Cairo/Giza
January 14, 2007

Today we woke up at 4:00 a.m. on the sleeper train, I didn't eat breakfast because it was way too early to think about food!  When we arrived back in Cairo it was around 5:30 or 6:00 a.m.  We had to carry our luggage for what seemed like forever, each bag feeling like it weighed 100 pounds.  Here everything on the east side of the Nile is called Cairo and everything on the west side is called Giza.  The both together are called greater Cairo.  We traveled from the train directly to the Mosque of Ahmad Ibn Tulon.  Here, before we entered, we had to put clothe slippers over our shoes.  I was surprised that this was not really done for a religious reason.  It was done because people do not want to be placing  their heads and hands on a surface that others have been tracking dirt, grime, and whatever else in from the streets stuck on the bottom of their shoes. I was just happy we didn't have to go barefoot!  "Cleanliness is next to godliness", this re-enforcing the idea that purity is extremely important, and dryness is pure.  The mosque is very conservative, very basic, because this is how a mosque should appear; there is not supposed to be anything decorative.   Amr explained that Muslims are probably one of the most respectful peoples towards the Christian religion and Jesus.  They never make jokes or depict Jesus in any derogative way.  Even though the mosque is basic and plain, the architecture is beautiful!  There are even a few stained glass windows intact.  The group learned that before now, Egypt had been occupied for 2,000 years.  This means President Nasser had to start democracy little-by-little, at a very slow pace.  The tall towers used for call to prayer are called Minaret's.  People of the Muslim religion don't really go to just one mosque, as Christians usually stick to one church, because they don't need to be in a mosque to pray.  Since they pray five times a day they can pray in the street, or where ever they may be when the call to prayer is heard.  Attached to the mosque were two houses, one for mean and the other for women.  The house originally belonged to Gayer Anderson, he was a very wealthy man who collected furniture and art from various time periods and countries.  These houses were from about the twentieth century.  An interesting aspect were the windows because they had a covering made of wood, you can see out of them and on to the streets but not from the streets in.  These were made for the women who weren't allowed to leave the house.  "Sabil" means to provide with water.  In one room there was a 25 foot well, they would fill up the brass cups chained to the windows to give to the homeless or travelers on the street.  People who had such wells and who gave out water were very wealthy.  There were actually two movies filmed here, one was a James Bond film called A Spy Who Loved Me.


Our perspective from the top of a Mosque

To ancient Egyptians, the cat meant "living image" which is why there are so many alabaster cats and depictions of them as well.  There was a remake of one in the house that was very eye-catching.  We next visited the Hanging Church, 6th Century A.D.  This church gets the name hanging because it sits on a tower, so it is actually above the street level.  There were actually a few windows in the floor that allowed us to see the street below.  There is a blue inscription just outside the church from 1899,  it has been on the streets of Egypt all this time without any protection and is still almost perfectly intact! 


                                                                        Inscription from 1899

As above I mentioned the church was from 6th century A.D. but there is some proof from the walls that it dates back to even the 1st century.  There are several walls dating back to the fourth and second century as well, which proves the some of it was built before the sixth.  Ostriches stare continuously at their eggs until they hatch, ostrich eggs are sometimes hung from the ceiling inside to remind people to concentrate.  The men and women are separated during church for the same reason.  The stained glass here is exceptionally beautiful and is considered the best in Egypt.  We also saw the crypt were Jesus Christ and Mary stayed, I was really just amazed to be standing there.  Unfortunately I was tackled by a Chinese woman.  Not literally but, wow, she was anxious to see the crypt!  Next was the Ben Ezra Synagogue, which was once a church but has since been changed.  The place was gorgeous, I really have no words to describe it, the inside was just beautiful.  Soon after we ate on a boat, much like our Solaris II, The food was good, especially the chocolate pudding!  Then back to the hotel, shower, a few glasses of wine and bedtime.    


Cairo/Giza
January 15, 2007

This morning I am so excited because we finally get to see the pyramids!  We started with the Sphinx of Memphis of the 19th dynasty (1200 B.C.).  At one point water had devastated all of the pieces here at Memphis, it seems a lot of people get disappointed when they come here, but they often don't know about what happened or any of the unique facts about what has been restored and saved at this site.  The sphinx here is hard to date because there are no hieroglyphics.  The only way they can really tell is by the style of art, detail, dress and headdress because they vary between the old, middle, and new kingdoms.  The Ancient Egyptians were the first to become perfectionists, were they artisans?  Not really.  Artisan is not a good word to describe them because they are very well trained and the high priest would always tell them what to do.  They couldn't really think outside the box or be creative because they did only what they were told.  Here there was a statue of Rameses II, it was huge which is not out of the ordinary for him.  It was made of limestone and had a supportive pillar attached to the back of the statue.  This statue depicts the beautiful eye make-up worn.  There is also a roll of papyrus in his hand, but this was very much for support.  The statue was excavated by a French archaeologist in 1916.                 


The sphinx at Memphis and statue of Rameses II

Next we went to Dashur where Snoferu, who was the first king of the 4th dynasty, erected the first real pyramids.  The first attempt ever at building a pyramid was the "Bent Pyramid", it was called this because it's angle changes halfway up.  This happened because while they were building, they realized the angle was far too steep.   The second one ever built is known as the "Red Pyramid", which is really the first "true" pyramid because it is the first structure built with an uninterrupted slope.  Only some of Snoferu's body was found here in the Red Pyramid.  Snoferu's son, Kheops, became ruler after him and is responsible for building the Great Pyramid at Giza.  Obviously, these structures are from the Old kingdom because pyramids were not used in the New kingdom any longer because they were so obvious to Tomb robbers.  In the New kingdom the Egyptians began to bury the pharaohs in the Valley of the Kings.        


The Bent Pyramid                                           The Red Pyramid

Anyway, the Red Pyramid is the one we actually got to go into, it was possibly the coolest thing I've ever done!  We climbed up almost a quarter of the pyramid to the entrance, which was quite the hike!  The entrance ramp to the inside of the pyramid was very small and steep, so we all had to hunch over as we made our way down the slope.  Getting into the first room was absolutely amazing, being able to see the pyramid from the inside was a great experience.  We were then able to enter a room further back inside the pyramid, all of a sudden the only thing I could smell is what can only be described as cat pee.   As we made our way up the staircase, leading to where Snoferu's sarcophagus and corpse once laid, the smell became unbearable, it was like straight ammonia.   It was so difficult to breathe, I tried putting my face inside my sweatshirt thinking it may weaken the stench but I had no such luck.  The guide told us the smell was from a combination of factors; the entrance to this pyramid was only opened ten years ago, they wanted to keep the inside environment like what it was before so it was old (vacuumed) air, and there was an air conditioner installed that wasn't working.  Basically, there was no circulation of air at all, so you can imagine how stuffy the air would be.  This experience was incredible nevertheless and I think the whole ordeal of having a hard time breathing made it more interesting, more real.  Going back up the ramp was a whole lot easier, I was hot and out of breath, but I ran up that ramp humming the theme song from Rocky.  haha, I'm a dork but it was funny!  



View from inside the Red Pyramid

Next Amr took us to the El Sultan carpet school to see how handmade carpets are created and to give us a chance to buy one.  I didn't because they were expensive and Lydia also made a point that Egyptian carpet is not as well made as those from Persia, it is not their main trade.  Amr ended up getting our whole group small carpets as gifts, what a great person he is! 

El Sultan Carpet school

Next we headed towards the Step Pyramid in Saqqara.  It was so unbelievable to see a structure still standing after 5,000 years!  The idea for building this structure, of course, came from Imhoteop.  He was a genius architect who wanted his clients' burials to be different than all the rest.  During his time, everyone was buried under a mastaba bench.  Imhotep made the first mastabas but he wanted to create something more unique.   A mastaba was basically just a sarcophagus by itself, there were many here at Saqqara because the land is higher and  there is less chance of flooding from the Nile.  To create something new, Imhotep thought of placing one smaller mastaba on top of another and  this lead on to become the Step Pyramid.  Imhotep also designed the temple, next to the Step Pyramid, to look a lot like his own palace; the entrance, even though carved out of stone, looked like two doors with hinges.  He also made the columns look like rolls of papyrus.  The view from here was amazing because we could see all the pyramids, every pyramid from the 1st to the 6th dynasty.


The Step Pyramid in Saqqara

We then made way towards the Pyramids at Giza, we first took a couple of group photos from a distance and got shirts as gifts from Valeri.  When we finally got off the bus at the pyramids I was speechless, it was incredible to think such a massive structure was made by man.  Even though many of the casing stones had been removed and used to build mosques during Medieval Cairo, the pyramid built by Khephren still has some of it's original casing on the top!  These pyramids would have had over 2,000,000 limestone blocks, some weighing about 15 tons each!  


The Pyramids at Giza

After the pyramids, we also saw the solar boat.  It was so incredible, I didn't think I would be that interested but once I saw it I was amazed.  It's hard to believe that this boat was still in such great condition even though it is from 2500 B.C.  This boat is still totally intact and was built with no nails whatsoever.  It was built with just wood and ropes to hold this ancient piece together.   The boat was built with cedar wood and is a real boat that has been used by a pharaoh at least two times.  They can tell it has been used by the scratches on the bottom, it is rare it was put into use because usually these would be saved for the pharaohs to use in the afterlife.  This boat was probably used by the pharaoh to check the progress of the pyramids or for pilgrimages to Abydos; this would be the most common use for the boat. 


The Solar Boat

Afterwards, we had to rush to the Sphinx because we were running late.  Amr was amazing today!  The museum was closing and the guards wouldn't let us in, people were telling us to find our guide and give up but Amr went and got some big shot who told the guards to let us in to see the Sphinx!  It felt good to see the looks on some of their faces after they told us to we wouldn't get in, Amr is the best I will definitely miss him very much!  Anyway, we had to blast through the Sphinx portion of the visit but we were able to get some great pictures and still learn a few things.  I learned the Sphinx was probably made because it was once a mountain blocking the view of the pyramids, so the Ancient Egyptians carved it in to the Sphinx.  We were supposed to also go on a camel ride today but since we were so late we didn't have time, Amr promises we will do it soon.  When leaving the Sphinx for some reason we saw an Egyptian man getting beaten pretty badly by the guards, we had no idea why, Amr said he may have disrespected a woman.  It was pretty disturbing, I was about to cry while Rachel was taking pictures; it was a lot of excitement to say the least!  It was a great day, we had a very late lunch at a restaurant with a great view of the pyramids and it turned out to be the best meal I've had so far here.  Now, back to the hotel and bed. Goodnight!