Ancient sites and sand
Tourist Police A common sight anywhere there are tourists are the Tourist Police. This group is designed specifically to monitor the tourist areas, deal with any issues, and protect the tourists as they roam around. They are especially common around Giza and the Valley of the Kings (the biggest tourist draws). Our guide told us […]
Read MoreTombs Tombs for Egyptian Pharaohs have changed through the history of Egypt. Early kings were buried in simple mastaba tombs: bench-like mudbrick structures with a simple burial chamber and storage chambers. The mastaba tomb slowly morphed into a larger, more impressive monuments: the pyramids. At first, stepped pyramids (Djoser and Semerkhet), which looked like a […]
Read MoreDealing with the Airport It’s really strange, but one of the most anxious moments for me in traveling is that first few minutes in the airport, trying to figure out where you are supposed to go, what you do, who to ask, etc. I don’t get nervous out and about in a new city, but […]
Read MoreAmarna Everyone knows King Tut — fewer know of his predecessor, the “heretic” king Akhenaten who abandoned the worship of the Egyptian gods to begin what may be the first monotheistic religion in history: worship of the Aten, the sun disk. Most of us remember Akhenaten from the weirdly-shaped style of art from th eperiod […]
Read MoreCoptic Christianity Many of the non-muslims in Egypt are Coptic Christians, a branch of the Christian church that is based on the teachings of St. Mark, who came to Egypt in 50 CE. They are related to the Greek Orthodox church, but they have their own leadership and administrative structure. Copt, or Coptic, is merely […]
Read MoreAmun-Min Amun-Min is the god of fertility, and has only one arm and one leg. This is because while the other gods were off fighting, they left him in charge of the tombs and the temples — he made every woman left behind pregnant. They cut off his arm to punish him. They went to […]
Read MoreWhirling Dervishes One of the interesting side-trips we took in Cairo was to a “show” featuring Whirling Dervishes. While we all packed into the small hall at the Citadel, sitting on folding chairs, the group played music and drums. It’s an odd-sounding music to western ears. Then, the dervishes — sufi mystics — began to […]
Read MoreAnimals One of the things that we’re not used to seeing is the huge number of animals that are being led around, driven in herds, ridden, or pulling carts. You’re quite unlikely to see a donkey cart in New York, but here they are more common than cars or trucks, it seems. We saw water […]
Read MoreDriving Cairo is a huge city, with an enormous number of cars, carts, motorcycles, pedestrians, and animals. If you choose to try to drive here, you’re a braver man than I, Gunga Din. It was nerve-wracking just being a passenger! There are modern traffic signals all over Cairo now, but they appear to be mostly […]
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