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Copyright © 2002 by Manfred P.. All rights reserved.

May 31 - Jun 9, 2002

Very Big, Very Old

In Convoy to Abu Simbel

by

Manfred P.

Keywords: Egypt, Nile, Cairo, Luxor, Karnak, Valley of the Kings, Aswan, Abu Simbel, tourist, travel trip report, travel log, travelogue.

Big, Bigger, Biggest, Old, Older, Oldest

"Very big, very old" is what the camel drivers say about the pyramids. A very accurate description. 140 meters high, 4,500 years old. But "very big, very old" does not only apply to the pyramids. Egypt has many extremes. Just 20 minutes outside of the center of Cairo is Giza with its famous pyramids. The city of Cairo reaches right up to 100 meters of the pyramids and with the pyramids the desert begins. For as far as the eye can see are sand dunes, rocks and everything colored in a beige sandy tone. Climbing the pyramids is now forbidden and the camel drivers are calmed down by the tourist police. So, it is a "milder" experience as a few years back. I entered the area through the desert near an adjoining Muslim cemetery. If you are close up the pyramids might not look as tall as they are. If you see them from 10 kilometers away you can appreciate their size better. Some 10 kilometers north on the highway connecting Cairo with Alexandria is a place called Pyramids Heights and as the name indicates it is a spot with an elevation of some 20 or 30 meters above the surrounding desert plain. From there the pyramids show their size with the modern size of Cairo and its smog in the background. The pyramids out-weigh, out-size any of the modern buildings that look like gnomes in comparison.

At the pyramids few business-hungry Egyptians approached us if we want to see a few off-the-beaten-path sites. My Greek travel companion of the day and I didn't hesitate. First they led us down into the tomb chamber of a smaller pyramid. This is pretty much what you can also see in the official tomb chambers open to the tourists deep below the Cheops Pyramid. The second site was a tomb clearly locked off but the "ingenious" salespeople have made a hole right next to the locked gate through the soft sandstone. This time the tunnel was so small that we had to slither like snakes on all four downhill into the tomb chamber. Here the sarcophagi were cut right into the floor. The number of sarcophagi was around 25 and the "guide" even took some bones out of one of them telling us that these are mummy bones. That part I didn't quite believe. Surely they were some cow bones placed there earlier to make a more memorable experience for the tourists.

But right next to the big pyramids are 100s of holes in the ground. Most were robbed millenniums ago and today in the holes and tunnels that we entered we only found trash, a rather unpleasant sight.

I also read about a fact unknown to me. The nose of the famous sphinx was hammered off on purpose between the 11th and 15th century under Arabic rule. I always thought it fell off on its own.

Coptic Cairo

Jesus, Mary and Joseph were supposedly here hiding from prosecution in the Holy Land. As you can imagine the places where they have been spending their time have been worshipped as early as the 3rd century and churches and chapels have been built on top of the caves where they have been.

The Nile

To speak of the Nile is to speak of Egypt; to speak of Egypt is to speak of the Nile. 99 percent of the country's population is living in the Nile valley. 95 percent of the population live in 5 percent of the country. The rest of the country is dry, desert and uninhabitable. "If you drink a sip of the Nile you will come back to the Nile shore one day". That's what the official tourist agency puts into its flyer! They say "Be daring, try it." Thank you, but I am not that daring.

The Nile is not only long, but also wide. Big stationary boats are docked along the shoreline in Cairo. These stationary boats act as restaurants, bars and center of night life. These boats must have been assembled right in their docking area because they are so big that they would not fit underneath the bridges.

Felucca (sailboat) trips up and down the Nile can be taken anywhere, even in the city of Cairo itself. The flow of the Nile River is slow and to my surprise in Cairo the Nile was flowing upstream. Maybe it was because of the wind or the effect of the high tide.

If boats are not your thing, you can also stroll along the shore walk on the Nile island.

Egyptian Museum

There is so much there. It is a place crammed to the top. It is overflowing. Even more than you can actually see -- which is an overload already -- is hidden away in the storage rooms of the Egyptian Museum. With 100,000 pieces it would take you 3.5 days if you look at every piece for just a single second. I spent about 0.1 second looking at every object on average and thereby managed to "finish" the fantastic museum in about 3 hours.

It is an overload. 100s of mummies, 100s of sarcophagi, 1000s of statues, etc. Soon you realize that after having seen 10 mummies then the second 10 mummies just don't mean so much, and any mummy thereafter just becomes "what, another boring mummy". There is so much there that it cannot be absorbed, so why aren't they selling some pieces of?

The best of the museum and for me the very best of my whole Egypt vacation was seeing the Tutankhamun tomb pieces. It is really incredible, literally breath-taking. Awe overcomes you as you see the 11 kilo (24 lbs) pure gold death mask. It is a piece of work that you will never forget. If you think that an 11 kilo gold mask is a lot, it gets even better: A 110-kilo (240-lbs) pure gold full-body cover. The artistry is magnificent, the historic value immeasurable. Tutankhamun, however, was a small, unimportant pharaoh. He died young and was only 9 years in power. Not much was written about him, he didn't lead any well know wars against the enemies, he didn't unify the country, he didn't do anything that has led the Egyptians to create temples for him. In comparison with much more potent pharaohs like Ramses II, Tutankhamun is insignificant in the 2,500 years of pharaoh history. Now can you imagine how the grave of these more powerful pharaohs must have looked like? Unfortunately Tutankhamun is the very only grave found undisturbed.

More on Cairo

There are lots of Arabic sights in Cairo, covering museums and mosques. They are beautiful but sometimes it is tough to get rid off the non-welcomed guides. The markets, souqs, of 1001 nights cannot compare with the bazaars in Fez. It is quite a touristy thing and above all they seem to sell goods and not make goods here. But the souqs remain the traditional shopping area for locals. You can find souqs specializing on anything, from car parts to perfumes.

Coffee shops can be found on every street. The sweet smell of tobacco soaked in apple juice is competing with the pollution of the street traffic. The tea is also to my liking: black tea with fresh peppermint leaves added and a spoonful of sugar makes a nice refreshing hot beverage with a set of complementing flavors.

Luxor

Luxor is a famous spot. Luxury cruises on the Nile come to mind as well as the well known luxury train ride from Cairo that caters to every whim of spoiled jet setters. Luxor is also the base for visits to the Valley of the Kings and Karnak which are both within just a few minutes from the center of Luxor.

I didn't come on the luxury train, but even second class is very comfortable. It has air conditioning, individual seats and lots of leg rooms. What else would you want? Luxor was the religious center of the ancient Egyptians through more than a millennium. The Luxor Temple is in the heart of the town. Most of it was built by the biggest builder of pharaoh times: Ramses II. By now I was starting to get used to the images: Ramses smashing the enemies, Ramses delivering offerings to the gods, Ramses hanging out with the gods and similar. Very big and very old.

Valley of the Kings

Across the river which can only be crossed by boat as there is no bridge is the Valley of the Kings. The pharaohs had learned from the pyramids that no matter how tricky the tunnels were the pyramids would tell the whole world were a treasure is hidden and attract robbers. Sometimes within just a few years after creation the pyramids were robbed. So the Egyptians changed their strategy. They built a temple so that people could visually see their power but placed the mummy in a secret different location. That secret remote location was the Valley of the Kings. It is some 10 km from the Nile, deep in a desert valley with steep rock walls. The area sprinkled with ruins and temples is large and impossible to cover on foot. I decided to rent a bicycle for the day to explore the area on bike. Other alternatives are donkey, camel or taxi, but in any of these three options you have the owner tag along with you. I prefer to be by myself and not have somebody do the same small talk "where you from, where go next, make photo here, etc." all day long.

I adjusted to the local tradition and got up way before 6 a.m. to use the cooler morning hours. At 6:30 a.m. I was already cycling along the paved road towards the Valley of the Kings. Dozens of sights are to the left and right. The large Memnon colossi sit here, stiff in stone, overlooking the valley. Ramses had built another large temple here, including storage rooms and the traditional relief walls.

62 different kings are buried in the Valley of the Kings. As you walk through the valley and its side valleys about every 50 meters there is a tomb entrance. All entrances are simple. There whole idea was that they are a secret. Only once inside a tomb the richness becomes obvious. Several tombs were known under Roman and Greek times 2000 years ago. Roman tourists came here to see what the Egyptians did 1,000 years before them and in some occasions left graffiti behind on the tomb walls. All tombs except for the one of Tutankhamun had been ransacked before. So, the only finds were painted walls, the actual mummies in linen and sometimes the sarcophagi. The rich tomb offerings (jewelry, death masks, statues, etc.) are all gone.

The tombs are usually carved some 100 meters into the mountain. These entry tunnels were sometimes leading over gaps to prevent robbers. At the end of the tunnel was the tomb chamber with the sarcophagi and the tomb gifts. In some cases instead of one tomb chamber, dozens of chambers have been dug out of the soft sand stone.

There are so many tombs that by accident on various occasions they cut into older tombs while cutting a new one. What unwanted surprise.

Outside the Valley of the Kings are a lot more tombs. There are dozens of tombs in the Valley of the Queens where the wives of the pharaohs were laid to rest. Between the two valleys are 100s more tombs of what is called the "Tombs of the Nobles" where priests, scribes and other people of the higher elite are buried. This area is actually covered by a village and sometimes the locals have discovered tombs right below the house that they live in. They might invite you to their home, then lead you into their cellar and show you a tomb thousands of years old.

Karnak

Karnak is another temple site just 2 km north of Luxor. While things in general are large in Egypt, here things are even larger. This is where the largest obelisk stands, this is where the largest hall is, and this is where the tallest columns are. It has not been built by a single pharaoh but by a series of pharaohs each one extending what the predecessors have done. It started somewhere around 1,500 BC and last final touches where done by Alexander the Great.

The Great Hypostyle Hall is the most impressive portion of the large complex. There are or were 134 columns supporting a massive roof. Some of the columns were more than 20 meters tall. To carry 6,000 square meters of stone roof the columns were built very sturdy. The columns are 3 meters wide and with 134 of them you feel like you are standing in a dense forest of stone trees. The 6,000 square meters look small with so much space occupied by columns.

Abu Simbel

Ramses II was the largest builder. His temples are in Luxor, Karnak, outside the Valley of the Kings, in Memphis and in many other places. He decided that this is not enough. He felt as people come down the Nile from Sudan into Egypt that they should be greeted by him, that they should be visually reminded that they are entering Ramses-country. He created another temple at Abu Simbel. Like in most of the temples the statues of him are a lot bigger than the statues of the gods.

He had himself cut into the rock cliffs. And what could be better than one 20-meter tall Ramses II statue? Four Ramses II statues. In the center of the 4 giant Ramses statues is a single statue of god Ra, a mere 5 meters tall. Standing next to the Ramses statues are his wife and some of his children (he had more than 50). Again their proportion brings out their importance. They are just 4 meters tall and reach barely to the knee cap of Ramses.

Behind the statues he also had temple halls chiseled into the mountain depicting him crushing his enemies and chopping their heads off. Further in, closer to the sanctuary are pictures showing him offering food to the gods. The gods inside are small again, maybe 3 or 4 meters tall.

Abu Simbel is not only famous for its historical value but equally famous for being rescued less than 4 decades ago from the rising waters of the Aswan High Dam. It was cut into pieces, transported to an area 100 meters higher and then piece-by-piece reassembled to its original state. Due to this modern day move, it stands again today at the shore of the lake formed by the dammed Nile River. Boats float by and are greeted by the eternal stare of Ramses II.

The sight has an amazing story. After the pharaohs disappeared so did the knowledge about some of their temples. Abu Simbel was forgotten until 1813 when an Englishman stumbled across it. The 20 meter statues were covered in sand. On one statue the head still stuck out, on a second the crown was still above the sand, the rest was all swallowed up by the sand.

History

Egypt is a lot more than just the Egyptian pharaohs. The pharaohs form only half of the historic mix that formed the country. After the Egyptians came the Greek. Alexander the Great was an official pharaoh, he was also considered son of the old Egyptian gods. He didn't spend much time in Egypt though; he just founded Alexandria and moved on to fight Persia. Greek became the official language and the hieroglyphs were phased out.

After the Greek came the Romans. Cleopatra married Cesar in search of a peaceful coexistence between the two empires. The Roman gods mixed with the ancient Egyptian gods and a few centuries AD Christians took over leaving their small mark behind. A few centuries later the Christians were removed from power by the Arabs and the Islam took over. It took a lot of time for the next change. The French finally took control with Napoleon himself visiting Egypt. Thereafter came the English and finally around 1950 the power went back to the Egyptians and the current Egyptian president is just the third president in the republic of Egypt.

The most obvious visual impact on the land however comes from only two powerhouses: The pharaohs and the Arabs.

Weather

One word describes Egypt's weather in June: Hot. 45 degrees (113F) is just the starting point. The sun is intense. The heat was wearing me out. I was exhausted from just a bit of sight seeing in this heat. At noontime it becomes strenuous work to do a casual stroll within a temple. The heat also reduces appetite to zero. I found myself forced to gulp down an entire large bottle of Coke as "liquid" food because I was unable to eat anything solid. Coke would provide me with the necessary sugar and calories to keep me from collapsing.

On Security

I do not know how many men work in the police or military force but it must be the largest employer of the country. After the president was killed 3 decades ago and the blame was put on militant Islamists it was a steady up and down in this violent struggle between government/dictatorship and religious extremists/terrorists. After killing locals the terrorists have learned that targeting tourists is a lot more effective. If you kill 10 Egyptians the world doesn't care, but if you kill 10 German tourists in Egypt the world listens. Tourism is the single largest source of business in Egypt. The government response was and is massive to protect its cash crop, the tourists.

As I get to the hotel on the first day I am greeted by a pickup truck full of blue-uniformed soldiers parked at the hotel entrance. To the left and right of the door stand 3 tourist police officers in white uniform. Each one carrying a machine gun, each one very friendly. Just beyond the hotel door is the hotel metal detector. Welcome to your average 3-star hotel.

On the first day I was impressed by the security of the hotel but on the next day I found out that it is not just my hotel, the whole city of Cairo is covered in a tight net of security forces. I would say on average every 100 meters there is an armed guard from either police force, military or tourist police. No matter where you are, on the subway, on the river bus, in the street you will be surrounded by friendly machine gun touting young officers. At or near tourist sights there are sometimes more police forces than actual tourists. They are always very cheerful. They try not to bother you, they nod at you with a smile if your views meet, and occasionally they might ask where you are from. If you approach them with a question they will be very helpful. In my case I asked a cop for directions to the nearest subway station. He didn't know so he instantly stopped the traffic at the intersection, asked the drivers that were forced to stop and then relayed the answer to us. That's what I call priority service.

Cities are usually sealed off on their main entrance/departure arteries outside the cities. There they might check Ids and look with a mirror if there are any bomb mounted under the car. Large portions of the country are off-limits to tourists for security reasons. Locals can go there but tourists will be turned back at the check points. If the destination however is of tourist value the military forces have established a convoy system. This is what happened to us in Aswan. The 350 km south of Aswan to the border between Egypt and Sudan are generally off-limits to tourists, but within this region are the famous Abu Simbel temples. At 4 a.m. (yes, that early) anyone wanting to go to Abu Simbel meets up at the military checkpoint at the southern city perimeter of Aswan. Each car is checked for bombs and each car is assigned a military officer with his machine gun. The "protection" sits down on the front seat next to the driver. At 4:30 a.m. the convoy leaves town with all buses jointly heading for Abu Simbel. It is 300 km. There is no traffic and the majority of buses goes without light even though it is still night. Why? I don't know. To save gasoline or not to blind the bus driver in front of you? The military protection falls asleep just minutes after departure but what do you expect at minimum wage? Even in the case of a real attack I wouldn't count too much on any help from the military guys. Just like anybody else they will protect their life first. Once you arrive at the tourist attraction, Abu Simbel, everyone gets two hours for sight seeing (of course under the steady eyes of the local white clothed tourist police officers). Thereafter all buses head back again in the same convoy and with our military chap sleeping again.

Going north of Aswan, e.g. back to Cairo, is also controlled. There are certain buses that are especially protected and tourists are only allowed to go on these specific buses.

While police is very polite to foreigners I don't think that the locals think the same thing about the police. On one occasion I saw street police spot illegal street vendors on a square. The police rushed in with their pickup truck. 3 or 4 officers jumped off the back. At the same time as the vendors saw the police appearing they seemingly started to run for their "life" carrying as much ware as they could with them. The police however didn't go or run after the illegal vendors, but the police grabbed all merchandise that the fleeing vendors couldn't rescue. The police left thereafter with their bounty and the vendors cursed from a safe distance.

All in all I felt very, very safe. Egypt has little petty crime, hardly any theft and muggings are unheard of. You don't have to watch your stuff all the time and backpacks do not "miraculously" disappear during train or bus rides as this was the case on our last journey through Central America. No matter how many forces they put on the road, a suicide bombing can never be avoided. So terrorism cannot be avoided just by having a strong police force. But the sign of force certainly is intimidating to would-be terrorists. For the terrorists it is only hit-and-die; the hit-and-run option is undermined by the strong police presence.

On Women

I haven't seen any woman looking like the famed Cleopatra or the cutely depicted wives of the pharaohs on the tomb and temples walls. Did I look in all the wrong places?

I also don't quite understand the purpose of an Id card for women. The police officer will be faced with the challenge to have to compare an Id picture with a thin slit in the black clothing through which solely a pair of black eyes are visible. In a simple case of personality check the religion will make it inappropriate to see more than her eyes if she doesn't want to show more than her eyes.

Nerves

Everyone wants to sell you something. They want to carry your bag, show you where a sight is, rent you a bike; they want you to eat at their uncle's restaurant or stay in the hotel run by a friend. And since there are 60 million Egyptians and only one of you, your nerves will be tested. The cultures will differ on this one. They think it is rude if you don't listen to them with attention. I think it is rude that they don't stop selling after you already explained five times that you are not interested.

Postscript

When I took off at the Cairo airport I got a good view of the part of northern Egypt. Everything was painted in a brown color, the desert, the mud-brick houses, the whole countryside, brown and just brown. As I touched down several hours later in northern Spain and saw how rich the colors are I realized what I was missing. I was missing the dark green of the forests, the light green of the meadows, the dark blue of the sea and the red of the roof tops.

The Greek with whom I had spent a day in Cairo informed me later by email that one day after we separated he went to visit a site in an upscale area 2 miles from the Giza pyramids where a new museum will be created for which his company will present a proposal. After spending half an hour there and when he was about to leave a man came towards him shouting. He was around 50 years old. Even when my travel companion was telling him that he is leaving the men kept shouting in Arabic and then he took out a gun and threatened him. Of course he ran away as fast as possible, but the shock still sits in his bones today I bet.

    

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