Trip to Egypt.
Our flight from Nedumbasseri (Kochi) took about 5 hours and we landed at about 10 am local time at Kuwait. The temperature was just 2 degree C and the airport A/C system was down. Whatever limited warm clothing we had, was all in the checked in baggage and we had to suffer the cold for a six hours, at the airport to catch our flight to Cairo. The temperature was more comfortable 17 C at Cairo, when we arrived at 6 pm local time, after 3 hour flight. We were met inside the airport ,by the Tour guide and were taken to Hotel Heliopolis Sheraton, where our eldest son Sunil and his family were waiting. We took a taxi to a large mall for some shopping, supper and returned to the hotel. The city of Cairo is like Bombay, with similar crowded areas and buildings, with heavy traffic with not much respect for rules.
Next day morning, we were taken to Luxur by domestic flight. We were taken to a cruise ship, which is a large boat (or a small ship) and were accommodated in comfortable, double rooms. The ship has about 80 such rooms, bar, lounge, large dining room and partly covered deck,with a small swimming pool and gymn. After a good buffet lunch, we were taken to the temple of Luxur, a few Kms away, outside the town. This temple is in ruins, but has large number of massive engraved stone columns and two 50/ 60 meter tall obliques. Obliques are, single stone needle shaped structures, erected by the rulers, with their story engraved. Some part of the roof and the colored paintings are still intact. The gates are about 50 meters high and made with stones weighing about 20 tones each. They used mud ramps (some parts of it still remain), to pull the heavy stones to the top, with ropes made of plant fiber. This temple is dedicated to God Amun Ra, their sun god, around 1390 BC by King Amenophis III.
Later that evening, we were taken to the Karnak Temple, in the town, with better preserved high gates and stone columns. The front yard has the remains of ram-headed sphinxes avenue, 2 Kms long, that originally extended all the way to the Luxur temple. Some part of this temple was later used as a Church by Coptic Christians and another part as a Mosque, which is still in use.
A brief history of Egypt is helpful at this stage. It starts with the prehistoric age from 10000 BC to 5000 BC; some of the remains from this period are in Caves and Western desert, which we could not visit. Next is Predynastic period till 3000 BC, when King Narmer (3100 BC) brought Lower and Upper Egypt together. He was the founder of the first dynasty in Egypt, which had 3 Pharaonic periods, Old, Middle and New kingdoms, before Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 300 BC. He built Alexandria as a planned city, on the Mediterranean coast. The Greeks ruled Egypt till Julius Cesar and annexed it to the Roman Empire in 30 BC. The famous Cleopatra was the last Ptolemaic pharaoh, who ruled Egypt from Alexandria, during that period. Coptic religion (which was later Christianity), brought the end of the Egyptian language and the Hieroglyphics (their alphabets) engraved on their monuments for thousands of years. By AD 450, it became an Arab Islamic Empire and later was part of Ottoman Empire. In 1798 AD Napoleon Bonaparte, invaded Egypt and his Governor Mohamed Ali, took over control and his family successors ruled the country till 1952, when by a revolution the king Faoud, was thrown out and the present republic was formed (1954). Thus Egypt has rich remains from Prehistoric, Predynastic, Pharaonic, Ptolemaic, Byzantine, Coptic and Islamic eras.
The next day we visited Al-Dier Al-Bahari or Thebes Temple, which is the funeral temple of Queen Hatshepsut (1479 to 1457 BC), one of the best preserved monuments, about 10 Kms away. Then we moved on to the Valley of the Kings where a very large number of Pharaohs from the later kingdom, are buried in deep rock cut caves, dug into the sides of the barren hills. You are allowed to enter many of them and see the burial chambers and see the inscriptions and engraved picture stories. Except in one, there are no mummies or other materials, which have been mostly robbed over thousands of years or are in the museums in Egypt or other parts of the world. The only tomb found more or less intact, with the mummy and gold ornaments and other rich artifacts, belonged to an unimportant young boy pharaoh, Tutankhamun, who ruled for only 9 years from BC 1336 to 1327. This fills four or five rooms in the Cairo museum. Imagine the wealth robed from hundreds of the tombs of more powerful Pharaohs. Thousands of tourists from around the world crowd the monuments in Egypt. Tourists bring Egypt their second largest income, after the Suez Canal. We had the rare opportunity to run into Mr.Tony Blair and Mrs.Cherry Blair at very close quarters, as they were coming out of a tomb, when we were entering it. After entering three tombs, we were taken to an alabaster factory, for demonstration and souvenirs. We returned to the ship and after dinner relaxed on the deck, while the ship moved upstream. Hundreds of such cruise ships are in the river Nile, with tourists. We had a long wait in the night for our turn, at the Esna Locks, in the river to move upstream (there are many such locks in the Nile River for upstream navigation and to maintain water levels for irrigation).
The ancient Egyptian Pharaohs were considered as living Gods and they believed in life after death. Their bodies were mummified and buried with much gold, other valuables, food, boats, chariots, servants etc,which they believed were needed in their after life. The special embalming and mummification process, using rock salt and balms, took 70 days, in a special funeral temple, built for this purpose. The brain is removed through the nose and the rest of internal organs are put in four separate Jars and placed along with the mummies. The mummies were first encased in gold or gold plated coffin, with face masks (often in gold), in their own image. This was then placed in huge, heavy stone cut outer coffin with heavy close fitting stone lid and placed in large chamber with side rooms for storing valuables and other accompaniments. All the walls are inscribed with their stories, in hieroglyphics and have carved pictures of their Gods and events of their period. The Pharaohs themselves built their tombs and made the arrangements years early, as they were not sure if their successors would take the trouble to make such elaborate arrangements for their afterlife.
We moved upstream and stopped to see well preserved Greco Roman Edfu Temple, Kom-Ombo Temple built around 300 BC and Habu Temple, along the Nile River towns. Overnight we reached Aswan and saw the unfinished 42 meter long Obelisk. This was damaged while making and was abandoned lying flat at the location near Aswan. It was amazing how they were able to cut such a large long stone from the bed rock, move it to a location and erect it. We had a Felucca (traditional sail boat) ride in the Nile,to visit the Botanical garden, with wide collection of plants from all over the world. We took a short boat trip in the old Aswan dam to visit Philae Temle of Isis, salvaged from the water and rebuilt on an artificial island. Being the last day on the cruise boat, there was a farewell party while docked at Aswan, with a variety of Egyptian food and entertainments, which naturally included belly dancing and a fantastic swirling skirt dance by a man. Next morning, on our way to the Aswan airport for the trip back to Cairo, we visited two salvaged temples at Abu Simbel, of Ramses II and another temple for his favorite wife, Nefertari, we stopped on the Aswan High Dam, completed by 1972 by Russians. The Lake Nassar behind the High Dam, is the largest man made fresh water reservoir in the world. It covers 6000 square kms of area, 500 kms long (almost the length of Kerala) and has a storage capacity of 169000 million cubic meters of water.. This dam controls the yearly flood damage, ensure water in Nile delta trough out the year for cultivation and produce large quantity of electricity. All the cultivation in Egypt is confined to a few kms on either side of the Nile and the rest of the country is just desert and barren hills (rainfall of less than 3 inches per year) with not even cactus. They had to relocate a large population of Nubians and relocate two famous ancient Abu Simble temples to higher location, to build the dam. It was an hour’s flight to these temples, built by Ramses II. First one has four great statues of Ramses II and the other has statues of his wife Nefertari. In the first temple, one of his statues is placed more that 50 meters inside a rock cut cave, into the rocky hill, in a row with three other Gods of the time. It was built and rebuilt in such a way that on 22nd of February each year, which was his birth day and the day of his coronation, the rising sun light will only fall on his statue. He wanted to be worshipped as a God by the people of Upper Egypt, which he just conquered. Late that afternoon we returned to Cairo by flight and checked into Ramses Hilton, in the heart of Cairo, next to the famous Cairo Museum. We had a beautiful corner room with wonderful view of the caotic city traffic from different angles. We were given a rare opportunity to be part of the expensive New Year Eve Dinner and Celebrations (including belly dancing) at the Ramses Hilton, free of cost. Next day we visited the famous Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Citadel of Salah al-Din, Mosque, Mausoleum of Mohamed Ali (the builder of modern Egypt), and Mosque & School of Sultan Hassan and Hanging Coptic Church, all in Cairo. The mosques are large with exquisite work of art, built many centauries ago and are still in use. The church also has many relics of saints, ancient treasures and well preserved, beautiful paintings and is still in use. St Mark was in Egypt, around the same time as St.Thomas was in India and found a church, which flourished till the Muslim invasion of Egypt, in the fourth centaury AD. About 10% of the population in Egypt, are Christians. The next day we visited the famous pyramids of Giza, just outside Cairo, built by Pharaoh Chepos and others about 5000 years ago. The main three pyramids are very large. They are built with stones of about 9 cubic meters, estimated to weigh about 20 tones each. These heavy stones were presumably dragged to the top, with papyrus fiber ropes, on mud ramps and pieces of logs. Only one of the minor pyramids was open for entry. The passage is steep and very narrow and we were told that there is nothing left inside to see. On advice of those who were coming out, breathing heavily, we did not go in. In the museum nearby, there are many items on show, from the Pyramids, including a large wooden boat of the time, buried with the Pharaoh. The famous Sphinx near the pyramids in Giza is 57 meters long, 20 meters high and is the largest ever found in Egypt. We were taken to a perfume extraction unit El Omda at the Sphinx Square near the pyramids. After lunch at a typical, way side restaurant serving local food, we visited Memphis, the capital of Ramses II or Ramses the Great. The Imhotep museum at Memphis has the largest statue of Ramses II (with the legs missing) and an alabaster Sphinx. We also visited the Step Pyramid and the Bent Pyramid of Saqqara. These pyramids were built before 5000 BC, when Egyptians perfected the technique of building huge conical pyramids of Giza. The builder of the Bent Pyramid was so ashamed, that he did not want to be buried in it.
We did some shopping at the famous Khaleeli Market, where you get fooled to think you got a nice bargain, till you find the price in other shops.
Next morning we left by road for Alexandria at the Mediterranean coast. On our way we stopped at the Al Souriyan Monastery in an isolated dessert area, away from the main road. This monastery is of Syrian origin and was founded in 400 AD. Many such monasteries of different origins, are situated in this area, all of which claim to have been started by St Sebastian or his disciples around 4th or 5th Centaury AD. We were treated to traditional mint tea and local Bread and Bean curry, which is the staple food of normal Egyptians, in the country side.Many old artifacts and paintings from this early Christian period, exist here in these monasteries, most of which are under Coptic Orthodox Church.
Alexandria is a beautiful and a planned city, built by Alexander the great around 300 BC, with wide parallel streets. It has a 25 Kms long beautiful seafront, four lane avenue, with only single storey small Clubs and restaurants with small beaches, on the rocky shallow northern sea side and the other side lined with Luxury Hotels and multistory buildings. The world famous Bibliotheca Library is located on this road. In the ancient times it was the largest library in the world. The ultra modern new library building, with six storeys, under a single common roof, with eye shaped windows with eyelids; provide natural sunlight to every part, of this Library, facing the Mediterranean Sea. It has the largest reading area in the world and very large collection of books, only next to the Congress Library in Washington. It has a display of printing machines from the oldest to the most modern computerized press, little bigger than a photo copy machine, which can copy 1000 page book in 20 minutes. Each user has a computer on his table and can access any book in the library. After a visit to this library, we checked into Renaissance Alexandria Hotel facing the beautiful Sea front. We had a fabulous dinner hosted by Amr and Hossan brothers (business associates of Kanam Latex, in Egypt),in one of the typical Egyptian restaurants. Next morning after visits to the ruins of the ancient Pompey`s Pillar, The Roman Theatre and an old Coptic Church, we returned to Cairo by road. We checked into Le Meridian Hotel. Next morning, we took a walk in the side streets and along the main 4 lane road, with heavy traffic. Since we had time,we made a second visit to the large Cairo Musium, before we left for the airport, to catch the afternoon flight to Kuwait. We had a comfortable return journey and arrived at Kochi early next morning.
This was a wonderful experience,for both of us and we enjoyed every moment of the trip to Egypt, though a bit expensive. It was worth the money we spent.
K.George John.
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