What’s Big, Pointy And Guarded By A Lion With A Human Head??

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Well… If I Thought I Saw Ancient Before Then This Is Something Else

Arriving in Cairo just before midnight, the first thing you notice is the size of the place. As the largest single city in the world and containing the population of Australia, the lights stretch as far as the eye can see… even from the air!!! Touching down, the second thing you notice is that security and customs are not something that seems to be taken too seriously. Buying a visa from the money exchange next to customs, handing in the medical advice that wasn’t even checked, and out through passport control with a cursory glance at my passport, I had found my way to the first great civilisation in the world. The taxi from the airport to the hostel was interesting to say the least and I now know that the Egyptians are even worse than the Cambodians for obeying road rules. Crossing the street is a life or death matter over here and it’s actually safer to walk slowly and continuously across than run because at least the cars, bikes, buses, and donkeys can judge where you are and will go around you. That’s right… I said donkeys!!! In the middle of Cairo you can still see donkeys pulling carts to and from the markets or even just to collect the rubbish in the streets.

Cairo itself is exactly like I imagined it… a bustling metropolis, filled with people, pollution and dirt, baking in the unrelenting heat. What I didn’t expect was the lush green areas fed by the Nile Valley, the fountains around the city on median strips and roundabouts, and the lack of shops and eateries open. You see I’d managed to come on the first day of Ramadan, the 30 days each year when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. The fasting is not just food either… they don’t smoke, can’t touch their partners at all and don’t drink (not even water in this heat!!!) Needless to say the majority of restaurants don’t open until after sunset while the population takes siestas in the heat of the day.

Joining the tour I’d organised for the next 17 days, my first big surprise was that I was the only guy out of 15 people, although another was due in later that night. Being an Australian company, Gecko’s Adventures, meant that the vast majority of the other members were from Australia too, though there was one Canadian and one Italian and I was the only person from Perth. After brief introductions and a run down on the next day, we were away for the last good night’s sleep for a while. Silly me though thought that I might not wake up to my room mate at the door so I stayed up for half the night before giving up and collapsing at around 2am. The next morning the bed next to me was still bare and after a little further investigation I found that the other guy had missed his flight and didn’t want to fork out for another at such exorbitant prices so had cut his losses. YAY!!! A room for myself for the whole tour!!! CRAP!!!! I’m now the only guy amongst 14 girls!!! Unperturbed, the group seemed to be a good mixture of personalities and provided welcome company and amusement.

So… what do you do on your first main day of a tour in Cairo???

With a short bus ride, we headed to Giza and the most famous landmark in the world for the last 3500 years. The Pyramids (or at least the three main ones) suddenly appear with glimpses between the buildings, stretching up out of the desert towards the sun like a giant sundial. As we get closer, we find that they are even bigger in real life and consume the view all around. The Great Pyramid was built by the Pharaoh Seti, and stood at over 130m high when completed. The outer layer of this pyramid is now completely gone though so it lost about 9m as the point is also slightly eroded. The second one, built by Seti’s son Rameses II (quite possibly the most famous of the Pharaohs after Tutankhamen due to the amount of monuments and temples constructed during his reign of over 70 years) is slightly shorter than his father’s but still contains the outer casing at it’s zenith, giving a smooth finish to the top like a snow capped mountain. The third pyramid was built by Rameses II’s son and sit’s a bit smaller still, none wishing to out-do their father. These are not the only pyramids in the area though. The main pyramids were exclusively for the Pharaoh, so next to each is a series of small pyramids for his wife and any daughter’s that might have died during his reign.

The Pharaohs used a unique method of guarding their tombs from grave robbers too. They used to make statues of themselves with eyes made of gems to flank the inside of the entrance so when someone allowed light into the tomb it would reflect off the eyes and look like there was still life in there. I must admit, it would be quite chilling to see two eyes staring back at you when you first open the tombs. Rameses II took it one step further and created an enormous guardian in front of his pyramid with the body of a lion and the his own head. Known as the Sphinx, it was discovered with only it’s head sticking out of the sand of the desert, and for this reason the locals had left it alone for centuries. Imagine stumbling across a giant head poking out of the sand… A unique experience!! By itself, the sphinx is a marvel to stand in front of and if the pyramids didn’t do it for you, then this is definitely your pinch yourself moment!!

Escaping the heat of the day, we stopped in to the Cairo Museum for an insight into the history of the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms of Ancient Egypt and to see the exhibit of the most famous Pharaoh known today. Tutankhamen, although only 18 when he died is famous not for what he did while alive but for what he did in death. Being the only tomb to be discovered that had not been robbed (probably due to it’s location in the Valley Of The Kings directly in front and underneath another tomb), when discovered in 1924 by Howard Carter it was still intact with all the jewelled headdresses and sarcophagi, one inside the other. In the surrounding chambers were all manner of items which the Egyptians thought might be useful for the Pharaoh in the after life, ranging from toys to camp beds to a set of crutches (thought to be for the injury sustained to his leg that is the most likely reason for his early death), and three tables that were later found to be the tables used for embalming him. Another specific section of the museum is devoted to the mummies found and although a little creepy is definitely worth a look. It cost extra to enter this section but you can see not only the process of how they removed organs and salted and perfumed the bodies, but also the pets that were mummified. Full of statues and hieroglyphics, the other really fascinating thing for me was the copy of the Rosetta Stone. Although the original is in London, this stone provided the key for deciphering the hieroglyphics because it was an edict from the Emperor of Greece during their occupation of Egypt and carved into the stone in hieroglyphics, the ancient language of the locals, and ancient Greek. Using this stone, they were able to translate the hieroglyphics from the ancient Greek which was known and discovered that it was a tonal language with specific characters representing sounds such as ch or sh. Applying that to the countless temples, monuments and tombs was a little more difficult as hieroglyphics can be written left to right, right to left of top to bottom depending on the size of the surface or the use of the text. An amazing discovery that proved that some words used by the ancient Egyptians are still in use today in modern Arabic.

To finish off the day there’s nothing quite like a 13 hour, overnight train ride to create a bit of excitement. Travelling first class on Egyptian trains is kind of like business class on planes except without free meals and drinks, no little blanket (and the air conditioning is set to freezing or off so take your pick), and the toilets leave a lot to be desired, but it is the best way to travel about 800km to Aswan… what I would have given for a shinkasen though!!!

"Too often ... would men boast only of the miles covered that day, rarely of what they had seen." -
Louis L'Amour

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