Cairo

Two weeks after our trip to Cairo, I finally find time to sit down and write about it, even though the hectic and cram-packed weekend that was Cairo would never allow for a fully detailed account of everything that happened. I left my bed at 5:00 on Friday morning the 4th of July to meet everyone at the TAFL center and catch the mini-bus to Cairo, which we did rather promptly at 5:30. We got to Cairo around 9:30ish and went straight to Saqqara where we visited the tomb of Mereruka, high priest to the Pharaoh Teti, who has a pyramid close by. In some of the chambers, the color was still visible on the murals, of which their were many, portraying the high priest and his family and their life and them in the afterlife. From the tomb we went to the step pyramid, which, as it’s name would indicate does not resemble the smooth-sided triangular image we tend to associate with pyramids, like the Great Pyramids, but rather has steps. This was my favorite part of the trip, because this pyramid, built for King Zoser in 2650 BC is regarded as the oldest pyramid in the world. From Saqqara we went to Giza to see the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx, which were awe-inspiring. Amazingly or unfortunately, you can drive right up to the pyramids, and there are a lot of Egyptians harraassing you to buy their souvenirs and take a ride on their camel or donkey or horse or whatever kind of beast of burden they happen to have with them. After the pyramids we went to see the Sphinx close by and I finally learned how the Sphinx actually lost his nose. It was not used for target practice by Napoleon’s army, nor did the sculptor make it crack and fall when he saw Aladdin and Jasmine fly by on their magic carpet. No, the Sphinx was purposely defaced in the Middle Ages under the order of one of the rulers of Egypt, to keep the Egyptians from considering it a deity and worshipping it in lieu of Islam. After Giza, we went to a Papyrus museum/store, where we were showed how paper is made from papyrus and we shopped for souvenirs. After our jam-packed day, we finally went to our hotel for the night. The next day we spent at the Cairo museum which housed many of the awesome artifacts from Egypt’s ancient history, such as animal mummies and the infamous King Tut, in addition to other mummies and sarcophagi. There were also myriad statues, doors, chariots, jewelry, canopic jars (the containers used to place the brain, lungs, liver, and kidneys of the mummies) amid countless other treasures. After that I went with Adrienne, Jennifer, and Cara (some of the girls in the program) to the famous Khan al-Khalil souq, which has countless souvenirs and where some of the most intense haggling is to be found in Egypt. We had dinner on board a boat on the Nile, but I wasn’t nearly as excited by that as the wedding going on above us (the boat had two floors), to which I would sneak peeks at as I went up onto the deck. The cruise didn’t last long enough, and the Nile was beautiful, especially at night, when all is distant and quite, except for the inside of our huge tourist boat, of course, which featured dancing and singing. All in all, it was a great end to a great day. The next day we went to see some of the religious sites around Cairo- we visited the Coptic Section, where we visited the “Hanging Church” so called because it is built on top of the Water Gate of Roman Babylon and thus doesn’t really have a foundation. We also visited the church of St. Sergius, which dates back to the 3rd century. Under the church is a cave where it is said the Baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph lived in during their stay in Egypt when the fled to escape Herod. In addition to Christian sites, we also visited Al-Azhar Mosque, part of the university, and by far one of the most spiritual places I’ve ever been in. Founded in 970 A.D., Al-Azhar is one of Egypt’s oldest mosque and is considered the oldest university in the world and it has really lived up to its heritage by remaining a bastion of Islamic thought in the Middle East. In addition to the religious sites we visited the citadel, which contained a beautiful mosque and offered stunning views of the city, with the pyramids in the distance. Looking out over the city, I thought to myself “man, maybe I could live here for awhile”; but hanshoof inshallah (we’ll see, Lord willing).