Part 13 – Egypt and the Pyramids

Date: 4/15 & 4/16/2017

The flight from Dubai to Cairo turned out to be quite a geographic show.  The takeoff gave us a panoramic view of downtown Dubai and the needle of the Burj Khalifa as we winged out over the Persian Gulf, leaving the tip of the Arabian boot headed northwest passing just over the tip of Qatar.

Photo 4102, winging out over smoggy Dubai, the Burj Khalifa rising above the rest

We continued over a mountain range of northern Saudi Arabia, to the Gulf of Aqaba at the top of the Red Sea, over a corner of Jordan, and finally over the Sinai Peninsula and into Cairo.

Photo 4136, Gulf of Aqaba, Saudi Arabia on the L, Sinai Peninsula on the R

After looking at these countries on maps for so many years, it was fascinating to fly over the actual terrain: the towns, roads, and some pretty dramatic mountains. The engineer in me enjoys looking down from 30,000′ to see how the designers picked the best route through mountains and valleys, around obstacles, and over passes.

Photo 4128, a road through northern Saudi mountains

After the considerable difficulties of getting the Chinese and Indian visas, I was curious about how involved the “visa on arrival” screening process would be like when entering Egypt.  Both China and India wanted pages and pages of personal information, and in the case of China they wanted to know our exact itinerary while in the country, complete with confirmation from the hotels that we were actually staying there. This is an excellent reminder that China is still a Communist authoritarian state! In Egypt, the visa process proved to be simple: go up to a bank window, and hand over $50 (U.S. currency no problem).  They gave us little visa stickers which the customs officer then pasted into our passports … no questions, no forms, visas done! The visa was in effect merely a sort of tourist tax.

Driving into town from the airport, Cairo looked like it had just been hit by a dust storm … almost all the buildings had a kind of tan gritty look to them.

Photo 4251, Cairo buildings with a tan gritty look

Security was very tight everywhere we went in Cairo … when we arrived at our hotel, the taxi was stopped at a barricade before getting to the front door and was inspected by security guards with dogs, and with mirrors to inspect the underside of cars. Following that, we went through a TSA-type x-ray inspection at the front door of the hotel even before getting to the front desk! Going through security like that proved to be a common occurrence at major facilities. Egypt is clearly very serious about providing protection for its tourists from terrorist threats, which provided some reassurance to us as it seems like most of the news we have gotten from Egypt for the past couple of years has been bad. In fact, despite the prominent presence of soldiers and armed guards wherever we visited, we never felt threatened at all during our visit. I was pleasantly surprised by the cheerfulness and good nature of the Egyptian people in the streets … lots of family activities, smiling and chatting among friends. The country did not look uptight. But ours was hardly a comprehensive experience … we spent all of our time in and around Cairo and did not venture into the hinterlands.

Our hotel room was quite nice … we had a balcony overlooking the Nile that provided considerable entertainment during our visit just watching the constant river traffic passing by: tour boats, speed boats, sailboats, fishing boats, you name it.

Photo 1091, boats on the Nile at dusk

It was also very interesting to watch the traffic go by in the street below our balcony: the constant stream of cars, taxis, buses, motorcycles, plus the drama of watching pedestrians step right out into oncoming traffic, pausing here and there to let speeding vehicles pass around them as they waited on the lane markers for the next gap to continue across. No one was killed while we watched, but it looked like it could happen any minute!

Photo 1129, death-defying pedestrians crossing traffic

 

There were also the comings and goings at the mosque across the street – passers-by would pause at a big cabinet at the entrance (perhaps to get a drink of water?) and quite often continue on without going in.

A closer inspection of our hotel room indicated that it had seen finer days and was a little dingy around the edges and in the corners. Not quite like Japan, China and Dubai, but the Egyptian service was impeccable, polite, friendly, and at your service, and the food was fabulous every single meal we had at the hotel.

The day after our arrival, we did a tour of Cairo and Giza, and ended up with an excellent driver and a well-educated lady guide named Sherin (Share-EEN) who was a real live-wire and a walking encyclopedia about the history of Ancient Egypt.

Photo 0990, Cheryl with our live-wire lady guide Sherin

During our touring day, we went out to the Great Pyramids at Giza, just outside of Cairo. The Great Pyramid did not appear quite as large as I expected, but that may be due to a lack of items nearby to give one a sense of perspective. But you have to give it due credit – even at its diminished height of 455′, it was the tallest structure in the world for about 3,800 years from its construction around 2560 BC (4th dynasty) to about 1300 AD when it was surpassed by the 520′ spire of the Lincoln Cathedral in England north of London. 3,800 years is going to be a tough record to break!

Not a lot is known about the exact construction techniques used by the Ancient Egyptians, although we can tell some about their knowledge of mathematics and measurements by the precision of layout of the Great Pyramid. Horizontally, the base of the pyramid is out of square by a little over 2 inches from its 756′ square base dimension. And it is aligned with the true cardinal compass points in the north-south and east-west directions within 4 minutes of arc – i.e. within 7/100ths of one degree. More papyrus records have been found in recent years about construction of the Great Pyramids so knowledge about these things will undoubtedly improve.

For a little background and context, here is a simplified course outline for AEH 99 (Ancient Egyptian History), compliments of our lady guide Sherin, gleaned during a car ride to the Pyramids. Or, if you prefer: 3,000 years of Egyptian history in one paragraph:

• 3100 BC-2670 BC: Early Dynastic Period: unification of Upper and Lower Egypt (1st and 2nd Dynasties)
• 2670 BC-2181 BC: Old Kingdom, 3rd through 6th dynasties. Khufu (sometimes referred to as Cheops): 2nd Pharaoh of the 4th dynasty, ruled ca. 2589-2566 BC; the Great Pyramid was his tomb.
• 2181 BC-1580 BC: Middle Period: 7th through 17th dynasties
• 1550 BC-343 BC: New Kingdom, 18th through 30th dynasties. King Tutankhamun was the 12th king of the 18th dynasty. His main claim to fame was the richness of his tomb rather than his accomplishments as king … after all he only ruled 9 years (1332-1323 BC) and died at age 19. Nefertiti (ca. 1370 BC-1330 BC), was renowned for her great beauty, and was Tutankhamun’s step-mother. Pharaoh Akhenaten & Queen Nefertiti instituted monotheism in Egypt, i.e. worshiping a single god of the sun. Ramesses II (1303 BC-1213 BC), 3rd pharaoh of the 19th dynasty, ruled for 66 years and lived to age 90, is widely regarded as the greatest pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, was also of this period, built up an army of 100,000 that restored Egypt’s previous extent including into present-day Israel, and also built many temples in the Luxor area. Quite a guy! We saw his body in the Egyptian Museum … a mind-blower.

What strikes me about this outline is the mind-numbingly HUGE amount of time that the ancient Egyptian civilization existed … about 3,000 years, which is 1,000 years more that the amount of time from the present day back to the time of Jesus.

Photo 4196, Cheryl & Scott standing on the Great Pyramid

After our visit to the Pyramids, including the required camel ride across the dunes, we paid a visit to the Egyptian Museum of Cairo, which has a fabulous display of the antiquities of Ancient Egypt, including a display of the mummies of about 10 of the most prominent pharaohs. Also on display in the Egyptian Museum was the famous gold death mask of King Tut which we had seen once before when the “Treasures of Tutankhamun” collection was on display around the world, including in Seattle in 1978. I recall that exhibit being a major event in Seattle drawing huge crowds. Being in the presence of that mask I found to be mesmerizing … the beauty, the craftsmanship, the direct connection to the pinnacle of Egyptian civilization some 3,300 years ago. You have to wonder what will be left of our society to put in a museum 3,300 years from now!

Photo 1069-5, King Tut burial mask.  Source: Wikimedia Commons

We had originally planned a one-day trip to Luxor to see the temples and Valley of the Kings. That would have involved a “killer” day getting up at 5 a.m. and not returning until around midnight. But by that time we were just too exhausted by our previous travels and we opted for a 2nd rest day in Cairo for catching up on sleep, record-keeping, and prepping our “postcard” emails back home, and Facebook posts of the trip.