TRAVEL
By Judy Newell

A journey to Egypt

It has become a tradition to travel on my birthday. This year was a biggie—my 60th—so it was an especially big trip. We journeyed to Egypt on a grand tour, paying homage to 19th century Victorian travelers.

On this weeklong visit, we discovered a surprisingly green country stretched alongside the Nile, the bustling pandemonium of Cairo, nearly 5,000-year old tombs and temples, immense deserts and dunes and incredibly welcoming people. Egypt is not just a destination; it’s a mindset.

We joined 12 North Americans on a group sponsored by Big Five Tours & Expeditions and had an incredible university professor and Egyptologist named Hassan Abul Gabal as our guide throughout the trip. Just the week before, he had been the personal guide for George Lucas and his family.

Cairo—Paris on the Nile

When the Egyptian ruler Khedive Ismail acceded to power in 1863, Cairo was almost a medieval city. But the khedive was educated in France and he set out to transform his capital into a new Paris-on-the-Nile with wide tree-lined boulevards, grand squares and public gardens, capped by an Italianate opera house.

Today, fine 19th-century European architecture—although somewhat tattered and worn—is the backdrop to a thoroughly Middle Eastern street life and the Nile offers quiet relief from the modern crush of people and cars.

Ramesses Square is the most chaotic spot in Cairo. All routes from the north of the city converge here, spewing cars, buses, and taxis into one great screeching, horn-honking melee. At the center of it all stands a colossus of Ramesses I, the great warrior pharaoh.

The promenades of Cairo curve along the fertile banks of the Nile and the boat-lined Corniche el-Nil is the city’s favorite place for an evening stroll. Explosions of color from bougainvilleas, tropical plants, palm trees and flower gardens deceive you into forgetting that the desert is only minutes away.

Cairo is the largest city in Africa and one of the world’s largest urban areas. Estimates put the population at 17 million and counting—the capital of Egypt averages 25 residents per square meter. The city is so densely packed that authorities have given up on moving the city’s homeless out of the low-rise tombs in the old cemetery and now provide electricity and water to residents of the City of the Dead. As in ancient Egypt, the living and the dead coexist side by side.

Pulling open the drapes at the historic Mena House Oberoi Hotel on our first morning, I watched the sun cast a honey hue across the pyramids facing me. I was stunned at being so near to these ancient monuments—the pyramids are even more impressive and massive close up. 

Our palatial hotel, located 700 meters from the towering Pyramid of Cheops, has entertained guests since 1869. Khedive Ismail built it as a hunting lodge and its royal history is reflected in luxurious interiors, forty acres of jasmine-scented gardens, riding stables and an 18-hole golf course. Roosevelt, Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek met here during World War II for the Cairo Conference.

Ismail built the Omar Khayyam Palace to house the many royal guests who came to Cairo for the celebrations of the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Empress Eugenie of France, the Crown Prince of Prussia and other nobles of Europe stayed there and later a rich pasha owned it. The palace was turned into a hotel after independence in 1952 and today it is the Cairo Marriott. Cairo and its environs claim some of the world’s most historic treasures—in fact, one third of all UNESCO World Heritage sites are located in Egypt.

Though the historic areas of Cairo have architecturally interesting old quarters, mosques and museums, the city is also filled with crowded, Soviet-style concrete apartment buildings from the 1950s and ‘60s. They were constructed during the decade-long ascendancy of the Soviets, along with the High Dam at Aswan.

Today there’s no sign of Russian influence. Instead Western-influenced technology and lifestyles have steadily gained influence and English-language signs shout from billboards pushing fast food, nightclubs and luxury items. Our guide told us “we’ve become a colony of America and we’re loosing our identity.”

Inshallah

Islam is constitutionally established as the official religion and around 90 percent of the population is Sunni Muslim, the rest being mainly Coptic Christian. Egypt was one of the first countries to adopt Christianity. St. Mark preached here in 50 AD and today one out of every 10 Egyptians is a Coptic Christian. If you say to an Egyptian of either faith, “I’ll see you tomorrow,” the answer will be the same—“Inshallah”—“if God is willing.”

Islamic Cairo is the highlight of the city— its minarets, domes, bazaars and alleyways recall scenes from 1001 Nights. Egypt’s first mosque, Amr Ibn Al As, is in the old medieval quarter (Masr al-Qadima) that is filled with tiny alleyways, mud-brick houses, food hawkers, goats and camels. And the Mosque of al-Azhar has been a center of Islamic scholarship for more than a thousand years.

The call to prayer, five times a day, is broadcast from minarets all over the country. As we filed through the gates at the Cairo airport, a security guard kneeled on his prayer rug with his machine gun by his side. Inside the luxury Four Seasons Hotel in Cairo, each room contains a small arrow pasted to the top of the entertainment center, next to the flat-screen plasma TV. It marks the direction of Mecca, the direction faced during prayers.

Fasting & Charity—Ramadan

We arrived in Egypt on the first day of Ramadan, which this year began at sundown on September 12. The tempo of our journey was mediated by the calls of the muezzin from slender minarets and shop sellers reading aloud the Koran. Ramadan is considered by Muslims to be the holiest month of the year—a “month of blessing” marked by prayer, fasting, and charity.

Muslims practice sawm, or fasting, for the entire month—they do not eat or drink anything, including water, while the sun shines. Our guide Hassan explained that from sun up to sundown, all worldly pleasures must be denied. This applies to everyone; only children under 12, the elderly and pregnant women are excused.

Families get up early for suhoor, a meal eaten before the sun rises, then they fast during the day and think of others in the world who are hungry. After the sun sets, the fast is broken with a meal known as iftar.

At sundown, many of Egypt’s hungry find hot meals laid out on communal tables in huge makeshift tents set up in the streets. Known as iftar tables, they are loaded with stews, soups and vegetables that are given free to those who are unable to return home for iftar—or those who don’t have a home. The communal tables are privately sponsored by businesses or families.

After iftar, the streets are filled with people shopping, eating and spending time with their friends and family. Ramadan is a festival of giving and sharing. Hassan aligned it to the spirit of Christmas for Christians and, indeed, homes are decorated with colored lights and lanterns and gifts are exchanged at Eid al-Fitr, a joyous three-day feast marking the end of Ramadan.

Egyptian Museum of Antiquities

Opened in its present location in 1902, the museum is filled with archaeological finds tracing Egyptian civilization over more than 5,000 years. The crowds tend to beeline for the glass-enclosed Tutankhamun galleries containing his golden, lapis-encrusted funeral mask and 1,700 other sumptuous funerary objects that made such a global splash when they were discovered in 1922.

King Tut was a minor pharaoh who ruled only nine years (BC 1336-1327). His life earned few accolades and his fame comes from the fact that his burial tomb was discovered intact. If that amount of wealth came from the tomb of a boy pharaoh with a short reign, imagine what must have been in the tombs of the great pharaohs such as Ramesses II, who lived to be 90 years old and ruled for 67 years.

Another big draw is the Royal Mummy Room, which brings you face to beak-nosed face with several of the greatest pharaohs, including Seti I and Ramesses II. There is a separate fee to see the pharaoh’s mummies.

Though many Western museums contain impressive collections of ancient Egyptian antiquities, none begins to rival the riches at Cairo’s Egyptian Museum. It would literally take months to see everything on display. Devoted entirely to the legacy of the pharaohs, the museum has more than 120,000 items on display, ranging from delicately crafted jewelry to towering granite colossi of kings.

Unfortunately the over-crowded Egyptian Museum has been little updated since its construction. There is no air-conditioning, no humidity control, no seismic sensors, poor lighting and little security. International museums use this as a reason for not returning Egypt’s looted treasures. Egypt hopes to remedy this with the construction of the Grand Museum of Egypt overlooking the Giza Plateau. Large billboards and graded land mark the site, but not much progress has been made.

Giza Plateau & the Great Pyramids

Nearly 5,000 years ago, Giza became the royal burial ground (necropolis) for Memphis, the capital of Egypt. There are actually more than 100 pyramids scattered along the West Bank of the Nile across from Cairo—ancient Egyptian burials were always made on the western, sunset side of the river—but they all pale in comparison to Giza’s three massive wonders. 

The Great Pyramid of Khufu (better known by his Greek name, Cheops) is the oldest and last surviving member of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Until the 19th century, it was the tallest structure in the world. It’s flanked by two smaller pyramids, dedicated to the pharaohs Menkaure and Khafre.

The pharaohs built things to last. Nothing says “Cheops was here” like a 450-foot-high pile of stones weighing 6 million tons and covering 13 acres that has survived for 4,500 years.

The Great Pyramids bake under the desert sun in the western suburbs of Cairo. They are surrounded by nine smaller siblings and the inscrutable gaze of the Sphinx, which dates from around BC 2,500. With the body of a lion and a human head, it represents the strength and wisdom of Egypt. An old Arab proverb states: “Man fears Time, but Time fears the Pyramids.”

You can spend the whole day wandering the Giza plateau, checking out the extraordinary Sphinx, examining the other pyramids and necropolises, and shelling out a few dollars to be led across the sand on a camel so that you can pose for the requisite photo against a backdrop of pyramids.

Reminiscences on Cairo

Ancient Egyptians established a magnificent civilization whose art and achievements have captured the world’s imagination ever since. The waves of foreign conquerors passing through the country—Persians, Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, Arabs, Turks, and don’t forget the French and British—were more influenced by, than an influence on, the country.

Governed by outsiders for thousands of years, Egyptians have mastered the valuable skills of patience, tolerance and absorbing the best of other cultures and religions. More recently founded Western countries could learn a lot from this long-term approach to their place in history.

Egypt? I was fascinated, intrigued and captivated by it. Inshallah—“if God is willing”—I’ll return.

In a future edition, Judy Newell will recount her travels on a Nile cruise. A regular contributor to Atenciòn and travel industry executive, she heads the custom tour company Perfect Journeys that specializes in luxury and adventure travel. Contact her with comments or suggestions at JudyNewell_03@msn.com.