BigWeather's Blog

Michelle writes:

The “salesmen” here can get trying.  We just tried to go for a walk and every 10 feet or so someone tried to get us to take a taxi, take a horse carriage ride, etc.  The pollution here is pretty bad.  But with so many people and cars, what is to be expected?

We left at 9:00 again today.  First we went to the Islamic Museum.  This collection began in 1880’s.  Sahar said that you could see the differences in style due to influences of other cultures.  We saw a portable niche.  This niche must be placed in the direction of Mecca.  We saw some beautiful glass oil lamps.  There was a beautiful saddle.  There was a room of weapons, including arrows.  There were also beautifully done manuscripts.  Then we went to the Ibn Toulon Mosque.  Ibn = son of.  This mosque had the fountain in the middle and was open air.  There was not a room in which to pray.  They prayed outdoors (well under cover).  The mosque had a nice minaret.  Next we walked next door to see the Gayer Anderson House.  This is 2 16th century houses joined by an elevated bridge.

Mashribiyya balconies were where women would sit.  There were rooms here where only women or only men could sit.

There was a crocodile instrument.  The bedrooms were very nice.  The Persian one had inlaid work on all the walls and ceilings.  The chairs were the folding up kind.  Afterwards we went to visit the Coptic churches.  We saw two of them.  One was Al-Muallaka (The Hanging Church) -> it lies suspended across Roman towers that guarded the water entrance to the fortress.  Oh, also at the G-A house, they had a room with birthing chairs.  Back to the church.  The marble pulpit was nice.  It had 7 pairs of columns each different.  They were suppose to represent the disciples and 2 gospels.

Next we went to Aba Serga (Saint Sergius).  This is supposedly where the Holy family lived while Joseph worked at the fortress.  There is a crypt which houses remains of the church where Jesus, Mary, & Joseph supposedly lived.  But the crypt is now under water.

The last place we visited today was Keenest Eliahu (Ben Ezra Synagogue).  This was build in 12th century.  Americans helped to restore it, which set off a discussion between Brian & Mr. Hart.  We got back to the hotel about 1:30.  Mailed post cards.

Brian writes:

Weather: 90’s – Hot

Woke up at 6:15, ate breakfast – croissant and honey, and met the group at 9am.  Went first to the Islamic Museum.  Saw many objects from Islamic times — a fountain like the one in Manial Palace, but smaller (shorter), illuminated books (amazing – gold illuminations on blue – very detailed), swords, shields, and helmets and armor, like chainmail [ed – accompanied by simple illustrations].  Saw lots of inlaid boxes.  Saw a travelling box that used to be used for food, the Islamic leaders have servants who taste everything before the leader does.  Saw beautiful stained glass and the hanging lanterns used by the mosques.  Also saw some very incredibly detailed gold jewelry – gold is considered only for the woman in Islam and many males even today wear silver bands.  Also, many of the early Islamic designed (7th – 10th c.) are only floral or geometric, no animals or people.  Later, animals and people are used.  Also saw a portable niche that could be pointed towards Mecca while traveling.  Saw some gorgeous rugs, and a saddle too.  Saw a compass & astrolabe, and awesome map of the world (ancient).  Saw examples of chandeliers and of wood work.  Sahar said that mosque originally had wood roofs, but during the Mameluk times, when mosques of previous rulers were burned, wood roofs burned too easily.

Next went to Ibn (= son of) Toulon Mosque, not far from the Islamic Museum.  Its plan is like this [ed – map showing a fountain in the middle of a courtyard with a minaret on the side and covered sides].  This one is very old, ~8th c (?).  During Mameluk times one rule was revolted against and went to Ibn Toulon for protection.  They hid him in the minaret, and when the revolution was over he covered the mosque’s roof in wood work for them.  Shortly thereafter, however, the practice was stopped.  This, like the Mohammed Ali Mosque, also had a pulpit and a niche.  The mosque, however, had no separate, indoor prayer area, it is all outdoors, on the left side.  The open courtyard has lots of stones, not a good place to stand if people are pissed at you!  The columns of the mosque were combined four-into one.  A nice mosque, but Mohammed Ali was nicer.

Next went to the adjacent Gayer-Anderson House.  It is two 16th c. Arab houses connected by a suspended walkway.  Beautiful courtyard.  Each room has a theme, exterior mainly sandstone.  Narrow, steep stairs.  There was a room with replicas of Egyptian Antiquities like Nefertiti’s bust in the Berlin Museum.  His bedroom (Anderson’s) was in “Syrian” style – very dark, lots of wood and red curtains – up a flight of stairs.  He also had a Nubian maid who helped him.  Anderson was a [ed – illegible] in the 1800’s or 1900’s and was a painter.  Parts of the house, like the outdoor terrace with big folding tables and chairs, were for men.  Others, like the [ed – illegible] room, were for women.  The women’s rooms had wooden work all over the windows that allowed them to see vaguely what is going on outside without revealing self.  Or, they could also open up little shutters in the woodwork to peep out of on to the street or room below.  People below, however, can only see their eyes.  No big deal [ed – illustration of a wood design window covering with a small open window shutter].  In main entertainment room, women’s chambers on second floor peer in, but are also covered w/ wood work.  In entertainment room, there is the sunken fountain, area for dancers, musicians, then an area for the master of the house’s chair (in a corner) and other couches.  Throughout the house are comfortable window seats and neat shelves in stairways [ed – illustration].  Saw a musical instrument – looked like a carved alligator, but on belly [ed – sorry Mom, I know you hate that word!] were strings.  Clever.  Finally, saw birthing chairs [ed – accompanying top-down diagram with handles pointed out].  Also a candle assembly.  The showers, which is after the birth, is when a name is chosen.  Everyone who wants to submits a name, and lights a candle the last candle to go out is the name chosen.  Eliminates lots of family fights.  All this in a separate room.

Next rode over to Old Cairo, where there was originally a Roman fort.  On the two towers that used to guard the water entrance to the fort, a church was built [ed – illustration of church perched over two towers].  This Coptic church was called the “Hanging Church” b/c it “hung” over the Roman fortress.  In Arabic it is El-Mallaqah (or somesuch).  It was really cool.  You entered, then went down a ramp into a courtyard then into the church itself.  From the church, you could see the remains of the rounded Roman towers below – neat.  The church was beautiful!  Pillared inside, with Coptic cross ([ed – illustration of a Coptic cross]) banners in orange all about.  Had light filtering on from high above, very beautiful.  Pictures of the Saints were all about, and near icon was a painting of the Virgin Mary w/ Jesus and had eyes that followed you around.  They also had 14 (?) pillars, each one a different shade of white in the church.  One was black, however, for Judas.  12 were the apostles, plus 2 gospels.  St. Antorius (?) and St. Peter brought Christianity to Egypt (Aegyptus to the Greeks and Romans) early in the 1st c. A.D.  Then, Christians were heavily prosecuted [ed – should be persecuted].  Finally, after Christianity accepted in Empire, El-Mallaqah built in Roman Times.  Christians in Egypt were called Copts, from Aegyptus, and has nothing to do with their religion, which is Greek Orthodox.  The Coptic seat was in Alexandria a while too.  Later, after the Muslims moved in, they demanded Copts pay higher taxes for “protection” since they are a minority.  Those who cannot pay must convert to Islam or leave the country.  Many Nubians, consequently, are Islamic, as could not afford to pay and were [ed – illegible] converted.  Had pews like other churches.

Next, weaved through twisting alley of Old Cairo to Abu Serga Coptic church.  Fred actually asked “Why don’t they clean up, how can they live with all this dirt?”  I was embarrassed, but he means well.  It really wasn’t that dirty.  The alleys were narrow, no wheeled traffic, about 6 feet across.  Couple story buildings, dirt roads, numbers for houses painted in green on the side of the wall.

Not much to Abu Serga itself, just like any other building in Old Cairo.  In need of repair, was encased in some scaffolding.  Significant because this is where the Holy Family (Mary, Joseph, Jesus) stayed when Jesus was young and they were in exile.  Stayed in a tiny cave beneath the church, which was built afterwards.  Originally could go down to cave, where there is a tiny chapel, but the damming of the Nile has raised the subterranean water level so that the cave, and most of the flight of steps down to it, are submerged.  Still Amazing!

Lastly, went a little farther to Ben Ezra Synagogue.  Ben Ezra was built on the spot where Moses was supposedly found in the river (Nile) floating.  It is beautiful, marble and wood throughout.  The government, though, would only let the synagogue be built if it incorporated Islamic style art, which it does beautifully in its woodwork and geometric designs.  The marble altar, with some of the Ten Commandments reproduced above, stands over an earlier, buried altar where Moses was found.  There are only 120 Jews in all of Egypt, all Embassy workers [ed – Wikipedia says that as of 2016 there are six remaining, all women over 65, I’m assuming in addition to the Embassy workers].  Rest left after wars (1967 & 72).  Our government funded the rebuilding of Ben Ezra which Bob Hart [ed – one of the people in our tour group] argued was stupid.  I argued for historical preservation.

Left Ben Ezra, went back to hotel ~2:00.  Ate.  ~4:00 – attempted to walk across bridge and Gezhira Island [ed – simple map], but had taxi drivers honk, carriage drivers bug us, and finally a guy who seemed to want me to vouch for his entry into U.S.  Yeah, right!  We aborted the mission.  Mailed post cards, had dinner.  Bed ~9:00.

Michelle writes:

Left at 9:00 this morning.  The new person, Sharon, joined the group.  Today was a little less hectic.

First we went to the Egyptian Museum.  There were so many things there to see.  Sahar showed us around but she could not go into the King Tut part.  We saw some wall fragments.  These had been filled in with different colors.  We saw a lot of statues.  One thing, if the beard was curved it meant the king was dead.  Straight beard meant the king was still alive.  Also learned about dwarves in Egypt.  Also how the statues of husbands and wives were arranged indicated what type of relationship the couple had.  When the women had the arm around the back of the husband – this meant she liked him.  We also paid to see the mummies.  There were about 10 mummies.  They had just reopened this about 3 months ago.  Sahar said they are going to build a new museum near the pyramids.

Then we visited the Manial Palace.  It was built in 1901 by Mohammed Ali.  The house was very lovely.  Each room had a different ceiling.  We also saw the throne room.  Then we went to lunch at a felfala house.  The food was very interesting.  We had Egyptian salad, pita & sauce, shish kebab and yoghurt for dessert.  Then we went to the citadel & saw the Alabaster Mosque.  Then we went to see the gates & gatehouses that were left from the original.

Brian writes:

Weather: 90s – Hot – duh!

Wake up at ~7:15, this time without the headache!  Shower, eat at 8:30am.  1 1/4 croissants with honey, tip of 2.00LBE at breakfast.  Get more water, meet guys at 9:00am.  I get 20LBE worth of change in ones.

Go first to the Egyptian Museum at Tahrir Square — what a zoo of a square!  Egyptian Museum on the north side of the square — it is red with a courtyard in front.  The courtyard has plants and a few statues, and there were workmen working on a very rickety, all wooden scaffold.  Went into British [ed – oops] Museum, left camera behind.  First saw some tops, tic tac toe, game pieces from 3000BC (Dynasty I).  Then looked at New Kingdom statues.  They are colossal, because they had stone tools at that time to work with.  The kings have a smile on their face and are portrayed as muscular.  They hold stuff in their hands to emphasize muscles.  Throughout the kingdoms, if the statue has a straight beard the statue was carved while the pharaoh was alive, if it is curved then it was carved after he/she died.

Saw a tablet from Karnak of Menes, ruler from the south (who had the white crown of the Upper Egypt) conquering his enemies on one side.  Hathor the Earth goddess (who is represented as a bull, or with horns) watches over him, while Horus protects him and crushes his Lower Egypt enemies and their symbol, papyrus and vulture.  Lower Egypt is the red crown.  Upper Egypt’s sign is the lotus and the cobra.  On the other side of the tablet was Menes celebrating.  He was barefoot, as the tablet is to be put in a temple, he must be barefoot.  A servant carries the sandles behind, along with oil.  The pharaoh is carved larger than anyone else.  To the right are many enemies with their heads between their legs.  Below, two beasts had their necks intertwined — Lower and Upper Egypt were united!  Saw some walls where they carved in what they were drawing, then filled in with a color mortar, unfortunately, this tended to fall out when it cooled.  Saw many statues of man & wife, man was painted red, wife yellow.  If the wife has both arms around man, she really likes him.  Statues supposed to be  representation of what they will be in the otherworld, so many dressed in ceremonial official robes.  Saw Old Kingdom pharaoh statues — small (no metal tools — HAD to be small b/c stone tools take forever) but with smiles on face.  Saw Middle Kingdom pharaoh statues – no smile, larger, more serious — b/c country just been through civil war pharaoh cannot be complacent.  Also hair is curled.  Also start using sphinx in Middle Kingdom with whole head of a lion except face of a pharaoh, Old Kingdom had whole head of pharaoh.  Egyptians liked (respected) lion, etc. b/c of strength they symbolize.  Go to New Kingdom, huge smiling statues!

See a tomb or temple to Hathor with a huge bull statue in it.  The tomb was to the first queen (who dressed like a man, statues like mans) and the [ed – illegible] sheltered her son (indicating he has the right to rule) and her son drinks her milk (he must rule too).  See wooden (sycamore) statue of mayor, he is carved as corpulent with inlaid eyes.  Very spooky, very lifelike!  Saw statue of servants that were in tombs, supposed to secure pharaoh in afterlife.  Saw statue of Akenaten, he is very feminine like, or is at least portrayed that way.  Came up with first monotheism.  His wife was Nefertiti for 12 years.  When that didn’t work out, he married his oldest daughter, who also married his son (?) or nephew (?) Tutankhamen (King Tut) later.  They were trying to keep royal blood in their line.  First portrayal of whole royal family together, and use of cartouche for other than pharaoh.

Next, saw King Tut’s treasures!!!  First, saw the four wooden-with-gold-leaf shrines that fit one inside the other and contained his three sarcophagi.  Saw beautiful gold chariots (5) and the alabaster jars that held his viscerals (internal organs).  These were in an alabaster box in a solid gold shrine, which has four Isis statues guarding it — absolutely beautiful.  My favorite piece!  Go into the room with the mask, Sahar cannot give narrative.  Try our best not to see mask until end, see the outer sarcophagus (wood and gold), inner sarcophagus (lots of gold — 495 lbs solid!), famous shepard crook and might flail, lots of amulets, rings, bracelets that were on the body.  The middle sarcophagus is still in his tomb, with the mummy.  Finally see the mask!  It is so neat, so beautiful, shiny, gold and blue.  The back (which you never see) looks like [ed – illustration of back].  It is tied back in a braid!  The blue inlay is coming off in back — a pity.  Beautiful nonetheless!  See Tut’s chairs, throne, his foot rest has Asiatics and Nubians painted on it, as he is always subduing his enemies.  Also, one of the thrones contains only reference to both names at same time — Aten and Amon [ed – sp?].  Saw beds, gold and hinged too.  The hinged bed was for traveling.  Silver was much more valuable than gold then, used sparingly.  See bust of him as a kid, and ostrich feather fan.  Many statues of him, one for each day of the year to serve him that day.  See Anubis cabinet.  Painted black with real jackal legs!  Saw a shower — metal bowl with holes in it.

Next, paid 60LBE to see the royal mummies — about 10 in a well air conditioned room.  Guards wanted silence and no touching of glass cases holding mummies.  Saw Tuthmosis II & IV, some queens, etc. mostly all blackened skin, empty eye sockets, though look at peace, hands are twisted.  Biggest shock was Ramesses II was in there!!!  The man with all the statues.  Old, wizened man, but tufts of red hair still evident.  A real honor.  Leave mummy rooms (which was only recently opened) about 11:30.  Look for guide.  See some Greco-Roman artifacts, finally find book for 100LBE.  Well worth it!

Next went to the Manial Palace on Rhoda Island in the Nile, below the Gezira Island across from the hotel.  The Manial Palace had beautiful gardens around it.  The residence was built by Mohammed Ali in 1901 because he thought he would rule Egypt in place of Farouk, the young king-to-be.  He thus needed a residence and throne room.  To make a long story short, he never was ruler and ended up fighting (verbally) with Farouk for the rest of his days.  He never married, but did have a French girlfriend.  Inside the palace each room had a different theme in the ceiling.  These were the most beautiful woodwork — carving and painting I have ever seen!  Absolutely amazing!  They had archways with sayings from the Koran above them, and much of the tile work was blue, the Turkish color for royalty.  The upstairs was closed for renovation after the 1992 Cairo quake.  They had a huge silver serving place and lots and lots of medals for the different countries.  Manial Palace also has an entryway with a beautiful fountain sunken in the floor.  His throne room was in a separate building — it had several red benches with his name.  The ceiling was white with a beautiful gold plated sunburst design.  Also had a humongous birdcage and pictures of all the Khedives (?).

~1:30 = get to our lunch stop, a felfela restaurant.  Felfelas are apparently spread all over Egypt.  It was a neat building, in the front they had a counter on the right with hot coals (and flies), as well as a pot with boiling oil, where they were cooking something.  Lots of carved wood work, yellowish clear ceiling, hanging lamps.  Sit at long split table on uneven floors, they first bring out salad, Sahar says “Don’t Eat!”  We don’t!  Don’t want Tut’s trots.  Later brings out lots of sauces & eggplant.  Cheese, sesame, etc. sauces.  Also brings out falafels which are fried foul [ed – ?] bean patties filled with green stuff and covered with sesames.  Good!  Put falafels in pita with sauce.  Yummm.  Have Pepsi, and Egyptian beer with lunch.  Beer tastes just as bad here as in US, just cheaper — 5.00LBE/litre, or $1.75/litre.  Now comes main meal — shish kebob — veal or lamb, don’t know which.  Great smoked taste though.  They bring Michelle some 7Up w/ice, we have to send back due to ice.  Dessert was yogurt w/honey.  Needless to say, I had none.  During our meal two cats on the roof really got into fighting!  Meowing all over! [ed – Twenty years later I still remember cat hair drifting down to the table from the trellis above — ick!].

Next drove past the Necropolis, or City of the Dead.  Muslim graveyards look very much like the rest of the city, with above ground crypts , or mausoleums.  The city’s very poorest live in the City of the Dead, about 2 million.  Also drive past trolley lines, police academy, and military academy.

Come to the citadel, a medieval fortress on a bluff overlooking cairo.  All desert around, very desolate.  It was built by Saladin (?) [ed – yes, Saladin, in the 12th century AD — it is formally called Salah El Din Al Ayouby Citadel].  Few of the interior buildings remain, only towers and walls.  There is, however, a military and police museum inside, as well as the Muhammad Ali mosque (or Alabaster Mosque).  We were just walking along in the citadel, when Sahar points in one direction, to our right, and says “This is a good photo!”  Boy, was it!  The mosque seemed to shimmer in the afternoon heat, as if it were very far away — yet it was very close.

Entered, took off our shoes to walk in the mosque.  First, an outer courtyard with colonnaded border.  In the middle, you could see the fountain where the faithful wash their arms, feet, and face before praying.  Originally served by an aqueduct, it is now served by Egypt’s sewer and water system.  Across the courtyard was the minaret, which in earlier times a person would climb up and do the call to prayer.  Now it’s done by loudspeaker.  Went into mosque main room, off of courtyard.  Cover was red carpets, Persian design.  Lots of elaborate woodwork, ceiling very beautiful.  Light provided by lanterns hanging from very high wires.  Lots of pale green, gold, red.  There is a niche in the wall that faces Mecca, praying is done toward the niche.  There is also a pulpit, reached by stairs, on the right, which is used by the sheik on holy days.  Sahar sat us down and told us about Muslims and Islam.  They fast during a month, Ramadan.  By fasting, they do not eat during the day.  Egypt is a lot more liberal than many countries.  In Egypt, many places of work have miniature mosques, or shrines, to which a worker may go and pray.  The employer cannot stop them from doing so.  In Saudi Arabia, though, everyone is required to pray during prayer time.  In addition all women, including foreigners, must wear black w/ veil in Saudi Arabia.  In Egypt, it is only tradition, and some women who wish to show they are true believers will wear the black with veil and sunglasses.  Though prayer should be everyday, most Egyptians come to the mosque on Friday, the holy day.  A man may have up to 4 wives and divorce is easy — he just says “I divorce you.”  He may then remarry her, in case it was a fit of rage, instantaneously.  But, he may only remarry two times, if he divorces her three times it is nearly impossible to remarry.  The remarriage, however, is a whole new ceremony.  Yikes!  $!  Women usually ask the husband for a divorce and he can do it instantly, but she cannot.  She can, however, go through the courts to get a divorce.  On divorce, she gets home, children, etc. and he must support them.  As we leave [ed – ?] a guy pointed out the tomb of Muhammad Ali — behind woodwork, in what looked to be alabaster or ivory casket.  Put shoes back on, left citadel.

Went through poor section of town, saw old city wall — sand stone.  Saw two gates Bab Al Futuh and Bab An Nasr.  One of these gates was having square exit, square towers, was the gate the army went through to leave city.  Other was the victory gate, similar to first, what soldiers came through on way back from war.  Really whacked my head on the van’s door roof after stepping off curb.  Scalp was bleeding, dizzy, had knot.  Saw guy urinating in the street, trash everywhere.  Yet, totally safe for us — amazing.

Back to hotel around 4pm, took nap until 7:30.  Ate late, after sitting out on balcony and watching traffic go by.  Heard the call to prayer — beautiful!  Dinner was steak (not so good), fries, had ice cream (fantastic!) chocolate and strawberry for dessert.  Stay up late, work on journal, go to bed.

Michelle writes:

Our tour has been slightly altered.  Our cruise begins a little later than planned.  So we are to go to the pyramids first.  Brian woke up with a headache.  We went to the cafe and had a continental breakfast.  We met 3 more of our tour group.  2 couples from Washington State.  One of the wives did not come with us.  We got on a little van – no air conditioning.  We met our guide, Sahar.  She is a Coptic [ed – Christian] and native Egyptian.  The roads (if you can call them that) were in very poor condition when you leave Cairo.  The traffic in Cairo is amazing.  People drive everywhere!  By that I mean, they do not follow lines.  We left at 9:00.

It took about 45 minutes to get to Memphis.  This had a statue of Ramses II.  This statue had been found in a lake.  Also here there was a sphinx.  There was a statue there that had been in Memphis, Tennessee during the King Tut tour.  Brian took a picture of a man at the statue.  I was a little hot in my long sleeves.

Then we went to Sakkara.  That is where the step pyramid was.  We found the pyramids to be wondrous.  But there are very annoying sellers / hucksters at these places.  At the step pyramids a man said a picture for free, but then wanted 5 dollars.  This place was being renovated by a Frenchman who has been there for 45 years.

Then we went to a little carpet school.  There were a lot of them.  We were shown how the little children make rugs.  One of the salesmen tried to sell us a rug but the price was too high.

We went to lunch just next door to the pyramids at Giza.  A very nice hotel & lunch.  The hotel was opened when the Suez Canal was finished.  Very famous meetings between world leaders.  We had chicken soup (very good) meat / sauce and fruit.  From the window you could see the pyramids above.

We went to the 2nd pyramid first.  Those “salesmen” harassed us again.  One tried to take me into the pyramid but Brian couldn’t fit so I didn’t go either.  We bought a Arab headdress and postcards.  We went further up the road to take pictures.  We saw camels there.  Brian and I both got on & made our picture.  More irritating salesmen.  We also saw the 3 queens’ tombs.  We went back to the big pyramid .  We went in to see the boat.  It was amazing & very big.  We had to wear booties on our feet.

Then we went to a jewelry store.  I got some earrings & Brian got a plate & t-shirts.  Next was a papyrus store.  The lady there showed us how they make papyrus.  We got several there.  Then back to the hotel.  We ate in the cafe (tomato soup, chicken, & chocolate mousse).  Retrieved our passports.

Brian writes:

Weather: Hot, sunny.  Duh!

Wake-up call at 7:00, my headache is worse!  Wallow in bed while Michelle showers, get up at 7:45.  Shower – good shower, hot, gentle, powerful – and ready by 8:30.  Eat croissants and honey 8:30 – 9:00 in Nefertiti Tower restaurant.  Get bottled mineral water for trip of the day.  9:00 – leave with Sahar, our “Egyptologist”.  She is ~ Michelle’s height, 5’4″ and black straight hair.  Nice lady.  Get in van (Cheech-and-Chong mobile) ride first to Memphis.

Along the way, see lots of stuff.  A long canal (done by Muhammed Ali in 1800’s) parallels the one-lane road.  At times it is clear and flowing, others stagnant, clogged, smelly, green.  See merchants with donkey-drawn carts hauling melons, etc. to market.  One young burro driver just lay in the driver’s seat with a big [ed – ?] grin on his face, dangling his feet off the cart edge.  The burro did not mind his master’s lack of interest!  Saw many crops – corn, etc.  Long-hair cotton is apparently very popular and fine.  See many, many date palms (no coconuts) in great groves, and just beyond was the desert with nothing but rock and stone!  Came to a village, people are clogging street.  Saw a Pepsi, Sprite, Coke, etc. vendor, saw Sprite in Arabic with limon on top.  Saw fire department, etc. some Jeeps and Mercedes Benz.  Women wear black robes not, so Sahar says, due to Islam but out of respect and tradition.  Neat.

She also told us many other neat things…  They have primary, secondary, and prep school, then university.  All public education, including university, is free, but university applicants must pass a test to get in.  There are private universities but they are prohibitively expensive 40,000LBE a year ($12,000US).  School is mandatory until 18, and there is one-year of military service (or 3 if the person does not go to the university) for males and one year public service for females in schools are hospitals.  Though women can get married as early as 12 to 13 in villages, the government is thinking about laws to make it 18 for women, 23 for men minimum.  Marriages are still arranged, but an engagement period is allowed to get to know each other.  Friday is the Muslim holy day, with a six day work week.  They are considering a weekend like the US, but can’t decide on Thursday or Saturday to go with Friday, and the Copts (Christians) like Sundays and Fridays.  The sides of the road are painted with alternating stripes of black and white!  What a pain, should do all in one color!

Gave a rundown of the history of Egypt from Old Kingdom to New, and then a little into the Copt period.  Arrived at Memphis, it is a collection of statues and a small building.   Memphis was the first capital of Egypt, but little remains as the buildings at the time were made of mud brick and have long since disappeared.  Even after the capital moved, however, Memphis was an important place defensively for Lower Egypt and several pharaohs built at Memphis structures and statues of stone, which have survived.  Got off van, paid 5LBE for photography permit, and had a few natives offer me 10 postcards for $1.  Not interested!  First go to the main building, contains an amazing treasure.  Inside is a 30ft tall statue of Ramses II (New Kingdom pharaoh).  It was originally 40ft but the top of the crown and from the knee down were missing.  It was huge, and you could stand from a balcony and look down on it.  He was wearing a false beard, and the ceremonial “kilt”.  His cartouche appeared several times, on his shoulder, arms (bracelets), and legs.  Truly magnificent!  The found the figure in a lake resting on its left side.  Unfortunately, this damaged it somewhat on that side.  Took some pictures (of course!) and went outside, where they had several statues and the foundation of a temple.  For several statues, they only have a huge base left, imagine how big the statues were!  Was a sphinx, and two standing Ramses II.  On one of the standing Ramses, there was a guy in the robes dusting the dust from the statues.  When I made to take a picture, he posed – uh-oh, I smelled baksheesh [ed – Egyptian practice of paying a little something for every action, the idea being that it evens out as you get paid when you do a kind action in return — unless you are a tourist, of course, in which case the money flows only one way!]!  Took the picture finally (light made it hard to focus) and waved to him, he waved back.  I went to him, gave him 30pst [ed – Egyptian pennies, so 0.3LBE], he says he wants more.  I give him $1, or 3LBE [ed – I’m the sucker they talk about being born every minute].  There are also souvenir stalls about, but Sahar recommends we wait until Upper Egypt before buying – they are cheaper there.  Accosted by a small group of salespeople (“10 postcards for $1.”) not used to them yet!

Get back on bus, to Saquara (Note: spellings may be wrong throughout, I don’t wish to look them up!) [ed – in my defense, this was pre-smart phone, and pre-laptop while traveling] Saw lots of wild dogs in the streets and some Coke / Sprite dealers.  Saquara was totally dry – sand, not trees, on a small plateau above Memphis and the rest of the valley.  The valley in the distance is beautiful – lush, green, continuous palms, a little haze.  Beyond, on the other side of the river, you can see the rise of land that marks the beginning of the eastern desert.  Small paved road to Saquara, paid 5LBE for a photo permit and neat paper tickets.  First enter a smallish temple, it has a colonnaded with pillars or columns, connected to the walls by stone wall in the back – forms niches.  They thought the niches may have contained statues, but none were ever found.  [ed – a picture of the pillars connected to the adjacent wall by a small run of stone, forming niches between the pillars].  Saw how smooth the pillar were, and looked like  [ed – picture of a fluted or ridged pillar] fit together perfectly.  So, how did they smooth the rock?  By putting sand between the rock and another rock and wetting it then grinding back and forth.  Took forever!

At other side of temple, enter a large courtyard south of the step pyramid – the floor of the courtyard is all sand.  Fine sand.  Walls of courtyard have cobra decorations across top.  In the courtyard king would chase bull.  If he catches bull, he is still healthy and deserves to run Egypt.  Sahar stands in shade while we go across courtyard to step pyramid.  Oh, pyramid evolved by naturally lengthening the tombs.  Added more on left than right, so pyramid is a little lop-sided.  Other, ruined pyramid that is little more than rubble beside it [ed – accompanied by a picture].  As walk toward step (Zoser’s) pyramid, guy in headdress [ed – another picture of a guy in a headdress, I’m an artiste!] and burro (donkey) comes forward.  Says we can have a picture of Michelle and I (with headdress) free with donkey.  Hesitant, he has camera.  Takes picture (2x) then ask for money.  Finally settles with $5.  Rip-off!  [ed – cheaper than losing the camera, I suppose, man I was dumb.] On backside of pyramid are several “business people”.  A guard who led me to two peep holes and asked me to look in, dark statues of pharaoh – probably fake, asks for money.  Give him $1 [ed – maybe Michelle’s approach to writing about the trip was the better one, this is painful!], he of course wants more.  Michelle getting cranky.  Step pyramid designed by Imhotep, who later is viewed as god of medicine.  Man with horses next to me, grabs arm, says I am his brother, to ride his horse.  I say “No” but he won’t leave me alone.  We are running out of time.  Michelle says “come on”, he says I am his brother, she says “No, he is my husband, and he is coming with me!”  I have rarely been so proud of her!  [ed – it was pretty Xena-esque, she kicked butt there – and I’ve been proud of her a ton in the two decades since!]

Walk toward some excavations, deep pit.  Saw the cobra decorations in better detail.  Deep pit, stairs down into it.  “Guards” try to lead us to other “marvels”, we refuse.  See beautiful view of valley, also a work man who was cleaning the same plaque the whole time we were there!  Leave, about 11:00am, go to a carpet school on the way back form Sakkara.

Inside, young children, 6 yrs. and up, work for at most 4 hours, rest in school.  Work on wool and silk rugs.  Silk neat, take strand, interweave in two strings of rug, then cut with a neat instrument [ed – huh?].  I think the design looks like shit [ed – duyam!], but then a “master” cuts it down with shears and it looks beautiful.  They follow a pattern when making the rugs.  For wool rugs, however, the artist has no pattern, does it all by memory.  Weave in strands, then uses a tool to pack it in rest of of the design.  On a big loom.  Go upstairs to a room where there are all sorts of rugs, both silk and wool.  See one silk of Nefertiti and a wool one of a tree with birds.  Talk him down to $55 for the silk and $45 – 50 for the wool.  Decide against it, leave, he comes to van, says $45.  We still turn down, he walks away.

~12:00: Go to Mena House Oberoi – used to be a beautiful palace.  Built in the 1860’s for the opening of the Suez Canal.  It has housed a number of people, including Carter, Roosevelt, and Churchill.  Inside – lots of beautiful ceilings, wood-work, and red carpet, proceed to main dining room.  Windows with wooden beads as shades, pyramid real close.  Tell Michelle where to sit, she thinks strange, has not yet seen pyramid – then sees it!  Talked with Sahar and [ed – illegible] about Australians and British, who she feels are not very good guests.  She likes Americans best because we are always curious, asking questions.  Turns out that she is a Copt, not a Muslim.  Lunch is chicken soup (very good), noodles, ginger beef, and dessert is like short cake.  OK!

Leave Mena House, go to pyramids ~1:00pm.  They are absolutely marvelous, huge, incredible.  The first, and largest, is ~450 ft. tall (as opposed to the ~150 ft at Sakkara) but the top (and nose of Sphinx) are gone because soldiers used as target practice!  The middle pyramid (which has an entrance in the bottom as opposed to the first’s middle entrance) is the best preserved, with the original limestone cover stones at the top [ed – accompanying picture of a pyramid with an arrow at the top].  The last is smaller.  This is Khafre’s.  The first (biggest) also has three smaller queens pyramids [ed – another picture, a top-view showing the three pyramids, plus three smaller queens’ pyramids, solar boat, and Sphinx near the largest].  This is Cheops’ or Khufu’s.  Go to the second one first, a man tries to give me “free” a headdress and a cup for Michelle.  I refuse, he insists, then he asks for money.  I give him a dollar, he wants more.  Michelle gets ill, I give back “gifts”, he does not give back dollar.  Guards pretty ill with him.  Entrance to Khafre’s (Chephrer’s) pyramid is protected by canvas but, long dark 40′ or so passage down to large (20’+ ceiling, 2,000 sq feet) burial chamber.  We want to go, old guy grabs Michelle’s hand starts pulling her down.  Takes her hat “for her”.  Pulling down faster than she can, about to fall, asks him to stop pulling.  I cannot fit, even bent at the waist.  Too narrow.  Michelle decides then not to go either, man still tries to pull her down.  I shout – “give her the hat and let go, NOW!”  These people really pissing me off!  Walk away from pyramid, guy I gave dollar to gives me a scarab, this time for real.  Leave, go back to van.  Sahar gets us 20 postcards for $1.00 and buy a headdress for $2.00 (or was it LBE?).

Go by van to a high spot on the plateau, get wonderful shot of the pyramids.  Also there are lots of camel riding guides here.  One of them has a Reebok hat and calls himself Reebok!  Paid ~6-8 LBE for the opportunity for each of us to sit on camel and get a picture.  Camel didn’t like me, went “Hissss!”!  Got on saddle, held tight – first it rose to a crouch, then a kneel, then stood up all the way – boy was it high!  Just when you thought it couldn’t go up any higher, it would.  Got cute picture of Michelle on camel, w/ Pyramids in background.  Leave, go by bus to the Cheops Solar Boat museum near the largest (first) pyramid.

Get in, put on little canvas booties over shoes, I need an extra-big one.  They do this to keep dust to a minimum.  First see 4500 yr. old rope, and pit where boat was found (disassembled) [ed – picture of a pit with stone blocks over the top].  Basically over top of pit was huge rectangular stones!  Saw replica of boat, then went upstairs to see the real thing.  Balcony all around, get several magnificent views.  This boat is made of cedar and is called the solar boat because it is meant to carry the king (Cheops) through the heavens with Ra during the day.  There is also a moon boat.  The boat is huge, ~140 ft., well preserved.  Left, forgot to tip shoe person, feel bad!  Boat looks like [ed – picture of the boat].

~2:00pm, go to the Sphinx.  Had beautiful potential shot with trees in back, missed it.  Went into temple adjacent to Sphinx, then walked outside and had great view, with pyramids beyond.  The Sphinx was meant to represent strength, and king Cheops head means he was strong.  Later, the Sphinx became a god.  Had red paint for the cheeks, shows Sphinx originally painted.  Nose missing due to target practice.  Next go to a jewelry store in Giza on the Pyramids road.  They have lots of ivory, gold, etc.  They served us free drinks (Pepsi) with no obligation to buy.  Nice, AC’d room.  Michelle buys small 18k gold Tut earrings, I get two tee-shirts for $20 from “King” Ali. I get a plate engraving from them for ~$15.  The plate is copper (?) w/ paint and beautiful.  Total damage is $89, not bad.  Ali really likes Michelle’s RayBan glasses, wants to trade.  I say maybe, after visiting Upper Egypt, we will consider it.  May go back and get a cartouche w/ my name in it for a necklace.

Next go to Papyrus store.  First, learn how papyrus is made into paper.  See live papyrus plant [ed – picture of a papyrus plant], its stem’s cross section is [ed – a triangle picture], looks like a pyramid.  Not, though, where idea for pyramid came from.  Papyrus really Nubian, but floods wash seeds to delta where they took root.  They were thus seen as a gift of the river Nile and became a symbol for Lower Egypt.  Anyway, stripped skin off of papyrus, green.  It is very tough and flexible.  Then she tried to bend inner stalk (white), it snaps in two – it is 85% sugar.  Cuts stalk into strips.  So, she washes with [ed – illegible].  Sugar comes out, but stalk damaged.  Next tries a roller, sugar gone and not damaged stalk.  Put stalk strip in water for 6 days, longer left in the darker it gets.  Take out after 6 days, put with other strips inserted between cotton sheets and put in a press. Comes out after 6 days as a papyrus sheet [ed – picture of papyrus, labeled “papyrus”, haha].  It is flexible, strong, and ready for writing.  They have many beautiful papyrus, we choose 6 and two bookmarks.  An artist adds names and dates to some for us.  Paid a total of LBE240.00 for it all – and worth it!  May go back and get one more.

~5:30 or 6:00: Back to hotel, to see mosques next day.  Relax, drink, work a little on journals until 8:00pm.  Go to dinner at Sheraton, have fixed menu of tomato soup, grilled chicken, fries, veggies (did not eat) and mousse.  The chicken is weird, thigh, wing, and breast, boneless, broiled w/ skin on.  Greasy.  Not that great.  Visit a souvenir shop and go back to room.  9:30-1:00 work on journal, etc.  Gaze at traffic.  1:00 – bed!

What follows is the first of hopefully a number of “retro blogs”.  This one is of Michelle and I’s trip to Egypt and Greece for our honeymoon in May and June of 1994.  I’ll be presenting the text of both our journals as faithfully as possible (with only omissions for stuff that is better left untyped).  Michelle’s journal spans the entire trip while mine peters out about half-way through.  You’ll notice that our writing styles are very different, hers a “just the facts m’am” and mine a bit more detailed.  You’ll be glad when mine finally ends!  I’ll also be scanning in pictures and such as well for inclusion.

Michelle writes:

I am writing this from the honeymoon suite in the Cairo Sheraton.  Just to catch up, we did a lot of shopping on Thursday.  Bought a new duffel.  But we still hadn’t packed.  About 1 or 1:30a we were looking thru the tickets and realized that the Athens to Cairo leg was missing.  Friday when we called our travel agent was on vacation but another lady there happened to find them.  So we packed with about an hour to spare.  Adrianne took us to the airport (about 1:30p on Friday).  Our plane left about 3:30p.  It was a propeller plane – pretty small.  This flight took us to Washington / Dulles.  At W/D we rode out to this little island terminal.  We waited about 2 hours.  We were in one of the hump planes (has a lounge).  We were in the middle seats.  Sister Act II was the movie.  We got into Paris about 8a.  I felt a little sick.  Left for Athens.  In Athens it was a little worrisome.  We had to transfer to Olympic Airlines and to a different terminal.  The lay over was about 4 hours.  Brian couldn’t keep awake.  The airbus took us to Cairo.  Agent met us at the gate.

We got through customs very quickly.  Our bags made it!  We exchanged some money.  Another couple was being picked up at the same time.  They were from Arizona.  It was 11 by the time we got back to the hotel.  The hotel is very nice.  We got the honeymoon suite.  Mohammed is our Naggar [ed – the travel agency in Egypt] representative.

Brian writes:

I am writing this, my account of my first two days-packed-into-one of our Egyptian honeymoon from the (thankfully) air-conditioned Olympic Airlines terminal in Athens, Greece [ed – Aha!  I wasn’t asleep the whole time!].  We are waiting for something which we are not aware of simply because a person told us to sit in a corner of the terminal and wait… and wait.  The travel books had warned us of this – time is eternal when dealing with Mediterranean bureaucracies, and Greece and Egypt are not to be excepted!

Woke up at about 7:10a Friday to the Big Show (on the Radio!).  Rolled around in bed before finally getting up and showering by 8a.  Call Travel Agents International, they tell me to come in and they will research the missing Olympic Air Tickets.  Get there, they found them!  Yeah.  Get back, leave soon thereafter to get photocopies of passports and drop the Playmaker’s stuff off at Rosalind’s.  Get back about 9:30a.  Pack clothes, etc. until 10:45a.  10:45a – 11:45a: go to McDonald’s for lunch, she gets a McRib, I a two cheeseburger value meal, super-sized for the Flinstones movie!

11:45a – 12:50p: TV, last minute checking, pet Jessica [ed – our cat at the time], etc.  12:50p – 1:30p: Adrianne drives us to the airport (RDU).  Check in with United, there is a snotty woman there who pisses us off because she is flying “first-class”.  You see, there were a few people ahead of her and us, and when the dude said next please she stepped up.  A woman in front protested, but she said, “I’m first-class”.  Man at counter says he’ll make sure luggage gets to Cairo, including the United – Olympic transfer in Athens.  In Raleigh visited some store, bought mineral water for the trip, two bottles.  Left Raleigh on one of those crappy prop planes at 3:15p – Michelle had not been on one and was nervous when the captain did not start the right side prop until taxiing on the runway.  No leg room, I have aisle seat.  Get to Dulles about 4p, saw Chesapeake Bay.  In Dulles (which was a dump and had a stupid fountain placed in the middle of the walkway and was not aesthetically pleasing in the least) just sat around and waited for our flight at about 7p to Paris’ Charles-de-Gaulle airport.  Got off the ground at 7:00, it was a huge humped-back 747 [ed – omitted is a charming picture of the front of the craft with an arrow to the hump labeled “real good seats” and an arrow to the lower area labeled “our crappy seats!”].  We sat in crappy middle seats [ed – another picture, a 2-4-2 seat configuration with Michelle to my left in the middle section of the plane in the 2nd seat, me in the 3rd, of that section] right over the wing.  Saw some news, Cheers, and travel show with crappy audio.  The Cheers had Cliff touched by Sam’s black book and he goes, “I can see, I can walk”!  Very clever! [ed – ugh, I wrote everything down!] Movie was Sister Act II – shitty and predictable!  Enough said.  Dinner was chicken cordon-bleu, breakfast was not memorable.  ~8:00st, in Paris Charles-de-Gaulle, in a satellite international terminal, one of several that surrounded the main terminal [ed – another picture, I’ll spare you from the description].  Needed to use bathroom bad, but stupid French janitor was exercising probably the most power he’s ever had in his life by stopping us until the floor was totally dry [ed – awww, did he say “non non” to my need to “oui oui”?].  The toilet was reasonably tame compared to my experience with French / Swiss toilets in July 1988.  Only interesting thing was the flusher was on the left side of the stall at foot level and away from toilet.

Left France at 10:50st, on to Athens.  Saw (from the plane) the amazing Alps, which had several glaciers and were mostly snow-capped!  They rose steeply from the plateau and had little villages nestled within [ed – a picture of a comma-shaped lake, labeled “saw lake”, I guess I intended to later try and figure out what it was].  Next saw beautiful azure waters of the Mediterranean and the French & Italian riviera.  Passed by Pisa, the quarries where Michelangelo got stone, later went over Florence and across boot of Italy.  Saw lake near sea [ed – with yet another picture].  Fell asleep several times, realized this was my first truly international flight.  Woke up over Greece, saw lake – [ed – a picture] next to sea.  Saw long gulf between Greece and Peloponnesia.  Had chicken wrapped in weird stuff!

Landed in Athens, which reminds me a lot of Phoenix but with a beautiful blue Aegean Sea coast.  In that it is like Phoenix, AZ due to sandy hills and scrub (no cacti, though) upon them.  Lots of white houses, apartments.  Got to Athens at 2pm st and waited… and waited.  First a woman took our tickets and told us to sit nearby.  Though she had nothing else to do, it took 30 minutes for her to decide to move us from the international terminal to the Olympic terminal (by bus driver by dude [ed – what?!].  Greek sounds a lot like Russian, is neat to see printed – one of the words looks like [ed – crude attempt to replicate the word].  Next got to sit for about an hour in an empty lobby (see beginning note) for boarding passes (which we already had!)  Then, go to the international terminal, which has duty-free shops and saw a Conan and Mickey Mouse in Greek!  Everbody seems to smoke.  Saw a little girl in traditional Greek (?) costume.  White robe and red cap.  Kept on falling asleep, slobbering on self [ed – Sheesh, Michelle was right!  And I promised to keep this as close to the original text as possible, quit looking at me like that!].

Leave Athens at 6:50p st or so, 2 and 1/2 hour flight to Egypt – I sleep during much of it.  Wake upon approach to Cairo – huge, endless lights!!!  16 million people of the area’s 57 million live here, and with the suburbs almost 1/3 to 1/2 people.  Land at ~9:00, earlier than expected.  Tense moments as we pray dude will meet us before getting to customs.  They do!  Two guys, one very small, one very large – Ihab is his name.  They tell us to go through Egyptians’ line of customs, nothing to declare, they tell us not to worry about registering camera though I am a little wary of that!  Get baggage, takes a long while to come out!  Talked to Ihab, who is also a lawyer, about America – marriage, crime, etc.  Talked about why there are poor, etc.  He says he is amazed by female – male casual relationships, not like that at all in Egypt.  I am real young to be married, usually in later twenties – to thirties, arranged [ed – that’s Ihab talking].

Leave there, meet Mohammed, our travel guide.  Ride on a small bus with another couple, the Harts.  The driver is an older man.  Driving is crazy!  Horns beeping constantly, Mohammed says rush hour is CONSTANT (it is!).  Pedestrians dart in front of cars like they are not there, donkey-drawn carts do not yield to faster traffic.  Though the roads are two lanes each way, it is not unusual to see three or four lanes of traffic!  Mohammed says the white lines are largely disregarded, and the only law is to drive on the right, though even that is broken.  There is not even a requirement for headlights at night!  The Harts are OK, he and she are ~70, he was in the army air corps over Britain, Africa and visited Egypt in 1943.  Talked some about history, changes in itinerary, and our Egyptologist Sahar.  Narrowly avoided lots of accidents, saw Jeep Cherokees!  Made it to the Cairo Sheraton at ~11:00pm, got a honeymoon suite, Rm. 1373.

Mohammed greets friends with kiss on each cheek, lots of back-slapping!  Oh, changed $300 to 1011.30LBE [ed – pounds Egyptian] at bank at airport.  Got to bed after get to great room (beautiful view of Nile, river, neat traffic square) ~11:30.  My headache had come back.  Oh, toilet flushes in at the top of the toilet, pull up on it!