanging Church (left). A series of striking icons of Saints(?) and Angels. (right)
Middle: Interior of the Church, supported by 13 pillars that represent Christ and his disciples, in which one of them is darker than the rest, symbolizing Judas.
Bottom: The inner courtyard (left) and a panel inside the Church that has been cut out of the floor revealing the Water Gate below (right).


I passed by the Roman Towers and someone called at me. It was Youn-Jun! She also had her last minute tour around before going back to Germany. This gave me a chance to bid her goodbye since I didn't have a chance last night.



Left: I asked one of the trio to take a photo for me... I trusted him and this is what he got for me!
Right: It was certainly nice to meet Youn-Jun again in here.


Chapter 34: Here and there, St. George was everywhere!

Afterwards I went to the Church of St. George, but it was closed for renovation. There was a small chapel nearby that was also dedicated to St. George the Martyr. Yes the same one that killed the dragon, the same one that was worshipped in England and Spain and in other European countries! Pilgrims came here to be blessed. The "staff" there took a chain with a sharp hook at the end, and put the hook on the forehead of the pilgrim, while the pilgrim uttered some words of prayers. It surely was a very special way of getting blessed! I think the chain and
the hook was a symbol of martyrdom as almost all the churches in here were dedicated to martyrs (maybe because Christianity in the region was built-up from the flesh and blood of the martyrs?!)

As this really was not my way of getting blessed (and I didn't know how to ask in Arabic for this blessing anyway) so I left the chain alone and continued on. According to the ancient text on the net, the correct chain wrapping
procedure should be:

A unique 'chain wrapping' ritual can be experienced by visitors, whereby a 4-meter iron chain with neck-shackle hanging from the wall is wrapped around one's body (not for the faint-hearted!). The chain is thought to have belonged to St. George during his Roman tortures, and is reputed to possess miraculous healing powers.

Chapter 35: Finding the entrance to the hidden quarter... "Open Sesame" is just what you need!

There was supposed to be a whole area where the very famous Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus Church and other old churches were but I just couldn't find the entrance to the compound. I had the LP map, I had the compass but the entrance to the alleyway was nowhere to be seen! All I could find was just a Greek Orthodox Cemetery with many tombstones, statues and graves. Do I really have to tap the right bricks (three up, two across) in the wall behind the Leaky Cauldron to open up the Alley?

With some "natural talent" and plenty of luck I finally discovered the secret entrance! As Doc Emmett Brown used to
say, 'You are not thinking three dimensionally!' Indeed the map was correct from a 2-dimensional point of view, but the alleyway to the compound was actually underneath, and the entrance was like a subway entrance off the main road! (Ed: I think Doc. Brown was really saying 'You are not thinking fourth dimensionally!')



Left: This is my very "detailed" map from LP, I was going back and forth from item 9 to item 6 but where is the entrance?
Right: Finally found it! A subway entrance? @_@


Once I descended to the alley, it was immediately like a different world. There were many people here, tourists, students and pilgrims. I followed the alleyway to the first stop: Convent of St. George - where the nuns were. The whole place was full of tourists rather than nuns. At the courtyard was a beautiful statue of St. George killing the dragon. Obviously, unlike in the Barcelona Cathedral in Spain, someone actually cleansed the statue here. There was a small chaplet, the guidebook said you could be wrapped by the chains here too but I saw no nuns and no chains inside!



Left: The birthday-cake structure of the Church of St. George
Right: The Convent of St. George, where the nuns (supposed to) lived!




From left to right:
The colorful statue of St. George in Convent of St. George.
The not-so-colourful and not so well-maintained statue in Barcelona Cathedral, Spain.
The spear and the wheel symbolized martyrdom, and how the martyrs suffered for today's Christianity.
A beautiful drawing found inside the monastery of St. George.


I returned to the main alley and followed on. The alley began to branch off into other alleys and soon I found myself in a mini-maze... The approach "Just follow the crowd" worked and brought me to the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus.



The mini maze inside. In the middle you could find a souvenir shop for replenishment and you could ask for some hints if you couldn't crack the puzzle yourself!


Chapter 36: The Holy Family was here... so were Jeremiah and Moses too!

The entry was free (donations were welcome of course) but I couldn't take any photos inside. It was dedicated to the martyrs Sergius and Bacchus. But the fame of this church owed to the widely held belief that the Holy Family stayed in a cave on this very spot when they fled
from King Herod to Egypt after he ordered to kill every first born. Now that place was just an empty crypt and was fenced off so we could only try to peep from afar. (would appreciate if they had installed some lighting too) There was nothing to see besides an empty cave, but still I felt excited as it was still a holy site.



Left: Well the entrance was by the side and you had to descend a flight of stairs, if not seeing people appearing from below I would have certainly missed it!
Right: The entrance of the church of St. Sergius and Bacchus. No photos are allowed inside. This is as close as you can get.


I then followed the human traffic and found myself at the oldest Synagogue in Egypt - Ben Ezra Synagogue. They said this was the spot where the Prophet Jeremiah gathered the Jews in the 6 BC after Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the Jerusalem temple. This was the only place in the area where there was a security check outside and you had to be scanned thoroughly before you were admitted! Actually this was a good precaution otherwise the synagogue would probably have been destroyed by the angry Arabs during the Arab-Israel conflicts. It was no longer used as a worshipping place. (I think all the Jews had decided to settle in Israel instead.)

Adjacent to the synagogue was supposed to be a well where the pharaoh's daughter found Moses in the reeds, but I could not find any sign of water at all. In fact I got told to go away by the security guard while trying to explore
the surroundings.

Not far from the synagogue was the Church of St. Barbara, which as you can guess, was dedicated to Barbara, who was beaten to death by her father for trying to convert him to Christianity. Poor girl!



Left: Ben Ezra Synagogue and its security checkpoint. Right: Barbara Church. The interior is better than the exterior.


After this church I decided to leave the compound and headed for lunch. As this was a tourist place almost all restaurants were designed for tourists. I finally settled down in a place where it served lunch buffet for
31 LE. The papyrus-like menu (made of banana skin?) interested me more than the food displayed.




Top Left: The main street. There were just as many tourist police as the tourist coaches. My restuarant was amongst those on the right.
Top Right: The menu was "specially" made like a papyrus.
Bottom Left: All you can eat! out of what you see here... "What you see is what you get!"
Bottom Right: My meal - chicken Kofta + Shawirma chicken + mango juice + suspicous cold salad (which I didn't eat) + 1 banana. (31 LE)


Chapter 37: First mosque in Africa!

After lunch I still had 2 hours to spare before returning back to the hostel. I had a dilemma to choose between the Coptic museum, or waste it on the mosque of Amr ibn al-As. As the mosque of Amr ibn al-As was the first mosque built in the continent of Africa, it seems worthwhile to go and have a look.

Originally constructed in AD 642 by Amr ibm al-As, the general who conquered Egypt for Islam, this was the site where he pitched his first tent and established MISR al-Fustat. The original structure is said to have been made of palm trunks thatched with leaves, but expanded to the current size in AD 827. It is said that no two of its 200 or so columns are the same.




The mosque of Amr ibm al-As. I didn't bother to count if the 200 columns were all different!


Chapter 38: Breaking the law yet again, ain't I a rebel?!

I didn't have the mood nor the time to play the "spot the difference" for the 200 or so columns, so after a while I returned to the metro station Mari Girgis. After I put my 2LE ticket to the ticket machine, the ticket gate did not open. So I sought help from the uniformed man nearby. Without making the slightest effort to investigate my problem, he told me to jump the gate! -_-" So on the 4th day in this country, I broke another law by jumping the ticket gate! The jump wasn't a perfect 10.00 so I decided to try it again when I exited at my destination station (Sadat station) but this time the ticket worked! So I passed through the gate but the ticket returned to me since it was only used once.

'Oh good, I can keep it as a souvenir!'

Just as I was happily putting away the ticket, the station guard, who was watching the entire process, came up to me and "politely" snatched the ticket away from me, leaving me too stunned of speech. @_@

I got my bag in the hostel and waited for the taxi to come. I asked Ahmed to arrange a taxi for me but the driver was late. His usual "Don't worry my friend" didn't really helped to calm me down as if I missed the flight I would have blown my entire schedule for the rest of the trip!

Finally the "driver" came. I had experienced various types of pickups provided by this Hostel:
I had a university student that was a taxi driver; I had a real taxi driver who wore slippers when he drove; I had a pickup that needed to flag his own taxi from the street; and now here came the best: I had a guy wearing in a piece
of business suit who drove his own car with his wife and took me to the airport! No, he was not a chauffeur, but rather looked like a businessman who had just got off work! Even though his car was quite comfortable, I wasn't too comfortable as we were already late and we hit a traffic jam en route. (Just like the metro was always packed with people, the streets of Cairo were always packed with cars!)

Chapter 39: Stuck in the Terminal.. wouldn't mind that if Miss. Zeta Jones is here.

Finally we just made it to the airport. The flight would be leaving within an hour's time and there was a huge long queue at the counter, but luckily the counter had not closed yet. After queuing for a while, the staff at the check-in counter told me that my flight to Aswan would be delayed for 2 hours until 19:20!!

With nothing to do I spent my time on a coffee (17 LE) at the coffee shop in the Cairo's departure hall. Met a Welsh guy who was working in Cyprus and was taking his kids to Luxor (did I say that my delayed flight will still have to stop over in Luxor before landing in Aswan?) The Welsh accent was highly "ne comprend pas" due to a lack of practicing since I left UK 15 years ago. I also saw 3 Chinese looking girls but their snobbish Singaporean accent didn't stir up my slightest interest to chat them up.

With nothing else to do or to see or to speak to, I went to the boarding gate. There was a coffee shop nearby that would serve free coffee if you had an EgyptAir ticket!! But I just paid for one outside! -_- At the end I bought a croissant or my dinner in case the plane didn't have anything to eat on board. (A lesson well-learnt when travelling on Vueling Airlines last year in Spain)

After the sunset, I finally got on the plane. The journey from Cairo to Aswan should take a flight time of around an hour but the plane would stop over in Luxor en route, so that added a 1.5 hours of time in landing, boarding and takeoff. The plane was a jet alright, it had a standard 3-3 seating configuration and served snacks and drinks (juice with artificial colouring) twice in this short journey.

Chapter 40: The true Egyptian Hospitality!

During the entire journey I was stuck with a very, very huge guy sitting on my left. Maged was his name. He was the finance manager of the Hitachi water pumps situated in the south of Aswan. He was heading back to work after his routine vacation in Alexandria, where he lived. He was the nicest local Egyptian I have met during my trip as he didn't have have to to be friendly with you for a purpose. For once, I really felt true sincerity and Egyptian hospitality. We talked a lot and he explained to me why most Muslim women had to be veiled while at the same time advertisements of female singers with makeup on were allowed. However, like all Egyptians, their only association with the Chinese were Bruce Lee and Jacky Chan! Guess what? He knew Jacky Chan more than I did and that put me to shame! and he said he was now saving up for his China trip to tour the temple of Shaolin~ -_-"



Left: I wouldn't mind waiting at the terminal if there is a Zeta-Jones there.
Right: Maged explained why some females could show their faces in public here in Egypt.


By the time I arrived in Aswan, it was 22:30+. I was too tired to bargain with the taxi drivers (besides, there were not many choices at that time) so I got a taxi to Sara Hotel for 60 LE. Sara hotel was not near the city centre but it was a nice hotel with a reasonable price. For an en suite single room with a balcony, it costed me only 22 USD for one night. It definitely was the nicest hotel I have been so far in this country, because it came with a proper bath tub, a fridge and a TV!




A double room with a balcony, toilet and a bathroom. It even came with a bath tub, 2 pieces of soap, a fridge and a TV, what more do you want for USD 22?