LOWER EGYPT - PART ONE

CAIRO

Our first morning we were picked up at dawn.  As we drove through the chaotic and noisy streets Ahmed advised you need three things to drive in Cairo: “good horn, good brakes, and good luck.”  We arrived at the Pyramid plateau expecting hordes of tourists, and were amazed that it was virtually empty; I believe due to Covid, the month (before the main tourist season), and our early morning start.  Whatever you may know, studied, or seen about the Pyramids and Sphinx it does not begin to capture their presence.  With mouths agape in awe, they take your breath away and truly leave you speechless with their scale, purity of form and precision of construction.  You want to be alone to take it in - and fortunately we were. Even more amazing when you consider they were built over 5000 years ago.  (I've included several photos; as you just can't capture it.)

Khafre's Pyramid (looks the tallest because built on higher ground)
All four face were covered with smooth limestone like the cap.  Image it in the sunlight)

Khufu's, The Great Pryamid 
(The lower blocks are five feet high and there's over 210 layers
so climbing it is not easy (and you'll be arrested).  The plaza in front is basalt blocks)

The three Pharaohs' Pyramids, (Khufu, Khafre, and Menkuru)
Their three queens to right.  

Ok, it's cheesy, but the guide made us do it.  

 As you probably know, mummification was believed necessary for an afterlife.  This eternal afterlife was considered so much more important than their current life that nothing remains for how they actually lived, only their tombs and contents.  For the gods to find you after death they had to recognize you, thus, the body was preserved and the tomb chamber was carved with your cartouche (your name), images of action, and stories of your great deeds. To live in the afterlife you also needed the spirit or soul of your worldly goods, transportation, and gold. The spirit was captured in both real and miniaturized artifacts, the physical material was not important - this is for the after-life after all.  The tombs were then sealed to prevent thieves from stealing your body, sustenance, and worldly goods.  Later kings or rivals would scratch your cartouche to prevent your recognition by the gods, and thus reaching afterlife.   But the kings had tricks, they'd put the name of a god with their cartouche and no one would defile a god. Even later, frustrated by thieves or rivals, the mummies were buried away from the tomb in collections which is why we now have so many. 

 

Several of our group decided to pay the extra entry fee to enter the Pyramid.  To reach the burial chamber deep inside, you had to walk hunched over in a tunnel only five feet high for a long distance and it was very hot!  So we decided not to go.  When they returned, they cited that there was a group of western "spiritualists" standing in a trance humming around the sarcophagus.  

New Age cosmic people looking for pyramid power.

As soon as a king ascended to the throne they immediately began building their tomb.  Upon death there was an elaborate ritual to prepare the body for the afterlife. They had only 70 days from death to burial to prepare it.  It was mummified in a temple along the Nile, then transported from the banks up to the pyramid via a long slope through the guardian Sphinx - which represented the kings power - head of a human so therefore wise, but with body of a lion representing their strength.

The the mummification temples along the Nile, the Sphinx at the ramp start, the ramp to the tomb, 
and the Pharaohs' and queens' pyramids.

Sphinx, ramp and Pyramids

Sphinx under restoration

After being awed by the Pyramids, we toured the nineteenth century Egyptian Museum with its fabulous collection of statues, mummies, and sarcophagi.  While impressed by Egyptian art in the Met in NYC, the Louvre in Paris, and the British Museum in London, their artifacts pale by comparison when isolated out of context.  Cairo is building a very large new museum to collect and curate these and other antiquities in storage to provide more modern context and explanation.  

Pharaoh and two wives.  Left leg always forward.
There seemed to be great affection displayed between Pharaoh and wife 

Pharaoh and wife.  Her stylized hair is usually a wig.  
Most high ranking Egyptians cut their hair to avoid lice.

Four thousand year old Hiroglyphics and art on papyrus paper.

Beautifully clear.

Hieroglyphics are both sounds and meaning.  In Tut Ankh Amun's cartouche (oval name plate), the half moon is an T, the zig zag is an N, the feather truth, the Circle is the God Amun, and the cross with a loop is Ankh - the symbol of eternity.  King Tut is famous not just for his found treasures,
but he changed the God to worship from Aten back to Amun.  He was originally Tut Ankh Aten.  

This is the royal scribe.  Note his confidence and hand poised with pen to write what the Pharaoh says.  
His eyes are jeweled inlay and are hauntingly real.

Next Post: LOWER EGYPT - PART TWO

EGYPT - OVERVIEW

When working internationally I had partners with clients in Cairo who described it as chaotic and intense.  I’d been to Delhi and Mumbai many times and had a hard time visualizing it more exotic than that so looked forward to the experience.  We arrived in late afternoon from London and found our names on a card, even before baggage claim.  Our driver took us from the airport through Cairo to Giza on the west bank of the Nile near the Pyramids.  It was rush hour, though I think most of the day is rush hour in Cairo. In most other cities this might be a half hour drive; it took us over an hour and a half and can take up to three hours.  In addition, President Sisi’s, motorcade drove by in the opposite direction and all traffic was stopped by security.  It was a flash back to my career – arriving in a foreign city late at night, crazy drivers, the cacophony of traffic (horns, pedestrians crossing, donkey carts, elephants, and tuk-tuks), the liter and poverty of a third-world/developing country, exotic clothing, and extraordinary sights, smells, and sounds.  Like India, they don’t bother to paint traffic lanes on pavement as staying in a lane is very optional.  Not as exotic as India I believe, but still pretty intense.  We love it – though it can be overwhelming at first.

Arrival from Airport.  No traffic in left lanes due to President Sisi's convoy

We met our Intrepid guide Ahmed and group of six other international companions for the next 12 days:  a family of three from Melbourne Australia; one British architect from Brighton, UK; a Moroccan medical technician now working in Boston; and a salt of the earth Iowan now living in MSP, Minnesota.  Two men, six women in total; four in their early forties, the daughter of the Australians at twenty-three with her parents in their late fifties, and us, first time being the eldest of the group.  All very well-traveled and engaging.  Over the next week we became good friends and enjoyed being together.  There were favorites, but no outliers.  And our Egyptian guide was the best: 19-years of guiding experience, graduate of Egyptology, enthusiastic, excellent manager of people, accommodating, fun, and efficient (he got us to sites early to avoid crowds).  

Brahim from Morocco; oldest couple; Laurie from MSP, MN; Catherine from Brighton, UK; Peter, Amanda, and Liza from Melbourne, Australia

Guide Ahmed Fauzy Mohamed Mohamed in front of copy of Rosetta Stone.
Original is in British Museum.  
(Rosetta is a city in Egypt on the Mediterranean where it was found)

There is not enough time in a blog, in 12 days of travel, or even in college courses to begin to cover the art, history, and culture of this country.  I will attempt provide the briefest of overview for context and our observations and experiences.  

As previously noted, Egypt is the second oldest civilization in the world, after Mesopotamia, while the rest of humanity were still barbarian and hunter gatherers.  But Mesopotamia hardly left any cultural legacy whereas 25% of all UNESCO’s monuments worldwide are just in the city of Luxor (formerly Thebes). Ironically, for over 2,300 years of their history they were ruled by foreigners.  Here’s a brief timeline.

    EGYPTIAN RULE

·      2700 – 2200 BCE:  Old Kingdom (Pharaohs and Pyramids) 

·      2050 – 1800 BCE:  Middle Kingdom

·      1550 – 1100 BCE:  New Kingdom (Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, King Tutankhamun, Ramses)

·      1550 – 1100 BCE:  Late New Kingdom (Nakht Nbf was the last Egyptian ruler of ancient Egypt)

FOREIGN RULE

·      524 BCE:  Persian Rule after conquest.

·      332 BCE:  Greek Rule (After Alexander the Great’s conquest it was ruled by his general and their descendants, the Ptolemaic Dynasty. The Ptolemies did not impose their Greek gods on Egypt, and even built temples to the local Egyptian gods to pacify the country.  Cleopatra VII was the first foreign ruler to speak Egyptian, and the last Ptolemaic ruler.  She and Marc Antony lost to Octavius - Caesar Augustus, at the battle of Actium off the coast of Alexandria. 

·      30 BCE – Roman Rule.

·      61 CE – Christian Rule (These were/are Coptic Christians – locals converted by Apostle Mark, who was martyred in Alexandria.)

·      642 CE – Arab Rule

·      1517 CE – Ottoman Rule

·      1798 – 1801:  French Rule (Napoleon’s French Expedition)

·      1805 – 1952:  Algerian Rule (Mohamed Ali and Descendants. King Farouk – was last non-Egyptian King)

·      1882 – 1914 British Rule 

EGYPTIAN RULE

·      1952:  Mohamed Naguib (Former General, and first Egyptian ruler in 2300 years.)

·      1953 – 1970:  Nasser Rule (Former General. Nationalized the Suez Canal)

·      1970 – 1981:  Sadat Rule (Former General.  Made peace with Israel and was assassinated.)

·      1981 – 2011:  Mubarak Rule (Former General. Deposed by population) 

·      2013 – Morsi Rule: (The only democratically elected, non-military, official of Egypt.)

·      2014 – Present:  Sisi Rule (Former general who overthrew Morsi to avoid a civil war)

 

What we love about experiencing other cultures and religions is its ability to challenge our thinking, beliefs, and the status quo of our own culture.  Egypt has over 2,500 years of belief in Amun, the sun (Ra) God, 2000 years of Christian beliefs (only 600 as the dominant), 1,400 years of Muslim beliefs.  Each religion has their own fantastic explanations of creation, omnipotence to appease or reward, and life after death. Religions fulfill a necessary and a basic human need; yet each believes that only their's is true.  

 

Most of ancient Egypt is defined by a constant struggle between Upper (southern) and Lower (northern) Egypt.  Upper and Lower, while confusing from our North is Up perspective, makes sense relative to the Nile flow.  Upper Egypt is up-stream of the Nile's mouth, and Lower is downstream where the mouth reaches the delta on Mediterranean.  Lower Egypt is defined by the broad delta fed by the Nile and lush in agriculture, while Upper Egypt is desert with only a thin band of arable land along the banks of the Nile.  Lower Egypt was occupied by pale-skinned long-haired Egyptians, while Upper Egypt on the border with Sudan was historically occupied by Nubians, dark Africans.  In tomb and temple paintings/carvings you can identify each by their hair, skin color, and facial features (Nubians are large lipped). These two halves cycled between unification and warfare in ancient times. 

Our trip takes us from Cairo and the Pyramids/Sphinx, to Alexandria on the Mediterranean in Lower Egypt.  Then by train north to Aswan in Upper Egypt.  Here we will have dinner with a Nubian family, see the Great Monument of Abu Simbel near the Sudan border, and other temples near Aswan.  After, we take a cruise down the Nile for three days to Luxor to see the temples of Luxor and Karnak as well as take a hot air balloon ride and visit the Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut's Mausoleum.  We end with a flight back to Cairo and visit the old Souk and Medina. After we leave the group Robin and I fly to the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula so I can dive at Sharm el Sheikh - world class diving location.

Lotus blossom shape of Nile Delta at top.  Cairo at beginning of Delta upstream of Mediterranean; Alexandria at left edge of Delta on Mediterranean; Aswan near image of a falucca (sailboat) on Nile near bottom of map ; Abu Simbel left of Nile at bottom; Luxor and Karnak at big bend in the Nile bottom half.  Sinai Peninsula to east (right) of the Delta separated by the Suez Canal.  The Peninsula separates the Gulf of Sinai from the Gulf of Aqaba (think Lawrence of Arabia) and combine to form the Red Sea (think Moses splitting it to escape the Pharaohs army after the 10 plagues during the Exodus.  He wandered in the Sinai for 40 years with the nascent Israelites, but was never allowed to enter their new homeland)

We studied all these iconic monuments in History of Art and Architecture.  This trip will fulfill decades of anticipation and close the loop on one of the greatest cultures of the Mediterranean basin, and the world.

 

 Next Post:  Egypt Part Two - Lower Egypt 

UKRAINE

DEMOCRACY DIES IN DARKNESS

“We interrupt our regular scheduled blogging to bring you this special report.”

 

I’m writing because I feel the need to do more than just contextualize our travels during these unprecedented times.  Thank you for your indulgence.

 

I began this blog in 2014 after accepting retirement.  I wanted to travel for more than just work and to add meaning to our experiences.  As our blog header states, it is to document “Travel as a Political Act”.  

 

Initially, I received feedback from one reader claiming, perhaps enviously, that “travel was a luxury, not a political act”, clearly missing the point.  Of course, one needs resources to travel, but we do not stay at luxury resorts, sip mai tais on the beach, or take “If it's Tuesday it must be Venice” cruises.  I have no judgment for those that do, and understand the desire for comfort and low-stress exposure, especially as I get older. It’s just not our motivation. 

 

We seldom stay above three-star accommodations, I’ve even stayed in a village dirt floor grass-hut on the banks of the Mai Sai river in Asia’s golden triangle talking to the drug lords. 

Village along Mai Sai, in golden triangle  

In Bosnia we engaged Muslims with an entirely different take on their religion that is more wide-spread than known in our isolated western perspective.  In Cuba, during a brief normalization under Obama, our homestay lent us $800 (probably a month's income) with no collateral, only a promise to pay him through my sister’s upcoming visit, saying “if you don’t pay me back it’s your loss of integrity”.  We hired a young driver to take us around the island.  It ended up being Chevy Chase’s “Family Vacation” as we agreed that his wife could join us for a week together crammed in his 1949 Ford to see another side of their country.  That opportunity passed under the previous administration.  

Driver Roland and wife Myladi with Robin

Bill in front of 1949 Ford for a week

Roland and Myladi's concrete home outside Havana

We were invited impromptu off the street to lunch with an extended family celebrating a birthday in their home in Armenia, just because we engaged them.

Robin with three generations of Armenians celebrating a birthday

In Cambodia, Nepal, Thailand, Indonesia, and Georgia we’ve gone during, or after, recent armed conflict and got a first-hand understanding of the complexity and horror of the situation and impact on ordinary individuals and families. 

Legless Cambodian veterans introduced to us by our guide, and former general, Sok Som

Village on Military Highway between Georgia and Russia
near breakaway republic of South Ossetia supported by Russia

We prefer to be travelers rather than tourists.  While perhaps out of the ordinary, I’m sure there are those like today’s young, journalists, or the author Paul Theroux that would consider our travels pretty benign. It's not a competition.

 

My global travels since the 1980s didn’t start out with this motivation.  It just evolved opportunistically with positive reinforcement of that kind of engagement.  And we have no pretense that we are journalists or will change the world.  But by this engagement, it has changed us and how we communicate with others.

 

We are currently in a protected sanctuary at southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, in the same time zone as Ukraine.  Like all of you I’m sure, we’ve been listening to the news the past several months leading to the recent invasion of Ukraine.  In 2016 my long-time friend Thom and I traveled to Moscow, Russia; Kyiv and Lviv, Ukraine; and other former Soviet Bloc cities in a “post-Soviet tour” as we called it.  We met a young woman who opened a hip bar right off Maiden Square in the first throes of individual entrepreneurship in that country.

Maidan Square, now Independence Square, Kyiv

Valerie, Bar Owner in Kyiv

We walked sniper alley leading to the square where only two years before young men fighting for freedom and democracy in their country were murdered in the Orange Revolution.  Family members lined the street with memorials of their lost sons, husbands and brothers. 

Personal Memorials a mile long on sniper alley

We toured the museum of WWII sacrifices and the hot war still being fought in eastern Ukraine from which the rest of the world moved on and forgot.  

Monument to WWII and museum to ongoing war in Eastern Ukraine

Burnt corpse of soldier defending his homeland

And we dined with a middle-class engineer in her apartment, pleased with her new freedom, though we’d consider her apartment quasi-public housing.

Dinner in Kiev with Thom, Guide and Family

Most humans are short-term myopic thinkers; responding emotionally out of fear or self-interest. Being a history fan, I’ve looked at every crisis during my adult lifetime and kept it in perspective by recounting, in twenty-year segments, past crises.  It’s an interesting exercise.  1900 – 1920: severe economic recession, WWI, Bolshevik revolution; 1920 – 1940:  Great Depression, Dust bowl, Germany’s rearmament, Nazi invasion of Eastern Europe; 1940 – 1960: WWII, Korean war, India Independence, China Revolution, Sputnik … you can play the game. Our lifetime of twenty year increments will play like Billy Joel’s “We didn’t start the Fire”. For seventy years now most crises were relatively short-term with minimal world-wide realignment or personal disruption.  Few, except for the 1962 missile crisis were existential.  I believe we are at such a moment again as 1939 or 1962.  One can only hope it ends as the later, and not the former.

 

I also fervently hope in the current circumstances when finally, the majority of the GOP and Democrats have put aside the partisan divide to rally their support for the Ukrainian people fighting with their lives to keep democracy, we can also fight for democracy at home.  There are major forces at work trying to undermine it with claims of “Stop the Steal”, false electors, changing election laws, and literally championing Putin as a “Genius”, as our former president has recently done.  It is shocking that surveys show the far right would rather have a Putin than a Democrat in office.

 

Whatever culture wars divide us, whomever you voted for in the past, there should be none who support thugs who have no religious or ethical values, no concept of truth, and only desire for autocracy, revenge, and self enrichment.  There has to be a Bridge Too Far, and we are crossing it as a country.  Ukrainians are dying to maintain a democracy.  We should at least come together to hold onto ours. 

 

“Democracy dies in Darkness.”

 

ANCIENT MEDITERRANEAN

MEDITERRANEAN HISTORY

Before I studied architecture, I was floundering in engineering looking for the right specialty. Due to a fascination with natural sciences one of my detours was bio-engineering.  This led me to studies of biology, oceanography, physics, chemistry, and organic chemistry.  In chemistry we studied the formulas and diagrams of many organic and inorganic compounds.  I always remember one anecdote, because I appreciated its later influence in design.  In the 1860s August Kukele was working on the structure of Benzene (C6 - H6) discovered by Michael Faraday decades earlier.  It did not behave like ordinary Carbon/Hydrogen compounds. He later recounted how, while working on the problem, he took a nap and had a “day dream”.  A snake was winding around and swung on itself to eat its tail.  This circular snake spun around in his head.  He woke and realized that the chemical arrangement of was not linear as many, but circular.  

Benzene Chemical Structure

Since then, I’ve always appreciated the power of the subconscious in solving problems.  When struggling to find a solution to a difficult problem I often resolve the question in the early hours of the morning when half-awake, or when I take a break or am distracted. For me, that’s when creative solutions arise.  (At least that’s my story for taking breaks – and I’m sticking with it.)

 

Interesting, you might think, but what does this have to do with a travel blog? 

 

Ten years ago, when I left Callison and planned our retirement I knew we’d need to sell the house after the kids left.  I suggested then that between selling and buying we might live in Europe. In August last year after we sold, serendipitously (love that word) Teigan was living in the UK.  We agreed to spend the holidays in the UK so we needed to decide what to do before and after.  As previously written, we settled on southeastern Mediterranean to be warm and explore Minoan and Cycladic Greek history.  After the holidays, I needed to solve our next destination before returning home.  We’ve both been to Morocco and all the countries of the northern Mediterranean.  I’d been to Lebanon and Jordan in the east, and besides Morocco, to Libya in North Africa.  This covered most, but not all, the ancient Mediterranean seafaring cultures of the Romans, Phoenicians, Hellenic Greek and others. 

 

During one of my nocturnal perambulations, our destinations came to me, like the circle of six carbons in Benzene.  Rome, Athens, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Cairo, Crete, Carthage… Rome, Athens, …   I realized if we went to Egypt and Tunisia (Carthage) in the Maghreb (Arab Africa), and Israel/Palestine in the Levant (eastern Mediterranean) we will have been to all the great Mediterranean cultures of antiquities.  

 

There is too much to write in a brief post about each of these histories, let alone test your tolerance.  So, I’ll let maps summarize the Mediterranean story.  Future blogs will touch on each of our travel destinations.

200 million years ago as Pangea started to break into two Super Continents (see Plate Tectonic Africa post from 2019), the Mediterranean was an inlet of the Tethys Sea and closed off at what is now Gibraltar.  As the continent's continued to move eventually this eastern connection was closed and the Mediterranean nearly dried up like our Death Valley.  Then five million years ago, the continents broke apart at Gibraltar and the Atlantic flooded in, in what is speculated as the largest flood in the earth's history.

Humans' first civilization developed in Mesopotamia along the Tigris and Euphrates river, todays Iraq.  The Fertile Crescent also included the Levant and the Nile river delta and valley in today's Egypt.  During this time humans develop agriculture and the first cities for trade including Ur in lower Iraq.  Ur is where Abraham, the father of todays three great religions, was born.  He migrated with his tribe to Jordan and Israel.  If ever there was a need for humans to create a new religion to provide for an afterlife, this is the region.  But at the time worshiping Yahweh was an outlier cult with other polytheistic religions being dominant. Eventually though, Judaism would conquer the Levant through King David and Soloman.  However they too would be conquered by both Babylon and Rome which would lead to the destruction of their temples and the diaspora of the jews.  

2000 BCE and the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia.

Phoenicia was located along the Levant of eastern Mediterranean.  Though based in today's Lebanon, these master seafarers traded throughout the Mediterranean with their own colonies and Greek colonies.  Evidence suggests that the Phoenicians traveled as far as Ireland for both discovery and trade.  This is also the time of the Kingdoms of Egypt, which will cover in later blogs.

1500 BCE - Phoenicia

During the later phase of Phoenician times the Greeks also developed a seafaring culture.  They colonized settlements throughout the Mediterranean basin and the Black Sea.  These  colonies eventually became their own power centers as city states.

800 BCE - Greek colonies

At the same time as the development of Greek culture and settlements, Persia, a land based military, was making incursions to the Mediterranean basin conquering Egypt and the Levant.  This ended famously in the battle of Thermopile when the underdog Greeks defeated the Persians for rule of Ionia (today's western Turkey which then included Troy). 

550 BCE - Persian Rule

After driving out the Persians a Macedonian named Alexander conquered most of eastern Mediterranean, northern Egypt, and Persia dispersing their Hellenic culture far and wide.  Still studied today for politics, rhetoric, architecture, and art.

220 BCE - Alexander the Greats Conquest

After the death of Alexander and the rise of Rome, the territory he conquered were distributed among his generals or conquered by others.  This led to a very fractured rule of the Mediterranean basin.  

220 BCE - Rise of Rome and distribution of Alexanders Conquests

As the Greek City States had internal struggles they were conquered or incorporated into the Pax Romana, and  Rome became the dominant player in the Mediterranean.

117 CE - Height of the Roman Empire

After the the death of Constantine, the Roman empire split in two in 337. The western half finally fell to the Germanic barbarians in 476. The Eastern church eventually split with Rome's Latin in 1054 to become the Byzantine Orthodox church.  These were years of stagnation along the northern Mediterranean with the Coliseum being harvested for stone and sheep grazed in the Forum.  However, big things were happening in the Magreb (northern Africa).  The newly formed religion in Saudi Arabia became both warrior and missionaries.  They conquered all northern Africa, the Levant, Persia and even into continental Europe with Portugal and Spain.

With the power vacuum after the fall of Rome, tribal Kingdoms formed in western Europe.  The church eventually filled this vacuum and claiming the power to anoint kings.  The tribes were eventually united under Christian authority to form the Holy Roman Empire.  These tribes and the church decided to get the holy lands (the Levant and specifically Jerusalem) back from the "infidel muslims".  They were successful on many fronts, but not the Levant where a new power structure arose, the Ottomans.  While Spain eventually had the "reconquista" and returned their land to Christianity, the Ottoman conquest is still apparent today where, what was once Greek or Orthodox Christianity in today's Turkey and Egypt, is now all muslim.  The Ottoman empire did not end until the end of WWI, over seven hundred years later.

1300 AD - Muslim Conquest and start of Ottoman Empire.

As you can see, history is not quite so linear as it's taught in school:  Mesopotamia, Egyptians, then the Greeks followed by the Romans.  There's a lot of overlap and productivity in those cultural exchanges - often hundreds of years between.  I often find in history, like in biology, the most fascinating areas are at the interface between stabile regions.  For example the marsh and estuaries between land and sea, the top six inches of soil and the first hundred feet of the atmosphere, and the pelagic area of the ocean between the water and sky are all the most productive.   Likewise in History, the transition from the Egyptians to the Greeks, the Greeks to the Romans, or Persians to the Greeks etc are fascinating to study.

For you History geeks out there, love you.  I'm sure you may find errors in my summary or statements to pick apart.  Compressing five thousand years into a brief blog I'd be surprised if there weren't.  I'm glad to hear any comments you take exception with.  It'll only improve my limited understanding.