EGYPT, March 28-30, 2017
And my new adventures begin...
Since there are so many countries, photos and stories to tell, I will do separate blog posts for each.
But first it was a flight on March 28th from Bari to Rome. My original flight from Rome to Cairo was cancelled, so I had to re-book for an earlier flight, which unfortunately, was not the quick connection I originally had in Rome, therefore, I roamed the Rome Airport for a few hours. Not a difficult thing to do, as there are more than 130 shops.
These Italian planes are made for short legged Italian people, so they are very uncomfortable for my long legs and wide body. Knowing this from past experience, I paid the extra fee for a more comfortable seat, however, when they changed my flights, they failed to change my seat, and unfortunately, I didn't get an upgrade, as the plane was full. At that point, I was just glad it was a short flight. However, a gentleman who was seated in a row with more leg room, overheard the Air Steward talking with me, and after the steward had informed me that the flight was full and there were no available seats, this nice man offered me his seat! If my legs hadn't been completely jammed into the seat in front of me, I would have declined, however, it really was a problem for me, so I gladly accepted. Otherwise, after an hour or more in that situation, I wouldn't have even been able to walk for a while, until my knees were exercised a little. Thank you sir! When I arrived home, I submitted an online form, and they refunded my money without hesitation.
My flight to Cairo also had my original seat, however, it was a much larger airplane and the seat and leg room were very nice and adequate. Very comfortable physically, but my mental state was a bit concerned, as I was heading into an 'unsafe' zone, and had read all the warnings about traveling here.
During my planning stage for my time in Egypt, I pre-booked, and prepaid EVERYTHING, before I left, so as to not have any difficulties when I arrived, this included all my airport transfers, tours, hotel, etc. Very happy to say, that it was one of my most enjoyable and memorable trips ever. Everyone was over the top friendly and helpful and my time in Egypt couldn't have been better. Now here are the photos. I posted to facebook a few teaser photos taken with my phone, just to keep those who were following me along my journey updated, as they were also concerned, but now here are the 'real camera' photos:
First thing upon arriving at the airport, I had to go to the 'bank' located inside the airport and purchase an Entry Visa for $25. This they posted in my passport. After going through passport control, then on to get my luggage, I headed outside to locate my prepaid transport. And there he was, holding up a big sign with my name on it. Our plane was late arriving, and by the time I did all the above, I wasn't sure he would be there, but first thing he said, "I knew your plane was late". He was a professional, and from that moment on, I trusted him.
The young man who picked me up at the Airport in Cairo. He was ever such a nice young christian fellow (a real minority in these countries), and we had a great visit during the hour it took us to get to the hotel. He says he usually never talks politics, religion or money, and we talked about all three! He was a Trump supporter and in addition, during my month of traveling in all these countries, I was very happy to hear this from many many natives in the countries I went to.
Cairo has three major airports, all located on the same side and area of Cairo, then with their 30 million inhabitants all going home from work at this hour, the traffic is very bad trying to get out of there during rush hour.
In the restaurant, breakfast was a gigantic affair. Two main eating areas... one for all the cheeses, breads, cereals, nuts, pastries and fruits.
Let the day begin. I had hired a personal tour guide and driver. They arrived at my hotel exactly at 8am, the scheduled time, and right from the moment we met, I knew they were going to make my time here special, and I was not disappointed. Highly highly recommend them. And so we were off.
First stop was to be the Pyramids, but getting there was a bit of a challenge, as the traffic in Cairo is like none other. Every since I arrived in Italy three years ago, I have often mentioned how 'bad' the driving is in Italy... well, I have to stand down from that now.
The driving in Egypt isn't just that there are millions of people on the roads, but there really are NO rules, no crosswalks, no official bus stops, in addition to donkeys, horses, carts, bicycles, mopeds, three wheel taxis, people walking and then other people not only riding in vehicles, but hanging on the side, bumpers, backs... just about everything you can imagine and all are trying to use the road. As you can see, a major jam up here...
This is actually a main highway. Major traffic jam with autos, people, carts, donkeys, etc.
And then we arrived at the pyramids. The driver pulled up to the nearest point and the guide and I got out, then he went to find a place to park, and wait, until we were ready to leave, at which time she would call him and within a couple minutes he would be there to pick us up.
The guide went to get the tickets while I started taking photos. So nice to have someone to do all the 'detail' work for you ☺... oh well, yes, I had to pay for this service, but was well worth it, and very inexpensive! The other nice thing, because she was an official registered guide, I never had to wait in any lines... always immediate entry.
Pyramid of Menkaure is the smallest
And onward we go to see Ramseis II or Ramses II, also spelled Ramesses or Rameses, by name Ramses the Great. My guide told me this was the Pharaoh when Joseph was sold into Egypt by his brothers.... but according to my research, I am unable to prove this. Our very own USA, Ben Carson, claimed that the Old Testament figure Joseph built the Egyptian pyramids to store food. “My own personal theory is that Joseph built the pyramids to store grain,” Carson said in a 1998 commencement speech at Andrews University, unearthed by BuzzFeed. “Now all the archaeologists think that they were made for the pharaohs’ graves. But, you know, it would have to be something awfully big — when you stop and think about it, and I don’t think it’d just disappear over the course of time — to store that much grain.”
The guardians of Ramseis II
EARLY LIFE AND CAMPAIGNS
Ramesses was the son of Seti I and Queen Tuya and accompanied his father on military campaigns in Libya and Palestine at the age of 14. By the age of 22 Ramesses was leading his own campaigns in Nubia with his own sons, Khaemweset and Amunhirwenemef, and was named co-ruler with Seti. With his father, Ramesses set about vast restoration projects and built a new palace at Avaris. The Egyptians had long had an uneasy relationship with the kingdom of the Hittites (in modern-day Asia Minor) who had grown in power to dominate the region. Under the Hittite king Suppiluliuma I (1344-1322 BC), Egypt had lost many important trading centers in Syria and Canaan. Seti I recaptured the most coveted center, Kadesh in Syria, but it had been taken back by the Hittite king Muwatalli II (1295-1272 BC). After the death of Seti I in 1290 BC, Ramesses assumed the throne and at once began military campaigns to restore the borders of Egypt, ensure trade routes, and take back from the Hittites what he felt rightfully belonged to him. In the second year of his reign, Ramesses defeated the Sea Peoples off the coast of the Nile Delta. According to his account, these were a people known as the Sherdan who were allies of the Hittites. Ramesses laid a trap for them by placing a small naval contingent at the mouth of the Nile to lure the Sherdan warships in. Once they had engaged the meager fleet, he launched his full attack from both sides, sinking their ships. Many of the Sherdan who survived the battle were then pressed into his army, some even serving as his elite body guard. The Sea Peoples' origin and ethnicity is unknown, although many theories have been suggested, but Ramesses describes them in his account as Hittite allies and this is important as it underscores the relationship between the Egyptians and Hittites at this time. Ramesses next launched a military campaign into Canaan which had been a Hittite vassal state since the reign of the Hittite king Suppiluliuma I. This campaign was successful and Ramesses returned home with plunder and Canaanite (and probably Hittite) royalty as prisoners. The historian Susan Wise Bauer comments on this: At twenty-five, the new pharaoh had already been living an adult life for at least ten years. He had married for the first time at fifteen or so, and had already fathered at least seven children. He had already fought in at least two of his father's campaigns up into the Western Semitic lands. He did not wait long before picking up the fight against the Hittite enemy. In 1275, only three years or so after taking the throne, he began to plan a campaign to get Kadesh back. The city had become more than a battle front; it was a symbolic foot-ball kicked back and forth between empires. Kadesh was too far north for easy control by the Egyptians, too far south for easy administration by the Hittites. Whichever empire claimed it could boast of superior strength. In late 1275 BC, Ramesses prepared his army to march on Kadesh and waited only for the omens to be auspicious and word from his spies in Syria as to the enemy's strength and position. In 1274 BC, when all seemed in his favor, he led some twenty thousand men into battle divided into the four companies named after the gods: Amun, Ra, Ptah, and Set. Ramesses led the Amun division with the others following behind.
THE BATTLE OF KADESH
They marched for two months before reaching a place where he felt confident in arranging his army in battle formation for attack on the city and waited with his Amun division, along with his sons, for the others to catch up. At this time, two Hittite spies were captured who, under torture, gave up the location of the Hittite army which they said was nowhere near the city. Reassured, Ramesses abandoned his plans for an immediate strike and gave orders for his division to encamp and wait for the rest of the army to arrive. The Hittite army, however, was actually less than a mile away and the two spies had been purposefully sent. As Ramesses was pitching camp, the Hitties roared out from behind the walls of Kadesh and struck. The battle is described in Ramesses accounts, Poem of Pentaur and The Bulletin, in which he relates how the Amun division was completely overrun by the Hittites and the lines were broken. The Hittite cavalry was cutting down the Egyptian infantry and survivors were scrambling for the safety of their camp. Recognizing his situation, Ramesses called upon his protector god, Amun, and fought back. According to historian Margaret Bunson: Ramesses brought calm and purpose to his small units and began to slice his way through the enemy in order to reach his southern forces. With only his household troops, with a few officers and followers, and with the rabble of the defeated units standing by, he mounted his chariot and discovered the extent of the forces against him. He then charged the eastern wing of the assembled foe with such ferocity that they gave way, allowing the Egyptians to escape the net which Muwatalli had cast for them. Ramesses had only just turned the tide of battle when the Ptah division arrived and he quickly ordered them to follow him in the attack. He drove the Hittites toward the Orontes River killing many of them while others drowned trying to escape. He had not considered the position his hasty charge might place him in, however, and was now caught between the Hittites and the river. All Muwatalli II needed to do to win at this point was to send his reserve troops into battle and Ramesses and his army would have been destroyed; yet, for some reason, the Hittite king did not do this. Ramesses rallied his forces and drove the Hittites from the field. He then claimed a great victory for Egypt in that he had defeated his enemy in battle but the Battle of Kadesh nearly resulted in his defeat and death. According to his own reports, it was only owing to his own personal courage and calm in battle (and the goodwill of the gods) that he was able to turn the tide against the Hittites.)
Colossal 3,000-year-old statue unearthed from Cairo pit A team of archaeologists has discovered a giant 3,000-year-old statue thought to depict Ramses II, in what the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities is describing as "one of [its] most important archaeological discoveries." Archaeologists from Egypt and Germany began removing the quartzite statue -- estimated to stand 30 feet tall -- from the ground in Matariya, greater Cairo, in front of state representatives and media crews Thursday. The find comes at the end of a dig that began in 2012, says Dietrich Raue from the University of Leipzig, who heads the German team of archaeologists involved in the excavation. "It was in an area that was almost completely investigated," he explains. The team had found basalt bases in the dilapidated courtyard, but nothing more substantial. "We thought [the pit] would be empty without any features... so that was a great surprise." Minister of Antiquities Khaled al-Anani, who was on site for the unveiling, said the figure is most likely Pharaoh Ramses II, otherwise known as Ozymandias. No inscriptions on the statue identify it as Ramses II, said Mahmoud Afifi, head of Ancient Egyptian antiquities at the ministry, but its discovery near the gate of a temple dedicated to Ramses II temple makes him the most likely subject. But Raue says although the statue was certainly placed there by Ramses II, the jury is still out on who it depicts. Much of the temple complex of ancient Heliopolis, where the statue was found, was destroyed in the Greco-Roman period, and antiquities were plundered and sent to Alexandria or Europe. Other building materials were recycled as Cairo reinvented itself in later eras.
Some beautiful blossoms in this dry desert.
And then we are off again. This time to watch how they still make paper from papyrus.
Sheets could be cut to fit the obligatory size or glued together to create a longer roll. A wooden stick would be attached to the last sheet in a roll, making it easier to handle. To form the long strip scrolls required, a number of such sheets were united, placed so all the horizontal fibers parallel with the roll's length were on one side and all the vertical fibers on the other. Normally, texts were first written on the recto, the lines following the fibers, parallel to the long edges of the scroll. Secondarily, papyrus was often reused, writing across the fibers on the verso.
In a dry climate, like that of Egypt, papyrus is stable, formed as it is of highly rot-resistant cellulose; but storage in humid conditions can result in molds attacking and destroying the material. Library papyrus rolls were stored in wooden boxes and chests made in the form of statues. Papyrus scrolls were organized according to subject or author, and identified with clay labels that specified their contents without having to unroll the scroll.
Historians believe that previous tombs were unimpressively constructed of mud-brick and sand, built as a single large platform. The Step Pyramid was planned with six stacked terraces or mastabas of large stone blocks and was originally encased in polished white limestone. Like their famous cousins at Giza, the large stones created an exceptional workload and huge engineering challenges with over 250,000 ton of rock slabs lifted and joined to create this staggering 60 meter tall edifice.
Hidden from view are kilometers of passageways for the burial of the pharaoh’s family and the various goods, food stuffs, furniture, jewels and comforts required for the next life.
Been a long morning, saw so much, now time to take a break for some lunch. So here we are at this very interesting restaurant
After lunch, was time to move on and see more things. My guide and driver were so approachable, and asked me what I would like to see/do. What I really wanted to see next, was not the 'tourist' areas, but how the 'real' people of Egypt lived, so they were excellent in accommodating my request.
Written by Tarek El-Tablawy September 8, 2016, Egypt Inflation Driven to Highest in at Least 7 Years. "Egypt’s annual inflation rate accelerated to 15.5 percent in August, driven to its highest level in at least seven years by the weakening of the currency and an increase in electricity prices. Consumer prices rose 1.9 percent in the month, according to data published by the state-run CAPMAS statistics agency. Food and beverage prices, which account for the largest component of the basket of goods and services, climbed 19.3 percent in August compared to the previous year and 1.6 percent in the month. “The numbers were going in that direction,” said Reham El-Desoki, senior economist at Dubai-based investment bank Arqaam Capital. “You have a very strong negative base effect at this point and it’s going to get worse.” She predicted inflation would accelerate to as much as 20 percent by the end of the year. The August rate was the highest since Bloomberg started tracking the data in 2009, and El-Desoki said it was the highest since December 2008. Annual core inflation, which strips out volatile items such as food, accelerated to 13.25 percent last month, according to the central bank. That’s its highest level since February 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Inflation is quickening as Egypt tries to finalize a $12 billion International Monetary Fund loan. The government has promised to implement a range of economic reforms, including spending cuts and the new value-added tax parliament approved last month. El-Desoki attributed the acceleration in August to factors including the “pass-through effect from the continuous fall of the Egyptian pound” on the black market and the increase in electricity prices by as much as 47 percent last month. The pound is trading on the black market at a discount of about 30 percent to its official rate against the dollar.
The central bank weakened the currency by about 13 percent in March in an attempt to attract investments and ease a dollar shortage hampering growth. Economists have said the new 13 percent VAT, which will rise to 14 percent in the next fiscal year, will add as much as 2 percentage points to headline inflation. It’s part of a broader package of measures designed to revive an economy that has struggled to rebound following the 2011 ouster of President Hosni Mubarak."
Then, we headed back toward the city proper.
Mothers leading the school children home
Flying down the highways, and yet rarely did you see the side door closed on these vans. They don't wear seatbelts either!
I still hadn't gotten any Egyptian Pounds, so my guide and my driver knew just the place where I could get the best rate, so they took me there. The driver helped me cross the busy highway, dodging between cars and then went into the exchange office with me to make sure they didn't 'rip me off'. I had already checked the rate on line, so I would have some idea of what I would be receiving. Again, I can't say enough, how helpful my driver and guide were. Went out of their way to may my time special here.
977 Egyptian Pounds for 50 Euros
When my guide asked me what I would like to do and see here in Egypt, other than the tours I had already scheduled, I mentioned I would like to purchase some real Egyptian cotton clothes. When I came to my hotel that first night, I had also mentioned this to my airport to hotel driver. He said not to purchase at the souks, as the quality is very poor. So now, my guide said she would take me to a really quality shop. Here is where she took me. What a beautiful shop.
I purchased these two dresses for 560.00 Egyptian pounds equal to about $30 US... $15 each. I started wearing them right away, and love them! So comfortable.
Then my driver and guide returned me to my Safir Hotel. They would pick me up again tomorrow morning. Since it wasn't entirely dark yet, I decided to take a walk to the Nile River for some evening/night photos, and also to stop at a restaurant along the way for a bite to eat. The streets wind and curve, and dead end, and or blocked, and even though I knew the river was close, I couldn't actually see it. The university is very near my hotel, so a young lady was standing at the corner and I asked her for directions (again, as I had asked at the hotel). She wasn't entirely sure, so asked another person. Since she wasn't exactly sure how to describe the shortest way, she offered to walk there with me. I assured her, that wasn't necessary, however, she insisted, so off she went with me. When we came to the main highway intersection at Tahrir Square, and traffic was flowing from all directions (giant round about here), a man approached us and offered to help us cross the highway to get to the bridge. That was handy, since he was a Big man, and just stepped out into the traffic and held up his hand. Since he was a shop owner, and had a shop along that corner, he then said he would walk along with me. The young lady who had gotten me to the river, then returned to where her friend was waiting to pick her up... what she was doing when I first saw her. She wanted nothing from me, was just a lovely young lady. As I said before, the people here were exceptionally friendly and helpful.
Now with that being said, there are also those who are being helpful just for their own personal gain... hoping to get something out of you. In a country that is so poor, one can hardly blame them. And this is what the case was with the man that was now with me. He couldn't wait for me to get done taking my photos etc., as he wanted to show me his shop. I finally had to be firm with him and explain, I had no interest in purchasing any art or products. He was persistent too... since we were near his shop, I thought maybe it wouldn't hurt to take a look, but as soon as we approached the shop, his 'brother' was inside the shop with the door locked... this raised all kinds of red flags for me, so at that point, I became 'blunt' and said I really wasn't interested, and turned and walked away. Was glad there were lots of other people near...
The bedside stand in my hotel has a Quran and a prayer shawl.
NEXT DAY: March 30th
The Citadel is one of Egypt main attractions and is often the most popular non-pharaonic monuments. One may walk through time here, from the medieval era onward. In addition, many other wonderful Islamic structures are nearby.
Near the far end of the Northern Enclosure is the Suleyman Pasha Mosque. It was the first Ottoman style mosque built in Egypt and dates from 1528. It was built to serve the early Ottoman troops.
So as we were leaving the mosque, I was approaching this family getting out of their vehicle, when the older girls came running up to me and wanted to take a picture with me. My guide explained to me that here they Prize White skin, and since I hadn't been in the sun for several months of winter, I definitely was white, and also a head full of white hair, so I was certainly White on White! This became a pattern everywhere I went in Cairo... many young girls wanting to take a photo with me, and some of them didn't even have their own camera's.... didn't matter, they still wanted me to take a photo.
After the Citadel, we went to the City of the Dead. Now that is something I had never heard of before.
A man from Saudi Arabia is still barred from traveling a year after he visited an Egyptian synagogue. Saudi embassies say visiting non-Muslim religious sites is not prohibited, however, young Saudis report that some of them have been penalized by security authorities after such visits.
I don't remember for certain, but I think this was the Opera house that I just took a photo as we drove past. It was a very pretty building.
More of these jam-packed vans.
I mentioned the police presence early in this blog post, but here are a few photos. Unlike everyone else here in Cairo, they do not like anyone to photograph them, so I had to do it quickly and without fanfare, and sometimes from a distance like this. On my first night here in Cairo, on the drive from the airport to my hotel, my driver was telling me about the revolution, the terrible fighting that had gone on here and showed me the buildings that were damaged during that time.
On the streets of downtown Cairo a squadron of armoured personnel carriers and kalashnikov-toting policemen have stood guard for much of the past few months. In itself, this isn’t new – Egypt’s security forces have often fought protesters in these streets during the past four years. But this time their target is different: they’re here to keep downtown Cairo free from street-vendors – men selling T-shirts and pants emblazoned with Spongebob Squarepants. “We will not allow one vendor to busy the street,” Cairo’s governor, Galal Saeed, warned at the start of the crackdown. For the sellers, the policy is a small catastrophe. After the 2011 uprising, the police vanished from the downtown area, and hundreds of stallholders took advantage of the security vacuum to set up shop in the heart of Cairo, clogging several of its main streets. But now the state is finally making its presence felt once again, and the sellers have been shunted en masse to the Turgoman car park, in the shadow of Cairo’s main bus station. Footfall is almost zero here, and the vendors’ revenues have fallen to a similar level. And they are furious. “The government is using us to make it look like they’re working on downtown,” says Ahmed Abdelgalil, a 29-year-old shirt-seller sitting in the empty Turgoman car park. “But in reality they’re not doing anything. They’re just improving their image at our expense.”
By prime minister Ibrahim Mahleb’s own admission, the cleansing of downtown Cairo is emblematic of the state’s attempts to restore its own authority – or, as Mahleb himself puts it, “state prestige”. Three years after the revolution loosened the state’s control over many parts of Egypt – not least in central Cairo, home of the famous Tahrir Square – the state is back, and wants people to know it.
But in central Cairo the state has competition. Its scrap with the street-sellers is the most visible powerplay in a battle for the soul of the downtown area– but it is just one of several such tussles. Revolutionaries, politicians, property investors and artists are among a clutch of actors to articulate competing and overlapping narratives on what Cairenes call “wust el-balad”: the centre of the country. “Now downtown is almost at a juncture,” says Omar Nagati, an architect who works in downtown Cairo, where he co-founded urban design and research platform Cluster. “Are we going back to business as usual? Or has what happened in the last three or four years created a new condition that allows more space for negotiation?” Since 2011, the people most associated with the area have been the revolutionaries. Young, secular activists, they turned a previously tightly policed area into a symbol of people-power, filling its streets with weekly protests, its once-barren walls with beautiful murals, and its cafes with political debate. “After the revolution I’d go every day to share political views,” says Ahmad Abd Allah, a leading member of the now-banned 6 April movement, one of the groups that helped spark the uprising. “Sitting in downtown united a lot of people – it became a hub for the youth groups.” In fact, the state’s plan to revamp the area was quite literally halted by the revolution. “We were supposed to sign the contract on 1 February [2011],” remembers Sahar Attiya, the urban planner who won the government tender to beautify the area – part of a wider, controversial Mubarak-era plan, known as Cairo 2050, to redevelop the capital. “But the revolution started on 25 January. So everything stopped.” Until the rise of Egypt’s new strongman, former army chief Abdel Fatah el-Sisi, the state’s attitude to a highly politicised downtown area largely became one of containment. The government blocked off several streets with walls that prevented protesters from reaching key state institutions. Even now, Attiya’s blueprint to restructure the area has not yet been revisited. The various governmental departments that have agency in downtown Cairo – the local governor, the national leadership, and the state-run company that owns 400 buildings in the area – do not act as one. But since Sisi ousted Egypt’s first post-revolution president, Mohamed Morsi, the state has begun a comeback. Some of the walls have been knocked down. Police have returned. Protest has effectively been banned. Major buildings have been repainted – and the revolutionaries have been squeezed out along with the street-sellers. “Getting the street-sellers off the street is just a smokescreen for getting us all off the streets,” says Ahmad Abd Allah, who now has to hold fort in a cafe far from the bustle of the downtown area. “A lot of activists have been detained from downtown cafes, so it’s not a safe space. It used to be a gathering point for all of us. Now we’ve been scattered.”
Attiya, though, is not distraught by this. “I don’t want people to feel that public spaces are only for demonstration,” she says. “I want it to be for other culture – for activity that’s not necessarily political.” Cairo’s modern-day downtown pains those who want it to return to its belle-epoque hey-day in the first half of the 20th century. Back then, its grand European-style boulevards were home to much of the city’s elite, as well as a large expatriate community, and were lined with ornate cafes, cinemas and expensive shops. Over the past 50 years, downtown Cairo has fallen into decay. Its art-nouveau apartment blocks are now caked in dirt. After the government embarked on a nationalisation programme in the 1950s, and as Cairo expanded in the 60s, 70s and 80s, most of the area’s richer residents were either forced out or chose to move to newer urban hubs. “Life on this street has changed completely since I first came here,” says 69-year-old Soheir Kamel, who has lived in a grand flat in downtown Cairo for nearly a half-century, but now finds herself the only resident in her building. “You don’t feel safe here. My daughter used to come home very late – one in the morning even! Now, never.” A combination of rent-control laws and rapid inflation meant that many of the remaining residents ended up paying little more than a few pounds a month in rent – which gave landlords little incentive to keep their property well-maintained. So by the 90s, many buildings had fallen into disrepair, and the downtown area had turned downmarket. “It has always been a place where dramatic shifts have been happening,” says Kareem Ibrahim, co-founder of Takween, a group of community-focused urban planners in Cairo. “You can’t say that there is an indigenous population that has [always] been living in downtown. It was a place for the elite of society, and then a middle-class place, and then even a lower-middle class place.” One private company is slowly attempting to reverse this change. Over the past few years, a group of private investors called Ismaelia has bought at least 24 buildings in downtown Cairo – a sizeable investment that has put the company under considerable scrutiny. Ismaelia’s professed aim is to restore the area to its former splendour. It is renovating its own buildings, and encouraging artists to use them, often at favourable rates – and it helped found an annual arts festival named after the neighbourhood: the Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival (D-caf). In the process, it hopes the area will regain its commercial value so the properties can be sold on for profit. Ismaelia’s aims broadly align with the government’s: both want the area sanitised. But Ismaelia’s strategy – that of co-opting Cairo’s creatives – highlights the complexity of its role. One of Ismaelia’s prized tenants was Bassem Youssef, a widely watched satirist notorious for his criticism of the government. Meanwhile, the artistic networks Ismaelia deals with often overlap with revolutionary ones; the stand-out piece from D-caf 2013 was created by a leading anti-regime graffiti artist. Ismaelia’s competing alliances – coupled with its commercial aims, and its position as the only big private investor in downtown Cairo – mean the company is viewed with suspicion even by the galleries and artists it theoretically supports. While Ismaelia claims it is saving the area, others say its goal is gentrification. But the idea that Ismaelia “wants to push people out” of downtown Cairo, responds Ismaelia’s CEO, Karim Shafei, ignores how “people are already pushed out”. By his estimates, 40% of the properties he bought there were already empty – due to the exodus in the 80s – making the area “a ghost-town that has been abandoned by its residents”. “[It] is degenerating and has been for 40 years. The buildings are a mess. We are saving these buildings and turning them into a commercially viable alternative – and I think that’s the only way to save them.”
Shafei is generally considered to be a positive influence on the area. But for Hajer Awatta, a researcher writing a thesis on downtown Cairo, this misses the point. “Ismaelia can do anything they want,” says Awatta. “Out of the enlightenment of their CEO, things don’t seem bad. But what happens if he leaves? What if investors turn on him? There’s nothing regulating them or any other investor.” Artists suspect they will eventually be squeezed out once the area turns upmarket. “Maybe in this situation we would lose the privilege of the space,” says Rana ElNemr, the co-founder of the Contemporary Image Collective, a non-profit that holds art exhibits in a space owned by Ismaelia.
They also fear for the area’s working class – the mechanics and craftsmen who settled in there over the past half-century, and who are now just as much a part of the neighbourhood as anyone. For some creatives and revolutionaries, there is even some fleeting sympathy for the street-sellers who flooded the area following the revolution. Even if the vendors ultimately became an intimidating presence, particularly for women, their anarchic persona was a reminder, at least for a few heady months following the revolution, of how the uprising had prompted a wholesale change in the way Egyptians could use public space. “There was a kind of love-hate relationship,” says Cluster’s Omar Nagati. “On the one hand there was a romanticisation of this disenfranchised group that had been excluded for many years, and that was now able to redefine what the street is, and to contest their government’s vision. Yet on a personal level there was a daily struggle. For a female walking the street, it was not comfortable.” Nagati remembers the day that embodied this tension: when the street-sellers in a newly liberated Tahrir Square began to drown out the protesters gathered there for a demonstration. “There was really a transformation from it being a site of protest to a marketplace,” he recalls. “I remember well the day when you could hear that the sound of chanting had been overtaken by the sound of people selling stuff.” In a way, it’s an anecdote that well embodies the current debate about downtown Cairo. Without a coherent forum or timescale for discussion between the different stakeholders, the debate is currently dominated by those who can shout the loudest – rather than the lower middle-classes who now live or work downtown. As Kareem Ibrahim says: “There is a conflict about downtown but it’s a conflict by the ones who can make their voices heard. What about those who can’t raise their voice?” Or as one of the voiceless – Ahmed Abdelgalil, sitting in the Turgoman car park – has it: “They don’t care about us, the people.”
They stand behind these armored plates.
Next tour Egyptian Museum.
The Egyptian Museum in Cairo contains the world's most extensive collection of pharaonic antiquities. The original collection was established in the late 19th century under Auguste Mariette and housed in Boulaq. The objects were moved in 1891 to the palace of Ismail Pasha in Giza before being transferred in 1902 to the current building at Tahrir Square, which is the first purpose-built museum edifice in the world. Designed in the Neoclassical style by Marcel Dourgnon, the Egyptian Museum boasts 107 halls filled with artifacts dating from the prehistoric through the Roman periods, with the majority of the collection focused on the pharaonic era. The museum houses approximately 160,000 objects covering 5,000 years of Egypt's past. The ground floor takes the visitor on a chronological tour through the collections, while the objects on the upper floor are grouped according to tomb or category; exhibits here include the treasures of Tutankhamun, wooden models of daily life, statuettes of divinities, and a rare group of Faiyum Portraits. On display on the second floor are also many of the New Kingdom royal mummies.
This slab was for starting the mummification process.
At the Per-Nefer, they laid the body out on a wooden or stone table and prepared to remove the brain. To get into the cranium, the embalmers had to hammer a chisel through the bone of the nose. Then they inserted a long, iron hook into the skull and slowly pulled out the brain matter. Once they had removed most of the brain with the hook, they used a long spoon to scoop out any remaining bits. Finally, they rinsed the skull with water. Surprisingly, the brain was one of the few organs the Egyptians did not try to preserve. They weren't sure what it was for, but they assumed you wouldn't need it in the next world. After they had removed the brain, the embalmers took a special blade made from obsidian (a sacred stone) and made a small incision along the left side of the body.
Random photos
King Tut:
Tutankhamun was only the age of nine when he became king of Egypt during the 18th dynasty of the New Kingdom (c. 1332–1323 B.C.). His story would have been lost to history if it were not for the discovery of his tomb in 1922 by the archaeologist Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings. His nearly intact tomb held a wealth of objects that give us unique insights into this period of ancient Egyptian history. Tutankhamun ruled after the Amarna age, when the pharaoh Akhenaten, Tutankhamun’s probable father, turned the religious attention of the kingdom to the worship of the god Aten, the sun disc. Akhenaten moved his capital city to the site of Akhetaten (also known as Amarna), in Middle Egypt—far from the previous pharaoh’s capital. After Akhenaton’s death and the rule of a short-lived pharaoh, Smenkhkare, Tutankhamen shifted the focus of the country’s worship back to the god Amun and returned the religious center back to Thebes. Tutankhamun married his half-sister, Ankhesenamun, but they did not produce an heir. This left the line of succession unclear. Tutankhamun died at the young age of eighteen, leading many scholars to speculate on the manner of his death—chariot accident, murder by blow to the head, and even a hippopotamus attack! The answer is still unclear. Tutankhamun’s much-older advisor (and possible step-grandfather), Ay, married the widowed Ankhesenamun and became pharaoh.
King Tut's Sarcophagus
His golden bed
His golden soldiers for the afterlife.
This was a photo of how the tomb of King Tut looked when it was first found and opened. The antechamber was piled high, in disarray, with gold-covered furniture and dismantled chariots. The annex was full of more gold covered furniture, jars of precious oils and ointments and also food and wine.
Just as my guide and I were getting ready to exit the museum, she reached in her bag for her cell phone to call the driver and let him know we were ready to be picked up, however, her phone wasn't in her bag. She last remembered putting it on the scanner when we entered, so off she went to check and sure enough, they were holding it there for her. This was more than two hours since we had entered the museum. I was impressed she got it back. She did say that she loses one or two phones a year though ☺ for various reasons.
Now was time to take that trip on the Nile. What a peaceful and relaxing sail up and down the river. It was a private 'cruise', so we didn't talk much and just basked in the silence of being away from crowds and traffic. Totally enjoyed the calm of the river as we sat back and relaxed and I took photos. Nothing much to say about them, just peruse and enjoy the scenery.
Once again, my guide called the driver and 'johnny on the spot' he came to pick us up almost immediately. Notice how the people just mingle with the traffic; crossing the street everywhere.
Never know when they are just going to pop out in front of you.
Then you have this along with all the other craziness on the streets
+
Another beautiful building along the way.
Now time to find some lunch, even though it is getting a bit late. We headed to a little hole in the wall restaurant for lunch. We had Koshari. It was so yummy! Koshari is the national dish of Egypt. It’s served in virtually every Egyptian restaurant, in every Egyptian home, and on every Egyptian street corner. A highly popular dish. An unusual combination, Koshari mixes lentils, macaroni noodles and rice into a single dish and it’s then topped with a spicy tomato sauce that uses a special Middle Eastern spice blend, garbanzo beans, corn and fried onions. The idea sounds strange…until you taste it. Then you’ll know why this dish is a favorite among Egyptians.
After lunch it was time to head to the souks.
A lot of these types of vendors
And then there is this lady sitting here selling her shelled garbanzo beans by the cupful, and a lot of people stopping to buy and eat them.
They have two sides. One for the men, and one for the women.
They believe the head of Al-Hussein is in this.
The women pray to it from there side and the men from the other side
Time to go get a coffee. El Fishawi... supposedly one of the most famous coffee shops in Cairo, and the oldest coffee shop in Cairo. A place where renowned Egyptian writers spent their time.Think of authentic atmosphere, kind of bohemian and laid-back. The aroma of coffee and tea, sheeshas (bong) smoke everywhere. It's in a small alley inside the market (souk)
We finally exited, back out onto the front, where the restaurants were waving and trying to get customers. Ola (my guide) called the driver and he arrived quickly to pick us up.
Back downtown in the shopping district. Great selection... if you like black ☺
Now it was time to say goodbye to these to very lovely people, who gave me such a wonderful experience in their city. Born and raised here, they were excellent at their jobs. Thank you Ola and Aabid.
Loved their fresh mango smoothies so much, that on my last night here at my hotel in Cairo, I not only ordered one delivered to my room, but two!!
Here is the bill 73.99
Arrived in plenty of time at the airport, since there was very little traffic at this time of the morning.
1 pound ($)
20 pounds ($)
50 piastres (50¢)
50 pounds ($)
5 pounds ($)
25 Piastres (25¢)
Before I left on this journey, I made sure that I had given everyone instructions should something happen to me, as I knew there was and is serious unrest in all these countries.
Then just nine days after I left Cairo, there was the explosion in Tanta, about 50 miles north of Cairo, and the second attack occurred just over two hours later in the coastal city of Alexandria. 44 people were killed and more than 100 more were injured. "CHRISTIANS ARE OUR FAVORITE PREY," ISIS SAYS
Next stop Dubai.
I'll try to get that blog post done soon...
