BigWeather's Blog

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!