Sunday: December 12, 2010
It’s official: The Read Sea isn’t red…but it sure is beautiful! Snow in the United States? The Minnesota Metrodome collapsing? 12 degree Fahrenheit wind chills in New York this week? All this while I was relaxing on the beach at our resort. It was a little breezy today which made it a tad cold to be at the beach, but it was sunny and relaxing nonetheless.
I continued reading “Moneyball” on my kindle today and I’m 20% through it, so hopefully I can read some more tomorrow. The breakfast and dinner buffet here is pretty good. They have a cheese carving and omlet stations in the morning and a pasta bar in the evening. Lunch is not included, but Melanie, Shelby, Cellie, and I went to the beach restaurant where they got cheeseburgers and I, unwilling to test my stomach, got a personal pizza.
Other than relaxing on the beach, I’ve been lounging around and enjoying the sea (the water is a little cold though). Later in the evening, a bunch of us left the resort to check out the shops in the area. Professor Ghaly says that the big market is a taxicab trip and none of us were willing to travel that far so we walked across the street. It’s funny how all the vendors said “No Hassle! No Hassel!” when we know they are trying to hassle. Because all the vendors said this phrase to us while we were walking around, none of us went into any stores…we just weren’t in the mood for it, I guess. We made a u-turn back to the resort and went to the restaurant and got hot chocolates. Relaxing, beautiful, pleasant, and very chill…can’t ask for more.
The internet is a lot of money here and no internet cafes are in sight…very annoying. Talk to you soon!
Showing posts with label pizza. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pizza. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
A trip to the Valley and Mohammed's Shop
Thursday: December 9, 2010
Hello from the Steigenberger Nile Palace in Luxor, Egypt! We checked out from our cruise ship early this morning and headed to the Valley of the Kings. Everybody, including myself, was excited for this part of the tour because it is home to King Tut’s Tomb!
The Valley of the Kings contains 63 tombs in the complex and was built in the mountains instead of pyramids. The ancient Egyptians stopped using pyramids as tombs because they were easy targets for tomb robbers. They thought that the tombs would be safer if they were hidden in the valleys and mountains…and they were correct! They also chose this area because they thought the mountains looked like pyramids and were a way to get to the second life. The ticket we were provided with allowed us to visit 3 tombs and King Tut’s tomb was an extra ticket costing 50 pounds, which I paid for without hesitation (good thing I did!) Unfortunately, we couldn’t take pictures while in the tombs. They were very strict about this and I saw many people trying to sneak a picture who quickly had their cameras taken from them. One guy in our group got caught taking a picture and they erased his memory card—hurts.
The security during the time of the construction of the Valley of the Kings was high for ancient times. These officials were so afraid of tomb robbers that the people working on the tombs were required to stay at the West Bank and lived in an area called the “City of the Workers.” The government gave the workers land in this area as well as a few animals for food. Another perk of moving to the West Bank to work was being able to construct your own tomb in the area, which is not something ordinary people commonly had. The houses in the area surrounding the Valley today are similar to those during ancient times as they are both made of mud and stone. The government is moving these homes in order to excavate underneath them for artifacts.
Zach told us a story about the Valley of the Kings where the Abdesurul family discovered many artifacts in the area before it became a popular site for archeologists and tourists. The family would make trips to the Valley to get artifacts and sell them to various collections for money. One of the family members got sick and couldn’t go with the rest of the family and was upset when he didn’t get a cut of the money. He then told everybody about what the family was doing. While this was a long time ago, a member of this family is now a consultant to the Egyptian Antiquities Council because of the secrets that have been passed down from generation to generation within his family.
In the 1800s they found 25 royal mummies transported by security people that are now at the Egyptian museum in Cairo, which I’ll see towards the end of the trip.
Apparently they are still excavating 26 temples and are looking for 500 more.
Zach couldn’t lecture in the tombs so he told us to be on the lookout for a few things:
The first of the three tombs we visited was the tomb of Thutmoses III. It was built during the 18th dynasty and was discovered by Victor Loret in 1898. Thutmoses III was a great conquer who ruled Egypt in 1504. He was a king who thought of himself as a human instead of being god-like (which restarted with Ramses II). He also was the first to bring modern chickens and pomegranates to Egypt…and yes, there are KFCs in Egypt. Thutmoses was considered the “Napoleon” of Egypt. In order to reach his tomb, we had to climb a large set of stairs up the mountain and then descend 60 ft to reach the various rooms of the tomb. It was very very cool to see the colors on the wall—though these were different, they were drawings instead of carvings. We also can’t understand these symbols since they are different than traditional hieroglyphics. The ancient Egyptians apparently preferred to have deep underground tombs to protect the artifacts inside, but this was not always possible.
The second tomb we saw was the tomb of King Ramses III. It was constructed during the 20th dynasty. It is somewhat small because he didn’t live long enough for the workers to completely finish the tomb. The third tomb was of King Ramses IX. It was constructed during the 20th dynasty as well.
The fourth—and most exciting tomb—we visited was King Tut’s tomb.
Howard Carter found the tomb of King Tutankhumun (Tut) on his last day of searching in the Valley in 1922. His tomb is very popular because it was found almost entirely intact. Surprisingly, his tomb is the 2nd smallest tomb in Egypt. It was built during the 18th Dynasty. The tomb didn’t have any colors. When you get to the bottom of the tomb, we saw Tut’s mummy (so cool!) and his sarcophagus. The tomb is undergoing a study to determine the best way to preserve the tomb for future generations. Apparently Tut wasn’t famous earlier because he became King at a young age and died ~19 years old. He had malaria but he died from an infection he got after he fell off a chariot. Archiologist knew he had a bad leg because they found ~110 canes with him in his tomb. While the rest of Tut’s tomb lacks color on the walls, the area that has the sarcophagus is the only area with color.
The tomb of King Ramses, another famous king, was found to be in very bad condition because of the runoff from the mountains. It was not open for tours while we were there.
After the Valley of the Kings, we traveled via bus to the Temple of Hatshepsut “Hot Chicken Soup.” The ancient Egyptians weren’t accepting of her at first because they weren’t used to a female leader. In order to help people get used to her, she started dressing like a man and had darker skin (women were considered to have light skin). She ruled for 22 years…wow. She had a strong army but didn’t use it for wars; instead she used it for expeditions for trees, plants, and flowers from other countries. In fact, she had a botanical garden in front of her temple—two small tree stumps (~3,500 years old) are evidence of this, which we saw.
We also visited an Alabaster Shop where they make and sell handmade stone carvings. They were a pretty entertaining group as they sang, chanted, and joked as the manager told us how everything was made. The workers all talked in unison--sure it was scripted, but it was hilarious. It is a skill passed down from fathers and grandfathers originally for religious reasons, but now more for souvenirs for tourists. The figures come in white, brown, green, and glow-in-the-dark.
My stomach has been getting better and I ate the chicken at the Egyptian-styled restaurant the group went to. They had spicy potatoes, which I liked a lot. I used the sauce from the potatoes and put them on my rice and chicken. In terms of my stomach these days, it is a day-to-day situation. One day I feel normal and the next day not so much. I’m being very conservative with the foods I’m eating. Don’t worry! It’s not only me getting sick! It seems most of the people on this trip have been sick at one point or another—sometimes worse than what I’ve had. Luckily, I haven’t missed anything because of my stomach issues.
We then got back on the bus and traveled to our 5-star hotel located in downtown Luxor. Before we could enjoy the numerous amenities it offers (tennis courts, shops, entertainment at night, swimming, and napping), we dropped our luggage off (it was around 4pm) in our rooms and headed downstairs to the dock where two sail boats were waiting for us. It was really relaxing to sit on the boat and just enjoy the sights and landscape of the River Nile. We got to see the sunset and had a nice breeze pushing us along. Apparently there is a law that you can’t sail on the Nile after 5pm, which we soon found out from the Nile Police riding around on their motorized dinghy.
It took us awhile to get back to shore as the wind died down, but once we did, a bunch of us headed out to El Souk—The Market, about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. We took a group picture in front of Luxor Temple, which we will visit tomorrow, and then a good number of people rushed across the street to the Golden Arches—McDonalds. I didn’t get any and continued down the street to the market place. There were so many shops in the market place and it was somewhat intimidating. Melanie got some scarves and I helped her haggle them down in the store. As I was walking down the market with Melanie, we were waiting for our friends Mike and Elana. A man named Mohammed asked me if I was American and if I could write Merry Christmas and Happy New Year on a business card so he could write it to his friend in the United States. I believed him for a second and said sure. He wanted me to come into his store to write it down, but I refused to do this and told him to come to me. He wasn’t really happy about this, but I told him that I was also looking for my friends. I told him I would come back after we found them…and sure enough…when we were walking past his shop, he spotted me and called my name, except Melanie and I told Mohammed that we were Mike and Elana! So he sucked us into his store and Melanie and I found stuff we wanted to get anyway at some point. I haggled him down from his original price of 280 pounds to 90 pounds…student discount, yeah right. The entire time he was calling me Michael, hahah. If I go back to the market tomorrow--oy.
We then walked back to the hotel around 9pm and ate at an Italian place in the hotel where I got pizza.
Tomorrow is the final major sightseeing day as we see Karnack and Luxor Temples. I’m tired these days—but oh well, its really interesting to learn and see these sites.
Sorry about the lack of Internet this week, its been tough with no blogs, emails, communication with the world! Talk to you soon!
Some other notes:
Hello from the Steigenberger Nile Palace in Luxor, Egypt! We checked out from our cruise ship early this morning and headed to the Valley of the Kings. Everybody, including myself, was excited for this part of the tour because it is home to King Tut’s Tomb!
The Valley of the Kings contains 63 tombs in the complex and was built in the mountains instead of pyramids. The ancient Egyptians stopped using pyramids as tombs because they were easy targets for tomb robbers. They thought that the tombs would be safer if they were hidden in the valleys and mountains…and they were correct! They also chose this area because they thought the mountains looked like pyramids and were a way to get to the second life. The ticket we were provided with allowed us to visit 3 tombs and King Tut’s tomb was an extra ticket costing 50 pounds, which I paid for without hesitation (good thing I did!) Unfortunately, we couldn’t take pictures while in the tombs. They were very strict about this and I saw many people trying to sneak a picture who quickly had their cameras taken from them. One guy in our group got caught taking a picture and they erased his memory card—hurts.
The security during the time of the construction of the Valley of the Kings was high for ancient times. These officials were so afraid of tomb robbers that the people working on the tombs were required to stay at the West Bank and lived in an area called the “City of the Workers.” The government gave the workers land in this area as well as a few animals for food. Another perk of moving to the West Bank to work was being able to construct your own tomb in the area, which is not something ordinary people commonly had. The houses in the area surrounding the Valley today are similar to those during ancient times as they are both made of mud and stone. The government is moving these homes in order to excavate underneath them for artifacts.
Zach told us a story about the Valley of the Kings where the Abdesurul family discovered many artifacts in the area before it became a popular site for archeologists and tourists. The family would make trips to the Valley to get artifacts and sell them to various collections for money. One of the family members got sick and couldn’t go with the rest of the family and was upset when he didn’t get a cut of the money. He then told everybody about what the family was doing. While this was a long time ago, a member of this family is now a consultant to the Egyptian Antiquities Council because of the secrets that have been passed down from generation to generation within his family.
In the 1800s they found 25 royal mummies transported by security people that are now at the Egyptian museum in Cairo, which I’ll see towards the end of the trip.
Apparently they are still excavating 26 temples and are looking for 500 more.
Zach couldn’t lecture in the tombs so he told us to be on the lookout for a few things:
- Humans and animals sitting correctly meant that they were a good spirit while figures that were upside down, had knives in them, or had no heads meant that they were bad spirits.
- A book of the Dead—a prayer to help a spirit avoid danger while moving from the 1st to 2nd lives.
- A solar boat—with good gods to help one get to the second life.
- Lots of snakes.
The first of the three tombs we visited was the tomb of Thutmoses III. It was built during the 18th dynasty and was discovered by Victor Loret in 1898. Thutmoses III was a great conquer who ruled Egypt in 1504. He was a king who thought of himself as a human instead of being god-like (which restarted with Ramses II). He also was the first to bring modern chickens and pomegranates to Egypt…and yes, there are KFCs in Egypt. Thutmoses was considered the “Napoleon” of Egypt. In order to reach his tomb, we had to climb a large set of stairs up the mountain and then descend 60 ft to reach the various rooms of the tomb. It was very very cool to see the colors on the wall—though these were different, they were drawings instead of carvings. We also can’t understand these symbols since they are different than traditional hieroglyphics. The ancient Egyptians apparently preferred to have deep underground tombs to protect the artifacts inside, but this was not always possible.
The second tomb we saw was the tomb of King Ramses III. It was constructed during the 20th dynasty. It is somewhat small because he didn’t live long enough for the workers to completely finish the tomb. The third tomb was of King Ramses IX. It was constructed during the 20th dynasty as well.
The fourth—and most exciting tomb—we visited was King Tut’s tomb.
Howard Carter found the tomb of King Tutankhumun (Tut) on his last day of searching in the Valley in 1922. His tomb is very popular because it was found almost entirely intact. Surprisingly, his tomb is the 2nd smallest tomb in Egypt. It was built during the 18th Dynasty. The tomb didn’t have any colors. When you get to the bottom of the tomb, we saw Tut’s mummy (so cool!) and his sarcophagus. The tomb is undergoing a study to determine the best way to preserve the tomb for future generations. Apparently Tut wasn’t famous earlier because he became King at a young age and died ~19 years old. He had malaria but he died from an infection he got after he fell off a chariot. Archiologist knew he had a bad leg because they found ~110 canes with him in his tomb. While the rest of Tut’s tomb lacks color on the walls, the area that has the sarcophagus is the only area with color.
The tomb of King Ramses, another famous king, was found to be in very bad condition because of the runoff from the mountains. It was not open for tours while we were there.
After the Valley of the Kings, we traveled via bus to the Temple of Hatshepsut “Hot Chicken Soup.” The ancient Egyptians weren’t accepting of her at first because they weren’t used to a female leader. In order to help people get used to her, she started dressing like a man and had darker skin (women were considered to have light skin). She ruled for 22 years…wow. She had a strong army but didn’t use it for wars; instead she used it for expeditions for trees, plants, and flowers from other countries. In fact, she had a botanical garden in front of her temple—two small tree stumps (~3,500 years old) are evidence of this, which we saw.
We also visited an Alabaster Shop where they make and sell handmade stone carvings. They were a pretty entertaining group as they sang, chanted, and joked as the manager told us how everything was made. The workers all talked in unison--sure it was scripted, but it was hilarious. It is a skill passed down from fathers and grandfathers originally for religious reasons, but now more for souvenirs for tourists. The figures come in white, brown, green, and glow-in-the-dark.
My stomach has been getting better and I ate the chicken at the Egyptian-styled restaurant the group went to. They had spicy potatoes, which I liked a lot. I used the sauce from the potatoes and put them on my rice and chicken. In terms of my stomach these days, it is a day-to-day situation. One day I feel normal and the next day not so much. I’m being very conservative with the foods I’m eating. Don’t worry! It’s not only me getting sick! It seems most of the people on this trip have been sick at one point or another—sometimes worse than what I’ve had. Luckily, I haven’t missed anything because of my stomach issues.
We then got back on the bus and traveled to our 5-star hotel located in downtown Luxor. Before we could enjoy the numerous amenities it offers (tennis courts, shops, entertainment at night, swimming, and napping), we dropped our luggage off (it was around 4pm) in our rooms and headed downstairs to the dock where two sail boats were waiting for us. It was really relaxing to sit on the boat and just enjoy the sights and landscape of the River Nile. We got to see the sunset and had a nice breeze pushing us along. Apparently there is a law that you can’t sail on the Nile after 5pm, which we soon found out from the Nile Police riding around on their motorized dinghy.
It took us awhile to get back to shore as the wind died down, but once we did, a bunch of us headed out to El Souk—The Market, about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. We took a group picture in front of Luxor Temple, which we will visit tomorrow, and then a good number of people rushed across the street to the Golden Arches—McDonalds. I didn’t get any and continued down the street to the market place. There were so many shops in the market place and it was somewhat intimidating. Melanie got some scarves and I helped her haggle them down in the store. As I was walking down the market with Melanie, we were waiting for our friends Mike and Elana. A man named Mohammed asked me if I was American and if I could write Merry Christmas and Happy New Year on a business card so he could write it to his friend in the United States. I believed him for a second and said sure. He wanted me to come into his store to write it down, but I refused to do this and told him to come to me. He wasn’t really happy about this, but I told him that I was also looking for my friends. I told him I would come back after we found them…and sure enough…when we were walking past his shop, he spotted me and called my name, except Melanie and I told Mohammed that we were Mike and Elana! So he sucked us into his store and Melanie and I found stuff we wanted to get anyway at some point. I haggled him down from his original price of 280 pounds to 90 pounds…student discount, yeah right. The entire time he was calling me Michael, hahah. If I go back to the market tomorrow--oy.
We then walked back to the hotel around 9pm and ate at an Italian place in the hotel where I got pizza.
Tomorrow is the final major sightseeing day as we see Karnack and Luxor Temples. I’m tired these days—but oh well, its really interesting to learn and see these sites.
Sorry about the lack of Internet this week, its been tough with no blogs, emails, communication with the world! Talk to you soon!
Some other notes:
- There is no evidence that it was King Ramses II who dealt with Moses (i.e. Passover).
- How did they get light into the tombs during ancient times?
- Not fire—it would have had too much carbon monoxide/soot associated with it
- Might have used mirrors to get light down there
- Mountain made of limestone—good tomb material because it is very dense and can take higher loads. It also absorbs humidity—a major reason they close certain tombs for periods of time.
- There are concession areas at all of the places we visit—The rent at the Valley of the Kings to sell Pringles, ice cream, and chips? $62,000 USD/month! Yes, that is not a mistake! The manager says they are losing money and have one year left on their contract.
- A few days ago an Egypt Mini-Term 1st occurred! A couple on the trip got engaged. Congrats and mazel tov to them!
Little Chief Tunis' Corner
What is the Jewish population in Egypt? --Not sure what the exact number is, but it is very very very slim. Kinda get the impression that they don't discuss it if they do. Our tour guide is friends with two Jewish families.
How's that working out for them? Decently, I guess. In addition to the Shul I visited, there is an active one in Cairo.
[I know that the Egyptians are proud of their ancient history, but is any of it incorporated into their modern way of life, other than it being the source of much needed tourism income? Mom wants to know if the site where Pharaoh's daughter found Moses was ever identified and, if so, is it marked? How wide is the Nile? How deep? Is it clean enough to go swimming in? Are there reeds along its bank?]--Saved for when I have more time to write!
Monday, December 6, 2010
On The Nile Again...Just can't wait to get on the Nile again
What a difference a day makes! We left Cairo via sleeper train and arrived in Aswan ~620 miles away on Sunday morning, 8:05am. Gone are the days of traffic and garbage in Cairo city, which we traded in for quiet streets and beautiful landscapes across the countryside.
Oh, and don’t ask me why I was excited about the sleeper train for weeks leading up to this trip. It was cramped, loud, and sleep-less. I wound up being on the floor most of the night because the door between the cabins was loose and made noise. Arg. Tired. Either way, we arrived in Aswan (which means “Trade” or “Market”), the last city in Egypt before the country’s boarder with Sudan. It feels much more like Africa here in Aswan since it is hotter and the people have darker skin. For better or worse, Aswan is the same as Cairo in that there are so many vendors trying to sell you something, but I am getting used to the cash/bargaining culture here.
Once we arrived in Aswan, we immediately took a bus ride to the Aswan High Dam. On our way to the High Dam, we crossed the Old English Dam that had been raised numerous times in the past. Going to the High Dam was very exciting for me after learning about dam infrastructure in Sustainable Infrastructure and dam engineering in Environmental Geotechniques, both taught by Professor Ghaly. The Aswan High Dam took 10 years to construct it (1960-1970) and was paid for by nationalizing the Suez Canal and financial assistance from the USSR. The dam is the largest earth and stone dam in the world. It has a factor of safety value against failure of 6, which is very high for a dam. A factor of safety of 1 is the critical safety value and 4 is the normal safety value for an earth and stone dam. The water in the Mediterranean Sea would rise approximately 1 meter if the dam failed, enough to cover many Mediterranean cities. The core of the dam contains low permeable clay with bentonite to ensure that it doesn’t fail. It produces ~1500 megawatts of power, less than 10% of Egypt’s power need. Problems with the dam include it not having a fish ladder (so there are a lot of fish and crocodiles on one side of the dam) and not having a silt gate (denying farmers necessary fertile silt).
We then took a motorboat to Philae Temple on an island in the Nile where elephants were trained for the army. There were many instances of graffiti on this temple and was moved between 1980 and 1985 to its current location because of flooding on the Nile due to the High Dam. It was a beautiful site surrounded by the Nile. Next we went to the unfinished obelisk which shows how the granite was cut for the pyramids. The Nile River used to flood up to the location of this site for easy transport via boat. From there, we went to a Nubian restaurant, which even though I have been having stomach problems, is my favorite restaurant so far. I had chicken (surprise, surprise) with tomato sauce that was cooked in a small bowl. It tasted like chicken catachatorrie. After lunch, we took a boat back to shore to catch another boat that took us to our 5-star hotel on an island in the Nile River. Ghaly gave us 30 minuets from the time of checking into the hotel to get ready for our next excursion to the Nubian Village. While many people complained about having to rush through their showers and not getting an opportunity to rest, many still ventured out on a boat ride to the Nubian Village. It was a nice rural marketplace-type town and we went to a place where people (not me) smoked hookah and got Henna Tatoos. I did, however, hold a baby crocodile (picture to come in later blog—stay tuned). I haggled for an item I have been looking to buy (I can’t disclose what it is because it will ruin the surprise since it is a gift for my parents). The item was originally 80 Egyptian pounds and I got it for 40. We had to buy our own dinner tonight; a bunch of us ate at an Italian place in the hotel and I got pizza for ~$5 USD—dirt cheap.
A beautiful hotel. A fantastic view of the Nile. Get to sleep late, right? No way…I’m waking up at 2:15am to hop on a bus to Abu Simbel to see the great Temple of Ramses the second and Queen Nefertari. Maybe I wont go to sleep for the second night in a row.
Once again, not sure how the internet is going to be over the next few days, so stay tuned! Tons of pictures and stories to come!
Saturday, December 4, 2010
"Long distance information give me Memphis"...Egypt
Today I went to Memphis and didn’t learn anything about Elvis Presley. Why, you may ask? Instead of being in the American city in Tennessee, I went to Memphis, Egypt, the site of the first capital of Egypt. Memphis (Mn-nfr) literally means “Beautiful monument” and was the capital for 700 years, though it was totally destroyed during the Persian Occupation in 900 BC and under Arab rule when they recycled stones in 642 AD.
Our first stop of the day was the Memphis Open Air Museum. The area was filled with various artifacts from the Memphis area since any pieces found are property of the Egyptian government. If artifacts are found on a person’s property, the government has the right to relocate your house. Among the many small pieces that had great details in the stone, there were two statues of King Ramses II. He had ~50 wives, ~200 children, and ruled for 67 years. The indoor statue was huge and was made entirely of limestone. Additionally, I bought a handmade carpet/tapestry from a merchant with Randy Miller. The merchant was originally asking 350 pounds for it, but we got him down to 100 pounds and a free bag.
From the Open Air Museum, we traveled to Saqqara, the home of the oldest pyramid. At Saqqara, we watched a movie narrated by Omar Shariff about the area and the pyramid. The Imhotep Museum was very cool since it showed old columns, arches, and artifacts. There were also mummies in the museum in humidity-controlled cases. It is amazing to see artifacts made around ~2500 B.C. when we are in 2010 A.C. We then drove up to the Step Pyramid of Djoser where we first entered a funerary area, which led us to the pyramid complex. It was considered to be a stairway to heaven. It turns out that the Egyptian Government is restoring the pyramid (as you can see in the picture). This restoration is very necessary in order to avoid a collapse of the structure. I’m curious how the final outcome of this restoration looks.
We then went to the Mereruka Tomb where we saw hieroglyphics stenciled into the stones of the walls. Each set of symbols represents a story and is read depending on the story. These symbols were once totally in color, but they have faded badly. The color was done by grinding up stones and mixing it in egg whites to create ink. Next to the tomb was King Titi’s Pyramid. I went down into the pyramid and it was interesting to see so many hieroglyphics and King Titi’s sarcophagus (but no Mummy).
Before heading to lunch, our group stopped at a carpet school. The one we visited was one of many schools along the road leading to the step pyramid complex. It was a very nice facility where the guide told us that school children are taken off the street (and away from drugs and crime) and are taught how to make silk and wool carpets. The children (elementary and middle school aged) showed us how to make these carpets, and while they move at a nice pace, it takes many months and sometimes years (depending on the detail) to finish a carpet. The school also had a large showroom, but I didn’t purchase any carpets.
Memphis is the ancient capital of Egypt and at one time was considered “the most important city” in the world. While the countryside is beautiful, the irrigation canal is pretty disgusting. Not only is there garbage lining each side of the canal, the floodwalls (I’m not sure that they are designed to be floodwalls or levees, but they somewhat look like them) are falling apart in many sections.
There are two types of canals in Egypt- the high level dam is for irrigation for crops and the low level dam is for runoff (which has a much higher salt content). These dams run solely on gravity (though some farmers have pumps to get extra water from crops). The farmers that have pumps deny farmers downstream of the same water quantity. Since water is a precious commodity in Egypt, the irrigation police monitor water supply to ensure that all farmers have a fair share of the water supply. There are 9 countries that share the water of the Nile River and there are regional agreements—though Egypt does get the majority of the water supply since it is based on historical rainfall. Even though I’m talking about water and rainfall, it was once again very nice here today—the day started off overcast but it eventually burnt off and was a warm and sunny day.
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| Melanie and King Ramses II sitting in an open-aired museum... |
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| Step Pyramid Under Renovation |
We then went to the Mereruka Tomb where we saw hieroglyphics stenciled into the stones of the walls. Each set of symbols represents a story and is read depending on the story. These symbols were once totally in color, but they have faded badly. The color was done by grinding up stones and mixing it in egg whites to create ink. Next to the tomb was King Titi’s Pyramid. I went down into the pyramid and it was interesting to see so many hieroglyphics and King Titi’s sarcophagus (but no Mummy).
There were various vendors around these sites peddling their goods, but I told them no and didn’t allow anybody to put anything in my hands unwillingly. Woo!
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| One of many carpet schools on the road to the Step Pyramid |
Lunch was very unique in that it was an open-air restaurant. The restaurant was buffet-barbeque and the tables were set up under a large pavilion. Guess what I had for lunch, yes, chicken—my stomach has been hurting me all day—and I think my good luck streak in the bathroom department has finally ended. Hurts…literally.
After going back to the hotel after our late lunch, I relaxed and checked emails. We then headed out to the Great Pyramid complex to see the Sounds and Lights Show of the Pyramids. The show was very cool since it lit up each pyramid as it told the story of the Great Pyramids. The music and narration was not as exciting, but the laser show was very impressive.
Tonight is the final night at our hotel in Cairo as we travel via sleeper train to Aswan tomorrow evening. I’m not sure what the Internet is going be like the next few days, but I’ll continue writing—internet or no internet—and I’ll post the entries when I have available WiFi.
FYI: I had pizza in the hotel plaza area...not chicken...:)
FYI: I had pizza in the hotel plaza area...not chicken...:)
Have any questions? I’ll answer anything! Talk to you soon! Thanks for reading!
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