Abu Simbel

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

 

We arose early to take our bus from Aswan to Abu Simbel, saying goodbye to the MS Concerto, the riverboat that had been our home for four nights. We complained about having the leave at 7:00 a.m. Heba, our guide and Egyptologist, explained that we were lucky. Before the revolution, the most common way to get to Abu Simbel from Aswan was by a convoy of 60-80 buses that left Aswan at 4:00 a.m. Foreigners could only take the three-hour drive to Abu Simbel in the convoy for security reasons. In this post-revoluationary climate, there was still a convoy that left at 4:00 a.m., but we were allowed to travel later in our own bus with just our usual armed tourist policeman. Some of our fellow travelers had some concern about a three-hour bus ride with no facilities either on the bus or along the way. Heba said that we could always go behind a sand dune if necessary. It proved to be not necessary.

We arrived at the enormous parking lot of the Temple of Ramses to find only four or five buses there, and they were about to leave. We were set upon right away by the usual souvenir vendors, but even they seemed to be few in number. A short walk around to the front of the temple revealed the awesome sight that Ramses II had placed next to the Nile to intimidate the Nubians. I can remember reading in "My Weekly Reader" in the 1960's about the Aswan high dam and the international project to move the temples of Abu Simbel so they would not be flooded by Lake Nasser. To avoid the flooding, the two temples were cut into blocks and moved 60 meters higher and 200 meters farther back from the original channel of the Nile. We were seeing the result of what I had read about so long ago.

 

Four large colossi of Ramses II, 65 feet tall, mark the front of the great temple, which is dedicated to Ramses II as a god, and also to the actual gods Ra-Harakhte, Amun-Ra, and Ptah. Next to the legs of Ramses stand smaller statues of his wives and children. Photography is not allowed inside the temple. The walls of the main sanctuary are carved with the usual reliefs of the pharoah making offerings to the gods. The main sanctuary also contains four statues of Ptah, Amun-Ra, Ramses II, and Ra-Harakthe. The statues were originally arranged so that, twice a year, on February 21 and October 21, a shaft of sunlight would enter the sanctuary and shine successively on the four gods. We moderns are not quite as precise as the ancients, because when the temple was moved to make way for the flooding caused by the dam, the sunlight still shone on the four statues two days a year, but each day was one day later than before.

 

Next to the temple of Ramses II is the smaller temple of Queen Nefertari, dedicated to the goddess, Hathor. Six colossal statues of Ramses II and Nefertari were cut from the rock to make the face of the temple. Although this temple is dedicated to Nefertari, four of the statues are of Ramses and only two are of Nefertari. The temple doorway opens into a hypostyle hall that contains columns with capitals shaped like the head of the Hathor, the goddess who has the ears of a cow. The main sanctuary contains a niche with a statue of Hathor protecting Ramses. Although this temple was dedicated to Nefertari, there was as much or more about Ramses in it.

 

After seeing the temples, we ate lunch at a Nubian restaurant in the town of Abu Simbel. The restaurant was in a beautiful mud-brick building that had been coated with a layer of terra cotta. It also serves as a bed and breakfast. We were encouraged to look at some of the sleeping rooms, which had both air conditioning and mosquito netting around the beds. The B & B office looked much like an office at home, with a computer and a printer in it. The son of the proprietor demonstrated a Nubian musical instrument that looked much like a medieval lute.

 

This was our last full day in Egypt. We flew from Abu Simbel to Aswan and then on to Cairo on the same airplne. We arose at 3:00 a.m. the next day to say goodbye to Heba and to catch our ride to the Cairo airport for our 6:30 flight to Paris. For once the traffic in Cairo was not bad.

 

Reflecting back upon the trip as a whole, we felt that it was a good time to visit Egypt. Tourism is way down in because of the political situation, but security is quite good. We enjoyed seeing the sights without the huge crowds of pre-revolutionary Egypt. Whenever we were on a bus, we had an armed policeman with us. On Friday, the day of prayer and demonstration, we had an additional carload of armed tourist police following us.

 

We had many interesting conversations with Heba about the revolution that started in January 2011. The anarchy and crime that began with the revoluation were very scary. Personal security is much better now, but the political situation is uncertain. Although the country has a president, it does not have a constitution and the parliament has been dissolved by the courts. Progress toward establishing a constitution and a new parliament is painfully slow. Basic services such as traffic control and litter removal are in a woeful state. The trains run on time, but they are not especially clean and their bathrooms do not have toilet paper. Many times, Heba would tell us what we were going to do the next day, then would stop herself and say, "At least, that's what we would have been able to do before the revolution. I'm not sure what we will find tomorrow." Most museums and touist sites are open after the revolution, but not all of them. It must be stressful to live in an economy that has so much uncertainty.

 

Abby and I have talked about going to Egypt for as long as we have been together - over 35 years. I'm glad we finally found time to go. It was an interesting time to be a visitor to Egypt. We got to see all the  monuments that we wanted to see, and we learned a few things first-hand about the revolution. I'm glad that our permanent home is in a stable democracy that has peaceful elections and a reasonably well-informed electorate. We may not have many ancient monuments in the United States, but it is certainly a great place to live.

 

 

Sailing a felucca

Tuesday, October 23, 2012


We learned today that Aswan has two dams – the High Dam that was built in the 1960’s, and a British dam that was built sixty years earlier. Our bus drove us across both dams today.

First, though, the bus dropped us off at a boat with an ancient 40-horsepower Suzuki outboard motor that would take us to the Temple of Isis at Philae. The motor wouldn’t start at first, until our pilot got help from a man about 30 years younger who yanked on the cord hard enough to get it going.

The temple was moved after it was flooded by the construction of the Aswan High Dam. A temporary coffer dam was built around the temple to dry it out enough to be moved to a nearby island. Philae was built during the Greco-Roman period. Construction started under Ptolemy II Philadelphius (285-246 B.C.) and continued until Roman emperor Diocletian (284-305 A.D.) The temple had a layout now familiar to us, ever since visiting the Temple of Karnak at Luxor. Behind a large pylon is an open front court, lined on each side with colonnades, the columns having a variety of capitals.

After the front court is a second pylon which opens into a second court and hypostyle hall, with columns that have the face of Hathor, the goddess who has the ears of a cow, as part of their capitals. One of the inner rooms had all goddesses in it. The Pharoah presented his offerings only to goddesses; there were no male gods depicted in the room. Heba said that this was unusual, if not unique to this temple.

The inner part of the sanctuary was converted to a Christian Church after Justinian abolished the ancient Egyptian religion in 529 A.D. and required its followers to convert to Christianity. The Maltese cross was inscribed into the walls of the temple at that time. This may have been one of the last places that the ancient Egyptian religion was practiced.  The early Christians also chiseled out the features of many of the gods and pharaohs depicted on the walls. Apparently, these gods, goddesses, and pharaohs were so attractive that just looking at them might be enough to cause apostasy.

We then had our look at the High Dam, after driving across the low dam to get there. The High Dam has 12 turbines of 175 MW each, or 2100 MW total capacity. According to Heba, the British dam has about 500 MW of capacity. At the high dam there is a park and a monument dedicated to Egyptian-Russian friendship, with a very nice cafeteria adjoining them. The cafeteria was almost deserted.

We piled into the bus and drove a short distance on the west side of the river to an ancient quarry containing the Unfinished Obelisk. It is believed that the obelisk was being carved out of the quarry for Pharaoh Hatshepsut when it cracked. The crack must have been heartbreaking for those who had put so much effort into freeing three of its sides from the bonds of earth. We looked at some of the obsidian tools that were used to pound the granite, but we were forbidden from using them. In that heat, I did not want to be a quarryman.

We returned to the riverboat for a brief rest before undertaking an adventure that would be one of the highlights of the trip – sailing a felucca. We realized that the cover of Fodor’s book on Egypt is a photo of feluccas – lateen-rigged sail boats, with a single triangular sail – sailing in front of the riverboat dock at Aswan. Soon we were doing exactly what was pictured on the cover of Fodor’s, in exactly the same spot.

We sailed around to the other side of Elephantine Island. Our pilot, ethnically Nubian, pointed out the village where he lives. Nearby was a hotel that was under construction. Heba said it had been under construction for 20 years. In the post-revolution economy, construction had stopped completely. When we got to the far side of Elephantine Island, the wind died. We turned around and headed back downstream as our two crew members broke out the oars. Heba at first took the tiller, but when I indicated that I knew how to steer a sailboat, she gladly relinquished it to me. As we got past the southern tip of Elephantine Island, the wind picked up again and the rowers shipped their oars. Much to my delight, they allowed me to continue steering. I steered almost all the way to the quay. What a treat!

Edfu and Kom Ombo

Monday, October 22, 2012

We awoke to sunrise over a glass-smooth Nile. Our river boat, which we boarded at Luxor, reached Edfu at about 2:30 a.m. and had tied up so that we could tour the ancient Temple of Horus. The traditional way to travel to the temple from the river landing was by horse and buggy, and Road Scholar did not disappoint us. Our buggy through drove a traffic circle in the center of town as several large trucks blasted their air horns in successful attempts to assert their right of way. The mix of modern trucks and cars, horse-drawn buggies, donkey carts, and pedestrians made for a uniquely Egyptian scene in the traffic circle.

Ptolemy III, one of the Greek pharaohs, started the temple in 237 B.C. Building the temple took 80 years, so it was finished by one of his successors. Inside the enormous pylon is a courtyard in true Egyptian style. Across the courtyard from the entrance is a well-preserved statute of the god Horus as a falcon, next to a doorway that leads to a hypostyle hall. The columns in this hall have varied capitals – palm-leaf, lotus, papyrus, and what Heba called “composite” capitals. Unlike the older temples, this one still has its roof, which made it more enjoyable in hot, sunny weather. The Egyptian Council of Antiquities had put screens between the columns at the front of the hall in an attempt to exclude pigeons. However, the oversize door was standing open, so there were almost as many pigeons inside as out.

The innermost room of the temple was a shrine, made of polished granite, which would have housed a statue of Horus in a cabinet made of gilded wood. The cabinet was still there, but Horus had flown the coop. A 100-year-old replica of the ancient bark used to carry Horus out for ceremonies stands in front of the wooden cabinet, now displayed gilt-free.

The reliefs in the temple recount the story of Horus and Seth. I won’t trouble you with the details here, since you can look them up online. Seth was repeatedly portrayed as a hippopotamus being harpooned by Horus from a boat as an approving Amun-Ra looks on. In their details, some of these reliefs looked more Greek than Egyptian, even though they were telling classic Egyptian religious stories.

After lunch, we retired to our room, where we watched the banks of the Nile roll past. In places the desert came right down to the river on the east bank, while in others, irrigation had pushed the desert away, but not too far away. Occasionally, we could see cattle grazing on the river bank or on grassy sandbars in the middle of the Nile as fishermen in rowboats fished with nets.

We docked at Kom Ombo for a couple of hours to visit the Temple of Haroeris and Sobek. Haroeris is a version of Horus, the falcon-headed god, and Sobek is a crocodile-headed god. Like its counterpart at Edfu, this temple was built in the Ptolemaic period when Egypt was ruled by Greek descendents of Alexander’s general, Ptolemy.

Kom Ombo is similar to the Temple of Horus at Edfu, but is not as well preserved. There were some interesting reliefs, for example of the Egyptian calendar, and of medical instruments used by ancient Egyptians. Heba showed us the hieroglyphic symbol for the verb “giving birth” – it depicted a woman delivering a baby. I took pictures of the sun setting behind the temple.

Like the one at Edfu, this temple contains a “Nilometer.” In this case the Nilometer consists of a large well that in ancient times was connected to the river by a tunnel. The height of the Nile during the spring flood determined the amount of crops that farmers would be able to grow, which in turn determined the amount of taxes they had to pay. Small crocodiles would swim into the well, and would be taken care of by the priests of the temple, because this was the temple of Sobek, the crocodile-headed god. According to Fodor’s, the crocs were treated as semi-divine, which included giving them golden earrings and gilding their toenails.

After touring the temple, we visited the crocodile museum adjacent to the temple. Many mummified crocodiles were found near the site. The museum displayed some of the mummified crocodiles and some that appeared to be preserved by modern taxidermy. Heba informed us that crocodiles are no longer found downstream of the Aswan dam.

Valley of the Kings

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Beginning in about 1550 B.C., Egypt’s pharaohs realized that interring their remains and a portion of their wealth in pyramids merely pointed out to grave robbers were they should search for loot. Instead they began hiding their tombs in a dry valley west of Luxor. Since our riverboat was docked on the east bank of the Nile, we boarded a small tourist board for a quick passage to the west bank. Heba assured us that this would be quicker than taking a bus down to the nearest bridge and back. Plus, we got to avail ourselves of another form of Egyptian transportation – the river boat.

Our ticket to the Valley of the Kings entitled us to visit three tombs, plus we had a separate ticket to see the tomb of King Tutankhamen. Although there are over 60 tombs in the Valley of the Kings, not all of them are open. Also, officials at the Egyptian Antiquities Service feel that too many tourists would breathe too much water vapor into the otherwise-dry tombs, spoiling the art work and other details inside. So, we were limited to three tombs plus King Tut’s.

Our first tomb was Ramses III, then we visited the tomb of the female Pharaoh, Tausert/Setmakht, then the tomb of Ramses IV, and finally, that of Tutankhamen. In the ancient Egyptian religion, stars are believed to be the dead ancestors of the Pharaoh. In each of the first three tombs, the passage leading to the burial chamber was painted blue on the ceiling, and five-pointed asterisks represented the stars. (We were not allowed to take photographs; I will post an image of stars from the Temple of Hatshepsut.) The effect is beautiful even to this day. There were many images of the pharaoh approaching Ra-Harakthy to profess his or her worthiness to enter the divine realm. Pharaoh Tausert/Setmakht had a harpist’s chamber off her main passageway, with a harpist painted on two walls. Reportedly, a harp was found inside. Cameras were not allowed, so we were unable to take photographs of any of the tombs.

King Tut’s tomb was a bit of a disappointment, although it feels good just to say that we have been there. Tutankhamen died an early death, so a proper royal tomb had not yet been prepared. He was buried in his scribe’s tomb, which is much smaller in scale than a typical royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings. However, his tomb is the only one with the mummy still inside, although many of its linens have been removed and the skin is blackened. Also, we had just seen many of the artifacts from his tomb in the Egyptian Antiquities Museum in Cairo. Inside the chamber is one of the gilded wooden coffins in which Tut’s mummy rested for thousands of years before it was discovered by Howard Carter in 1923.

Some people call the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut the finest piece of architecture on earth because of its harmony with its surroundings. Fodor’s calls the 18th-dynasty pharaoh the most important woman to rule Egypt as a Pharaoh. I’m sure Fodor’s is correct, although Cleopatra is certainly more famous today. She was first a regent for her step-son, Thutmose III, then pushed him aside to rule in her own right. After she died, Thutmose came back to power. Apparently he held a grudge, because he had some of her images and cartouches chiseled out and, in some cases, replaced with his own.

The pillars on the third level of the temple once had statues of Hatshepsut in front of them; about a half dozen remain. Hatshepsut sent a trading expedition to Punt (believed to be modern Somalia) that returned with incense. This expedition is illustrated in the carvings outside the temple. In sheltered areas, much of the color remains, including the starry ceiling and beautiful vultures, the protector bird of southern Egypt. On the other side of the temple there are columns into whose capitals are carved the face of the god Hathor as a woman with cow’s ears. At the base of the ramp leading to the temple’s third (top) floor is a restored statue of Horus as a falcon. Some of us went up the long ramp to the third floor, while others went downhill to the snack shop. I managed to do both. Those who just did the snack shop did not miss much and got to drink Egyptian pop. Green apple was the flavor that Abby chose.

We stopped at an alabaster “factory” where the traditional method of making translucent alabaster vases was demonstrated. A traditional Egyptian mural on the wall was painted by Tayeb the “Picasso of Qurna” in 2009. We bought a couple of alabaster pieces and admired the many types of stone carving, some of them from a greenish stone that glowed in the dark.

Our last stop of the day was the Medinet Habu Temple, the mortuary temple of Ramses III, who lived a century after Ramses II, and admired him very much. Ramses III led successful campaigns against the Libyans and the Sea Peoples, strengthening and expanding the borders of Egypt. The gate of the temple copies a Syrian style of the time, with two windows above a massive doorway. Inside the gate, Abby spotted a relief of two Egyptians holding hands, and asked Heba to take our picture under it.

The carvings in sheltered areas still had much of their color. The vulture – protector bird of Upper Egypt – was displayed in several locations.

Karnak

Saturday, October 20, 2012

The hotel’s computer system telephoned our room at 5:10 a.m. as a wakeup call, even though we had not requested one. Heba, our Egyptologist/guide, was trying to make sure that we did not miss our flight to Luxor, but I had already been up for 30 minutes.

Fodor’s calls Karnak Temple “the most complex and impressive assemblage of ancient Egyptian religious monuments.” I was impressed right away by the rows of sphinxes that line the entrance. These are not ordinary sphinxes. They have the body of a lion, all right, but they have the head of a ram. These are representations of the god Amun-Ra, protecting Pharaoh Pinudjem I, who is tucked under the ram-head chin and between the sphinx’s leonine paws. The largest physical feature of Karnak Temple are the huge structures called pylons that have gates in them. Because the temple was not finished, one of the pylons has the remains of mud-brick scaffolding remaining on the inside.

Karnak Temple was started by one Pharaoh and continued by many others down to Hellenistic times. Ramses III made his mark here, erecting two colossal statutes of himself, as well as 20 statues of himself in the guise of the god Osiris. He also created a large hypostyle hall, a hall of many huge columns, all of them decorated with illustrations and hieroglyphics. Some of the columns have normal-looking open-papyrus capitals, while others have odd-looking papyrus-bud capitals.

The ancient illustrations were carved in relief and then painted. In areas that are protected from the intense Egyptian sun, the colors are still clearly visible after more than 3000 years. Large obelisks of Thutmose I and Hatshepsut, one of few female pharaohs, dominate the skyline. The festival hall of Thutmose III contains the “botanic garden,” illustrations in stone of a variety of Egyptian plants and animals. The hall was later used as a Christian church.

We re-boarded our small bus and headed for the Temple of Luxor, a much smaller complex nearby that was built between 1390 and 323 B.C. Amenhotep III started the temple and then Ramses II added to it a century later. Later pharaohs added as they saw fit, then several Christian churches were built inside the temple and, finally, a mosque, which is still in use today.

The entrance to Luxor Temple is flanked by seated statues of Ramses II. Where there were once two obelisks, there is now only one. The other was given to France by Muhammed ‘Ali Pasha, and now demarks the Place de la Concorde in Paris. Just inside the pylon that surrounds the temple’s entrance is the peristyle court of Ramses II, a double row of columns flanked by colossal statues of the standing pharaoh. Farther inside the temple is the hypostyle hall of Amenhotep III, eight rows of enormous papyrus-bud columns.

A highlight of the Temple of Luxor is on a wall added by Alexander the Great, depicting him as a Pharaoh exchanging greetings with the god, Minh, who looks at once especially virile and very glad to see Alexander.

 

In the evening we heard a lecture on recent finds in the Valley of the Kings from the director of the New Luxor Library, a beautiful new building dedicated to the history and archeology of the Luxor area.

Cairo

Friday, October 19, 2012

Because a demonstration was expected after midday prayers today we had extra security. In addition to the Uzi-toting, plain-clothes, tourist policemen who accompanied us on the bus, we were also followed around town by a carload of white-uniformed tourist police. We’ve never been protected by such a large security force.

After a buffet breakfast overlooking the Nile, we boarded the bus and headed for the Hanging Church, which is called the Suspended Church in Arabic. This 9th-century church is built over the gatehouse of the old Roman Fortress, so it is said to be hanging or suspended because the Roman gatehouse creates a large empty space beneath. Thick sections of transparent glass flooring on the right side of the sanctuary offer proof.

A small portion of the church dates to the 3rd century.

The church has an 11th century marble pulpit in the middle of the sanctuary, considered to be the oldest pulpit in Egypt. The pulpit is supported by 13 stone columns, symbolic of Jesus and his disciples. One of the columns is made of black stone, representing Judas. The screen in front of the sanctuary is made of dark-stained cedar with ivory inlays in the shape of the Coptic cross. The icons above the screen represent Jesus in the center; Mary, archangel Gabriel, and Peter in the right; and John the Baptist, Paul, and archangel Michael in the left. Like many Coptic sanctuaries, this sanctuary is actually three in one, with the left sanctuary dedicated to St. George, the right sanctuary dedicated to John the Baptist, and the center sanctuary dedicated to Mary.

Coptic Christians are very proud of the time that the holy family spent in Egypt, as described in Matthew. They have traced that path that Joseph, Mary and Jesus are believed to have followed in Egypt and the places that they stayed. A beautiful modern mosaic depicts the three of them traveling along the Nile, with the pyramids of Giza visible in the distance.

When we arrived a service was in progress. We were able to enter the sanctuary and listen to the sermon for a while, before leaving for our next destination. Heba, our guide, explained that the schedule of services had changed because of the death recently of Pope Shenouda III, and the imminent selection of a new pope. Heba said that we would return after the service, and in the meantime go to the Mosque of Ibn Tulum. On the way we stopped at the Mosque of ‘Amr Ibn al-‘Aas, the oldest mosque in Africa, originally built in 642, for a photo op. The mosque has been renovated, restored and expanded many times since 642.

Fodor’s gives the orange star, its highest recommendation, to the Ibn Tulum Mosque. In 879 Ahmad Ibn Tulum wished to accommodate his entire army during Friday prayers, so he built a huge mosque. The mosque is no longer used, except as a tourist attraction, so it is still in much the same form as it was in 879. Atop the walls that surround the mosque is a crenellation that looks a lot like people standing side-by-side. I doubt that was the intent, since representations of people are against the teachings of Islam. Once inside the inner walls of the mosque, we encountered two men who tied coverings on our shoes so that we could walk around the mosque without taking our shoes off, as is normally required in a mosque.

The Ibn Tulum Mosques covers more than six acres. Covered colonnades surround the enormous inner courtyard. A niche on the east wall of the interior indicates the direction of Mecca – if the faithful were facing the niche they knew they were facing Mecca and could pray in that direction. The minaret is the only one of its kind in Egypt, with the stairs spiraling around the outside, rather than the inside.

Our next activity was a stroll through the Khan al-Khalili bazaar, another of Fodor’s gold star attractions. We walked down El Moez street as the call to prayer echoed throughout the city. The narrow streets and small shops crowded with souvenirs made it clear that we were not in Minnesota. Abby found an head of Anubis, the Egyptian god of death and mummification, to take home with us. As we took pictures of a man selling tamarind-flavored drinks from a cooler strapped to his side, another Egyptian in a white crocheted skull cap stopped to harangue him for pandering to tourists. He replied, also in Arabic, that he had a deal with us and that he would be paid just as if he were selling us drinks. The nosy passer-by moved on, at which point Heba gave us a translation of the discussion.

We then returned to the Hanging Church for a more complete tour now that the unexpected Friday-morning service had ended. With the service over, we could roam about more freely and photograph some of the beautiful stained glass. Outside the church, along the wall next to the above-ground subway station, Abby found a modern copy of the ancient Egyptian relief of two people holding hands. She asked me to take a picture of it, since we like to hold hands.

We walked past the Convent of St. George, where a pair of old sconces containing Coptic crosses flank the entrance. Providing illumination in the front of the sconces are a pair of modern compact fluorescent light bulbs – a fun juxtaposition of old and new. Our destination was the Church of St. Sergius, which originally dates to the 5th century, although it has been destroyed and rebuilt several times since then. The church is famous for being built over a crypt where the holy family stayed during their flight into Egypt from King Herod. The crypt is affected by rising groundwater, which is attributed to the high dam in Aswan, so we were not able to enter it.

Our late lunch took place in a restaurant in El Azhar Park. In the distance was the Mohamed Ali mosque, built to resemble the great mosques of Istanbul. This being the first day of the Islamic weekend, people dressed as children’s characters were entertaining young and old at the restaurant. I was privileged to shake hands with Sponge Bob after lunch.

For the remainder of the afternoon, Abby and I got caught up on Facebook, email and blogging. We had dinner on “Le Deck,” a floating restaurant on the Nile that was part of our hotel. Our table was immediately adjacent to the river. I had lamb shank while Abby had stuffed grape leaves. Our waiter told us that we were eating like Egyptians.

Egyptian Antiquities Museum and Tahrir Square

Thursday, October 18, 2012

We left the hotel early – at 7:00 a.m. – to take the bus to the train station. The express train from Alexandria to Cairo felt very much like a third world train. The seats had clean antimacassars on them, but not much else on the train was very clean – especially not the bathrooms. We rode through the green, well-fertilized delta and arrived in Cairo in about two hours. Heba, our guide, told us to stay on the train after everyone disembarked until our luggage was unloaded. A railroad official came about and said “Train finito,” in an interesting two-word mix of English and Italian. He and Heba got into an argument about whether we could stay on the train until the luggage was unloaded. By the time the argument ended with the railroad official conceding defeat, the luggage was unloaded and we got off the train.

We rode to the Egyptian Antiquities Museum. Cameras are not allowed inside the museum, so all of my photographs are taken from outside. The museum building is 111 years old, and it not air conditioned, except for two small rooms that contain mummies and the room that contains King Tut’s treasures. Despite the heat and humidity, the museum did not disappoint us. Among other things, we saw the mummies of Rameses II and other notable Pharaohs.

The museum has many amazing artifacts, including the oldest papyrus document, on which many colors are still visible. The highlight is the Tutankhamen exhibit, including the mask of Tutankhamen. King Tut’s mummy was inside a wooden coffin, which was inside a stone sarcophagus, which was inside four gilded wooden boxes, each larger than the other. The amount of gold jewelry that was interred with him is astonishing, and each piece astonishingly beautiful. I could see why the known tombs of Egyptian pharaohs were robbed by succeeding generations of pharaohs to recycle the immense wealth that was buried with each of them.

Abby and I ended our trip to the museum with the Narner Palette, the oldest artifact of Egyptian history, from about 2950 B.C. It commemorates the victory of king Narner over his enemies to unify upper and lower Egypt for the first time.

Outside the hotel were the burned-out remains of the office building that housed former President Mubarak’s National Democratic Party. The party headquarters, just a block from Tahrir Square, was burned during last year’s revolution. There is no sign of any repair or reconstruction to that building.

We drove through Tahrir Square – a traffic circle with a small park in the middle – on our way to the Sofitel El Gezirah Hotel. Our room overlooks the Nile River, where sailboats with lateen sails share the water with garishly lit party boats that blare Egyptian dance music into the night. Dinner that evening was mixed grill in a hotel restaurant. Our party of nine Americans has become rather tired of the mixed grill of beef sausage, lamb and chicken, and has started making wise cracks about it, so much so that Heba, our guide, would go out of her way to provide an alternative at future meals.

Alexandria

 

We were startled by lightning and thunder after breakfast today. The Egyptians were especially surprised. One man ran out onto the sidewalk to see if the loud boom was from a car or truck crash in the street. It wasn’t. Rain is a rarity in Egypt, but today would be rainy, at least by Egyptian standards.

We started the day in the Montazah Gardens, east of our hotel, on the Mediterranean. This area belonged to the Mohamed Ali family, which ruled Egypt from 1805 until the coup d’etat in 1952. In 1892, King Abbas II began construction of a large Montazah Gardens palace called Salamlek. This palace faced the family’s private beach and yacht harbor. In 1932 King Fuad built an even larger palace called the Haramlik. Salamlek became the Queen’s palace and is now a hotel. The larger, Haramlik palace looks like something Leopold of Bavaria might have built. No wonder the country was ripe for a coup in 1952. However, after 22 months of revolution, some Egyptians today seem to yearn for the good old days of Kings Abbas, Fuad, and Farouk.

The gardens contained volcanic rocks that had been painted a pleasing tan color and, more naturally, bougainvilleas in a variety of hues. At least one bougainvillea had two colors on the same specimen. The gardens contained Egyptian crows, which have grey shoulders, but are otherwise black. The Egyptian royal family used the sleeping lion as its symbol. At the entrance to the park was a traffic symbol with four sleeping lions in the center. There were other sleeping lions throughout the park.

Next we drove to the catacombs of Kom al-Shoqafa, called by Fodors “the most impressive of Alexandria’s ancient remains.” The catacombs were constructed in the 2nd century by people still practicing the ancient religion. There were carvings of the Egyptian gods Anubis, Thoth, Horus and Isis inside the catacombs. The catacombs were cut out of soft sandstone and were originally the burial place of a single family, but later became open to public burials. In the 4th-century, public burial area, you can see sarcophagi for more august people, in contrast with the normal pigeon holes for everyday burials. The catacombs were discovered in 1900 when a donkey fell through the roof of one of the chambers.

At the catacombs our bus developed an electrical problem in its engine, so we returned from the catacombs to a warm bus. We waited about 20 minutes for a mechanic to arrive who could fix the problem. He got it fixed quickly and we were on to our next destination, Pompey’s pillar. On the way three boys of about 10 years old, dressed in school clothes, started running alongside the bus and waving at us, asking to have their pictures taken. Traffic was so slow that they ran with us all the way to Pompey’s pillar, about a mile. We had heard from Heba, our guide, that children like to receive pens or pencils with American writing on them, so I gave them a Friends of Scouting pen that Abby had in her purse.

Pompey’s pillar is a bit of a letdown. Although it is a pillar, it has nothing to do with Pompey, who was murdered by Pharaoh Ptolemy before he even got all the away ashore in Alexandria. However, it is one of Alexandria’s main tourist attractions, so we took a few quick photos from the bus and moved on.

A short distance away is the Roman amphitheater, the only known Roman amphitheater in Egypt. The theater is a perfect parabola, so if you stand on the round stone marking the focal point, you get quite a reverberation from the seats of the theater. Nancy, one of our traveling companions, found it truly amazing. The reverberation is only heard by the speaker standing at the focal point, not by anyone else. Preserved mosaics with signs asking us not to walk on them were in front of the theater. Here were ancient baths and living quarters. Our guide did not mention that they were ancient baths, but Abby figured that out right away by remembering the Roman baths that we had seen in Italy. There were monuments that had been excavated from below the sea off the coast of Alexandria. We would later learn that Alexandria’s waterfront has subsided about 6.5 meters since ancient times, so a portion of ancient Alexandria is now under water.

We stopped for a late lunch at a large, and almost empty, restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean. It had a very nice selection of hors d’oeuves, or dips, that we ate as salads or spread on our pita bread. I was served a half-chicken, boned and butterflied, a dish which I had never seen before.

We took pictures of Fort Qayt, built in 1479 out of the ruins of the ancient Pharos lighthouse, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The great lighthouse, 400 feet tall, was destroyed by an earthquake in 1307. Our lecturer, later in the day, informed us that parts of the lighthouse, including its massive stone door and two flanking statues, are in shallow water next to the fort. Near the fort is the Abu al-Abbas al-Mursi mosque, which we stopped to snap a few pictures of on the way back to the hotel.

Our evening lecture was about the underwater excavation to find parts of the ancient lighthouse and other ancient remains. I asked her if the revolution had made more difficult to finance her underwater excavations. She said that it had made everything more difficult. After the revolution, she had to be re-credentialed as a legitimate underwater excavator, even though everyone knows her. Even after being re-credentialed, it is hard to get a permit because the existing officials know they will be gone in a few months. I got the distinct impression that average Egyptians are tired of the revolution and are ready to move on to a fully functioning government.