Day Two, Part One - Back to the beginnings

Menna House restaurant

Up not too early, another buffet breakfast and then an organizational meeting with the guide of Ramses Group, Ahmed, who has been doing this for 21 years, after four years studying Egyptology in college.  He and Sira will be our shepherds and information sources.  They prove up to the job on all fronts, including shooing vendors away.  Hassan, who’s been doing this since 1997, is our security officer (for a day) and Mr. Mahmoud is the all important driver, traffic being what it is.  (After a few days, he starts calling me habibi (sweetheart), probably because I always smile at him and say hello every morning.)

       As we ride through crazy traffic, Ahmed introduces us to Egypt and announces that Zahi Hawass and Jehan Sadat will both be on the boat with us from Luxor to Aswan.  He goes down the list of luxuries we’ll enjoy:  entrance to places no one else can go, like right down to the Sphinx or into all the chambers of the Great Pyramid of Giza, which we’ll have all to ourselves before it opens to the public.  (The Temple of Luxor, too, albeit at daybreak!)  Tea with the widow of President Sadat.  Plus seven nights on a new five-star boat.

Farming along the narrow fertile Nile Valley

To understand what we’re about to see, a bit of history is necessary, and Ahmed gives us some invaluable details to help us make sense of all we’re about to experience over the coming weeks.
       For starters, the Nile.  This river, arguably the longest in the world (with the Amazon), is what makes the country work.  Otherwise, it would be all desert.  As it is, only a narrow strip along either bank is green, irrigated by water drawn from it. Egypt’s Aswan Dam ended seasonal flooding while still providing water to the country.  Ninety per cent of the river’s water comes from the Blue Nile, which originates in Ethiopia, and plans there to build the Grand Renaissance Dam are causing serious disputes between the two countries.  Only 10% of the river’s flow comes from the White Nile, which originates in headwaters upstream from Uganda’s Lake Victoria.  (I personally stopped its flow with my finger when I visited Burundi decades ago and visited its farthest source, which is just some water bubbling up from underground in the middle of a meadow.)
       In ancient history, there were two Egypts, based on the flow of the Nile.  Upstream was Upper Egypt; downstream was Lower Egypt.  Mortal enemies, they were finally united in 3100 BCE by King Narmer (also called Menes) of Upper Egypt who defeated Lower Egypt and united the two lands.  “Ancient Egypt” is counted as of this point and ends in 332 BCE when it was conquered by Alexander the Great.

Life in Ancient Egypt as depicted on tomb walls

       There were some thirty dynasties in all.  The Early Period covered the first and second dynasties, from 3100 to 2700 BCE, followed by the Old Kingdom that ran from the 3rd to the 6th (2700-2400 BCE).  During the Old Kingdom, the ruler was very powerful and the government was well-organized.  The capital was established in Memphis, at the border of the two former Egypts.
       To give us an idea of the prowess of what Ancient Egypt built, Ahmed tells us that there was no iron back then, only bronze and copper, making stone-cutting extremely hard work.  There were no horses, only donkeys and oxen... and no chickens (a staple in modern menus).  There were no wheels, which means there were no pulleys - and makes it amazing to think about how the Pyramids were built at all.
       In understanding the multiple carvings on the many monuments we will see, it’s important to grasp a few details that deal with the unification of the two Egypts.  For instance, the symbol of the North was the papyrus plant while the South was represented by the lotus flower.  The king of the North wore a red crown, while the crown of the South was white, and the two were combined to indicate the pharaoh of United Egypt.  Of the 741 gods and goddesses worshipped, the North chose the cobra as its god and the dryer South, the vulture.

(to be continued)

Saqqara, Sstep Pyramid

Egypt: Day 1 - An introduction to Egyptian pyramids

My wake-up call comes at 7 am, giving me ample time before our 9:00 departure by bus.  I open the curtains and - misty as it is - there stands the Pyramid! Couldn’t see it last night.  It’s looking down on me through the centuries.  I can’t believe I’m here!
       The first day of the trip.  A time for getting my bearings.  Breakfast is a buffet, plus omelette makers who flip them expertly.  The tea is good, as befits an ex-British “protectorate”.  Then just time to brush teeth and empty tanks before we’re off!

Today is an extra excursion above and beyond the actual tour:  Meidum and Hawara, two pyramids a good distance south of Cairo.  Both are about an hour and a half away.

       Once out of Cairo, the trip is mostly across barren land.  Not desert, although we’re headed west, but rather what wind erosion has created over the millennia.  Occasionally there are housing projects, one of which is decorated with Tom chasing Jerry across its facade.  Strangely, each apartment building - about five to seven stories high - has a huge pile of dirt between it and the next building, as if the earth excavated for the foundations had just been dumped there and left. Not a nice view for the lower floors!

Gradually Meidum rises on the far horizon.  Called the Seven Step Pyramid, it was built by Sneferu, but he doesn’t appear to have been buried there.  The top is now missing, which means that this pyramid was once almost twice as high as it is now.

       We are being escorted by a police car, which changes with each administrative department (like county lines for sheriffs).  There are speed bumps on many streets in both towns and countryside, as well as multiple guardposts where all vehicles must stop and no photos are to be taken.  Security is important here; these measures were implemented during the upheavals of the 1990's.  Keeping tourists safe is serious business, literally, as tourism is Egypt’s second source of income, after oil and gas (and fees from the Suez Canal, I believe).

       Scattered along the road are stands selling soft drinks and, I suppose, other food staples.  Although they're selling to passers-by, there are also tables for drivers who need a break from the tedium of the flat, dry terrain.

       We pass pick-up trucks with sleeping passengers crowded in the back.  Others have a flock of sheep shoe-horned in.  Have they just been bought or are they already on their way to slaughter?  There are myriad microvans:  six-passenger Suzukis - the little brothers to the white minivans that compete with and are preferable to the municipal buses, which are not too... enticing.  Plus many cars that seem to aim down the lines drawn to create lanes, obviously just a concept here, rather than stay within them.  And almost no traffic lights.  (Ahmed, our other tour guide, will tell us later that, in case of an accident, you don’t call in the police, you shout at each other and then leave.  He claims the only “big deal” in driving in Egypt is if your car’s horn doesn’t work!)

Jihan, our guide

We reach Meidum and shed our escort, who will wait for us at the guardpost.  Jihan, our guide for today, is a knowledgeable Egyptologist and she explains a bit of the history to us.  (I’m surprised to learn later that she has no university degree in architecture!).
       After her introduction, those brave and able enough are handed over to an Arab guide to go down into the pyramid's tomb.  Although the corridor has a ramp a bit like the ramp to get on or off a ship, it’s a lot less user-friendly, with a 45° angle that descends for the equivalent of several stories.  Following that is a horizontal corridor followed by several ladders up to the small burial chamber.







       There are no furnishings left, no sarcophagus and no decorations.  Just a very small room.  I’m not claustrophobic but the air in here has definitely been breathed many times over, and it’s very stuffy.  I decide to climb back down and leave more room for the other 20 people.

      The ascension back up the ramp will turn my thighs into steel for two or three days to come.  I remember stopping, alone in this cramped shaft, looking up toward the speck of light far ahead.  It looks so very distant and makes me realize completely how deep inside the earth I am.  Gives me a good idea of what it would be like to have been buried here almost 5,000 years ago.  My mind boggles at the ancientness of this place.

       Up in fresh air we wait for the others, then off to the second pyramid, Hawara.  Now just bricks, it was robbed long ago of the limestone facing that gave it the name Black Pyramid.  No visits inside because it’s filled with water from the aquifer below.
       So off we head for a lunch and then back to Giza and Mena House.

Mena House was built in 1869, in time for the opening ceremony of the Suez Canal.  We arrive just early enough for a tour to see the rooms Churchill and Montgomery lived in when they and Franklin Roosevelt met here during World War II.  This is a more recent page out of history, and one I didn’t know about.  I only knew they met in Yalta, but this was a pre-Yalta meeting minus Stalin, to plan strategy for Operation Overlord, the liberation of Europe.  The rooms have been left as they were, and the furniture is stunningly retro.

After dinner with the two Lindas and another Sandy, it’s time for a hot soak to unknot my aching Meidum thigh muscles... and then to bed.

EGYPT: February 4 - Getting there

Cairo, from the Citadel

After my Malta fiasco, where the airport gate was changed and I unknowingly watched my plane take off, I’ve become wary of missed flights.

At the airport

       Which is a good thing because 45 minutes before take-off to Egypt there was still no one at gate 44, and very few passengers, only one of whom was headed for the same destination as me.  I see a staff person coming down the walkway and ask if this is for the Cairo flight.  No, he says... and it isn’t even the right building!  A case of wrong church, right pew.  For some reason they have you check in at Terminal 2F but the flight leaves from Terminal 2E way across the parking lot.
       But I’m not alone in my error.  The other Cairo passenger and I rush off down never-ending hallways, running along moving walkways.  We breeze through immigration - luckily! - race past Gucci and other duty-free shops and manage to make it to the right gate 44 just as pre-boarding starts.  Close call!

During the flight, on which we are wined and dined, my neighbor is a young man from Utah, non-Mormon, non-Trump.  He’s going scuba diving in Sharm-el-Sheikh with his girlfriend.  We spend the 3½ hour flight talking politics, as I did on the way to the airport with the Haitian cab driver.  With Brexit, Donald Trump and the upcoming French and Dutch elections - plus Ukraine and Syria - politics seems to be all that’s on people’s minds.
       Upon arrival in Cairo, the group organizing this Ancient Egypt tour - Archaeological Paths - has a man already in the customs area.  He points us to the visa counter (automatically granted for $25 cash, U.S.), after which it’s the customs stamp line, then baggage.  I have all my clothes in the carry-on my daughter bought me for Christmas so I have a head start.

The trip into town, with about six other people, takes a good hour.  It’s not that the airport is so far outside of town, but rather that Cairo is the largest city in all of Africa.  Traffic is intermittently heavy, even at this late hour, and many on-coming cars have dim headlights or none at all.  Lane lines have no meaning whatsoever and horns are used to announce someone coming through between two cars where it seems there’s no room.
       Many people are standing along the busy 4-5 lane highway.  I presume it’s like Martinique, where you have island taxis cruising.  There are also many tow-trucks carting off wrecked cars, trucks with crushed cabs, etc.  As much as I like to drive, I don’t think I’d like to drive here!

Mena House

When we arrive at Mena House, our hotel, there is a chicane barrier at the gate to the property.  A soldier comes out of his sentry box, retrieves a German shepherd from its dog house - a sniffer dog - and walks slowly, carefully, all the way around our van.  Only then, and after checking the luggage compartment and the driver’s paperwork, does the barrier go up and we’re allowed in.

       The hotel is magnificent.  While our lovely Armenian minder, Sira, takes our passports to the front desk, we sit in the “bar”, listening to a flute and violin duo and sipping our welcome hibiscus drinks.  A golf cart then takes us down garden pathways to our various buildings.
       The room is spacious and clean, the mattress firm, and me tired.  So I eat one of the three complimentary oranges and it’s lights out.  Literally.