Grand Tour of Egypt: Cairo

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We had some feelings of trepidation about joining our tour since the idea of doing the tour first to give us some confidence was no longer valid and we were rather partial to doing as we pleased when we pleased. Nevertheless the tour would enable us to participate in activities that would be difficult for individuals to achieve, especially with the high level of security and the requirement that travellers move about in military convoys in some areas of Egypt.
We moved to the tour hotel and it was definitely a move up in accommodation. There was a grand entrance foyer, numerous bell boys anxious to take our bags, and even tourist stores so you wouldn’t have to go anywhere if you didn’t want to mix it with the locals. A notice said that our tour would have a tour meeting that afternoon at 4pm. We set off for a walk to find our bearings and some lunch. School here finishes around 1 pm so we enjoyed passing a school and being greeted many times as the students, streaming out to go home, practised their basic English on us. In Jordan the primary schools are single sex with kindergarten being co-ed but it seemed that the primary school was co-ed here, although maybe the students were just mingling once they were dismissed. There are lots of things that we take for granted at home, such as knowing what is regular behaviour or practice, that are total mysteries to us now.
At the tour meeting we met our tour guide, Mamdoh, who is an archaeologist and very knowledgeable and willing to talk about all aspects of Egyptian life. The other members of the tour are predominantly Canadian – Pamela and Julio, Leah and Ken, Jeff, Julie, Jeffrey, and Constance - with Ed and his nephew Daniel from Lima in Peru, Megan from Chicago in the US. I am writing this post in catch up mode after spending six intense and interesting days, so I can say that we have been a friendly and supportive bunch with everyone taking an interest in each other, in our activities and in making sure that we have a great time together as a group.
Strangely, Mamdoh said that he was going to his best friend’s wedding in a Coptic church at 7 pm on the first evening and that we would be welcome to come along if we liked. Five of us set off in two taxis into wilder traffic than we had ever experienced due to the need for everyone to be home or in front of a TV by 7 pm when the African Cup Final in soccer between Egypt and Cameroon commenced. Arriving at the church, Mamdoh showed us the bible that parishioners had found floating in the Nile outside the church in 1976. It is a large and ornate bible and when it was fished out, it was declared to be a miracle that it had not sunk and it was found to be open at a page that had the verse ‘Blessed are the Egyptians’ on it. There were several alcoves with containers of relics of the saints, but we were unable to find out which body parts or which saints were involved.
Lots of people were milling about outside the church on a forecourt overlooking the Nile with some wearing evening wear and others wearing casual European clothes. No-one wore hajibs since the Coptic Church is a Christian church. Mamdoh was greeted by his friends and raced off home to change into a suit and before he could return, the wedding began. The bride and groom, dressed western style, entered and went up the front to stand before two priests and a chanter who also used the cymbals throughout the service. A group resembling a media scrum took photos throughout, often standing between the priest and the couple for a good angle. It was a nuptial mass and went for some time, with the words being in the ancient Coptic language. The bride and groom were decked in cloaks and crowns. Every now and then a cry from supporters who were expressing their happiness went up. The cry was a cross between a squeal and a red Indian war cry, produced by making your tongue go rapidly back and forth sideways. Members of the congregation were chatting away and strolling in and out, children were running out to buy chips to bring back in, other children were being handed around their relatives in different parts of the church in a very social way and in the back a pair of workers were getting out the pillars and white chiffon that would decorate the church for the next, more ornate, wedding that evening. Mamdoh had assured us that the bride and groom would not think it at all strange that total strangers had attended their wedding and, since we would appear in the wedding video as part of the congregation, we lined up to give our congratulations. The couple were very gracious and welcoming and gave no indication that it was unusual that we were there.
Travelling back in a taxi was eerie – like Melbourne at 4 am on a Thursday. Could this really be Cairo? One goal was scored by Egypt and just as we reached our destination another goal assured victory and mass celebrations. After salad roll (Roman sandwich) and ‘bumfrits’ (French fries, possible derivation: pommes frittes?), since ‘chipsy fries’ were not available, we headed to the main road to catch some of the atmosphere. The traffic was slow with Egyptian flags waving, people sitting out of car windows, crowded on the top of cars and even spilling out of boots. Horns were going crazy. Keith and Julie crossed to the medium strip to take photos which encouraged greater displays of flag waving, chanting and even a few fire flares being ignited. It was great to see and for days people were saying that we were getting discounts because Egypt won.
The next morning we visited the Egyptian Museum with the group and this time we had the benefit of Mamdoh’s knowledge. The three hours raced by. There were so many deities covering every possible eventuality that it was more than a bit confusing, and likewise for the pharaohs. As time has gone on, we have met the deities and pharaohs in the context of many different monuments and tombs and we are starting to become familiar with some. I really need a family tree that I could consult now and then – one for deities and one for pharaohs, although there is some cross over with some pharaohs claiming to be gods and not just representatives of gods. My favourite gods are Anubis, who wears a jackal head and is in charge of mummification, and Hathor, who can appear as a cow or just with horns on her head, and who is in charge of motherhood (and music, I think).
We have visited many temples and so I will give a bit of a summary rather than describe each one. The temples were surrounded by walls which defined the holy space. An entry, often grand and with enormous statues flanking it, led into an open terrace, usually with columns, and then came a roofed area called the hypostylum, often with small chambers off to the sides for a library or other purposes such as a treasury. Beyond that there is the altar in the holy of holies. All temples had a purification pool and some had Nilometers to tell how high the river was. The temples we visited have been in various states of preservation but each one has been spectacular and unique in some way. The Temple of Philae, dedicated to the goddess Isis, was flooded in the 1920s when the first Aswan dam was built. In the 1970s a wall was built around it allowing for that section of the dam to be drained. A raised area was created on an island and then the temple was moved stone by stone. The temple at Abu Simbel was built by Ramses 11, a pharaoh who ruled for a long time and made his mark in a big way all over Egypt. It was moved before the flooding caused by the Aswan High Dam and the creation of Lake Nasser in the 1960s. That temple was originally built into a mountain so they made an artificial mountain for it. UNESCO helped out because Egypt could not afford such projects by herself. The temples are richly decorated and usually have a section depicting the pharaoh making offerings to the gods, and usually there are hieroglyphics and either carvings or drawings of scenes depicting battles of significant events in the lives of particular pharaohs or the gods.
Back to day one of the tour (February 11th) – the Pyramids at Giza in Cairo’s southern suburbs. They really are spectacular and after a long explanation of their history and significance in an overheating bus, we were champing at the bit to get out and actually be there. This was delayed by driving up to the panorama spot which allows a good view of all the pyramids and the modern city beyond. At last we left the bus for a too-short look around and it was only then that the size and scale of the undertaking really hit us. Each stone is enormous and there are millions of them! I went into one of the pyramids (the Chephren) – down a low and narrow sloping passage just over a metre high in some parts, where the air seemed to be in short supply and getting thinner and hotter with every step. There were no decorations and the final chamber was surprisingly like a chapel with a pitched ceiling. We wished that we had had more time because there are lots of other buildings being excavated at the site, we didn’t have a close look at two of the pyramids or the several small pyramids and the whole experience was rushed. Visiting the sphinx was an even greater tourist race since it closes early, however it seemed to retain its dignity and a certain air of disdain for the masses of tourists and the postcard and souvenir sellers. Keith was disappointed in the box-like shape of its body and what with its nose having been shot off and then kept by the British, it was not the sphinx of our dreams.
A visit to the ‘Papyrus Institute’ started with a fascinating display of how papyrus was, and is, made properly and a warning to avoid fake papyrus which is made of banana leaves and will not last for thousands of years. To prove how strong papyrus is they asked Ken to try and break it and said he could have an enormous papyrus painting if he did. Well, he broke it and the promise was suddenly off. This was fundamentally a marketing exercise but at least we could wander and really look at the beautiful designs rather than just avoid looking at the ones being pushed on us by the souvenir sellers. We were stalked discreetly by a salesman who proved to be patient and helpful and then we received 20% off for Egypt winning the soccer, a free upgrade from a small design to a larger version of the same and finally a free papyrus as well. This was amazing since others in the group did not fare nearly so well, some not even receiving the ‘soccer discount’. Prices in Egypt are amazingly fluid, with a tourist price and a local price being poles apart and the seller always naming an enormous price to start with. For example, a musical instrument was 100 Egyptian pounds ($20 Australian), then 50, then 25, then 2 for 10 pounds. Another way to trap tourists is to name a low price and then to say that that price was in American dollars etc once interest is shown or that that price was for a different item. A packet of chips was offered for 20 Egyptian pounds at a tourist spot and the same packet is between ₤3 and ₤5 for Egyptians and ₤7 for tourists in the local supermarket.
Next was a cotton shop called Funky Cotton where some bought clothes, and finally we were on the sleeper train to Aswan.
Before bed we all met in the bar car where a funny waiter performed his parlour trick of balancing a glass on his forehead while belly dancing and the ladies in our group all joined him for dancing. Strangely the bar soon emptied of other people so we had it all to ourselves.
The trip took about 13 hours, most of it spent sleeping, but in the morning we could see that we were following the Nile and the fertile strip of banana and date palms, sugar cane and crops.






Celebrations in the streets of Cairo following the Africa Cup win for Egypt.



At the pyramids in the suburbs of Cairo