No Longer in De-Nile

First, I'm going to give you a second to re-read the title of this post. Second, I'm going to apologize for writing the title of this post. I couldn't resist making a joke about the Nile and I am deeply, deeply sorry. I searched long and wide through the banks of my memory but I've been all tied up with work and couldn't dig up anything better. I even asked my mummy but she was no help. My pa piously pondered but his ideas were all dried up too. Man, this post really sphinx. Sorry, I'll just bury it. Oh siriously...I'll wrap it up, I'm getting horace from laughing so hard. I guess this is what happens when you try to post at tomb-fifteen in the morning. The ideas just kept un kamen....it's like a curse or something.

Sorry, it starts with a title then before you know it your'e in a vicious pun spiral. I couldn't help it. :-)

Well we are back from our spring break in Egypt and long over due for an update so hold on to your galabeyas because this is a long one (and I swear it will get better so please don't leave yet). The past few weeks have pretty much been filled with classes, planning, and preparations for spring break. There was a major conference for the Near East Schools Association (NESA) being held in Cairo this year so we decided this would be a great opportunity to go to a great conference and have an excuse to go to Egypt which isn't too bad either.

Our school is also doing some work around standards and assessment and I had the opportunity to go to a special NESA pre-conference dealing with math standards that began two days before the actual conference. So I left for Cairo on Wednesday to attend that two day session then Elizabeth and all the other folks from ASB arrived on Friday afternoon for the full conference.

The nice thing about conferences is that they are held at super fancy hotels. The bad part is that you have to deal with the ridiculous nature of a super fancy hotel. I checked into the Conrad Hilton in Cairo on Wednesday and immediately remembered why I hate Hiltons so much. They provided wireless internet in the lobbies and rooms which was great except that it cost 50$ A DAY!!! Oh, and you can only have it on one computer. Oh, and its a different charge if you want to connect to the wired internet cable in your room. Oh, and they have a completely different wireless connection in each of the conference rooms where we were having our sessions for which you have to pay a different connection fee.

So basically, the Hilton was hosting a giant international conference including presentations that required multimedia and internet connections but gave nobody free internet access. Brilliant. Especially when presenters had to change the entire content and structure of their talks because the hotel wouldn't give them internet access.

Anyway, we paid their stupid fees so we could get to our email and access our flight and travel info. Other than that (and the overpriced unfulfilling "gourmet" dinners that tasted like crap) the hotel was very nice. They had a very lovely pool that closed at sunset and even had rooms with beds in them. Good thing the school gives us professional development stipends to pay for the 200$ a night bill.

Stepping down from my soapbox though, it was a very lovely time. The conference was very successful and I think we both came away with lots of great ideas. The sessions lasted until Tuesday and in that time we had 5 free evenings and 2 free afternoons to explore Cairo. My first night there I walked around with Jane (the other pre-conference teacher coming from ASB) and explored the area around the Nile and our hotel. The hotel is located right on the Nile so we were able to take a nice evening stroll around town and managed to cover a good deal of ground.

When the rest of the ASB crew showed up, we started our adventures by heading down town to the Khan el Khalili market. This was a bustling tourist market full of all sorts of wonderful stuff for sale. We spent a good few hours walking around, bartering and making some good steals on a couple items. On our way out we stopped at a little place to eat. The owner of the "restaurant" was in the street like every other salesman trying to sell people into eating at his place.

We accepted his offer as it was pretty much the only place to eat in the market and had a seat. The menu was full of mostly traditional middle eastern items: falafels, shawarma, kebabs, etc. They also had a margarita pizza that sounded pretty good so I ordered that while everyone else got falafels and shawarma (which comes on a fluffy hamburger bun in Egypt...weird). After about 5 minutes they brought out some plates of vegetables, hummus, and pitas which we think were the "salads" that came with everyone's meal. We then waited and waited and after about 10 minutes, realized that nobody was actually in the kitchen making any food. The staff was all out in the street trying to "sell" their restaurant to other tourists.

After another 5 minutes we finally see the owner walk into the restaurant with some bags from across the street. At this point, they start bustling around the kitchen and immediately bring out our meals. I had thought it funny that their menu was all traditional Egyptian food except for the pizza and proceeded to realize that was because they didn't actually make pizzas here. They had outsourced my meal to a restaurant across the street. I had paid him to go order a pizza at a different restaurant (probably for a much lower price) then bring it back in a take out bag and put it on a plate. Excellent.

We all enjoyed our meals though and only paid about 10$ for all seven of us. That's one thing that was very nice about Egypt. Eating out at the little local restaurants was very inexpensive. We probably spent about 10 times more on taxis as we did on food for the whole trip.

The next day on Saturday we decided to venture out to the pyramids after the sessions were through. There was a tour company set up in the lobby to organize a trip for 15 of us to go at 4pm. One fact we later noticed was that most things that are important and interesting to see close around 5. So we hopped on our bus and drove about 40 minutes across the river to Giza to visit the pyramids.

I think many people like myself thought the pyramids were out in the middle of the desert somewhere but in fact they are right on the edge of Giza. They have houses and shops built right up to the edge of them. Our bus arrived and our tour guide said we needed to choose an activity to do: either take a camel ride or go inside the pyramid. We've already done the camel thing before and were not too thrilled by it so we decided to buy a ticket to go inside the pyramid. Our tour guide then gave us 15 minutes of free time to see the pyramid and do our activity. What!?! 15 minutes...are you serious!!! I know...tell me about it. So we quickly snapped some photos on our way up to the pyramid then a group of us went down inside.

We crouched down and worked our way down a ramp through a tunnel about 4 ft high until we reached a couple open caverns, one of which had an large stone coffin. Everything was of course empty and dark and musty and smelly and claustrophobic but it was pretty cool to be inside the pyramids. We made our way back out and were told that it was time to leave so we walked very very very slowly back to the bus to try to get the most out of our 5 minutes by the greatest architectural achievements in the history of mankind.

We then hopped back on the bus and drove about 100 yards to the Sphinx which sits directly in front of the center pyramid. We got about twice as much time there, which was still only 30 minutes then drove to a papyrus shop so the tour company could get some commission. We spent longer in the shop than at the pyramids, but whatever...I'm not bitter. The papyrus was really cool though and they showed us the process for making it and let us walk around and buy some paintings.

Now those that don't remember your middle school ancient civilizations unit on Egypt, the pyramids were built as tombs to house the bodies of pharaohs and first began construction during the Old Kingdom over 4600 years ago. It started when early builders began building a single step or mastaba on top of the grave to signify it as higher status than others. This later evolved into laying multiple steps on each other to create the first step pyramids which were later redesigned and smoothed out to get the shapes we see today. The Pyramids at Giza include three major pyramids: Pyramid of Menkaure, Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Khufu or "The Great Pyramid".

As the story goes, after Khufu built the great pyramid, his son Khafre tried to out do his father by building a bigger and better pyramid. If you compare the two Khafre's looks slightly taller but in fact this is only because he built it with a steeper angle and built it on a hill. Nice try Khafre. Although he may not have beat out his dad, many believe that Khafre was the one who also built the Sphinx though that is still debated.

The next night we decided that we wanted a second look at the pyramids to make up for being so rushed so a group of us got a taxi and went to the evening light show. Now any good tourist light show at a historic monument must have a few key items:

1. A narrator who is over the top and speaks with a 12th century English accent (in this case the Sphinx apparently)
2. A rainbow of lights and lasers
3. A scripted storyline written in the 1950's
4. Carefully selected background music and sound effects to create drama, drama, drama

Luckily, the pyramid light show had all of these which made it very entertaining. Though the cheese factor was very high, it felt good to have a chance to just sit and take in the experience for a while since we were so rushed the first time. The show was only 45 minutes long so we headed back toward the hotel to relax and make the most out of our overpriced internet before going to bed.

The rest of our time in Cairo was spent doing conference activities including some evening galas although we did get to go to the Cairo museum for a bit which was definitely worth the trip. They had some really great displays of statues, treasures, heiroglyphs, and mummies (both human and animal) I didn't know this but they apparently mummified all sorts of stuff to keep in the tomb for the after life including family pets and offerings of livestock. They would mummify a leg of lamb or a family's pet monkey. They even mummified local creatures that represented gods, especially crocodiles. There was a great display of a mummified crocodile that was at least 10 feet or more. I will say this again later but it is incredible how well everything is preserved.

Once the conference ended we spent our last free afternoon on a felluca

ride on the Nile which was really nice. We had a very friendly captain from Aswan who was telling us all about how he preferred his home town over Cairo because his boss was a jerk. The weather in Cairo was stunning and being out on the Nile was very peaceful and relaxing and a good way to end our work time and start our real vacation. (Notice I'm wearing jeans and a sweatshirt in Egypt, perfect weather). After some lunch we took a cab over to the Citadel and Mohamed Ali Mosque but it was closing so we only got to walk around for about 20 minutes before they kicked everyone out. Then it was back to the hotel for dinner and packing for our cruise!

The next morning we caught a flight down to Aswan where we started our 3 night cruise up the Nile to Luxor. We were picked up at the airport and taken to the boat where we met our guide Tarek. We got all checked in and immediately took off for a tour around Aswan.

I really liked Aswan. It is a decent sized city but lies right at the mouth of Lake Nasser and has a more natural and peaceful feel to it. I wish we had more time to spend there as it seems like a great place to go for a few days to really relax. Cairo was a really cool city as well but still has that populated, trafficy, dirty, big asian city feel like Mumbai.

While in Aswan we took a trip to the High Dam which was a joint project by Egypt and Russia to provide funds and resources in return for military support during the cold war. It is build on the edge of Lake Nasser and not only provides a more controlled flow of the Nile and its annual floods, but also creates a great deal of hydroelectric power that is used in Aswan and exported elsewhere. There is a lot of interesting history behind the dam especially concerning the Nubian villages that were flooded out after its creation. Upon realizing this, the Egyptian government paid to have their entire village relocated to the other side of the dam which has created some tension and ethnic disparity. The dam has also blocked all the silt that makes the northern delta so fertile and has blocked most wildlife from entering the Nile from the south, especially crocodiles. There are currently little to no crocodiles in the Nile as they are all blocked in Lake Nasser. Nonetheless, it is an impressive project.

The most interesting thing about the dam is what happened to the Philae islands around it. When Lake Nasser was created it not only flooded entire villages but also some temples and significant ancient sites, the most famous being the Philae Temple. After it flooded they left it underwater for a number of years until they discovered that it was beginning to get damaged by wildlife and that the paint was quickly deteriorating. As a result, UNESCO declared it a world heritage site and began the 8 year project of moving the entire temple piece by piece to its current location above water. To do this they tagged and numbered each individual stone which is still visible to this day.

That evening our boat took off toward Luxor. The cruise ship was decent sized although nothing compared to the big cruise ships in the Mediterranean or Bahamas. It had 3 floors including a pool on the roof and a nice bar/club/coffee shop to hang out in. There was also a massage parlor downstairs which we unfortunately did not have time to visit. We cruised on the Jamilia and it was all very nice. I would highly recommend it.

What made everything so wonderful though was really our tour guide Tarek. He was fantastic. We signed up for this cruise package through Memphis Tours online and they took really good care of us. We were Tarek's only customers so everything we did was our own special private tour and he was such a wonderful person and talented tour guide that we felt really lucky to have him with us. Each day we would stop and visit some temples along the Nile and they were all so fabulous and breathtaking that I don't have time to tell you every detail about each one.

In general though, I think the thing that amazed me the most was how well preserved everything was. On top of that it, was really incredible how passionate and friendly everyone was in Egypt. They deeply love their country and are so proud of their rich history and, being a country that thrives mainly on tourism, is full of friendly faces welcoming you around every corner. What was so interesting is that we didn't only see this from our guide and the people we encountered day to day, but you could feel it when you looked at the temples and all that the Egyptian civilization created. They were passionate and committed and worked extremely hard. Not to mention they were a brilliant people. It's incredible how they came up with so many practical and logical ways to do things.

To give you an idea of what we saw and learned, here is a link to understanding all the different parts of the temples and what they represented: Architecture of Egyptian Temples

Every temple, depending on the time period in which it was built, has similar defining

characteristics. Of the temples we saw, most were from the Ptolemaic Period and shared a similar layout. Also, there are a number of key stories and relationships between the gods and godesses who's images are drawn on the temple walls. Again, I can't explain it all here, but it was amazing how their writings and drawings were so easy to understand if you knew the stories. Everything was written with clear and purposeful symbols to communicate ideas visually so even the illiterate could read and understand the story. Amazing, amazing, amazing.

Check out our pictures as we tried to capture all the detail, grandeur, passion, symbolism, and cleverness that the Egyptians had to offer. Not an easy task, but if you have some time to read the links in this post you might be able to decipher some of the patterns and details yourself.

We ended our cruise in Luxor with a trip to the Karnak Temple, Luxor Temple, and the Valley of the Kings. The trip to the Valley of the Kings was interesting even though it, like everything else, felt a little more like Disney Land than an ancient wonder. There was a lot of standing in line and herds of people but once we got into the tombs it was really neat to see everthing painted and its hard not to imagine yourself as the first archeologist who stumbled onto this tomb full of treasure. They were of course all empty now as the contents were either stolen or moved to museums but it was still easy to imagine what it would have looked like in all its glory. We only had time to go in 2 tombs and ended up in Ramses IV and Ramses II. King Tut's tomb was there but we would have had to pay another 40$ to go in and we didn't feel like doing that. Maybe another time :-)

After our last meal on board the ship, we had an extra day to walk around the city and visit some markets and museums before heading to the airport. All in all we had a fabulous time and I would love to go back someday. I should mention that the next day and a half was miserable as our flight time was changed and we missed our international connection, had to buy new tickets and spend a night on the floor of the Cairo airport. Happy Easter. But I won't go into that because we left having a really wonderful time and some memories we will hold on to forever.

We took some video there as well and that is coming soon. Sorry for the long post but its hard to sum up 4000 years of history in a page. Hope I did it justice. Enjoy!

Here is a list of sites we saw if you want more info: Pyramids of Giza, Sphinx, Lake Nasser High Dam, Philae Temple, Temple of Edfu, Temple of Kom-Ombo, Queen Hatshepsut's Temple, Colossi of Memnon, Valley of the Kings, Karnak Temple, and Luxor Temple

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