Download 5000 YEARS OF HISTORY IN 40 PAGES

5000 YEARS OF HISTORY IN 40 PAGES
A Visit to Egypt 9-29-10 to 10-13-10
For family and friends of Kay and Lois – A selection of Kay's photos can be found at
https://picasaweb.google.com/110287139805758968417/EGYPT2010#
Introduction
A powerhouse of a visit! Egypt's history alone is so overwhelming that it is difficult to begin to digest:
thousands of years from Narmer (the first Pharaoh to unite upper and lower Egypt into one country
about 4000 BC) to the intriguing society that modern Egypt presents. Pyramids and tombs five thou sand years old, with many carvings and wall paintings as clear and vibrant as when they were created.
Village life along the Nile proceeding as it has for thousands of years against the backdrop of ancient
temples and storied agricultural practices dating back to the Pharaohs.
And then to see from the airplane the tiny and vulnerable green strip (only 4% to 7% of the country) of
viable space for humans along the Nile with the implacable desert stretching out to both east and west
as far as we could see. How did the ancient Egyptians create such a complex and lasting civilization on
such tenuous ground? What manner of men were these amazing Pharaohs like Khufu, Amenhotep III,
Akhenaton, and Ramses the Great? What powers did their panoply of gods and goddesses bestow upon
them? How did their strong belief in an afterlife give them such vision and purpose for their accom plishments on earth?
I cannot pretend to have gathered all the answers to these and other questions this trip of discovery
raised, but I have to admit that I remain totally fascinated by this enduring culture and its many “stars!”
When I learned that Americans are a tiny minority (300,000 out of 12,000,000) of the visitors to Egypt
annually, I felt saddened and eager to share my experiences in hopes that others of my fellow citizens
will feel the pull of this amazing place and venture out to explore it.
Part I: Current Millennium
Before we discuss ancient Egypt and all its glories, however, I think it is appropriate to talk a bit about
modern Egypt—a very different place from the kingdom of the Pharaohs! Well, maybe not that different except for the “glory” part.
Modern Egyptians are still as dependent on the Nile River as their forebears. It's that annual inundation
by the river in the lands surrounding it that gives Egypt a tiny portion of fertile land for agriculture.
After all, though Egypt is the 30th largest country in the world in land mass (it is approximately 3 times
the size of New Mexico), only 3% of it is arable and even liveable. The old saying that Egypt is “the
gift of the Nile” is still as true as ever. A total of 13,212 square miles is irrigated out of 384,345 square
miles of total land mass: a pitiful percentage indeed. Today, the population of Egypt is much larger
than that of ancient Egypt so the pressure on the Nile and the land is much more intense.
Whereas old Egypt was self-sufficient in food production, modern Egypt must import food, especially
wheat, to feed its people. Today, tourism is the 2 nd most important economic activity while in the past
warfare with its attendant booty, captives, gold, silver, lapis lazuli, and other semi-precious stones was
the underpinning of the agricultural society. More intriguing is the fact that many of the farming tech 1
niques used by villagers along the Nile in the Upper Egypt direction are quite similar to the methods in
use all those millennia ago. For instance, wells and winches look like the ones on the walls of antique
tombs and temples and plows and yokes look the same as well.
In many ways, even the government of Egypt today is not that different from that of the Pharaohs.
Though ostensibly a republic, Egypt is actually more like a kingdom. Hosni Mubarak has been in
power since 1981 and is likely to remain so until he dies. At present he is grooming his son to take
over when he leaves the presidency. However, he just announced on October 21, 2010, that he will be
running for a 6th term. He was born, officially, in May 1928, making him 82 years old now. Of course,
we saw no evidence of a pyramid or huge temple/tomb complex being built in preparation for him to
secure his place in the afterlife. And the burial place for Anwar Sadat is modest even though very
impressive. So there are obvious differences, but everyday Egyptians are probably as impotent in
national affairs as they were in the time of Ramses the Great.
*****
Important Note:
Since I have been delayed in completing this journal until January, I can record an astonishing, hopeful, frightening, and still in flux occurrence. The Egyptian people have been in outright rebellion
against Mubarak since January 25, 2011. People of all social strata, religions, and from all parts of
the country have begun massive demonstrations against Mubarak, calling for his ouster. So far, he has
resisted, agreeing only to fire his cabinet. This clearly does not satisfy the people because they are
continuing to defy his calls for night curfews and a halt to the demonstrations. More and more people
are joining the crowds and so far there have been 75+ deaths reported among the demonstrators.
January 30 (a Sunday) is the start of a new work week for the Egyptians and it is a matter of great
interest whether or not the people who have jobs will return to them. Commentators believe that if they
do disperse and return to work, Mubarak will have temporarily prevailed. If not, he is more likely to
be toppled. At present the Army appears to be siding with the demonstrators since there have not been
any real attempts to disband the thousands of people. The military is guarding the ancient treasures of
the country, the Pyramids of Giza, the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo, Luxor, and other
important archeological sites.
The latest information tonight (1/29) at around 10:00 PM EST concerns Mubarak's first ever appointment of a Vice-President, seen as an attempt to placate the people's calls for his immediate removal
from office. But it is unclear at this time what Mubarak means by this appointment. And it has been
said that people are not returning to work now that it is morning in Egypt.
There is an unfortunate amount of looting and crime in the anarchical situation and it appears that the
military and ordinary citizens are working together to protect property and facilitate public safety. The
most heartwarming pictures I have seen document the Army and citizens linking arms in the garden of
the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities and protecting that treasure house from looting and pillaging.
Army tanks are also ringing the property outside the garden area. At present a fire is raging in a building next to the Museum and Doctor Zahi Hawass, First Minister of Antiquities, is fearful that the building's collapse could spread the fire to the Museum itself. The fire is currently being fought by both professionals and citizens.
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Jan. 30 Update: the fire was evidently brought under control and the people of Egypt have not
returned to work or halted their protests. If Mubarak goes, who and what will follow?
Jan. 31 The crowds are getting larger with a projected goal of reaching “Million Man Status.” It has
also been reported in our press that talks are now taking place between Mubarak's new Vice-President
and some of the apparent leaders of the uprising. What that will come to is another issue altogether.
We can only wait and see, of course. Still there is little violence against the demonstrators and the
ordinary people are still acting as t heir own militias to protect their neighborhoods and property. The
Army still seems to be more on the side of the demonstrators than the government. Don't know if they
crowds reached a million today but certainly there were more than before.
Feb. 1: Apparently Mubarak has announced that he will NOT seek re-election in September but work
instead for a smooth transition from this point in time to the transfer of power after the elections. This
concession follows the largest group of protesters yet in Tahrir Square today. Formal speech was
supposed to further clarify Mubarak's intentions, promises, etc., to the country at large.
Feb. 2: Unfortunately things have gotten more violent now because it appears that the police who are
loyal to Mubarak have dressed themselves in plainclothes and are calling themselves Pro-Mubarak
demonstrators. The have come armed with weapons such as whips and boards and have been attacking the peaceful protesters. So far today, the casualties announced are 1 killed and 400 wounded.
Where is the Army now? Perhaps the “colonels” need to come out and demand that Mubarak leave
now and get the crowds to disburse and go back to more normal activities.
Feb. 3: The situation have deteriorated in Cairo since yesterday. There is more violence, looting and
pillaging around other parts of the city, and the Army seems to have disappeared from the scene. There
was a big apology from the new Prime Minister as he discussed the violence leashed upon the peaceful
protesters by the Pro-Mubarak thugs. He promised a full investigation into the aggression perpetrated
yesterday producing at least 8 deaths and many injuries, some of which required hospitalization. Even
Egyptian and foreign journalists were physically attacked and some were taken in “protective
custody.” There is no end to this demonstration in the foreseeable future.
Feb.4: The “Day of Leaving” in the words of the anti-Mubarak demonstrators. The leaders of the
protest had announced that they wanted today to be the day that Mubarak would step down. It has
been a much calmer day and the pro-Mubarak thugs have been kept out of the Tahrir Square so there
has been little or no violence. Thousands of people, including families with children, are in the Square
keeping vigil while negotiations are going on behind the scene between Mubarak and many foreign
governments including the USA trying to persuade Mubarak to leave now and do it with dignity and
peace. Again, we just have to wait and see what transpires.
Feb. 5: Now the news from the Prime Minister is that he has conducted meetings with the protestors
and now believes that “stability” is returning. In other words, he believes that Mubarak and the government will just wait the demonstrations out. He stated he feels the whole “uprising” will be over by
Friday—but which Friday? Can this be true? News this morning is sketchy at best on the topic.
Feb. 6: Banks opened yesterday and people queued peacefully to withdraw money and the situation
stayed calm. The Muslim Brotherhood will be meeting with the new Vice-President in a move that
had been denied only yesterday. The United Nations says that 300 people have been killed during the
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“peaceful” demonstrations. The government is urging people to return to work and let life get back to
normal. It is unclear how much longer the protests can go on. Maybe Mubarak really can just wait
them out!
Feb. 7-10: The people stayed in Tahrir Square; they remained peaceful but insistent that Mubarak
must go. The military maintained vigilance and did not allow the demonstrators to be molested or
attacked. But it was unclear what they would finally do to bring the crisis to an end. Late on the 10 th,
there was apparent confusion since the military seemed to announce that Mubarak would step down on
that day and many world leaders, including Obama, thought the government would fall on Feb. 10.
However, despite many announcements Mubarak stayed on.
Feb. 11: At noon in the US, it was announced that Mubarak had stepped down and flown with his
family to Sharm-el-Sheik, a resort on the Red Sea where he has a resort to himself. The outpouring of
joy, relief, jubilation, thanksgiving, and hope was touching to see in the Square as the Egyptians celebrated. Amazing to see that a peaceful demonstration by ordinary people, even though it lasted from
Jan. 25 to Feb. 11, had brought down a dictatorial government! Maybe Gandhi's methods still can
prevail in the modern world. What a miracle! Now we have to hope and pray that the Egyptians can
bring this confrontation and victory to fruition in a real democracy of and for the Egyptian people.
*****
But Mubarak is not nicknamed Pharaoh; that appellation is accorded to Doctor Zahi Hawass, the
powerful Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities. This renowned Egyptologist jealously and rightfully guards the magnificent heritage of ancient Egypt from further plundering, theft,
desecration, or exploitation. Indeed, he IS the modern Pharaoh of old Egypt.
There are 78,866,635 Egyptians living today on that narrow strip of land along the Nile and in the Nile
delta, making Egypt the 16th most populous nation in the world. It is estimated that during all the millennia of ancient Egypt no more than 1,000,000 people lived there at any one time. Today, Egypt is a
young country with a median age of 24. Life expectancy is an average of 72 years with women outliving men by about 5 years. It is believed that life lasted no more than 40 years for most ancient Egyptians though there were some very long-lived Pharaohs like Pepi I, Amenhotep, and Ramses the Great,
these men making it into their late 80s and early 90s!
The ethnicity of most residents of this country is labeled Egyptian (99.6%) and the religion most practiced is Islam (somewhere between 85 and 90%) with the rest being Coptic Christians. National ID
cards are required in Egypt and religion is a pertinent identifying label since Muslim men are not
allowed to marry non-Muslims. The number of Jews remaining in Egypt was 55 during the time we
visited; about 35 live in Alexandria and 20 in Cairo. Christians are not legally persecuted or discriminated against in this country where Islam is the state-supported religion.
The literacy rate shows the second class citizenship accorded to Egypt's women: 83% per cent of men
are considered literate but only 60% of women. A strange figure when considered against ancient
Egypt's culture in which women had more rights than in any other group of people in the ancient world.
Women could buy and sell property then, they could divorce their husbands, they could even study to
be scribes so they were literate.
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And of course, in the royal class, women were very powerful as leaders, mothers, and regents, and at
least one woman became Pharaoh in her own right and actually ruled as a woman, not a male impersonator (Hatshepsut, 5th ruler in the 18th Dynasty from 1479 to 1457).
At least 20% of Egypt's citizens today live below the established poverty line and there is a huge divide
between rich people and poor ones. There is only a very small middle class and 10% of the citizens
control the vast amount of the country's riches, resources, land, and everything else. That may not be
so different from ancient times when there were three classes: the royals who were immensely powerful in every way, the merchants and craftsmen in the middle, and the peasants at the bottom of the pyr amid. There is no real tradition of either democracy or capitalism in Egypt.
The capital city of ancient Egypt moved about at the whim of the Pharaohs and even of Alexander the
Great, but the current capital city is clearly the biggest city in the country, Cairo. This huge metropolis
contains 22 million of Egypt's people. It is spread out enormously and it is congested, smoggy, dirty,
and still vibrant with street life, night life, great restaurants, good hotels, amazing houses of worship,
and the looming presence of the Great Pyramids hovering above and so near to downtown. We were
really amazed to see that the Great Pyramid of Giza is clearly visible in many parts of the city, rather
like Mt. Rainier so clear outside of Seattle! The mountain and the pyramid might be near each other in
age—well, not really, but they are both staggering backdrops.
Our guide warned us about the traffic in Cairo and if anything his rather outrageous comments turned
out to be understatements. He told us that the white lines in the streets are merely suggestions which no
one heeds, that traffic lights are non-existent, that most drivers never take a driving test or possess a
license to operate a vehicle, that we would share the roads with horse-drawn buggies, heavily laden
burros, and pedestrians who must take life-threatening chances to get anywhere. The moving vehicles
would often get so close to each other that only the proverbial coat of paint separated them. Yet we
never saw any contact. But the most amazing thing about all this was the fact that the traffic did actually move despite all this and that we never saw an accident of any sort. Not only that, the traffic
flowed without constant horn blowing, screeching brakes or shrieking tires. However, it did move ever
so slowly! Trips of a few blocks would take half an hour or more. To drive across the city took much
longer. Yet, like the drivers in India, the Egyptians were polite and considerate—road rage is not a big
problem here even though driving a vehicle is frustrating and frightening. But before we could begin to
feel relatively benign about Cairo traffic, we were told many are killed in traffic accidents each year,
more pedestrians than drivers or passengers in cars or trucks!
As congested as are the roads however the place where we suffered the most claustrophobia due to the
enormous population of Cairo was the prestigious, must-be-visited National Museum of Cairo—the
home of so much of Egypt's archeological treasure. It had to have been 100 degrees inside when we
visited and there is no air-conditioning! The crowds had to move as one organism because there was
simply no space to be called “personal”. Of course, most of these people were tourists rather than natives and our guide told us we were not seeing it at its most crowded since we were not here at high sea son. I cannot even imagine how any more people could have been packed into that building whose
walls bulged outward under our attempts to pass by the marvelous statuary, sarcophagi, textiles, jewelry, weapons displays, and funerary objects!
The historical wealth of Egypt is on casual display here and yet less than 10% of the holdings are on
exhibit at any one time! Here Zahi Hawass is indeed the Pharaoh and he rules his kingdom with an
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iron hand. He determines what will be seen, whether or not pictures can be taken, when rooms are
closed off, when construction takes place, what information is supplied—the Museum of Egyptian
Antiquities is his home and his castle! But it is still Egypt's treasure house and it is truly magnificent.
A new museum is in the planning stages and it is much needed, but since all projects here are very slow
to complete, it will be at least another 10 years before Pharaoh Hawass has another palace.
Note: At the conclusion of the formal demonstrations, it has been announced that 17 artifacts disappeared from the Museum during the standoffs. Two of them were connected with King Tut, but it
appears that the great bulk of treasures was unharmed and remains safe in the national treasure trove.
One of the biggest problems in Cairo is the lack of coordinated trash and garbage pick-up and disposal.
When it is done at all, it seems to be individuals who take it upon themselves to do something about it.
Usually, the trash and garbage just pile up along the streets and create the feeling that Cairo is not just
untidy but unhealthy as well. We had read that some of the poor Christian citizens have traditionally
attempted to deal with the garbage in order to salvage what is valuable from it. They apparently are said
to pick the trash up and carry it into the districts where they live in order to sort it out. But what happens to the “non-valuable” stuff when they finish their “work” is never revealed.
Note: The day after Mubarak's departure, the demonstrators themselves, helped and guarded by the
military, carried out the clean up in Tahrir Square. Surely this testifies to the responsibility and civic
duty of the thousands of people who brought down Mubarak peaceably. May they continue on the road
to a fair and just society for all the Egyptians.
Because of the Aswan High Dam, electricity is available inexpensively to almost all citizens of the
country, so the cities and towns are brightly lit and there is no problem with “black outs” or periods of
no power availability. At present eight of the twelve turbines in the Aswan Dam provide enough
energy for all Egypt's needs and excess can be sold to neighboring countries. But Egypt's population is
growing at a very rapid rate so it is not inconceivable that the people will overwhelm even the 4 turbines not supplying their electricity.
Agriculture is still Egypt's number one economic activity just as it was in the millennia under the
Pharaohs Farm products include the most important export, Egyptian cotton, which is an especially
fine grade of long fiber material that is grown in very few other places in the world. The Nile delta has
been especially hospitable to this plant because of the rich soil, the water saturation levels, and the
constant refreshing of these conditions by the annual flooding. Now, however, the Egyptians are facing
the one really big drawback of the Aswan High Dam. Because flooding is controlled and because the
enriching silt backs up behind the dam in Lake Nasser, those wonderful soil and water conditions are
dwindling away. The lustrous, durable, comfortable long fiber cotton may be threatened now.
Other agricultural products are rice, corn, wheat, beans, fruits, olives, dates, vegetables like okra and
eggplant, and livestock including camels, cattle, water buffalo, sheep and goats. Camels & water buffalo are used as work animals as well as food. Sheep and goats produce wool products as well as
serving as food.
Other economic activities include textile manufacturing, food processing, hydrocarbon production,
cement-making, some mining for semi-precious stones as well as gold and silver. Despite a brisk and
important tourism industry, Egypt is still basically an agricultural nation. However, the country does
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possess important natural resources which are gradually being exploited. There is oil, though not in
great amounts, natural gas, iron ore, phosphates, manganese, limestone, gypsum, talc, asbestos, lead
and zinc.
A word must be said about a fascinating part of tourism in Egypt and that word is “security.” We were
totally amazed and freaked at the apparent protection we were under the whole time we were in the
country. From the moment we arrived at the Cairo Airport, concerns about our safety seemed uppermost in our guide's mind and in his logistics. When we boarded our minibus to take us to our first hotel
in downtown Cairo, we were preceded and followed by official small trucks bristling with big guns and
tourist policeman in uniform sitting behind them, apparently at the ready. Not only that, a plainclothesman from the tourist police boarded our bus after we were all settled and sat right up front with the bus
driver. Our guide told us that we should ignore him but that he would be with us all the time we were
in Cairo. The trucks dropped away after we reached the hotel and we were not accompanied by them
again until it was time to return to the airport at the end of the trip when they rejoined our caravan.
However, that was not anywhere near the end of the security we saw! At every tourist site, there were
guards sitting behind bullet proof shields with big guns drawn. There were soldiers and policemen in
turrets at intervals along main roads. We saw Tourist Police, Soldiers, regular policemen, all involved
in security for tourists. It was quite clear that President Mubarak does not want a repeat of the tourist
attack in 1997 at Hatshepsut's Temple where about 60 tourists were killed, mostly Japanese and
Swiss people. Tourism plunged as many countries warned their nationals not to travel to Egypt until
the situation was clarified and security increased.
A militant Islamic group at first claimed responsibility for the attack as well as other smaller ones
around the country, but when it was realized that the people of Egypt were outraged by the attacks and
demanded that the government punish the group and restore the confidence of tourists so tourism
would resume, the group back-pedaled and tried to blame the attacks on Israel and its sympathizers.
However, the Egyptian government was not fooled and it was constantly pressured by its own populace
to prevent any further such attacks. After all, tourism brings in 11% of the nation's revenues and
provides many jobs and supports many private businesses. The country simply could not afford any
further mayhem against tourists. The Tourist Police and other security measures have done an effective
job since 1997 and only isolated events have occurred since with very little loss of life. The biggest
threat now seems to be against people in remote areas who are kidnapped for ransom, but those events
are few in number as well.
Since our return home, we saw, along with the rest of the world, that fundamentalist groups have not
been totally quashed since a terrorist attack was perpetrated on a Coptic Christian Church in Alexandria
during the New Year's services. Many of the churchgoers and passersby were killed and wounded in
this terrible massacre. One possible explanation for this action is a continuing goal of destabilizing the
Mubarak government and establishing sharia law and government in Egypt.
Our guide did tell us that American tourists, few in number as they are compared to other nationalities,
get the most protection since our government demanded it or tourist warnings on travel to Egypt would
be instituted by the State Department. Most Americans take those warnings very seriously and do not
travel in places considered dangerous.
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While we were a little discomfited by the numbers of armed men we saw everywhere, none of us confessed to feeling uneasy after a couple of days in Egypt. It appeared we were being protected as much
as possible, but I am glad that I did not read about the attack in 1997 before we went on our visit since
the details of that attack revealed that the murderers were dressed in the uniforms of the Tourist Police!
Besides occasional outbreaks of violence by the country's fundamentalists who want Egypt to be an
Islamist state, the nation does face other constant problems. Most of these are due to the strange and
basically hostile terrain it occupies. The most threatening of these natural events are droughts, frequent
earthquakes, flash floods, landslides, hot driving windstorms, dust storms and sandstorms. All these
help to increase soil loss and desertification. Human-caused problems include pollution of the Nile,
their only source of water, and loss of fertile land due to the burgeoning population which creates a
demand for housing and the consequent loss of former farmlands.
PART II: Brief Historical Timeline
Egypt has been a recognized and unified country for 5,110 years! It is generally recognized as the oldest continuous civilization and country in existence. Because of that longevity, a short history is really
an impossibility. But for convenience, a timeline will be provided for the sites we saw. Of course there
were people living in Egypt before Narmer, the first Pharaoh, united the kingdoms of Lower and
Upper Egypt into a single nation, but this timeline will begin with Narmer.
Upper and Lower Egypt had different crowns for their kings before Narmer united them and combined
the crowns into one. The designations for the two parts are confusing since they seem paradoxical.
Upper Egypt is the part of the country closest to the source of the Nile, Lake Victoria. Lower Egypt is
the part closest to the Mediterranean, the delta of the Nile. Upper Egypt's crown was shaped rather like
a bowling pin and was white in color while the crown of Lower Egypt was red and shaped like a widemouthed vase. Narmer combined the crowns by inserting the white crown into the opening of the red
crown. From his time onward, Pharaohs wore this double crown, the Pschent symbolizing the unification of the two parts of the nation.
Thirty-one different dynasties ruled ancient Egypt from about 3100 BC to 30 BC. This estimate of the
number of dynasties comes from an Egyptian monk (Manetho) who lived in the first half of the 3 rd
century BC. Though his divisions can be questionable, modern Egyptologists have accepted them for
convenience and uniformity. Egyptologists define a dynasty as the reign of a group of rulers from the
same family.
The other convenient divisions adhered to by modern archeologists and historians concern the periods
for the dynasties. At present, the histories are divided thus:
Early Dynastic: identified as the first and second dynasties, from 3100 BC to 2686 BC, including as
Pharaohs, the aforementioned Narmer and 15 other kings.
Old Kingdom: includes the third, fourth, fifth and sixth dynasties, from 2686 BC to 2181 BC, with
familiar names like Zoser, Snefru, Cheops, and Cephren, Pepi I and II, along with 21 other rulers.
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First Intermediate Period: includes the seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth dynasties from
2181 BC to 1787 B. C., but no widely familiar names are present though there are 34 different rulers
during this period.
Middle Kingdom: includes only the thirteenth dynasty from 1787 BC to 1705 BC with an indeterminate number of kings but at least 15 of them. No particular familiar names exist among these rulers.
Second Intermediate Period: includes the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth dynasties
from roughly 1704 BC to 1540 BC with 13 known rulers and many others not known (usually just listed as “many kings” in the 14 th, 15th & 16th dynasties. No familiar names are included among these
rulers either.
New Kingdom: includes the eighteenth (Golden Age of Egypt), nineteenth, and twentieth dynasties
from 1540 B.C to 1069 BC. This dynasty includes many of the most famous of the Pharaohs, with
Amenhotep I, II, III, Thutmose I, II, III, VI, Akhenaten (heretic Pharaoh who proclaimed there was
only one god), Hatshepsut (the female Pharaoh), King Tut, and Ramses II (self-proclaimed “The
Great”).
Third Intermediate Period: includes the twenty-first, twenty-second, twenty-third, twenty-fourth,
twenty-fifth, and twenty-sixth dynasties from 1069 BC to 525 BC. Though this period is 500 years
long, the only well-known name is Ashurbanipal: familiar from the Bible and part of an Assyrian
occupation of Egypt from 671 to 664 .
Late Period: includes the twenty-seventh, twenty-eighth, twenty-ninth, and thirtieth dynasties from
525 B.C to 332 BC. Some of the familiar names from these dynasties are not Egyptians but Persians
and Greeks, like Darius the Great and Xerxes.
Alexander the Great gets a dynasty designation of his own even though he is the only member of it.
This thirty-first dynasty lasted from 331to 323 BC and though short and surviving only one ruler's lifetime, there are many evidences of Alexander's presence in Egypt.
Ptolemaic Kings: Though they could legitimately constitute a thirty-second dynasty, for some reason
(unknown to me) they are not so labeled. At any rate, their rule runs from Ptolemy I in 323 to the Cleopatra with whom we feel we are well-acquainted who finished out the Ptolemaic hegemony in 30 BC.
After this period, Egypt's history is dominated by Romans, Arabs, Turks, French and even the British
for about 70 years. Even when other peoples ruled them, the Egyptian people maintained their ethnicity and their character. The biggest change for them came with two religious “invasions” when the
Romans brought Christianity in 41 AD with the arrival of St. Mark the Apostle and when the Arabs
brought Islam into Egypt through their conquest of the Byzantines in 640 AD. Since l952, the Egyp tians have again been an independent nation as they were under their own ancient Pharaohs Though
much diminished in numbers and percentage of the population, Coptic Christians continue to live in
relative peace with the Muslim majority.
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Part III: Religion In Egypt
For a full day, we participated in a Spiritual Tour of Cairo which included visits to Jewish, Christian
and Islamic places of worship.
Judaism
Our young guide, Hany, told us with very little obvious discomfiture that at present only 55 Jews live in
Egypt: something like 35 in Alexandria and 20 in Cairo. We visited the Ben Ezra Synagogue during
our Spiritual Tour of the city. It functions today only as an historical monument and the most-visited
Jewish site in Cairo.
In modern times, the Jews were “invited” out of the country in 1956 after relations between the Arabs
and Israelis deteriorated into war. Nor were they asked to return after the peace treaty was signed
between Egypt and Israel. However, it is important to remember that despite these modern events,
Jews lived in Egypt for many thousands of years and their history in the land of the Egyptians is
deserving of some comment.
As they have in most parts of the world, Jews in Egypt have experienced sporadic periods of acceptance with longer ones of repression. During Pharoanic times, Jews were present throughout the kingdom. The Hebrew Bible records stories of Jewish experiences under Pharaoh, though it never specifies
which Pharaoh. Many Biblical scholars maintain the belief that the Hebrews were in captivity in Egypt
under Ramses the Great, but there is no archeological or other external evidence of that 400 year
sojourn. Some scholars look for internal evidence in the Bible itself and believe that the story could be
plausible. But at present the story has to be accepted on faith rather than empirical evidence.
The story of Moses in the bulrushes discovered by Pharaoh's daughter is another Biblical event that
cannot be substantiated in historical or archeological records. Some researchers believe that the daughter of Hatsheput (the female pharaoh) was the person who adopted Moses from the Nile. But all these
are speculations without physical or written foundation.
All through the varied periods of history in Egypt, Jews are have been present including ancient times.
They have gone through Christian ages, Turkish rule, Islamic domination, the Mameluks, Roman and
Byzantine times. Though persecuted often and tolerated occasionally, they survived in Egypt for thousands of years. At some times, Jews held positions of power in whatever government held sway and at
other times they were exploited and made to pay exorbitant “taxes” for the privilege of living in their
communities. Sometimes, their synagogues and their scholarship were respected and valued and at
other times their houses of worship were burned and their schools destroyed. But it took modern events
of the 20th century to bring Jewish life in Egypt to a complete end. Zionism and the establishment of
the Jewish state of Israel sealed the fate of Jews in most of North Africa.
Christianity
According to tradition, Christianity has its oldest roots in Egypt! The Bible states that Mary, Joseph
and Jesus fled into Egypt to escape Herod's determination to kill Hebrew first-born males because the
Magi had told him they had come into Judea seeking a new king. According to the teachings of the
Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the Holy Family sought sanctuary in a grotto in Cairo, now
enclosed within the Coptic Saints Sergius and Bacchus Church, dating from the 4th century.
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The church is dedicated to Sergius and Bacchus, who were soldier-saints martyred during the 4th century in Syria by the Roman Emperor Maximian. It is considered the oldest of Cairo's Christian
churches. The crypt which is under the current choir contains the remains of the original church where
tradition says the Holy Family lived. Originally, this crypt was the main sanctuary of the church until
the newer edifice was raised above it.
Another important Coptic Christian church in Cairo is the “Hanging Church” whose real name is Saint
Virgin Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church and it dates from 3rd century AD It is located above a gatehouse of the Babylon Fortress, an early Roman structure. The nave of the Hanging Church is suspended over a passageway into the fort. The land surface has risen almost 30 ft. since Roman times and
the original tower of the fort is partially buried now. Because of this geologic factor, the elevation of
the church is not as dramatic as it must have been in earlier times. Incidentally, tradition has it that
Joseph may have worked at the Babylon Fortress during the time the Holy Family lived in Cairo.
In this church is a mosaic map indicating the many small towns along the Nile where Christian
churches associated with the Holy Family's residence in Egypt were built. Many of the ones still extant
claim direct connections with the Family. They may claim to have an article of Mary's clothing or a
piece of furniture created by Joseph, or something belonging to the Baby Jesus. The whole concept
was a revelation to me because I had never heard any of these stories, nor had I ever read or been told
anything about the Holy Family's residence in Egypt.
According to our guide, who is a Coptic Christian, there is no attempt to prevent Christians from practicing their faith in Egypt nor does he feel there is any outright discrimination against them. They make
up 10-15% of Egyptians.
Of course, Christianity preceded Islam in Egypt because it is a religion at least 600 years older than
Islam (Mohammed was born in 570 or 571 AD). When the Rome fell in 410 AD and the Byzantine
Church remained in control of Christianity in Egypt, the ascendance of Christianity held for another
300+ years until the Arabs poured into Egypt and captured it, bringing Islam as their religion.
This history of Christianity in Egypt is a sad one because of persecutions by the Romans, after they
themselves had introduced the religion to the region in 37 AD with the mission of St. Mark to the
Egyptians. However, Emperor Diocletian (ruling from 284-305 AD) ruthlessly persecuted them,
killing many thousands, because he perceived their religion to be a grave threat to the state religion of
Rome. In 312 A.D, the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity himself and made it the official religion of Rome.
Between the Byzantine Christians and the Coptic Christians grew an insurmountable difference of
opinion regarding the true nature of Christ. The “great schism” at the Council of Chalcedon occurred
in 451 AD when the Byzantine Patriarchate demanded that the Copts accept the doctrine of the dual
nature of Christ (both human and divine) and the Copts absolutely refused it. From then on, there was
conflict and persecution of the Coptic Christians who were completely decimated and demoralized.
When the Arabs conquered the territory of Egypt, there was little to no resistance by the Coptic Christians against the imposition of Islam. They continued to practice their own religion through discretion
and restraint.
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Since Mohammed considered both Jews and Christians “people of the book,” there was little outright
conflict between the two faiths. Occasionally, the Muslim leaders would need more tax monies for
their own purposes and would exact patently unfair fees against both Jews & Christians living amongst
the Muslims. But unlike the Jewish population, the Coptic Christians have been allowed to remain
devoted to their own sect of Christianity and have continued live relatively peacefully in Egypt.
Islam
The Arabs brought their religion with them when they invaded Egyptian territory in 642 AD. For a
while, the Jews, Christians, and Muslims coexisted in the country fairly easily. But as the leaders
became more grasping, discrimination commenced and became institutionalized. By the time that the
Turks took over in their expansion of the Ottoman Empire, Islam had become the dominant religion
and morphed into the state religion as well.
Today, 85% of the Egyptian people self-identify as Muslim and the state continues to support the religion in many ways: funding the imams, the schools, construction of new mosques, declaring official
holidays connected with the religion. The Sunni branch of Islam is dominant and there are very few
Shia practitioners in the country.
There are many old mosques in the country and minarets are to be seen all over every populated areas.
During our day-long spiritual tour of Cairo, we visited the magnificent Ottoman Mosque of Mohamed
Ali Pasha in the Cairo Citadel. Though we did not visit the inside, the green dome of the mosque of
Sultan al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qala'un was a wonderful sight on its own. The view of the capital
city below the Citadel in grand.
Since Muslims are required to pray 5 times daily and many choose to do so in the mosques, there is
always activity around these houses of worship. There is a traditional architectural pattern for mosques,
though there are many levels of opulence. There is always an outer courtyard where the purification
obligation can be performed before entering the mosque. This means there are fountains, water taps, or
a well, since washing of feet, hands and face is required.
The mosque inside is oriented towards Mecca so that the members are facing that city when they kneel
for prayer. There are no decorations, no icons, and no statues in mosques, due to Mohamed's dictum
against representation of living things. The words “There is no god but Allah and Mohamed is his
Prophet” are written in gold Arabic letters in many mosques but that is the only decoration. However,
the mosques are often quite beautiful with colored tiles, usually in blue, domes soaring above the
prayer floor, colorful prayer rugs, gold or gold-painted pulpits, columns of marble or granite or other
colorful stones for roof support.
Minarets (the towers from which the calls to prayer are issued) are fanciful and reflect the country
from which their style originates. The minaret is formed of a base, a pillar, and a conical or onionshaped dome surmounted by a decoration consisting of from 3 to 5 balls separated by narrow shafts.
These symbolize the five pillars of Islam: 5 prayers daily, a once in a lifetime visit to Mecca, regular
alms-giving to the poor, fasting during the month of Ramadan, and the profession of faith (“There is no
God but Allah and Mohamed is his Messenger”). Primarily utilitarian, they can be quite beautiful in
themselves, and no particular number is required on an individual mosque. The minaret's function is to
provide a high place from which the muezzin can issue the calls to prayer five times daily.
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In Egypt are found minarets of Turkish, Moroccan, Persian and Egyptian styles.
Islam has become divided in more modern times into two sects: Sunni and Shia. The Egyptians are
followers of the Sunni tradition. The chief difference between the two stems from the period after
Mohamed's death.
Some followers believed the rightful leadership should pass to a member of the Prophet's family and
chose Alī ibn Abī Ṭālib, his cousin/son-in-law, to be their leader. That group became the Shia
Muslims.
Others of Mohamed's followers felt that an election should determine the leadership and they elected
Abu Bakr as their first Caliph. These Muslims are now practitioners of the Sunni branch of Islam.
Through the years other differences have arisen but they are mostly political and cultural. The chief
beliefs of Islam are shared by both sects (the 5 pillars), the reading of Koran and the hadith (sayings of
the profit), and the celebration of various holidays. There are many more Sunni Muslims than Shia—
90% of the world's Muslims identify themselves as Sunni and only 10% as Shia. However, both sects
recognize each other as Muslims.
An important characteristic that Muslims share with Jews is their belief in one God only; no trinity or
“son of god” is recognized in Islam. As a matter of fact, Mohamed cautioned his believers against too
much praise and adoration offered to him. He said he was the “slave of Allah only” and not a divine
being and specifically asked his followers not to deify him as Christians had done with the “son of
Mary.”
The Ancient Egyptian Religion
The religious beliefs that predominated among Pharaohs and their people until the Romans brought
Christianity into the territory was thoroughly interwoven into the culture and lives of the Egyptians.
It is a complex system of belief with many gods and goddesses symbolizing important beliefs and practices. However, there are aspects of this religion which are not entirely alien to religions of today. For
instance, there was a strong belief in a resurrection and an afterlife as well as a “judgment day” to
determine worthiness to enter that afterlife (rather like Christianity and Islam). Places of worship were
considered important and necessary (as among Christians, Muslims, Jews, and Hindus). There is a
creation story to explain how humans arrived on the earth in a certain place (these myths are important
in almost all the world's religions, including those of our own Native Americans).
A respect for human life is also evident in Egyptian practices since tombs were important for deceased
persons—both to secure their passage to the afterlife and to allow continued veneration of the dead by
their progeny. Of course, very few people in Egyptian society could afford the kind of tombs that
Pharaohs and their noble kinsmen could erect for themselves. But there is evidence that lesser folks
also built modest tombs and were remembered by their children and grandchildren.
Mummification was a vital part of Egyptian faith since it was believed that the mummified body was
necessary to resurrection. Even poor and lowly Egyptians greatly desired that their dead bodies be
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mummified and if that was an economic or logistic impossibility, they wanted something of their physical selves to be buried with them so that when they entered the afterlife their “ka” (soul) could recog nize their physical bodies so that body and soul could be rejoined for eternity.
Pharaoh Akhenaton (grandfather of King Tut) conceived the idea of monotheism. For this, he was
considered a heretic by his successors. During his 20+ years of rule, he made strenuous efforts to
establish this belief among his people. But upon his death, the succeeding Pharaohs and the people
reverted immediately to their ancient beliefs.
For most Egyptians their most important gods were Isis and her husband Osiris, their son Horus, the
falcon-headed protector god of the sky, and Hathor (the cow-headed goddess) who was both nurse and
wife to Horus. The experience of Osiris was the origin of the resurrection belief. The story holds that
Osiris is killed by his brother, Set, the evil one, and then dismembered and his body parts scattered.
Sounds a bit like Cain and Abel, doesn't it? Anyway his distraught wife, Isis, searches all over the earth
and brings all the pieces together and brings Osiris back to life.
There are twenty-eight total gods and goddesses in Egyptian mythology and most were honored with
temples and ceremonies and traditions like the 4 most important figures. For instance, Mut is the goddess who holds the space between the sky and the earth. She is painted on the ceilings of many tombs,
both royal and otherwise. Bastet is the cat goddess whose importance as a protector is proven by the
many thousands of mummified cats found in Egypt. Many of the cats were buried next to their owners,
both royal and common, and temple cats were mummified and buried within the temple compounds. A
period of mourning was required of human owners when domestic cats kept as pets died. Sobek was
the crocodile god and was worshiped as part of the creation myth and as a powerful force whose
strength would be desired by its worshipers. Ra was the sun god and he was elevated at times to the
highest pantheon of Egyptian gods and then sometimes found to be less esteemed and removed from
the highest levels of gods and goddesses. Akhenaten, the heretic Pharaoh, decreed Ra to be seen as not
only the highest god but as the only god of Egypt.
Lesser gods would be treated rather like Christian religions, in both Eastern and Western traditions,
treat saints. They were examples of virtuous behavior and teachers of the tenets of the faith. They
could also be placated and petitioned for favors, for relief from suffering, for help with problems, and
forgiveness of misdeeds by both priests and individuals.
Priests were very important figures in Egyptian life because of their close connections with and service
to the gods of the temples where they were stationed. They could be revered as interpreters, celebrants
of the various rites, advisers to the Pharaohs, propitiators of the gods, and liaisons between the people
and the gods.
Pharaohs themselves claimed divinity to increase their power and enforce their hegemony over the land
and the people. In general, the people and the priests seemed to accept this claim of Pharaoh as god.
Since religion and culture were often synonymous in ancient Egypt, it was necessary for stability and
harmony in the nation that the Pharaoh be acknowledged as divine. Another tradition which helped
cement the Pharaoh's claim to divinity and the right to rule was the often cited belief that a god had
impregnated the Pharaoh's mother who was previously a virgin. Does this sound familiar at all?
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At any rate, it seems clear that religion in Ancient Egypt was a vital element in life and culture.
Because of their strong belief system, the Pharaohs and nobles built many temples, tombs and pyramids
on the walls of which were carved the stories of the faith. Today, those ancient religious structures connect us with the people who lived all those years ago and help us understand their beliefs and practices.
Part IV: Our Own Days Of Discovery
A Necessary Comparison
If half of our group had not just been in 2 other North African countries (Tunisia and Morocco), this
comparison would not be necessary. However, Kay and I had spent about 5 weeks divided between the
two nations in May this year, so the contrasts were bound to be fresh in our memories.
The caveat I must state before going any further is that all these thoughts will be based on our personal
observations of the places we visited in all three countries. Places we did not see could have revealed
totally different impressions than the ones I will discuss here. We cannot claim to have seen even a
majority of any of the three countries. However, I still believe that our perceptions of the differences
and similarities have validity in seeking to understand this visit to Egypt.
All three countries are part of the Maghreb, the part of the Mediterranean conquered by the Arabs and
Islam. All three were also made part of the Greek expansion under Alexander the Great and together
became an important colony under the Roman Empire. And in more modern times, all three have been
influenced by French incursions as well as British invasions and occupations. Morocco and Tunisia
also underwent periods of heavy influence by the Spaniards and Portuguese. World War II brought the
people of these countries into the swirling conflicts of colonization and then the end of colonial influ ences with many disruptions. Both France and Britain, though they had “won” that War, emerged
greatly weakened and were forced to give up most of their colonies in all of Africa. Those departures
left their former colonies vulnerable to civil conflicts as different men rose up to claim the right to govern them. Interestingly, all three have emerged in modern times as kingdoms ruled by dynasties, even if
they are not so labeled.
Physically, all three countries should look much alike since all of them contain wide swaths of the
Sahara Desert and their climates and geography are ruled to a great extent by the desert conditions in
each. However, both Tunisia and Morocco have mountain ranges which give their topographies a more
varied appearance.
Egypt on the other hand is pretty much as flat as the famous Sun Disk which is the symbol of their god,
Ra. There are three exceptions - all found on the Sinai Peninsula: Mt. Sinai, Mt. Catherine, and Mt.
Serbal. But there are no mountain ranges.
The Sahara itself is more beautiful in Tunisia and Morocco because of the high, rolling, red orange
sand dunes. There are places in both countries where the desert is stonier, sharper and more desolate
and those parts are what all of Egypt looks like. Light tan sand peppered with salt flats, dark sharp
rocks and boulders, and endless wastes to the horizon. The Sahara in Tunisia and Morocco looks as if
it could support life of various kinds, but the Egyptian desert is inhospitable and even hostile. Where
oases spring up in the first two countries allowing plants and animals to survive, in Egypt the only life-
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sustaining land is the thin thread of greenery lining either side of the Nile to a width of about 5 miles
each direction.
We were surprised to hear the Egyptians speak of their importance to Rome as its “breadbasket”
whereas in Tunisia, those people believed that their land bore that epithet! To our eyes, Romans would
have been pretty hungry depending on the small amount of arable land in Egypt. We were more
inclined to believe the Tunisians! Though considerable desertification has taken place in North Africa
since Roman times, it is difficult to believe that Egypt has changed that much. At present, 19% of
Morocco's territory is arable, 17% of Tunisia's is suitable for crops, but only 3% to 7% of Egypt's can
be cultivated.
All three countries are torrid as you would expect in North Africa, but Egypt afforded us much the hottest weather we had ever encountered. At one point, we were in the 125 degree range with a searing
and unrelenting sun overhead and no shade anywhere. That never happened while we were in Morocco
and Tunisia, though people there were afraid that Ramadan in August would be brutal in both places.
When flying over Morocco and Tunisia, we could see a surprising amount of green growing things so
that those countries did not appear as barren as Egypt where the only green is alongside the Nile.
Cairo is a much bigger, more congested, and dirty city than the biggest ones in Morocco & Tunisia,
Rabat at 3,500,000 and Tunis at 1,670,000 respectively. Cairo with its 22,000,000 inhabitants is one
of the largest in the world.. Of course, the relative population sizes differ correspondingly: Egypt with
its 80,400,000, Morocco with 31,600,000 and little Tunisia with only 10,600,000! All the more amazing is this population differential when you consider how little inhabitable land Egypt contains compared with the others.
Seeing women in the streets of all three countries does not produce different impressions. In all three,
women are seen in every kind of dress from Western casual wear to full coverage in burkas (robes)
and niqabs (face drapes). The majority in all three are equipped with head coverings like scarves
regardless of what else they might be dressed in. It is difficult for a foreigner to assess how much all
this dress is a requirement of religion, custom, region, or tradition. The guides in all three countries
stated that women have the choice of how they want to dress, but acknowledged that family traditions
and peer pressure in different areas of their countries have significant input into how “free” the women
really are to choose their own mode of dress. And of course, age differences in dress are manifest even
to a visitor: old women in all three societies are the most covered up though not even most of them
wear the niqab; middle-aged women are less covered and less likely to be masked, and the youngest
women appear in all manner of apparel. So it must be that female dress customs are in flux as the societies in all these nations move towards modernizations of all kinds.
As mentioned before, one of the most startling observations we made in Egypt was true to a much
lesser extent in both Morocco and Tunisia—the number of armed men everywhere! In Egypt we were
constantly in the presence and under the protection (we hoped) of policemen, soldiers, and bodyguards.
Guns of all sizes bristled from jackets, protruded from behind armor plated barriers, and stared down
on us from turrets above the streets and on the sides of buildings. It was truly intimidating until we
decided that these armed fellows were really there to prevent terrorists from preying on tourists and
from causing mayhem among their own citizenry. So we relaxed and appreciated them and finally forgot they were there.
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Both Morocco and Tunisia had a good many armed men on the streets as well, in the form of palace
guards, military police, city police, and guards at all the tourist sites. However, they were not as noticeable or as numerous as those in Egypt—except on the island of Djerba where the Tunisians were
expecting a huge pilgrimage of Jewish folks from around the middle east and the world who annually
convene at a very old synagogue with one of the oldest Torahs in the world inside. The Tunisians were
not taking any chances of terrorism on that island and among those pilgrims.
There was armed protection seething all over the island and cars were subject to search both inside and
underneath their chassis. Machine guns were carried casually but obviously at the ready. This was the
only site that the Tunisians protected so completely. Egypt was protecting all its treasures while
Morocco just seemed armed for any trouble that might arise.
One last observation regarding the Islam practiced in all three of these north African countries. While
Egypt has 10% Shia Muslims and 90% Sunni, it does contain a small fundamentalist organization bent
on establishing “sharia law” in the country. Morocco is 99% Sunni with only 1% Shia and very little
problem with fundamentalists. Tunisia is 98% Sunni and 2% Shia and it has little problem with fundamentalism. Tunisia and Morocco do not use sharia law in their legal systems, while Egypt utilizes it in
issues of personal concern, such as marriage, divorce, and other family matters. All other civil and
criminal law is secular there. There does not seem to be much enthusiasm in Morocco or Tunisia for the
imposition of “Sharia Law” and indeed both countries seem to be further along in liberalization of the
societal norms over all.
Empires of Influence in North Africa
The Empire of Alexander the Great (from 336 BC to 323 BC) included Egypt but not Tunisia and
Morocco, but the Roman Empire (from 31 BC to 476 AD) subsumed them all. All three were also
under the influence of the Greek Byzantines after the fall of the Roman Empire. The Ottoman Empire
stretched to include Egypt and Tunisia, but apparently did not reach Morocco (from 1683 A.D to 1922
AD). Both the Spanish (1402 to 1982) and Portuguese (from 1415 to 1999) Empires included periods
of influence in what is now Morocco but did not directly touch either Tunisia or Egypt. However, there
is evidence of Spanish and Portuguese influence in Tunisia since Arabs who had been living in those
two countries before their Reconquest by the Christians forced them to flee across the Mediterranean.
The British Empire (1583 to 1982) included what is now Egypt but did not reach further across North
Africa. The French (1605 to 1962) had control of Morocco during the time of their hegemony over
parts of North Africa, but relinquished it in 1956.
Interestingly enough, though Egypt was the most powerful and long lasting ancient civilization, it never
became an Empire in that the Pharaohs were never interested in establishing colonies or expanding
their territories beyond the Nile. Many Egyptologists credit this reluctance towards expansionist activity to the power of the ancient Egyptian religious beliefs that made the people, from Pharaohs on down
the societal ranks, afraid to live anywhere but Egypt. Their strong conviction that they must be buried
on the west bank of the Nile in order to enter the afterlife and eternity made them very poor candidates
as colonists.
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Observations of the Early Dynastic Period (3100-2686 BC)
To both historians and Egyptologists this 5000 year old period is important because it is generally
recognized as the time frame in which King Menes (also called Narmer) unified Upper and Lower
Egypt into a single country. The only artifact we saw from this ancient time was a 25 inch long piece
of greenish slate carved in the recognizable shape of a cosmetic palette (a triangular form) used as an
aid to applying make-up. This palette is called the Narmer Palette because it contains carvings on
both sides depicting the battles of that king in uniting the two parts of Egypt. Most other such artifacts
are smooth with indentations to hold the cosmetic materials rather than decorated with this type of
carving.
The Narmer Palette contains the earliest hieroglyphs yet found and is beautifully preserved and displayed in the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, the “palace” of Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary-General of
Egypt's Supreme Council on Antiquities. Actually, its position at the museum is informal and surprising since it is one the first things you see, inside a protective glass box, as you enter the building. When
you look at its green sheen and study the fine carvings, you begin to realize how ancient and important
this relic from 5000 years ago is. What a miracle it is too, having been created so long ago, having lasted through the centuries unbroken, and then having been found in the early 20th century!
We visited the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities on the 2nd full day of our trip and saw many things
dating from every period of Egyptian antiquity. Poor Kathy was sick with what we called “Pharaoh's
revenge.” She only made it through this experience on sheer guts and determination. She was nauseous, semi-delirious with fever, dizzy and weak. But she soldiered on and saw, probably as well as the
rest of us did, everything that the pyroclastic flow of human beings would permit. Being in Egypt was
a longstanding dream of hers and she was not going to miss anything, especially the iconic and fascinating Museum of Egyptian Antiquities.
This huge pink building encompasses so many marvelous treasures that you begin to understand the
informality of the display. Things are exhibited chock-a-block with no particular emphasis on a chronology or even the importance of a particular object. There is simply too much “stuff” for potential
exhibition in this full-to-the-brim vessel of Egypt's heritage. No more than 10% of the holdings are on
display at any one time.
But as closely packed as the objects are, the people visiting are even more tightly compacted. There is
no air conditioning in most of the building and the people just slide past one another on a veneer of perspiration; otherwise the crowd would be unable to move through the halls and rooms of this incredible
museum and its magnificent holdings. It is nearly impossible to study an object in any detail because
the crowds of people just keep pushing through and you move past statues, displays cases, and signage
in a relentless flow. The crowd dynamic is almost as amazing as the museum's holdings. AND our
guide told us that we were lucky because we were not here during the high tourist season! We honestly
could not believe that any more people could be crammed into this must-see museum!
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Observations of the Old Kingdom (2686-2181 BC)
The most famous and iconic sites (and sights) in Egypt come from the Old Kingdom, the Pyramids of
Giza. We were all amazed to find that Giza is practically within the city limits of Cairo! Obviously the
city has grown out to meet them since they must have been fairly remote from the ancient city. In certain parts of Cairo you can see them clearly floating above the skyline buildings, in a dreamlike vision
like Mt. Rainier hanging above Seattle's cityscape.
However, those three pyramids are not the oldest. Pharaoh Djoser's Step pyramid holds that record.
It is also the largest stone monument built in the world. Originally about 62 meters high, it consisted of
six ever decreasing layers built one on top of the previous one. The brilliant architect for this ruler was
Imhotep, about whom quite a bit is known to modern Egyptologists because he had an important tomb
of his own due to his position with Djoser. Carvings on the walls of his tomb give pertinent information about his life and works.
Djoser was Pharaoh in the 3 rd dynasty of the Old Kingdom. His famous pyramid tomb is in Saqqara,
another huge burial site for pharaohs and noblemen. Other Pharaohs had apparently built their tombs
and mortuary temples in an architectural form known gas “mastabas.” These were basically long rectangular buildings of one story designed around a large lintel type opening. It was Imhotep's brilliant
idea to use that rectangular style to create a pyramidal shape for Djoser's monument. He made six lay ers of what were “mastaba”-like constructs and piled them one atop the last with smaller and smaller
rectangles. So the Step Pyramid looks like it could be climbed like stair steps if a person were giant
with seven-league boots. This first pyramid has lasted through the ages, a testament to Imhotep's architectural genius.
Pharaoh Sneferu (1st in the 4th dynasty) built three large pyramids which still stand and some smaller
ones. His are the first true pyramids with smooth sides, no steps or layers involved. The two most
famous ones are “The Red Pyramid” and “The Bent Pyramid.” Neither is in Giza but about five
miles south of that location. The “Bent Pyramid” is quite unusual because it appears to have a bent top.
The pyramid was started as a 55 degree angle structure, but near the top the builders changed to a 43
degree angle, thus creating the “bend” in the shape. Many are the conjectures covering the reasons for
the switch, but the most acceptable one says that the pyramid was showing cracks in the structure
which seemed to presage collapse. So the builders found it necessary to change the angle to avoid further damage to the structure. The Bent Pyramid is 344 ft. tall and it is has two entrances, on the North
side and the other on the West. Two entries is unusual in pyramid building too.
Sneferu's largest pyramid is called “The Red Pyramid” because of the color the limestone used in its
construction. It is a lesser quality limestone than that usually employed by builders and it takes on a
reddish tinge in certain lights. It is the 3 rd largest pyramid, after Cheop's and Cephren's at Giza. This
one is 340 ft. tall and rises at a 43 degree angle.
The three pyramids at Giza were built by Pharaohs Khufu (Cheops) , Khafra (Cephren), and
Menkaure: grandfather, father and son in that order. All of these Pharaohs ruled in the 4 th dynasty of
the Old Kingdom following after Sneferu.
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Khufu built the Great Pyramid of Giza for himself. It is the most famous of all the pyramids of
Egypt. It is also the largest, as denoted by its nickname. For 3800 years it was the tallest structure in
the world at 480.6 ft in height. Today it is only 455.4 due to erosion and loss of its cap (pryamidon).
What we see today when we gaze awestruck at this amazing mountain of stone is its inner core. The
outer casing stones have been lost over the centuries, though some of them remain at the foot of the
pyramid where they fell. They show that the Great Pyramid would have had smooth sides rather than
the rubbly appearance we see today.
The bases of the pyramid are 755.9 feet long and there is only a 58 mm. average error in the construction. The mass of this enormous monument is estimated at 5.9 million tons of stone. No wonder the
Great Pyramid is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World; it is also the oldest of the seven. The
angle of ascent of the walls of the pyramid is a little more than 51 degrees.
There are three known chambers within the structure and tourists are allowed to enter one of them.
John did the duck walk (or Groucho Marx Crouch) that it takes to descend into the chamber. Though it
w as difficult, he thought going inside was definitely worth the strain on his back and legs. This is the
only pyramid with both ascending and descending corridors. At present there is nothing left in the
chamber though there is some carving on the corridor walls. Why didn't the rest of us go inside? Too
claustrophobic to even consider!
Khufu's son Chephren built the second oldest of the Giza Pyramids as well as the associated and more
famous Sphinx. Chephren's pyramid is 450 ft. high and its base length is 708 ft. Its angle slope is a
little steeper than 53 degrees. Its most characteristic feature is the cap of casing stones which has
remained in place over the centuries. It allows us the clearest depiction of how the pyramids covered in
casing stones would have looked in ancient times. This pyramid looks taller than the Great Pyramid
but that is because it is built upon bedrock 33 ft. higher than that of Khufu's monumental pyramid.
Much more famous than his tomb pyramid is Chephren's other structure—the Great Sphinx of Giza.
It is said that while his workmen were building a causeway to connect the pyramid with its surrounding
temples including the mortuary temple and the valley temple they encountered an enormous monolith
in the intended pathway. Rather than attempt to remove it, Chephren ordered his workman to carve the
Sphinx. Traditionally sphinxes have the haunches of a lion, the wings of an enormous bird and the face
of a woman. In many cultures (such as that of ancient Greece), Sphinxes were considered evil, but in
Egyptian tradition, the creature was benevolent and most often wore the face of a male figure. This
Pharaoh requested that his Sphinx wear his own face as well as the ceremonial pharoanic beard. Of
course, through the centuries both the Sphinx's nose and his beard have been lost. But modern Egyptologists have exonerated Napoleon and his men of this dastardly deed. Most believed that the Sphinx
was defaced by Turks in the 1700s well before Napoleon hove on the scene. Chephren's Sphinx is the
largest monolithic stature in the world at 241 ft in length, 20 ft. in width, and 66 ft in height
The third Pharaoh to build his pyramid at Giza was Chephren's son, Menkaure (remember, he was also
Khufu's grandson). This is the smallest of the three major pyramids at Giza. It originally stood 218
ft but has eroded down to 204 ft in the present day. It has a base of 366 ft. The angle of include is
about 51 degrees. This pyramid is somewhat different in that its lowest section was made of granite
while the upper sections were of the typical limestone.
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Each of the three pyramids at Giza have or had stone terraces surrounding their bases, each was accompanied by at least two temples, and each was surrounded by the rectangular mastabas (the tombs for the
noblemen close to the Pharaoh The temples which are almost entirely in ruins were of two types: a
mortuary temple where the Pharaoh's body was mummified and a valley temple where the Pharaoh
could be worshiped and venerated. The first was usually near the pyramid and the other was close to
the Nile.
What fascinates most Egyptologists and surprises most first time visitors to Egypt is the fact that these
pyramids plus Djoser's Step Pyramid are the only ones built in Egypt! After Menkaure, the Pharaohs
stopped building pyramids for themselves. It may be that since grave robberies started in those very
ancient times, the Pharaohs who saw their forebears tombs being robbed decided that they did not want
to lose their own immortality to such depredations. After the Old Kingdom, Pharaohs had their tombs
built into solid rock faces and tried to disguise them and their entrances. Hence, many more Pharaohs
are buried in the Valley of the Kings.
Another surprising fact we encountered when we toured the pyramid sites: contrary to Hollywood
movies, popular legends, and even some religious ideas, slaves were never involved in the building of
pyramids—not Jewish slaves or any other of the captive peoples like Nubians, Syrians, or Ethiopians.
The Pharaohs had a country full of workers who could not farm during the season of the year where the
Nile flooded—about 3 months. During those months every year the people worked for pay on the pyramids and other monuments commissioned by the Pharaohs. There are written records of the money
paid as well as other remunerations such as foodstuffs, metals and semi-precious stones. So don't
believe everything you see at the movies.
First Intermediate Period (2181-1787 BC)
This period was a time of disintegration of the accomplishments of the Old Kingdom. The country fell
into various factions with petty potentates challenging the leadership of the Pharaohs Religious ties
that bound the people's together began to fray as citizens in various parts of the country chose their
own gods and goddesses (from the Egyptian pantheon) to emphasize. Because of the internal weakness
in the nation, there were incursions by foreigners as well. Art & architecture were not as important or
as formalized as when Egypt existed as a cohesive state. Though we saw artifacts from this period in
the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, we did not visit any sites associated with that long era.
Observations of the Middle Kingdom (1787-1705 BC)
Our visit to Egypt did not really include any important sites relevant to the Middle Kingdom either.
The necropolis during that period was at Memphis which we did not see. The historical importance of
the Middle Kingdom does not lie so much in the monuments or records of its Pharaohs Though there
are a couple of familiar names such as Sesostris and his sons, what made this period interesting is that it
encompassed the rebuilding of the Egyptian nation after it had fallen into a state of disintegration with
civil wars and dissolution of the bonds between various parts of the country.
Sesostris and his heirs spent the period between 2055 and 1985 rebuilding the country, repelling its outside enemies and reuniting the fractious sections into a strong, prosperous and united nation once again.
These Pharaohs were warriors and politicians rather than monument builders. Their energies were
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spent in fighting the enemies hostile to a powerful Egypt. Therefore, there are not as many records of
their careers carved in various sites to record their triumphs. But win the victories they sought they
definitely did and brought Egypt back to another Golden Age.
Second Intermediate Period (1704-1540 BC)
Just as the accomplishments of the Old Kingdom were followed by the disastrous and chaotic First
Intermediate Period, so the rebuilding and reforming of the unified nation which occurred in the Middle
Kingdom disintegrated again into an anarchic and disorganized Second Intermediate Period. This was
characterized by dynasties where the the names of the Pharaohs are mostly unknown. Egyptologists
are forced to delineate this period as a time of “many kings” rather than important individuals. The
14th, 15th, 16th and 17th dynasties are assigned to this period but very few of the names that are known
are familiar to other than serious students of Egyptian history.
Therefore, we encountered the same situation with this period of history as with the First Intermediate
Period. We probably passed by artifacts and statues from this time when we visited various Museums
in our travels but none were pointed out to us as particularly important or characteristic of Egyptian
historical evolution.
Observations of the New Kingdom (1540-1069 BC)
The three dynasties which comprise the New Kingdom are the most famous among visitors to Egypt,
casual readers of Egyptian history, and amateur historians. The Pharaohs who ruled during these three
dynasties have the names which roll across the pages of Egyptian history for most of us. Pharaohs like
Rameses II (Ramses the Great), Tutankhamen (The Boy King), Amenhotep I, II, and III, Thutmose I,
II, III, and IV, Akhenaten (The Heretic Pharaoh), and Hatshepsut (The Female Pharaoh). First time visitors to Egypt are taken to the sites associated with these names most often and most commonly
because these are names that resonate. And our trip was no different: these are the Pharaohs we “visited” often in their various sites and monuments and tombs and temples.
Most Egyptologists agree that the most glorious period in the history of Ancient Egypt is comprised of
the 18th, 19th and 20th Dynasties of the New Kingdom. Egypt was at the height of its powers, the country was at its most unified, religion was strongest among all the people, prosperity reached the most
people, the greatest monuments and structures were built and the art was at its highest development.
The New Kingdom time frame was the true Golden Age of Ancient Egypt. And because of all this
building and artwork, we have the most written records and examples of the civilization of Egypt during this period. We know the most about these Pharaohs because they left so any monuments and
tombs with magnificent carvings depicting their lives, their victories, their families, their religious
beliefs and practices.
It is probably unnecessary to say that we were most moved and impressed with the things we saw from
this period because we felt most familiar with these names and the events in their lives. All up and
down the Nile were the legacies of these Pharaohs so it was not difficult at all to see their histories
spread out before us. Temples and tombs are everywhere on the West Bank of the Nile from Cairo to
Abu Simbel, the farthest point south on our particular tour of Egypt.
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Among the wonderful things from the New Kingdom that we saw in the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities were: a bust of Hatshepsut, King Tut's treasures in a specially air-conditioned room, statues and figures of Akhenaten, three Amenhoteps and 4 Tuthmoses. All of these are elegant, evocative and true
miracles of survival.
And though we were grateful for the opportunity of viewing everything connected with the New Kingdom at the Museum, nothing really prepared us for the marvels of the architectural treasures we saw in
Luxor, Karnak, Aswan and Abu Simbel.
In Aswan, we saw modern and well-appointed Nubian Museum, built in the l980s. Though it was
principally devoted to exhibiting and explaining the Nubian culture along with its kings and warriors
and relationship with its power northern neighbor, Egypt, we did see connections with various
Pharaohs there because the Egyptian leaders so often raided Nubia for treasure and slaves. These raids
were not limited to the New Kingdom however. From the earliest times in Egypt's existence, Nubia was
regarded as a “treasure house” for Egypt, to be attacked and pillaged whenever Egyptian leaders felt
the need of an infusion of money, valuable gems, gold, and slaves.
Because this was the Nubian Museum, we felt more ignorant here than in any of the other places we
visited, even though we were certainly made aware of our superficial knowledge about Egypt everywhere we went. Names of Nubian kings and their minions, their cities, and their culture were totally
unfamiliar to us, but we greatly enjoyed learning something about this place and its importance to
Egyptian wealth and power.
Attached to the Nubian Museum was a terraced garden with circular stairways leading to views of the
city and its surroundings. Directly in front of the Museum and our hotel as well was an old Muslim
cemetery and beyond that was a New Kingdom stone quarry. From the top of the Museum's gardens
we could see an unfinished obelisk still in situ at that quarry. The obelisk was being carved out during
the reign of Queen Hatshepsut for her building project at Karnak in Luxor. According to archeologists
of the period, the stone cracked during the quarrying process, so the projected obelisk was abandoned.
Still today, it is fairly easy to make out the huge stone block in its position even though the female
Pharaoh (Queen) Hatshepsut lived and ruled from 1479 to 1457 BC. That whole site really made a huge
impression on all of us. We could see in our mind's eye the rock carvers swarming around the huge
granite stone, patient digging and carefully bracing and supporting the rock as it took shape. And then
to have it crack before it could be removed from its “birth site” had to have been devastating.
The extant Temples at Karnak and Luxor Temple were all New Kingdom structures although Alexander
the Great also had an impact on Karnak much later in its history.
Karnak
This is the largest temple complex in the world, even accounted as larger than the Angkor Wat temples
in Cambodia. It is connected with the Luxor Temple by a mile long causeway lined on both sides by
Ram-headed Sphinx figures. Luxor is 310 miles of Cairo.
Karnak sits on 247 acres and consists of 4 main areas (called “precincts”) only one of which is open to
the public—the Precinct of Amun-Re. Construction of the temple complex probably started in Early
Dynastic times with small temples but it reached its height of building in the New Kingdom. Thebes
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(modern day Luxor) was now the center of the spiritual life of Egypt as well as its government. Since
the temples were believed to be the residences of the gods, the correlative belief was that if building
every stopped at Karnak, the temple would “die.” Therefore, some 30 Pharaohs contributed to the construction at Karnak. Sandstone and granite are the major building materials used in this enormous
complex.
The Triad of Thebes, the God Amun, his wife Mut, and their son Khonsu, was the primary object of
worship during the New Kingdom. There are a vast number of temples, chapels, and pylons all over
the complex, but the largest and the one open to the public is The Great Temple of Amun. Though its
features are not unique to Egyptian architecture, the size and number of features is overwhelming. The
dimensions of the Hypostyle Hall for Amun's temple gives a good idea of the scale of the edifices at
Karnak. It is 50,000 ft long with 134 massive columns in 16 rows. 122 of the columns are 33 ft. high
and the other 12 are 69 ft. high and 10 ft. around. Their “architraves” (top sections) are estimated to
weigh 70 tons! We all wonder how the Egyptians built pyramids, but we have to be awestruck as well
in contemplating what it must have taken to raise these enormous columns!
There is also a sacred lake associated with the Temple Complex, as there was usually a lake included in
other temple construction to keep water available for purification ceremonies for the priests. However,
the lake at Karnak is huge (426 ft by 252 ft) like everything else associated with the site. In recorded
history, it has never gone dry despite Egypt's arid climate. While we visited, the heat was punishing
but the site itself took our breath away without any help from the thermometer.
Luxor Temple
The earliest standing parts of this large temple, associated with Karnak and connected by a giant causeway, were small chapels built by Hatshepsut and then appropriated by Tuthmosis III (her stepson and
her nephew). Ramses II (the Great) built the enormous pylons fronting the whole temple and the two
obelisks which stood before them. There were 6 huge seated statues of Ramses in the entrance as well
but only two of them remain. Even Alexander the Great make an impression on Luxor Temple by
building a temple inside the greater complex. As a matter of fact, one of the most astonishing experiences we had in Luxor was in standing between a wall erected by Alexander and carved with events
from his life and another wall built by Amenhotep III a thousand years before, engraved with his
exploits, and yet we were able to touch both walls at the same time because the passage between them
was so narrow.
The overall size of this temple is insignificant compared to the whole complex at Karnak. This temple
is 623 ft by 181 ft. Remember that just the main hall of the one temple in Karnak was 50,000 square
feet. Nonetheless, the visit to Luxor was in some ways almost more enjoyable because it was smaller
and easier to comprehend. The experience was also enriched by the fact that we visited Luxor Temple
at night with its excellent lighting scheme and with a quarter moon hanging in a blue velvet sky above
the pylons and the obelisks. The effect was deeply satisfying and even moving. The night was still hot
hot on our skin but the feelings evoked by this experience were magical and transported us away from
the heat and the crowds.
A curious factoid from the building of Luxor concerns the fate of one of the obelisks which had been
erected in front of the temple by Ramses the Great. One of them still stands, but the other is in Paris at
the center of La Place de la Concorde.
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Abu Simbel
This is probably the most famous New Kingdom structure because of the enormous task so much of the
world undertook to save it from the flooding that would follow the construction of the Aswan High
Dam in the l964-68. The United Nations and many individual countries and people contributed money
and technical assistance in moving the statues from its location on the banks of the Nile up 213 ft.
higher and 656 ft. back from the waters of what would become Lake Nasser following the closing of
the dam. The total cost at the time was 40 million dollars. One cannot even imagine what the cost
would be today! It is rightfully a UNESCO World Heritage site today and is open to the public.
The entire complex was sliced from its original site and moved to an artificial domed structure to house
the interior temples and support the outside statues and pylons. The entire site was carefully cut into
huge blocks weighing from 20-30 tons each, then dismantled, lifted and reassembled at the new position. Pictures of the procedures used to accomplish this stupendous relocation act are as awe-inspiring
as the ancient statues and temples themselves. The site's modern name comes from the young Nubian
boy who showed the European archeologists in the late 1800s where the great statues stood.
Ramses II (the Great) ordered the construction of this complex for several reasons, foremost among
them to intimidate the Nubians to the south of the site. He also wanted to commemorate his victory in
the Battle of Kadesh (whether or not he was actually the winner or just withdrew in a stalemate is a
subject for Egyptologists to consider even today), and to insure that the religion of Egypt was known
and honored in the south of the country.
Ramses temple is the largest and most complex but the second one for his favorite wife, Nefertari, is
also monumental land beautiful! Furthermore, most unusually, Ramses ordered that the statues of himself and Nefertari at the front of her temple were made the same size. Ordinarily, statues of Pharaohs
were always much larger than those of their consorts. But then, Nefertari was the favorite of his many
wives.
The facade (pylon) fronting Ramses' temple is 125 ft. wide and 102 ft high. There are four seated
statues of Ramses guarding the entrance. Each shows Ramses wearing the double crown of Egypt
united and is about 65 ft. tall. One of the statues “lost its head” during an earthquake and the remains
are seen on the ground around the huge feet. Below his knees are much smaller statues of some of his
150 + children, his wife Nefertari, and his mother. A statue of the god, Ra, is carved into a niche above
the entrance doorway. There are 22 baboon statues in the frieze with their arms raised to the sun in
worship. The whole temple is dedicated to the gods Ptah, Ra-Horakhty, and Amun. Ptah is a creator
god who was supposed to have created mankind and the world through thought combined with spoken
names. Ra-Horakhty is a combination of the god Ra (another creator god) and Horus (the Falcon-headed god) to become the “Solar Force.” Amun is the “hidden god” above all the others.
The interior of Ramses' temple is in triangular shape with the rooms decreased in size until the sanctuary is reached. This is the usual formation of Egyptian temples. What is unusual about this one is the
many side chambers off the main corridor. The main hall is 59 ft. long and 54 ft. wide and it is supported by eight huge pillars formed in the shape of Osiris, god of the underworld. The walls are caved
with scenes of Ramses' great battles, his divine birth, the religious rites he practiced, his devotion to the
gods, his treatment of his enemies. The most famous depicts Ramses in his chariot riding into battle
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with his bow drawn and his pet lioness racing alongside the chariot. It is a brilliant carving and retains
some of the original colors with which the carvings were often painted.
Nefertari's temple is 328 ft. farther along the same escarpment and is somewhat smaller but still stunning in its size and beauty. Her temple is dedicated to Hathor, mother and wife goddess to Horus.
She is often depicted as a cow since she nursed the infant Horus, son of Isis and Osiris. When carved
as a human figure, she wears cow horns as her crown. In the entire small temple Nefertari is linked
with Hathor in several ways—she is shown performing religious rites honoring Hathor, she is carved
playing the sinistrum, a musical lyre-like instrument associated with Hathor, she is with her husband in
scenes where he is being attended by Hathor and Horus.
The inner part of the temple is much smaller than Ramses' with only a single columned (hypostyle)
hall and an inner sanctuary. However, the carvings and paintings of scenes of Nefertari's life and her
adoration of the Hathor and many other gods are just as elegant and beautiful as those in the larger
temple. The There are six columns upholding the ceiling of the hypostyle hall but instead of being
made in the figure of gods or goddesses, they are decorated with carvings of scenes with Hathor.
The overall impression that these two great monuments of the New Kingdom make on a visitor can
only be described by me using my own reaction. As Kathy and I rounded the escarpment from the area
where the tourists begin their walk to the shores of Lake Nasser, we were both intimidated into silence
by the grandeur before us and tears burned our cheeks. We were so grateful to be able to see this won der for ourselves that we were pretty much overwhelmed with emotion. Even the pyramids did not produce such a reaction from us. Perhaps it was not only nobility and magnificence of the site itself but
also our recollection of the enormous effort people from around the world had made to save it for posterity! It was as though it had been created twice—first by Ramses The Great himself and then by the
“better angels” of 20th century mankind?
The Valley of the Kings (Panorama)
This was the last of the New Kingdom sites we visited. The Valley of the Kings is located on the west
bank of the Nile near Luxor. We actually took a wonderful balloon ride over the area and learned to
our surprise that you really can see nothing in the Valley itself because the tombs are all carved out of
rock walls and the entrances are hidden like cave adits. There have been discovered so far 63 tombs
and all of them were carved out during the New Kingdom period. The earliest tomb is believed to be
that of Tuthmosis I and the last of Ramses XI—final Pharaoh from the New Kingdom.
Outside the Valley stands the magnificent Temple of Hatshepsut in a well preserved state; her tomb is
in the Valley. This temple appears quite modern and rather like an ancient Greek Parthenon or other
such harmonious and balanced structure. There is a long ramp leading up to the 3 story structure and
its huge statues of the Queen Pharaoh in excellent condition. Tuthmosis III, her nephew and stepson,
may have wanted to wipe the female Pharaoh from history but this wonderful temple alone has preserved her memory and her repute among all the New Kingdom rulers.
There are also the impressive ruins of the Ramasseum or mortuary temple of Ramses the Great (II);
This temple would have been dedicated to the worship of the god-Pharaoh after his passage from this
life into eternity. Like all the Pharaohs of the New Kingdom, Ramses II wanted to outdo all previous
kings with his enormous buildings. The Ramasseum probably would have won any prizes for complexity and size when it was built over 20 years. However, time and position of the temple in the very
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floodplain of the Nile have conspired to destroy the sandstone structure and left it a colossal ruin.
Even in its devastated condition, it is an awesome sight from the basket of a balloon.
We were permitted to visit three of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings once we were on the ground:
those of Ramses III, IV, and IX. All of them were simply flabbergasting—in their complexity of wall
and ceiling paintings and carvings as well as the construction of the rock corridors, and in the presence
of so much color from the ancient times. It would be very difficult to say which of these three tombs
was the most impressive because all were magnificent. No wonder “Pharaoh” Hawass keeps such tight
control of the number of visitations in any one tomb and in how often any individual tomb can be open
to the public in a year.
The last major installation from the New Kingdom which we visited was the Colossi of Memnon,
close enough to the entrance to the Valley of the Kings that it is believed to be statues of Amenhotep
III which would have stood at the entrance to his enormous mortuary temple, the largest in the New
Kingdom which even Ramses could not rival with his Ramasseum. However, it was later dwarfed by
the Temple of Karnak.
The statues are twins sitting about 50 ft apart and are made of quartzite sandstone, believed to have
been quarried in Cairo. Since the statues are estimated to weight 700 tons each, modern Egyptian
scholars have not been able to agree upon a method by which the ancient Egyptians could have brought
the stones from upriver against the current down to Luxor. The statues are 60 ft tall and the 13 ft. pedestal adds more height to the huge sculptures. Smaller figures are carved below the knees of Amenhotep and are believed to be his wife and his mother.
There is a complicated story about why these vast monuments are named after a Greek warrior from
“The Iliad” rather than continuing to bear the name of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. In 27 BC, a powerful
earthquake shattered the easternmost stature, collapsing it from the waist up and cracking the lower
half. From then on, that statue was reputed to “sing” about 2 hours before sunrise, usually at dawn.
The sounds was described in many different ways after Greeks and Romans began to be tourists in the
area and testified to hearing the “song.” Some said it was more like a “pounding sound,” others
thought it was more “screechy” and some even said it sounded like a broken lyre being played. At any
rate, because of the sound occurring only in the dawn hours and usually on in February and March, the
Greek and Roman tourists like Pliny and Herodotus named it Memnon since his name means “ruler of
the dawn.”
In later years, the Romans tried to repair the broken statue with a different kind of sandstone and then
the song disappeared totally. Many speculators feel that the weight of the sandstone repairs stopped the
noise created by the earlier rock contracting and expanding. At any rate, Amenhotep and Memnon are
both silent sentinels to the glory that was this Pharaoh's temple complex.
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The Third Intermediate Period (1069-525 BC)
This period was another of those times in the long history of Egypt when it went into decline and was
nearly subsumed by other cultures. It was a time when too much power apparently went to the priests
and the Pharaohs were undermined. There was great division politically and geographically as the
formerly united Egypt fell into petty kingdoms and satraps with no one Pharaoh able to bring back control under one government. Former enemies of Egypt took advantage of this weakness and invaded the
country with impunity. The Nubians got revenge for all the years they were conquered and subjugated
by invading from the south and taking over territories formerly under the control of a united Egypt. As
Egypt declined in every way and especially in international reputation, the power and influence of
Assyria became stronger and it too invaded Egyptian territories and conquered the lands and people.
Continuing civil wars among the weakened Pharaohs further sapped the country of its strength and
vitality. And finally the Assyrians asserted full control and Egypt was ruled by client kings appointed
by the Assyrians. During this long period, there were some lengthy times of peace and some prosperity but Egypt was not a dominant and self-directed nation during this whole Third Intermediate Period.
Like the Nile itself, Egypt's history seems written in periods of great flux and inundation of fertile and
life-giving waters and then an ebbing back into aridity and sterility after the great bloom of growth.
The Late Period (525-331 BC)
Conditions in Egypt during this period really mirrored those in the Third Intermediate Period. Some
historians place the 26th Dynastic in the Late Period and other put it in the Third Intermediate Period.
That confusion alone reveals how similar the situation was. All Egyptologists agree that the 26 th Dynasty was the last in which Egypt was ruled by native kings (Pharaohs). After that time, the rulers often
adopted and mimicked leadership styles and traditions of earlier Pharoanic times but this was the time
in Ancient Egypt where the country was led by native rulers. After a brief interlude in which the Assyrians were driven out, the Persians came in and conquered the country. It took Alexander the Great to
dislodge the Persians from their control of the country.
We were not taken to see any monuments or buildings related to the Late Period and that is probably
because construction was not a primary concern of the rulers coming from other countries even though
they did honor many Egyptian traditions. It is probably true that we saw artifacts and art works at the
Museum of Egyptian Antiquities which dated from the Late Period but they were not pointed to as having great significance for our visit.
We were told that Egyptian art during this period became much more centered on individuality of subjects—both human and animal. There was greater emphasis on specific details of animal bodies in
sculptures, in an effort to create exact likenesses of the creatures rather than generalized formations.
Human beings, even from lower social strata than the kings and noblemen, were particularized in
carvings and paintings. We definitely saw some statuary in the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities that
reflected that shift in artistic goals.
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The Thirty-first Dynasty (331-323 BC)
Alexander the Great has a dynasty all his own in the Egyptology timeline. Of course, that shouldn't be
a surprise since he conquered the known world during his time, including Egypt. When he defeated the
Persians in their own lands, he also took control of Egypt. Though his reign was short in time, it was
much longer lasting in influence. His successor rulers would be the Ptolemaic kings, those Pharaohs
of Greek ethnicity, whose defeat during Roman times (30 BC) would conclude the story of Ancient
Egypt.
Six months is the amount of time that Alexander actually spent in Egypt. During that time he studied
Egyptian philosophy and religion, ordered the reconstruction of the temples at Karnak and Luxor,
founded the city of Alexandria, and was anointed Pharaoh in Memphis on November 14, 332 BC.
Because his mother, Olympia, had inspired him with stories about Egyptian civilization and culture, he
easily assimilated his beliefs in his Greek gods into the Egyptian pantheon. For instance, he accepted
Amun as the counterpart of Zeus. Since earlier times Greeks such as Herodotus, Pliny, Thucydides,
and Plato had been conversant with things Egyptian through travel and study. Aristotle would have
added to Alexander's knowledge of Egypt and he was primed to become a convert.
Furthermore, the towering monuments of Egypt's ancient Pharaohs, things like the pyramids of Giza,
Karnak and Luxor, overwhelmed him with their larger than life construction and art work. Even
Athens did not possess such glorious buildings and statuary. Thus, while Alexander brought Hellenization to the Egyptians, they filled him with awe and respect for their great civilization.
Alexander's presence and influence in Egypt is recorded everywhere. First of all, he actually laid out
the plans for his city of Alexandria—streets, drainage systems, port facilities, the great library, water
supplies, and some administrative types of edifices. Carved scenes of his battle exploits are found in
the temples at Karnak and Luxor, statues of him stand all over Egypt and even his cartouche is found
in delicate relief all over the country. (Cartouches were created for all Pharaohs to document their
kingship: it is an elongated oval pattern filled with the hieroglyphs which spell out the king's name.)
Pictures of Alexander making offerings to the Egyptian gods abound and the story of his consultation
with the Oracle of Amun at Siwa was a well-known one to Egyptians. It was there that he was
greeted as a “son of god” by the priests of Amun and his deification was accepted by the Egyptians
because of this recognition by their own priests.
When Alexander left Egypt to further his conquest of the world, he would never return alive to this
land. However, when he died 10 years later, his embalmed body was returned to his namesake city of
Alexandria for burial. The burial site has been lost to history.
Because he had recognized the many conflicts between areas in Egypt and the complexity of governing
such a large country, he left the governorship in the hands of many of his followers rather than in the
power of any one person. However, after he left one of his appointees became Ptolemy I Soter I, the
first Ptolemaic Pharaoh, in 323 BC. This dynastic line continued until Cleopatra VII was defeated by
Octavian of Rome in 30 BC. There were a total of 18 Ptolemaic Pharaohs in this ethnic Greek dyn asty.
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Observations of The Ptolemaic Kings Period (323-30 BC)
Though Alexander lived in Egypt only six months, the dynasty established by one of his seven deputies
ruled Egypt for 275 years. This dynasty is numbered 32 and is the last one of all. The males of this
lineage all took the name Ptolemy with additional names added to distinguish them from their forebears
and heirs. For instance, the first Ptolemy was dubbed Soter (meaning savior) since the Egyptians
accepted him as the new Pharaoh, successor to the earlier Pharaohs from earlier independent times.
Later Ptolemies used names such as Philadelphus, or Philopator, or even Alexander. The female rulers
who were often wives and sisters of the males from whom they inherited the throne usually designated
themselves by numbers; i.e., we have Berenice IV, Cleopatra III, and our most known personage from
this period, Cleopatra VII. However, this last Egyptian Pharaoh also added “Philopater” (one who
loves his country), to her title.
We know this Ptolemaic ruler best for many reasons: First, she was involved heavily in Roman politics
as the Romans fought among themselves for leadership of the Roman Empire. Particularly, she was a
player in the struggle between Julius Caesar and Pompey and then again between Octavian and Mark
Antony. Second, she has been extensively written about, not least by Shakespeare himself in the 15 th
century and then by George Bernard Shaw in the 20 th. Many other authors, historians, Egyptologists,
archeologists, novelists and poets have also written of her life and influences. Even this year (2011) a
new biography of this Queen has appeared on our bookshelves. Third, many movies have been made
of her life and times, making her very familiar, in myth if not in fact, to moviegoers all over the world.
And Fourth, she has been painted and sculpted through the centuries as well.
Most of us in the West think of her as a femme fatale, lover of both Caesar and Antony, a beauty like
Elizabeth Taylor, and a pawn used by powerful men. Our Egyptian guide had another view of this
Queen. He said she was dumpy and overweight, like most family members in the Ptolemaic line, with
a hooked nose and protuberant eyes. How on earth did she get the reputation for being such an irresist ible temptress? The other misconception he dispelled for us was the one which describes her as a fool ish woman, captive of her heart instead of her head, and tool of men. Actually, according to most
recent research, she was intelligent, wily, politically skillful, and not anyone's catspaw.
We were fortunate enough to visit four major sites connected with this period of Egyptian history:
Kom Ombo (a town along the Nile), Edfu (another town along the Nile, Esna Temples and the Philae
Temple at Aswan. These four sites testify to the return of a building culture in the ruling family of
Egypt. The Ptolemies were also bent on leaving marks of their kingship and their devotion to the tradi tions and gods of Egypt. They chose the methods used by pharaohs in the Old, Middle and New King doms: they built big temple complexes. We would learn during our visits that later Roman rulers and
even Christians and Muslims would leave their marks on some of these Ptolemaic structures.
The first such complex we visited was Philae Temple, on an island in the Nile. It had been saved from
inundation by Lake Nasser at around the same time that Abu Simbel and many other riverside monuments had to be moved to avoid flooding. However, it had been partially flooded after the construction
of the first Aswan Dam by the British in 1906. When it was realized that the High Aswan Dam would
completely cover the island, UNESCO coordinated a rescue plan for the area. A new island was built
high than the new Nile shoreline after the completion of the High Aswan Dam. Then the temples and
other structures were dismantled piece by piece, numbered and reassembled on the new island, which
had been made in the shape of the former one. This process took 7 years and the site was reopened in
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1980. The reconstruction is magnificent and the site awesome. All constructs but one small ruined
temple date from the Ptolemaic Dynasties, though there are some later Roman structures as well.
The largest temple is dedicated to Isis and is built in the traditional style of the New Kingdom. The two
pylons guarding the entrance are deeply carved with pictures portraying the goddess herself as well as
others including Hathor and some minor figures associated with midwifery. There are temples devoted
to Osiris with carvings depicting his birth, death and resurrection. Philae has been associated with
Osiris as one of the burial places for his separated body parts. There is a temple depicting the divine
birth of Horus, the Falcon-Headed god as well. Roman ruins include one called Trajan's Kiosk which
appears to be a ceremonial arch. There are evidences of the use of the Temple of Isis by early Christians who defaced some of the carvings and added paintings of their own.
Philae is a wonderfully evocative complex with its many ruins from various periods of Egyptian history
though most date from the Ptolemaic king-ships. A pleasant boat ride is required to reach the island
and it offers interesting views of the island from a different prospective.
Our next look at monuments from the Ptolemaic Period was The Temple at Kom Ombo, a unique
double temple, the only one of its kind extant. The southern half is dedicated to the crocodile god,
Sobek, who is revered as a god of fertility and as one of the creators of the world along with Hathor and
Khonsu. The northern half is dedicated to Horus the Elder, the god who was the child of Isis and Osiris
and husband of Hathor. He is represented as a falcon-headed figure whose eyes are the sun and moon.
He is the god of truth, war, victory, and justice.
The double temple has two separate entrances, two different interior courts, two colonnades, two
columned halls and two sanctuaries. On the walls of the temples can be found carvings of early medical instruments such as scalpels, curettes, forceps, dilators, scissors, and medicine bottles. There is
also a carving of “our” Cleopatra VII on one of the columns.
Another significant feature of this temple is the presence of a beautifully preserved “nilometer.” This
structure is like a huge open well into which poured the waters of the Nile inundation. Steps carried the
taxmen down into the well to ascertain the height that the waters reached. Upon this finding was calculated the amount of taxes which farmers should be charged. If the waters rose high and provided good
silting, taxes would be higher because it was presumed that the crops would be good. If the waters
were low, taxes were lower as well.
Another interesting feature of this site is little museum next to the temple which contains the mummies
of some 300 crocodiles found during excavation of the temple complex. Some mummies were on display. The cache of mummies suggests how greatly revered the crocodile was in this section of the Nile.
This temple was started by Ptolemy VI and added to significantly by Ptolemy XIII, who was Cleopatra
VII's grandfather. It seems pretty clear that the carving of Cleopatra in the temple must have been
added when she became Pharaoh.
The temple and its decorations show the effects of vandalism conducted by early Christians who used
the premises for their own religious purposes. Some of the carvings are defaced and the roof of one
room shows soot stains suggesting that they tried to burn some of the iconography and paintings away.
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The third temple from this era we were privileged to visit was The Temple at Edfu. This site is the
second largest complex in Egypt after Karnak and one of the best preserved of all such sites. It is ded icated to Horus and was built between 237 and 57 BC. The strange and seemingly contradictory
explanation for its excellent preservation resides in the fact that it was buried under 39 feet of sand and
silt for centuries until it was excavated in 1860 by French archeologists. This “burial” preserved not
only the structure and carvings and statuary but also the brilliant colors of paint used on columns and
carvings. Architectural detail is clean and elegant and the carvings seem to be as deeply etched as they
were originally.
The “burial” of the temple also protected the temple from the depredations of the Christians and
Muslims who came in later centuries. No one even knew there was a temple here until 1798 when the
top was seen in the sand. But no excavation occurred until 62 years later.
One of my favorites sights at this temple were the many intact statues of Horus. Statues almost as tall
as I am were scattered around the complex and they were wonderfully evocative of the reverence in
which the Egyptians held this powerful and very early god. In the sanctuary of the temple, the French
archeologists found a larger statue of Horus, but they carted it off to France where it now stands in the
Louvre.
We visited the little agricultural town of Esna at night and toured the market area before reaching the 4 th
of the Ptolemaic temples we saw. The Temple at Esna is only partially excavated and it stands in its
“digs” almost 30 ft. below modern ground level. It is dedicated to a god, Khnum, who had gone out of
favor through the centuries but was “resurrected” in importance by the Ptolemies. Though he had
earlier been revered as the god of the source of the Nile, the Ptolemies believed him to be a creator god
responsible for shaping the human body and the bodies of animals as well as the conformation of the
other gods. Since we were not allowed to go down into the pit and because it was dark and there was
no direct lighting on the temple, we did not see much detail in this structure. We could see only the
partially columned half wall at the front of the structure in very dim light. The columns seemed to
start at the top of the wall and extend up to an intact ceiling for the rest of the structure. The tops of the
columns appeared to be done in the usual styles with papyrus leaves and other flowers.
Part V: A-historical Activities
Though the main focus of any visit to Egypt must be the antiquities and an attempt to learn something
of the oldest civilization in the world, there is modern Egypt to consider as well. And we had many
activities that helped us enjoy the here and now.
OAT (Overseas Adventure Travels) plans other kinds of “discoveries” that take the visitor into modern markets, a papyrus factory, a Foundation supported elementary school and women's sewing center,
a working farm along the Nile, and a Nubian family home-hosted meal in Aswan. We visited several
important sites such as the place of Anwar Sadat's assassination and the memorial to him and the
unknown soldier right across the street.
We rode different kinds of transport including a hot air balloon, a traditional Nile boat ride on a felucca,
and camels. We were even treated to a boat “safari” ride along the Nile in Aswan where we saw the
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amazing bird-life that populates the are. During this exploration we saw water buffaloes cooling off in
the Nile and marveled at the natural beauty the river supports.
We consumed Egyptian food in local restaurants, in hotels, and even in a picnic setting on a Nile
island. The four of us even had Indian Cuisine at the famous Moghul Restaurant at the Oberoi Hotel
across from the Giza pyramids.
We toured the botanic gardens on Kitchener Island near Aswan and tried to relax away from the
intense sunshine in this rare shady spot along the Nile. We relished our four days on a Nile riverboat
cruise aboard the friendly, comfortable, air-conditioned, and thoroughly delightful “Royal Rhapsody.”
The modern engineering feats comprised of the British-built Low Aswan Dam completed in 1906 and
the Russian-Egyptian project which produced the High Aswan Dam in the 1960s were highlights of our
visit in the city of Aswan.
Some Particulars: A few of these experiences deserve some special mention because of their impact
on the four of us during this moving visit to Egypt.
St. Simeon's Monastery: No doubt that our most fraught episode was the visit to St. Simeon's Monastery, following an eventful camel ride starting at a staging area about 150 ft. from the Nile. The walk
up to the camels was more accurately described as a “slog” since the terrain was quite steep and composed of loose sand which produced a forward motion consisting of two steps up and one slide back.
The heat didn't help either; our guide had told us it was 112 degrees when we were taken off the ship
and loaded onto the boat that would take us to the other side of the Nile and would be getting hotter. It
probably took about 10-15 minutes to reach the camels with lots of huffing and puffing going on.
We all made the “grade” and were helped onto the camels in various ways—some were picked up bod ily and placed atop the camels like heavy sacks, others were helpfully boosted up, and taller folks were
able to get astride with little or no help. Egyptian saddles were not particularly uncomfortable and
there was an large saddle horn to help keep balance while the camel moved along in its rolling side to
side fashion. The ride to the monastery entrance took about 20 minutes after we were all “aboard.”
Upon arriving at the gateway into the monastery, the four of us became aware that Kathy was not doing
well. She was extremely short of breath, sweating heavily, and quite anxious. Up until now we had not
been overly concerned that she had been sick with what appeared to be tourist's diarrhea and had been
unable to eat or drink regularly. But now it was clear that she was severely dehydrated and had not tolerated the walk in the sand at all well. We were all fearful that she might be having symptoms of more
serious problems, perhaps even heart-related. She got off the camel and went just inside the monastery
precincts and Kay sat her down, poured water all over her, fanned her, and made her drink as much as
she could get down. It took quite a length of time (the whole span of our tour of the monastery) before
she felt any better at all. So Kay decided that she and Kathy would not continue the camel ride to the
Nubian Village for hibiscus tea. That ride was another 45 minutes into the desert with no shade at all,
just blinding sunshine and incandescent heat from the sun and the reflection off the sand. They would
wait back at the boat so that she could watch Kathy and make sure she continued to drink copiously.
St. Simeon's Monastery was fascinating to John and I but we certainly did not have our minds focused
totally on the tour. Nor did Hany as he explained the facts about the monastery to everyone. We were
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all wondering how Kathy was faring and Hany kept taking breaks so he could go and check up on her,
for which we were grateful. Every time we came to a place with a window or a door or a low wall, we
would peer into the terraced where she and Kay were sitting to see for ourselves what was going on.
But a word about the monastery is called for—since everything turned out all right in the end. This
large monastery is about 4000 ft. from the Nile on a cliff which allowed it to be constructed as two nat ural terraces, an upper and a lower. The present name for the complex was assigned by archeologists
and tourists. Its real name was Anba Hatre after an anchorite (hermit monk) who later rose to become
an archbishop, presumably abandoning his cloistered existence. The complex dates from the 6 th century AD but much more construction went on in the 11th century.
At its busiest, there were 1000 monks residing here. The complex includes dormitories with cells containing 6 stone beds each, a church, kitchen and refectory, winery, latrines, a residential tower, kilns for
making bricks and pottery, a cemetery with many tombstones, and watch towers on a thin wall which
encompasses the whole. The wall probably stood about 33 ft. high but is now reduced to 20 ft. due to
erosion of the mud bricks which constituted the top portion of the wall supported by rough stones on
the bottom.
The monks were pretty much self-sufficient in their desert home even though no well or other water
source has been discovered in the complex. The weather at the time was such that the monks even
grew their own grapes in a vineyard above the Nile. Obviously they were able to grow vegetables and
grains and practice animal husbandry. Their only danger in the early centuries was raiding parties by
Bedouin tribesmen. However, by the 12 th century, larger raids were practiced by Arabs moving in and
invading Nubia to the south for its treasures. The “coup de grace” was apparently delivered by Saladin
and his men who attacked the monastery in 1173 AD After that devastating raid, the monastery was
abandoned. Some archeologists have conjectured that the disappearance of their water supply may
have been just as salient in the monk's decision to leave the monastery for good.
After the tour of the monastery, Kathy and Kay boarded camels to go back to the boat and John and I
got back on the critters to make the long ride across the desert to a Nubian village. Kathy was better by
then so we felt okay about going on ahead. The ride was not as tiring or painful as we might have imagined beforehand because the saddles seemed stable and the horn provided a sense of security as far as
balance was concerned. The desert we crossed was not beautiful at all—just all one color, a faded out
tannish hue. But the ride did give us a small sense of the isolation of the desert and the difficulty in
establishing and maintaining a route across the featureless land. Naturally, our route was clear and we
were with cameleers who were leading us to the village.
The village was very blue—many buildings painted with shades of blue including the home we visited
for our hibiscus tea. This home had several rooms and all were painted with decorations of various
kinds, bright and colorful and happy in character. The tea is the ubiquitous drink presented to visitors
at hotels, restaurants and even here in the desert. It is made of brewed hibiscus flowers and is surprisingly refreshing even though it is served hot! We really appreciated it after the oven-like ride we had
just finished.
We walked through the village down to the Nile where the boat with Kathy and Kay met us after their
ride along the waterfront. We passed children playing in a natural pool of water and saw that the
people are very generous in providing containers of drinking water a regular intervals along with roads
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of the village. The people had small shops catering to tourists with trinkets of all kinds. One lady was
holding a live baby crocodile for folks to see, touch and make pictures with. Ashamed of myself, I still
succumbed and held the startlingly strong reptile for a picture. He was only about 1 foot in length so
there was nothing scary about the experience though he did have many sharp teeth.
John & I enjoyed our experience but it was bettered by the fact that when we saw Kathy and Kay in the
boat to take us back to our Nile riverboat, we could see she was much improved!
Dinner at the Moghul: Dining at this famous restaurant was practically an order given to us by Kathy's
former boss and friend, M. Narang, an expert on the cuisine of his native country as it is prepared
around the world. Since all four of us love Indian cooking, we were more than happy to comply. We
had a free night in Cairo during our short stay in the capital city, so we asked our guide Hany to help us
arrange an outing to the Oberoi Hotel which houses the Moghul.
This 5 star hotel stands across a wide avenue and some stretch of desert from the Pyramids of Giza, so
one couldn't ask for a more iconic setting for a dining experience. However, it is a little odd that the
cuisine for the evening will be Indian. Maybe not so strange when we consider that the Oberoi is an
Indian-owned hotel chain. At any rate, the background can not be improved upon, but the interior of
the restaurant is pretty special too. Spacious, with lots of room between tables, accented with Indian
architectural accents and art, deeply carpeted, provided with comfortable chairs, and impeccable service. And perhaps most gratifying of all, the prices were not outrageous, not even very pricey.
It was good that this evening predated Kathy's bout with “Pharaoh's curse” so she was able to enjoy the
food as much as we did. The food is Northern Indian but quite familiar to us since we eat this food as
often as we have the chance. Everything was tasty and wonderfully prepared from the samosa appetizers to the gulab jaman dessert. Mr. Narang was right—it was a real treat in every way. What a way
to start our exciting visit to Egypt!
The Aswan Dams
The Aswan Low Dam was constructed during the British colonial period and at the time it was the
most ambitious such project in the world. The British started the dam in 1899 and it was completed in
1902, and then was twice raised when the heights proved inadequate for the job of controlling the
annual Nile flooding. The most ingenious and positive facet of this dam is the fact that it was built
with gates which allowed the nutrient-rich silt and soil to pass through the dam providing the annual
enrichment of the floodplain all the way to the Delta.
At present, this dam serves several purposes but it does not hold back the Nile. The roadway across
the Nile runs across the top to connect the two sides of the city of Aswan. It also has two electric tur bines which provide some power for the city. And it does catch some waters of the Nile from the
annual flooding though it does not store those waters.
This dam is a gravity masonry buttress style of construction and it is 6398 ft in length and 118 feet at
the crest above the riverbed. There is a small park at the site to exhibit its building and importance to
the city and the country. It also provides excellent views of the first cataract and Aswan on both sides
of the river.
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The Aswan High Dam was planned in 1954 before Egypt became independent of Britain. Due to cold
war politics the USA and Britain pulled out of the project because of differences with Nasser who had
assumed leadership in Egypt when Nasser abrogated the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty and became fully independent. Through various machinations, Russia stepped in and pledged $1,200,000,000 (US dollars) to
fund the project. The dam was built between l960 and l970.
Economic development by further controlling the flow of the Nile and increased agricultural production through irrigation projects facilitated by the reservoir created by the dam were the chief reasons
for its construction. Both of those goals have been realized. Our Nile riverboat cruise was a gift of the
Aswan High Dam.
There were both anticipated and unanticipated consequences resulting from the building of this great
dam. Changes in the water-flow with nutrient deposition at the delta was acknowledged as a probable
outcome and it has produced lessened cotton harvests and alterations in the Mediterranean itself due to
lighter soil loads. Because none of the Nile floodplain north of the dam receives the refreshment of the
annual flooding, more and more chemical fertilizers are necessary to keep crop production up. This
cause pollution of the Mediterranean Sea as well with unknown alterations in the sea life there. This
affects fishermen everywhere on the North African coast.
Coastal erosion was also seen as a possibility since there is so much less soil redeposition going on
now, but the scientific studies on that problem are not yet completed since much more data is needed
over a longer period of time. Salinization of the soil along the Nile was also recognized as a possible
problem but no comprehensive solution has yet been devised.
Of course, one of the most terrible consequences of the dam was the enormous removal of the Nubian
people from their traditional homelands. Between 100,000 and 120,000 Nubians were relocated. These
people were given already built homes, hospitals, schools and towns to lessen the blow to their lives
and cultures. Because Nubians in the south had always lived among Egyptians the dislocations were
not fraught with assimilation problems. However, about 50,000 Nubians were relocated into the Sudan
where they had never been a significant part of the population. Though villages with all the amenities
were also provided for these people, the assimilation problems continue to this day. These folks are
some of those living the nightmare of the civil war and genocide in southern Sudan. They certainly
would not count the Aswan High Dam as a major success.
Another dreadful problem posed by the dam and its reservoir, Lake Nasser, was the complete submersion of so many of the treasured antiquities built along the edges of the Nile where the reservoir would
fill. Many temples and monuments were destined to be lost forever. Some, like Philae Island, were
rescued by UNESCO and others were saved by allowing foreign governments to participate in the relocation projects and then receive a small temple or monument as payment for their efforts. Our help in
this project resulted in our receiving the Temple of Dendar for the Metropolitan Museum in NYC.
Some of the unanticipated problems include an increase in the snail population which carries a devastating disease call bilharzia. The irrigation canals harbor these snails where before the annual flooding
prevented such standing waters and allowed no accumulation of the snails. Another such problem was
the overgrowth of algae and water weeds in the river and the side channels. Solutions to these problems have been found and now the incidence of bilharzia has been reduced from 40% after the first
years of dam operations down to 2% today.
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Specifications for this mighty dam are impressive: the bulwark is 12,566 ft. long and 3215 ft. wide at
its base with 131 ft. width at the crest and 364 ft. high. Lake Nasser is 342 miles long and 22 miles
wide Wide at its fullest. point. The surface area is 2027 square miles. It is estimated that at the
present rate of silting in Lake Nasser, the reservoir will continue function another 300-500 years.
There is a wonderful modern monument to the Russian-Egyptian cooperative project to construct
the Aswan High Dam. It is shaped as an elongated lotus flower and contains carvings in Cyrillic letter
and Arabic describing the friendship of the two countries. There is a coat of arms on the left of Russia
and one for Egypt on the right side of the pictures. Because Nasser died before the dam could be
opened, not only is his face present on the walls along with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, so is
Anwar Sadat's, President when the dam was officially opened.
The River Nile from a Hot Air Balloon: This topic sounds like a strange transition from the discussion of the dams at Aswan, but actually it is not. Our early morning balloon ride from a base in Luxor
revealed to us dramatically the absolute necessity of the Nile River to Egypt. Though we had read and
received information about this dependence, seeing the Nile from air about 1000 ft. up was a revelation. The dryness of the Egyptian desert is legend and I have already described our reactions to it. But
the slender green band on both sides of the Nile is a miracle. Life in all its forms extends about 5 miles
on either side of that tiny string of water. It looks so small from the air and the green space so vulner able. It is true that you can view this scene from an airplane too, but then you are so high up you lose
all perspective. From 600 to 1000 ft. up is very different. The tenuousness of all life in Egypt is quite
clear from the balloon basket.
More Personal Encounters: Our meals and teas shared with Egyptians in their own homes were certainly intriguing chances to meet and hear from citizens in an informal setting where they were comfortable. We are grateful for all the opportunities we were given. Our encounters with the school children at the OAT sponsored elementary school was stimulating and it made us all glad that OAT shares
some of our trip price monies with projects that benefit the local people where we are tourists. The
children in the school were like schoolkids everywhere, filled with innocence, eagerness, mischief and
humor. The influence of our own culture on these remote school children was evident in one little fellow's Spiderman mask and gestures.
The ladies at the new opened Women's Center also sponsored by OAT were shy but pleased to sell our
group some of their sewing craft items. Not only are the women being taught to create items for tour ists, but their children are given the opportunity for schooling and childcare services.
The young farm owner who welcomed us into his ancestral home and demonstrated some of the old
ways of working a farm along the Nile was charming and generous with his experience. He introduced
us to his mother and his wife and one of his children. The ladies demonstrated bread making and
showed us how the flour is ground with an old stone hand-turned “mill.” We saw how he created furniture from bamboo, tables, chairs, bed frames. He proudly explained a mural at the entrance to his
home showing a large black square (the Kaaba in Mecca), a boat, and a plane. He explained that this
was the documentation of his and his mother's pilgrimage to Mecca together.
The Nubian family in Aswan welcomed us into their city apartment and told us about their lives as educated citizens who work in offices and schools. Their lifestyle was not far removed from our own.
Their evening meal offered to our group was delicious and clearly labor-intensive. The lady of the
37
house had worked all day preparing all the different dishes for our enjoyment. Conversation with this
family was facilitated by the young men who could speak English well. The hostess was not fluent in
English but her sons could translate our compliments and gratitude to her.
Another person to person encounter we enjoyed was one step removed from face to face. We visited
Howard Carter's home near the entrance to the Valley of the Kings where he did so much of his archeology and made the astounding discovery of King Tut's tomb! Of course, Mr. Carter died in l939 so we
did not actually meet him. But his house has been preserved as a historical site and it is maintained as
it was when he worked there. It is a fairly modest house in a garden setting with trees and shrubs and
even some grass. What a surprise in the middle of the desert! The house is furnished with the same
accessories as when Carter lived there during “digging” season.
Personal items sit around the rooms, like his typewriter, his glasses, clothing and books he kept. But
what makes the visitor feel as if he is “meeting” Carter is the presence of his diaries, open and readable.
He kept very careful notes of his archeological findings and work but interspersed the technical notes
with his feelings, his doubts, and his hopes in his work. His delight when something wonderful is discovered and his disappointment when his plans do not produce what he thought might be found. His
frustrations and his correspondence with Lord Carnarvon, his sponsor, are also there to see. We all
wished we could linger longer in his home so that we read more of these journals. After all his years of
work, the sheer joy and fulfillment of finding Tut's tomb, the only one to that day that had never been
pillaged by grave robbers, can be read in his own handwriting. A meeting with a fascinating person in
a very interesting way—a visit to his home and a peek into his journals!
Anwar Sadat's Death and Memorial: In the USA, we have a very positive impression of Mubarak's
predecessor as President, Anwar Sadat. He was the reasonable Arab who made peace with Israel and
kept that treaty alive. He worked with US presidents and other world leaders to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. And he was assassinated by his own people for his efforts. We mourned his death
in our own country and it was very sad to see the reviewing stand where he was gunned down purportedly by members of the Muslim Brotherhood who despised his treaty with Israel. The date of his
death is October 6, 1981. It is a sad fact that peace between Israel and the Palestinians is no closer
today than it was on the day he perished.
There is a graceful memorial building holding the tombs of Egypt's Unknown Soldier and Anwar
Sadat was buried near that structure across the highway from the huge reviewing stand where he was
shot. The joint memorial is triangular in shape, like a hollow pyramid, long the tomb shape of Egypt's
leaders. What surprised us was the appearance and behavior of the guards at this memorial. They were
sloppily dressed and their hair was unkempt. They were casually lounging around like soldiers on
leave. We thought of the pride and sacrifice of the military men in our armed services who volunteer
for duty guarding the United States Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Their rigorous training for the
duty, their spit & polish appearance, their sacrifice of things other soldiers take for granted—like drinking, smoking, swearing. The Egyptian soldiers we saw that day seemed to take their duty very differently – what a shame.
Our Guide
When we travel to foreign countries and have a guide who is a native, that person is definitely our most
important link with the country. What we learn, how we interpret what we see and experience, the
impression we take away with us of the citizens of that country are most most often formed by our
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interactions with the guide. We were very fortunate in our OAT guide, Hany, a 33 year old University
of Cairo graduate in Egyptology. He has been guiding for several years and still retains his enthusiasm
for teaching others about his country's long, intricate, and grand history.
His command of English was excellent to the point that he understood sarcasm, could joke and take
kidding in English, and he expressed himself easily and fluently in English. He made our trip the fine,
enjoyable experience that it was. He was very competent at solving problems, making things happen,
and even in getting us out of Egypt early because of Kathy's continuing debilitation; and he made it all
look easy. He was personable and kind and attentive even when he himself was ailing. A great guide
and good ambassador for his country.
One thing that he expressed to us often was a foreshadowing of what has happened in Egypt since we
left: the huge divide between the 10% rich citizens and the 90% who struggle to survive, the thoroughgoing corruption in the government at all levels, the total lack of opportunity to succeed and get
ahead in employment and careers, the breakdown of public services, the unpunished aggression of the
police, the perverted justice system, the systematic loss of farmland to speculators in housing construction which makes Egypt more and more dependent on importation of foodstuffs, the failing school system for anyone except the children of the rich.
CONCLUSION
As though he were a visionary, Hany practically predicted what happened on January 25, 2011, just 3
months after we left Egypt. Representatives of the 90% of the people rose up and demanded to be
heard. They took to the streets in their thousands to protest the conditions of their lives, the corruption
of the Mubarak government and his presiding over the decline of Egypt during the 32 years of his presidency. Their demonstration has lasted 12 days as of the day I am writing this journal—they have
stayed in Tahrir (Liberation) Square continuously calling for Mubarak to leave his position.
Some things have actually been accomplished since Mubarak has appointed a Vice-President for the
first time in his tenure, he fired his cabinet, and he pledged not to seek re-election in September. His
son and wife are in London to escape the possible violence but he clings to his power. He has already
sequestered a fortune away from Egypt so he could live like a king, Pharaoh, or president anywhere
that would accept him, but he refuses to give up. No one knows how long the peaceful protests (punc tuated by thuggish behavior carried out by plainclothes policemen and pro-Mubarak supporters) can
last or how long the demonstrators can hold out.
It appears as of today that Mubarak is going to try to wait them out and win through their exhaustion.
Several people have died and many hundreds have been injured. There have been calls for his resignation from leaders around the world but Mubarak is still adamant that he is serving out his term. He
states that if he leaves early “chaos will come again.”
And still the people wait for his departure and hope for reform!
Our visit to Egypt was wonderful despite the torrid and unusual heat wave, despite Kathy's illness, and
despite our growing awareness of the sad condition of the Egyptian people and their country. Now we
watch the unfolding of events with eyes much wider open than they would have been without our visit.
Now we worry over the fate of the many people we interacted with albeit superficially: Hany in particular, but also all the crew of the Royal Rhapsody, our home on the Nile, all the workers in the hotels
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and restaurants we used during our stay, our drivers and the many tourist police who tried to make our
visit a safe and uneventful one. We worry about the vendors in the many markets and shops we visited,
about the boatmen who transported us back and forth across the Nile to our activities, even the balloon
crew who gave us such a wonderful perspective on the desert and the living waters of the Nile contrasted with the ancient monuments of Pharaohs from so long ago.
And yet, our studies of ancient Egypt taught us that this has always been the way of Egyptian life—all
powerful Pharaohs and their noblemen vassals and advisers and then the rest of the people, the great
majority of human beings in the country. There is no tradition of democracy or equal opportunity for all
or even justice under the law in Egypt. Can these desperate and proud protesters really turn the page of
thousands of years of history and create something better and fairer for all the people in Egypt?
We loved seeing all the marvelous legacies of the ancient Egyptian rulers, the pyramids, the temples,
the tombs and learning something of their way of life and their beliefs. But now we are hoping to see
change for Egypt—a new story of democracy, religious freedom and tolerance, economic stability, and
the freedom to pursue personal happiness for all Egyptians—not just “Pharaohs” and their minions.
Stayed tuned.
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