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Traveling Egypt, 2002By Mary Ashcraft and Rod Lopez-Fabrega
Chiseled and painted on the walls of the ancient temples and tombs of Egypt are stories of the sun god Horus with the head of a falcon, of Nekhbet, the vulture goddess whose protective wings keep the Pharaohs safe from harm, Anubis, the jackal-headed god who watches over the underworld and Bes, a dwarf god who finds song, music and dance the perfect way to banish the destructive forces around us. There are reliefs of Isis and Osiris offering personal salvation, Hathor, the goddess of love and beauty and the god Shu who separates the sky from the earth, to name only a few. Then, of course, there was the ultimate god Amun-Ra and his representative on earth, the reigning Pharaoh. All of this has attracted tourism since the time of the ancient Greeks. It is all still there and attracting droves of European tourists. Prices are down, and as Egypt’s most important source of income, extraordinary care is being taken by the Egyptian government to safeguard tourism. Americans are needlessly denying themselves the amazing sights of the world’s oldest civilization. Cairo
Ninety percent of Cairenes are Muslim, so modesty (covered arms and legs) is the by-word here especially when visiting the Mohammed Ali Alabaster Mosque on the Citadel. The wonderful Coptic “hanging church” or the Ben Ezra Synagogue does not have so strict a code as the Mosques, but modesty is a sign of respect here also.
The Egyptian Museum, built in 1902 will inspire a feeling of deja vu to Indiana Jones fans. This fusty old building is crammed to the rafters with the most amazing treasures. It is rumored that there are so many unlisted treasures piled high in its basement that one day it will have to be excavated in order to find anything. Hurried tours push visitors through in an hour or two to see what some say it would take years to see. If, however, time is short, a visit is a must to the fabulous though small exhibit taken from the tomb of the most famous boy-king in history, Tutankhamun. It also is worth the special admission price of 80 Egyptian pounds (about $16) to view up close the amazingly well-preserved mummy of King Rameses II, one of history’s grandest rulers and, some say the pharaoh of the Exodus.
Cruising the Nile
Another reason tourists flock to Egypt is, of course, the Valley of the Kings where many of Egypt’s greatest pharaohs were buried in the seclusion of the desert hillsides. After death, the king’s ka or soul would still have to pass through 12 gates for the 12 hours of the night where snakes, crocodiles and other menacing creatures would hamper his way through the underworld to reach heaven. Countless spells and prayers cover the walls of all the tombs, all intended to help the king pass all the tests in his voyage through the underworld. In truth, the monsters turned out to be grave robbers who desecrated most of the tombs and took away all the treasures the pharaohs believed they needed in the afterlife. It is believed that the robbers were the very same craftsmen who built these remarkable tombs. All that remains in the five or six that can be visited are extraordinary paintings and bas-reliefs on the walls.
Aswan is a revelation. Known to most outsiders as just a place where Egypt, with the help of the old Soviet Union, constructed a controversial dam, the city Aswan turns out to be a delightful place. It is a slower paced, quieter city than Cairo with a traditional market place with goods ranging from spices, fly-specked meats sliced to the liking of black-clad Aswan housewives, vegetable stalls, small cafes, crocheted Nubian caps, colorful Galabiyas, pyramid-shaped trinkets, scarab beads and books. During the late 19th century and long before the construction of the High Dam, Aswan was a world-famed watering place for visiting tourists. Its cooler weather and attractive location made it a favorite destination of moneyed Europeans. To accommodate them in luxury, the Old Cataract Hotel was built. It is still there and is still luxurious.
Nearby, and in contrast to the Old Cataract Hotel, is the up-to-the-minute Basma Hotel, situated on the highest hill in the area. It has gardens lush with Mediterranean plants, a large swimming pool and all the five-star hotel amenities. The newly opened fresh-air restaurant affords a bird’s eye view of the city of Aswan and, of course, the Nile. Another interesting few hours are needed to visit the brand new (1997) Nubian Museum. It is a well-designed modern museum with 3,000 exhibits celebrating the history and culture of the Nubian people who live partly in Egypt and partly in the Sudan. The ancient Egyptians called the area Nbu, meaning “gold” because it contained so many gold mines—hence, the word Nubia. The gold from the mines was used in Egyptian ornamentation and tomb decorations to such an extent that Egypt became known as the Golden Empire. Exhibits celebrate the culture and civilization of the Nubian region from pre-historic times to the present. The centerpiece of the museum is a statue of Rameses II (1304-1237 BC) who was the builder of the great temple of Abu Simbel.
Getting thereThere are hundreds of in-country travel agencies in Egypt, but South Sinai Travel is Egypt’s largest in-country supplier of travel-related products. The company has six offices in Egypt, and its representative office in the U.S. is called Travel Egypt. This company will handle all the details, including international travel roundtrip on EgyptAir. Travel Egypt’s help is particularly useful in going through all the many safety and immigration procedures now necessary to travel inside the country. In addition, the company handles all transfers and in-country air links, first-class accommodations, and offers superior guides they say with justification are the best educated and professional to be found in the country. The guides are fluent in the language of your choice and good traveling companions, and their knowledge of Egypt’s amazing history can enhance a trip enormously. A Word About the Safety IssueAs this is written in the troubled spring of 2002, an interested American traveler might legitimately weigh the question: “Why go to Egypt now?” On the positive side of the scale, modern Egypt is caretaker to the Earth’s most ancient culture, already four-thousand-years-old when Imperial Rome reached its zenith. Egypt is a “friendly” Moslem country with massive economic and historic ties to the West and with a vast reservoir of admiration for the United States at the grassroots level. On the negative side, it has a restive and exploding population that is disappointed at the perceived impartiality of the American government in its handling of current geopolitical issues in the Middle East—a perception nurtured by daily doses of disaffected commentary from the Egyptian media, the Egyptian educational system, and the extremist element in the country. Adding heavily to the positive side of the scale is the determination of the Egyptian government to recover from the crippling blow to tourism it suffered after the isolated event involving European tourists at the Temple of Hatshepsut November 18, 1997. Tourism is Egypt’s most important industry, and the Egyptian government to this day takes truly extraordinary steps to protect tourists and areas frequented by tourism. This commitment is underscored by the discrete presence of armed guards at the entrance to every museum, every hotel, every tourism destination, on every tourism van or bus, and perhaps even more by the care taken with airline security—more than can be found almost anywhere else in the world and far more than in the average U.S. airport. Is all of this protection still needed? The strong impression is that it is not! Underscoring this conclusion are the basic warmth and genuine friendliness expressed by the Egyptian people to the individual visitor—and most particularly to the scarce American visitor. Some Helpful Links
Travel Egypt (U.S. Representative of South Sinai
Travel): Tour Egypt (Official Site of the Ministry of Tourism of
Egypt: PHOTO CREDITS: Mary Ashcraft, Rod Lopez-Fabrega - |
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Today,
Cairo, the capital of Egypt, is the logical place to begin the journey back
in time. It is a city with two faces. One very noticeable face is of a
modern, sophisticated city with a cluster of easily identified luxury hotels
and shops with logos of well-known designers. On the sands of the Giza
Plateau, the majestic Sphinx gazes across the road into the eyes of KFC’s
Colonel Sanders, and car traffic would strike fear into the heart of the
fearless. In the evening, the heat of the day disappears with the cooling
breezes from the desert and Cairenes take to the streets to enjoy their
city. Families stroll together while pop music, eastern and western, ring
out from a distance. Restaurant boats outlined with neon lights ply the Nile
and smaller Feluccas, the traditional sailboat of the Nile, are
filled with revelers singing and dancing to the loudest decibel possible
until the wee hours. Discos normally open around 2:00 a.m., and it might be
fair to say that some people never sleep. 
The other Cairo
continues to function as it has for centuries. The Khan El Khalili is the
oldest marketplace or souk in the Middle East with its narrow, twisting
alleyways, cloth-draped ceilings to filter the sun, and the aroma of incense
floating in the air. Shops are filled with a myriad of goods from
utilitarian metal cooking pots, colorful Galabiya gowns, good copies of
archaeological finds, beaded jewelry, Egyptian perfume flasks, incense
sticks, local candies and trinkets of all kinds. Bargaining for purchases is
an old, well-practiced and required game to be played here. It requires
endurance and the ability to bargain down to the brink of a “no deal,” until
it is time to walk away and let the seller come running with a “final
offer.” At this point the exhausted shopper can take a little time out in
one of the many coffee shops for tea, coffee, the very good local Stellar
Lager beer, or even to take a few cherry-flavored puffs from a Shisha water
pipe (a.k.a. Narghila, Hookah, Hubbly Bubbly) and enjoy the time-worn custom
of people-watching while you relax.
Very much a part
of old Cairo are the Alabaster Mosque at the Citadel, the Coptic Hanging
Church, Coptic Museum and Ben Ezra Synagogue. Since the end of the twelfth
century, the Citadel was the seat of all the rulers of Egypt. The religious
fortress, situated on a dominant hilltop overlooking all of Cairo, was built
in 1176 by famed Salah al-Din Yussuf Ibn Ayyub, Muslim sultan of Egypt,
Syria, Yemen and Palestine, and better known to European Crusaders as their
fierce foe, Saladin. Resonating with today’s political climate, it is
interesting to note that, as the Britannica buts it, “Salah al-Din’s every
act was inspired by an intense and unwavering devotion to the idea of
jihad, the equivalent of the Christian Crusade.” Today, his fortress is
more of a museum that is dominated by the splendid Mosque of Mohammed Ali
with its dramatic minarets and alabaster skin. Possibly the best view of all
of Cairo can be appreciated from its terraces, with the modern city spread
out below and extending to the horizon.
El
Muallaqa, the Hanging Coptic Church is an eye-opening introduction to
Christian Cairo. With its origins in the fourth century AD, it is the seat
of the Christian minority in Egypt and, though not the original structure,
it is nevertheless extremely well preserved. Most interestingly, it is an
exclamation point in history. The predominant religion in ancient Egypt went
from millennia of worship of its many gods to centuries under Roman
influence and Roman gods. At the end of that period, when Roman Emperor
Constantine decreed Christianity as the official religion of the Roman
Empire, Egypt followed suit. It was not until Saladin pushed the Crusaders
out of the Middle East that Egypt became a predominantly Moslem state. So,
it is instructive to note that Egypt was Christian before it turned to
Islam.
Ben Ezra
Synagogue, hidden in the alleyways of old Cairo, is another interesting
stop. The oldest synagogue in Egypt, it dates back to the end of the ninth
century AD and was restored in the twelfth century by the Rabbi of
Jerusalem, Abraham Ben Ezra. Coptic tradition has it that a well outside the
synagogue marks the spot where pharaoh’s daughter plucked the baby Moses
from the reeds and much later in time that the apostles Peter and Mark
preached here. 
Not
far from the museum is a café with its own interesting history. It was
probably built at the turn of the 19th century, and since then,
it has played a leading role in Egypt’s politics and literature and
performing arts. If overthrowing the government was being planned, the
latest poetry was being read, philosophy was being debated or the hottest
soprano was singing, you can bet that it was happening in the Café Riche.
Step back into its Bohemian past and look at the gallery of forty
photographs of Egypt’s most talented artists hanging in the dining room,
which has been kept true to its original character--chairs, tables, etc.
Even the menu hasn’t changed since 1914, and best of all, the food is
excellent. 
Within
an easy drive of Cairo, modern civilization ends abruptly on the endless
expanse of desert at the Necropolis of Sakkara where ancient history begins
and visitors receive their first real exposure to Egypt’s amazing stone
monuments. Here in the 3,000-year-old funerary complex is the step pyramid
of King Djoser, the first great pyramid in the world to be built of hewn
stone. A few feet away from the Djoser complex are the two tombs of
noblemen Mereruka and Kagemni. Built as family mausoleums, the walls depict
the domestic scenes of the families and of their daily lives with fishing,
hunting, music and dancing scenes giving testament that ancient Egyptians
loved life and were not totally focused on the afterlife. On the Giza
plateau are the only two remainders of the Seven Wonders of the World, the
Great Pyramid (430 feet high and with 2.3 million blocks averaging 2/12 tons
each) built by King Khufu and close by, the remote, enigmatic beauty that is
the Sphinx. 
Of
additional interest is a small modern museum on the premises that contains
one of two dismantled ritual boats that were discovered in pits at the side
of the Great Pyramid in 1954. A ritual solar boat was buried near the
Pharaoh’s tomb in order to take him on his sacred celestial journey to
accompany the sun god Ra on his daily journey across the sky. One of these
vessels has been painstakingly reconstructed in the ancient way, literally
wrapped and held together with fiber ropes. The second solar boat has been
left in its pit, unexcavated for safe-keeping.
The once
thriving capitol of the Old Kingdom, Memphis, is now only a rustic village
with dirt streets, but its garden/museum has a colossal statue of Rameses II
whose twin stands in the Midan Rameses in Cairo in the midst of those
churning cars. The Memphis statue, a finely sculpted, enormous stone
likeness of the great pharaoh lies on the ground where it fell. It has been
covered by an air-conditioned exhibition structure to preserve it from
further deterioration.
Most
of the other magnificent sites that are highlights of a short visit to Egypt
lie gracefully along the banks of the Nile, so most tours continue as a
cruise on one of the more than 200 Nile passenger ships plying this great
waterway. Perhaps it is the brand new Mirage owned and
operated by South Sinai Travel. All of this company’s ships are five-star,
and every cabin has an outside Nile view, private bath, individually
controlled air conditioning, telephone and TV. All meals, transfers to and
from antiquity sites, entry fees, service charges, taxes and guide are
included. The company offers three categories of ships: Five-star standard,
five-star deluxe and five-star premier, progressively increasing in the
degree of formality and added amenities.
A
typical five-day cruise begins with an early morning internal flight on
EgyptAir from Cairo, heading south to Upper Egypt to Luxor, the ancient
Thebes and capital of old Egypt. Arrival in Luxor is around 6 pm and most
tours check into a local hotel for the night such as the Sheraton Luxor,
located beautifully right on the riverbank. The following morning, the
cruise ship is boarded and used as a floating hotel for another night while
buses carry visitors to the amazing and awesome temple complex of Luxor and
Karnak.
Then
there is one of the greatest discoveries in the history of archaeology: King
Tutankhamun’s tomb. His tomb was found almost completely intact in the early
1930’s by archaeologist Howard Carter. King Tut was a minor pharaoh, as
research has shown, and that fact is probably why his tomb lay undiscovered
by robbers for millennia. The entrance was buried thousands of years ago by
a mound of rubble from the excavations of the tomb of another and much
grander king. King Tut’s tomb is unique today in that it is the only one in
the Valley of Kings that still contains the actual mummified body of the
ruler. One of his elaborate mummy cases is on view in the tomb, with the
body of the boy king inside, though most of his treasures are in the Cairo
Museum. In the nearby Valley of Queens, in a natural amphitheater setting is
another amazing monument, the tomb of Queen Hatshepsut, the woman who would
be king. Ancient Egypt was a country that gave women almost equal
opportunity, and she was living proof. However, claiming that she was
descended from the god Amun-Ra didn’t hurt in making her case that she
deserved to be at the very top. Egyptian women today are not so fortunate.
Also in this area, are the twin Colossi of Memnon with their mysterious
whistling sounds and the funerary complex of Merenptah.
The actual
cruise of the Nile begins quietly with an early morning sailing and transit
through the locks at Esna where two cruise ships at a time are raised to a
higher level of the river, a necessary event brought on by the effects of
the Aswan High Dam. On the South Sinai Travel’s Mirage, stateroom
picture windows are large enough to provide a marvelous scene as the ship
works its way up this historic river. There are the peaceful scenes of palm
trees, small villages where children swim along the banks of the river and
men fish from the classic, graceful Feluccas. People involved in
their daily tasks wave as the ship passes, as their ancestors probably have
done to passing river traffic for millennia. Like all the ancient monuments,
the sunsets are also larger than life. Whether viewed from the top deck or
from a cabin window, watching the burning orange sun drop behind the hills
and into the quiet desert is part of the ongoing drama.
In Edfu the
Ptolomaic temple of Horus is the most completely preserved temple in Egypt.
In its great forecourt, looking very regal, is an outstanding granite-carved
Horus, the Sparrow Hawk god standing guard as supplicants progress to the
holy of holies chamber. Another Ptolemaic temple dedicated to Horus and also
to Sobek, the crocodile god is up the river in Kom Ombo. It is really two
identical temples split down the middle and acting as one. One side is
dedicated to Horus and the other side dedicated to Sobek. Live crocodiles
used to sun on the sandy bank in front of the temple, and the mummified
bodies of several of them may still be seen in a small shrine at the side of
the temple. 
One of the
interesting sites in Aswan is the famed stone quarry where monumental blocks
of granite were cut and loaded onto boats to sail down the Nile to be used
in the building of countless royal monuments. A giant unfinished obelisk
still lies half buried in the ground, abandoned in the distant past because
the gigantic stone developed a crack as it was being carved. Installed, it
would have weighed 1,100 tons. Contrary to the popular belief that the great
monuments were built by slaves, it has been established that they were built
by highly skilled, paid craftsmen. In fact, the skilled craftsmen formed a
small but significant middle class in Egyptian society. Many granite
obelisks made in this same quarry now enhance corners of New York, Paris
Istanbul and London, either given as thank you gifts by past Egyptian
governments or simply expropriated by Colonial powers in previous centuries,
Yet
another highlights of a visit to Egypt is the short trip by one of a
flotilla of rental river boats to visit the Island of Philae to see the
perfectly proportioned, small temple of Isis, the divine healer. This is one
of the priceless temples that was moved to higher ground to save it from the
rising waters when the new Aswan High Dam began to function. The new island
was literally re-configured to match the original site, now under the waters
of Lake Nasser. Even after Christianity was adopted throughout the Roman
Empire by Emperor Constantine, the old customs lingered on, and pilgrims
passed through the Roman gate on the Island of Philae to the temple of Isis
to ask for her help. To them, the goddess with ten thousand names was very
much a part of their lives. Even now with tourists milling about, there is
an unexplainable feeling of serenity in its isolation on the Nile.
During
the heat of the mid-day, it is time to have a cooling drink or a “spot of
tea” on the terrace of the venerable Old Cataract Hotel. One is easily
transported back to the turn of the 19th century to the time when
ladies and gentlemen in white linen dresses and suits traveled the world
with their large steamer trunks and much time on their hands. In those days,
the Old Cataract was the place to stay. Today, as then, from its
broad terraces, framed by views of slow moving Feluccas on the Nile, waiters
dressed in uniforms of the time of the Khedives serve discretely and Arab
musicians play softly in the background. This venerable hotel may look
familiar as it was immortalized in Agatha Christie’s novel “Death on the
Nile,” and the motion picture that followed was made here.
Much of the
success of a visit to Egypt depends on the quality of tour guides. A good
guide will be part Egyptologist, part problem-solver, part diplomat and
definitely a good communicator. A good guide will have brought Egypt’s
amazing history and monuments to life and will have the knowledge to recount
stories and read inscriptions from the hieroglyphics on the walls of temples
and tombs. These are not just stories of distant kings leading armies into
great battles or of gods exerting magic powers. They are stories of kings
and commoners who created a magnificent culture—perhaps the oldest in the
world with such a high level of sophistication—and of a people who not only
held beliefs in a complex afterlife but who enjoyed daily life to the hilt
along the banks of their fertile and beautiful river. The wonderful stories
bring the ancient Egyptians to life and make them more reachable, more
human. Long ago Herodotus, the Greek, said that Egypt was the gift of the
Nile. Little did he know then that Egypt would be the gift to the world. 
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