Up bright and early for what was really the first day of the tour. No time wasted here, we were heading straight for two of the major Egyptian icons – the Pyramids and the Sphinx. On the way Ben and Mike (the film crew) informed me they had chosen me to be their victim – ahem, I mean subject – for the day. We were travelling along in the bus when Mike pointed out of the window. “Look, there it is!” Sure enough, poking out of the tops of the suburban sprawl was one of the Wonders of the Ancient World.
We hopped off the bus and onto a less conventional (well, for us anyway) form of transport – camel. Mike wanted to do a piece before we got on the camels, so I was running a little late and had a camel leader all to myself. The camel ride itself was pretty fun, if a little uncomfortable, but getting up and down was a little scary – if you don’t lean riiiight back you are quite likely to fall off head first! My camel leader took me to where all the other camels were waiting, meanwhile teaching me some Arabic and trying to get my phone number (good luck buddy!). Everyone in Egypt (like everyone else in the world) has a mobile phone, even the kids. I must admit it’s a little strange when you’re looking out onto desert and pyramids from the back of a camel led by a man in a galabaya, and suddenly he pulls a mobile out of his pocket – somehow it’s incongruous with the rest of the scenery, like someone wearing jeans in a Jane Austen period movie.
Soon we were traipsing around the pyramids on camelback under the strong Egyptian sun. They were pretty awesome – giant structures raised out of the sand and stones. It was even more amazing after Sam explained a little about how they were built – some of the stones had been brought from 2000km away by felucca on the Nile, and then dragged on sledges from the Nile banks to Giza. The Sphinx was carved out of a single, enormous block of stone, no assembly required. It was smaller than I expected, but a totally amazing statue. We then had the option of going inside the pyramid – Sam told us it wasn’t very exciting, just caverns and a sarcophagus, but I just couldn’t pass up the chance to go inside a pyramid. All credit to the designers, they didn’t make the things very easy to get into. You go into a tiny hole and walk crouched down through a descending and very low and narrow passageway until you get to a cavern with blank walls. Further descent brings you into the burial chamber which is bare save for the sarcophagus at the back. I did get into it though, and lay down “mummy style” with my arms crossed over my chest. That was pretty cool and a total Kodak moment – pity they don’t let you bring cameras inside the pyramids. No need to pay for a hammam afterwards though - it was literally like a sauna in there, really really hot and the air was moist – how, I don’ t know as we were in the middle of the desert. It must have been everyone sweating so much, or perhaps rain that had run in there and found it impossible to evaporate.
After we came out of the pyramid it was lunchtime, so we headed off to a buffet style restaurant a short bus ride away. We sat down with our food and looked around to find we were eating with a pyramid backdrop. Cool. The food was really good, but it tasted so much better as we stared at the amazing view.
In the afternoon we were in for the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It was built by a French man (can’t remember his name) who had pleaded with the King of Egypt to build a museum. The king refused and insisted that the treasures of Egypt remain in his private gardens, although he opened the gardens for the public 6 days a week. One year the Nile rose so high that the palace was inundated along with the garden and all the treasures within were destroyed. The French man told the king, “Look what has happened. Thanks to your greed all these beautiful artefacts have been ruined.” The king broke down and agreed to build a museum, and now a statue has been erected in front of the museum to commemorate the contribution of this French man to Egyptology. The man requested to be buried in Egypt but since he was such an important guy the French government asked for his body back and he is buried in his homeland. A bit cheeky if you ask me, considering how many Egyptian artefacts have been stolen and put into French (and British and other) museums.
Anyway Sam led us through the museum pointing out the most important pieces, including a replica of the Rosetta stone (the original is in some museum in England), some Canopic jars (one piece with the organs still inside, cool) and lots of things (golden chairs, walking sticks, an umbrella thing) belonging to the Golden Boy King (Tutankhamun). Tutankhamun’s sarcophagus and lots of things found in his tomb are displayed in a special section of the museum as well. He was only 17 or 18 when he died of a blow to the head – archaeologists suspect homicide. My favourite piece was the only known statue of King Cheops – at about seven centimetres high it wasn’t the most imposing statue we were going to see, but the miniature was very well executed, and it’s the only way we know anything about what King Cheops looked like. The ancient Egyptians were very careful to make the faces on the sarcophagi look as much like their inhabitants as possible; that would make it easier for the king’s soul to recognise his body after his death and they would then be able to live an eternal afterlife together. The faces of the statues were also as made as lifelike as possible, although often idealised (since the kings were to be gods in the afterlife and were therefore perfect).
We learned about the symbolism around the unification of upper and lower Egypt – the symbol of Upper Egypt was the vulture and of lower Egypt the cobra, the plant of upper Egypt was the Lotus flower and of Lower Egypt the Papyrus, and the crown of upper Egypt was white and differently shaped to the red crown of lower Egypt. The symbol of the new unified Egypt was a sun disk (I guess to symbolise Amoun-Ra, the supreme and sun god) flanked on either side by two cobras and two vulture wings. You can find this symbol all over the place in Egypt. In front of the museum there is a small pond with lotus flowers floating in it and papyrus growing in the middle – another symbol of the union between upper and lower Egypt. The confusing part is that they defined Upper and Lower Egypt according to the flow of the Nile; so as it flows from the south, Upper Egypt is actually the southern part of the country, and Lower Egypt the northern part.
After this banquet of information coupled with the after-effects of the heat of the midday sun, we were all just about ready to head back to the hotel for a rest and a shower. I cleaned up and then did another audio piece for Ben and Mike. It was a little less scary this time as I wasn’t supposed to be on video, just talking. They asked me a couple of questions about what I’d done that day, why I was travelling, why I had come to Egypt, etc., and I tried to say intelligible things. If they can make something sensible out of what I said that would really be an achievement.
That night we were catching the overnight train to Aswan, from which we were going to take the feluccas up the Nile. We headed down to the train station early, as Sam informed us that not only do the trains arrive and leave late on occasion, if they arrive early they are just as likely to leave before their scheduled departure time! On the way we had a singing festival – each country represented on the tour was asked to sing a song. Well, to be more accurate, Sam demanded each country sing a song! The Aussies and English were appropriately reluctant, practically refused to sing. One of the English girls, Marcella, was brave and sang “Happy Birthday” into the bus microphone, and the Aussies did a pathetic and barely audible rendition of “Waltzing Matilda”. I sang “Arroz con Leche” (short and sweet) and Shelly did “Frere Jaques” in Chinese. Sam tried to get away with a song in English (the theme song for the Olympics when they were in Egypt, so you can imagine the cheese factor) but I requested he sing something in Arabic, so he and the other Egyptians aboard the bus sang “Soo ya soo” which later became for me kind of like the theme song for the tour.
Lots of time to kill at the station, just randomly chatting to various people. Some of the Aussie boys took out a mini football and were playing kick to kick to the amusment of some of the locals, to the chagrin of others. I had forgotten that about Australian men; they can’t sit still for more than 30 seconds without starting up some kind of ball sport. Earlier that evening waiting for the bus to the train station they set up a makeshift cricket game in the lobby of the hotel – I dare say the reception staff were not impressed but they said nothing.
Our train finally arrived and we climbed aboard our first-class seats. Shelly and I were right next to the carriage door leading out to the smoking area. A particularly unfortunate position due to the fact the door was broken and slammed continuously throughout the night, not to mention the smoke and the sound of people spitting all night. The carriage was freezing and we had only a fitful sleep – you couldn’t really say we were rested when we finally pulled in to Aswan. We had breakfast on the train – Shelly in one of her many moments of madness had insisted we purchase a watermelon at the supermarket the night before and now proceeded to attempt to cut it (on the train mind you) with my tiny pocket knife. I had a little piece and she ate some, but we had half a watermelon left over at the end that we hadn’t a clue what to do with. In the end we gave it to one of the train staff – he seemed happy enough.
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