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Published: January 29th 2008
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So I'll start with a warning - this could get long! Yesterday was my big adventure "off the beaten path" and into Middle Egypt, where the average tourist rarely goes. My destinations were the tombs at Beni Hassan and the ruins and tombs of Tell el Amarna. Tell el Amarna was briefly the capital of Egypt while the "heretic" king Akhetaten was in power for a very short time. His wife was Nefertiti, often called the most beautiful queen in Egypt. After Akhetaten died, the city was abandoned and now almost nothing remains. It's all very mysterious as no one knows the exact circumstances of Akhetaten's death and the abandonment of the city. But enough of history, on my with story...
My day started at 5:30 a.m. (yikes) when I was picked up by my guide Adel. The drive to Middle Egypt - Minya specifically would take 4 hours so it was important to get an early start. We spent about the first 2 hours with Adel telling me a "brief" history of Egypt starting about 3200 B.C. It was very interesting but I can't say I retained much. A note on Adel - nice Egyptian man, about 40 years
old, who lived in New Jersey for 3 or 4 years. I could see him fitting in very well in NJ.
After arriving in Minya, it was still another half an hour on to Beni Hassan. Apparently there was a new bridge built since the last time Adel was there, though, which in theory made the journey easier but actually made it harder because the driver only knew the other way. So the whole trip was a lot of stopping men on the side of the road and asking for directions (they are also not big on street signs down there).
Oh - here's where the first lying comes in. Apparently they are very sensitive to Americans visiting. Because Egypt gets so much aid from the US, they don't want anything bad to happen to American tourists to risk ticking the US off, so they protect them to a ridiculous extent. So, when we arrived in Minya, to avoid having an armed guard accompany us the rest of the day, Adel told the police I was Canadian.
Beni Hassan was our first stop and this is where the "tipping" (a/k/a "bribing") began. Actually, tipping, referred to as
baksheesh is a big part of Egyptian culture. You tip for everything - often 1 or 5 Egyptian pounds, which amounts to less than 25 cents or $1. When it comes to visiting tombs, you "tip" a little bit more to the caretaker to look the other way when you want to take a picture which is generally not allowed. Well, when we entered the first tomb at Beni Hassan, full of colorful paintings and hierglyphics, I asked Adel if I could take a photo. He said yes, and I did, and Adel tried to pay the caretaker after the fact, but the caretaker was very unhappy. They argued for about 10 minutes in Arabic and Adel later told me the caretaker threatened to have him arrested! Yikes! We still managed to visit the other 3 tombs that are open to see at Beni Hassan, but it felt a little rushed and the caretaker watched us like a hawk. Crazy thing is, the armed guard that also was at the tombs, was on our side - trying to convince the caretaker to take the "tip" and let me take pictures. I think that has to do with the desire to
appease Americans (even though I was officially Canadian for the day).
After visitng the tombs, we stopped at a rest house for a Coke and I met a couple from Minnesota of all places. Well, I was still supposed to pretending to be Canadian, but I'm a very bad liar, so that made for an interesting, somewhat awkward conversation as I didn't want the guards in the resthouse to overheard me saying I was American.
Next up was Tell el Amarna which, even though it is also on the west bank of the Nile, required us to drive 5 km south, take a car ferry across the Nile, drive several km more south and take a car ferry back over again (this is because the road does not go all the way through!). Now Tell al Amarna is where I started getting frustrated with Adel. He insisted there was only one tomb with anything good to see. But my ROugh Guide to Egypt, published in August, said that there were 4 Northern Tombs, 2 Southern Tombs and the Royal TOmb to see, plus remains of the Northern Palace. I tried to convince Adel of this, but only managed
to convince him to give the Royal Tomb a shot.
At the entrance to Tell el Amarna, we had to pick up 3 caretakers guys plus an armed guard to accompany us as we drove out to the tombs - about another 10 minute drive - with all of us stuffed in our minivan. Not sure what we would've done if it was a regular car! I proved to be right and teh Royal Tomb was newly opened. Of course the same old tipping/bribing over taking photos occured here too, with Adel getting yelled at some more. I felt really bad, but I appreciated he was making the effort for me to get some pictures (I know better than to use flash, so I personally don't see the harm in me taking a couple pictures, but I understand the general prohibition as many people do not bother to turn their flash off). Unfortunately, after the Royal Tomb, we only saw one other. It was almost 2:30 by this point and we needed to get some food and Adel wanted to squeeze in Tuna al Gebel too before heading back to Cairo.
Lunch was in Mallawi - a town
my Rough Guide describes as having "gone to the dogs" in recent years. It was a quick stop for rice and chicken and me getting stared at ALOT. Funny thing is, the couple guys that tried to talk to me asked if I was British or German - not American. I stuck with my Canadian story.
Finally, we hit Tuna al Gebel. Unfortunately, we arrived right about 4:30 when they were closing. But after more money changing hands, we got to go in and we managed to have a friendly caretaker who looked the other way while I snapped some photos.
From there, it was about a 4 hour drive back to Cairo, during which I slept almost the whole way.
I know this is getting long, but a couple more things -- first, quick comment on driving in Egypt. There are no traffic signals. And even though there are lanes, people completely igore them and pass anywhere and anytime. It is quite nervewracking! Second, the whole day, though long and expensive (most of the expense being hiring the guide and driver - all the "tips" only came to about $15), was well worth it not just
for seeing the tombs, but for seeing the agricultural side of Egypt. As we drove around, we went through tons of small villages where we could see kids riding donkeys or cows, donkeys carrying sugar cane or wheat, animals just lying on the side of the road or canal and kids just playing in the street. It was very cool. I could've taken a thousand pictures, but we were usually driving too fast or, if we stopped it was to ask directions and I though it would be rude to snap away.
Ok, that's all. I will do another entry now about today before I head back to my hotel to meet up with my tour group.
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