Last of Egypt: Egyptian Museum and Lunch on the Nile

An hour in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo was not enough but all the time we had before it closed early because of Ramadan.  Of course we got to see the face mask of King Tut (which we weren't allowed to photograph) and I loved seeing the mummies.  We found the lack of information a problem but other than that it was enjoyable.

Then I thought we were going to have a cruise on the Nile along with lunch but it turned out to be lunch on a small boat moored on the Nile.  Oh well.  Expensive lunch!!!

Goodbye Egypt!  Glad we saw you for a day.

Here's LeRon at the entrance to the Egyptian Museum

I know this one and the following photo are kind of blurry but I loved these women's faces.

Interesting to know that sculptures were generally sculpted from real people.  So these were probably real women.  There was no information so I'm not sure who they are.

And here is a painting, again of a real person.  So interesting to think of those who lived so many thousands of years before us.  I loved the mummy room.  Mummies have always been fascinating to me.

Lovely faces and colors

Don't you wonder what kind of life this person had?

And this is an iconic Egyptian sculpture that we've seen before.  The photo in the back shows it when it was first discovered.  How exciting for those who first found it.

Many of the sculptures are huge.

Heroic size statue I would say

LeRon was intrigued with these burial chambers and the hieroglyphics on them

Massive sculpture of I don't remember who.

But this one I do remember.  It's a sculpture of the crowning of King Tut.

It would be nice to know more of what we saw.  We could have hired a guide but we didn't have a lot of time so we just enjoyed seeing things thousands of years old.  I wonder what people will think when they find what we have left behind.  Our son Michael has a funny book, can't remember what it's called but I love it.  It has pictures of modern things with ideas of what archaeologists in the future would think.  Actually quite hilarious.  Michael:  let me know what it was called so I can add it to this post.

LeRon and Colleen by the Nile with a tower in the background.  Nancy:  what tower is this?  (Our niece Nancy and her family lived in Cairo for a couple of years and became very familiar with everything here).

So I thought we were going to cruise the Nile while we ate but actually the restaurant boat was stationary.  Sad.

This woman was cooking pitas outside and they were absolutely delicious.  People in Kenya think chapatis are delicious but they haven't tasted a good pita!

And here's our chicken roasting on the grill outside.

A view of the Nile from our restaurant boat.  This is one of the many tributaries of the Nile, which is actually a very dirty brown river.

Just finished our expensive lunch and ready to go!

I took this street scene out the car window to remind me how many piles and piles of watermelon I've seen on the streets of Cairo.

This sign actually said, "Have a blessed month."  Just as I snapped the picture we went over a bump so I lost the first few words.  Nice to see religion in every day life.  The month of June was the month of Ramadan, in which Muslims fast (no food or drink) during daylight hours.  They fast each day for the entire month and the month of Ramadan changes each year.  We as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also fast but we fast for 24 hours the first Sunday of every month and then give the amount (or more) we saved by not eating to the church to be used for the needy.   We actually have quite a few things in common with Islam, including fasting, giving to the poor, praying 5 times each day (or more: personal prayers night and morning, family prayers night and morning, blessings on the food at least 3 times a day, prayers for help as needed, prayers of gratitude as needed), pilgrimage to the Temple, to General Conference twice a year.  Yes, we have many things in common with Islam.  Who knew?  Interesting to learn of the 5 Pillars of Islam -- Faith, Prayer, Charity, Fasting, Pilgrimage.

I love Arabic writing.  Beautiful!  Goodbye Egypt!  Maybe we'll see you again sometime.

Serendipity: A Stop-over in Egypt Part II

In the previous post I told how lucky we were to have a 24-hour stop-over in Egypt.  Be sure to read that post first.  Here are pictures LeRon took that I would also like to share.  LeRon was using the better camera and has taken some nice photos.  He's helped out with some of the captions.  Check out the short video too.  If you can't view the video, try changing your browser.

One of our first views of Cairo as we were driving from the airport to Giza.  Love that Arabic writing.  It's like artwork.

Imagine trying to house 25 million people in one city and its surrounding suburbs!  The architecture definitely blends in with the landscape.

Water is the life blood of Egypt.  Where there's water, there's green and where there's not, there's just sand and heat.

Close-up of the Great Pyramid -- the burial tomb of Cheops.  We have a lecture series on Egypt that I need to listen to again.  It will mean more to me now.  Interesting to think that Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus may have seen the pyramids and that was 2000 years ago.  So the pyramids, being about 5000 years old, were about 3000 years old when Jesus was taken to Egypt.

Getting ready to board the cart.  Our wonderful guide, Michael, is ready to help me in.

Nice contrast between the sand and stone and the green foliage that water gives.

Our guide Michael told us that Napoleon's soldiers broke off the Sphinx's nose.  Sad.  I asked google about this theory and this is what I found: 
The Egyptian Arab historian al-Maqrīzī wrote in the 15th century that the nose was actually destroyed by a Sufi Muslim named Muhammad Sa'im al-Dahr. In 1378 CE, Egyptian peasants made offerings to the Great Sphinx in the hope of controlling the flood cycle, which would result in a successful harvest. Outraged by this blatant show of devotion, Sa'im al-Dahr destroyed the nose and was later executed for vandalism. Whether this is absolute fact is still debatable.

So amazing to see the Sphinx in real life.  There is nothing like travel to broaden your horizons.

Nice to see tourist police patrolling the grounds.  We've heard horror stories of tourists getting kidnapped at the pyramids.  I think that happened more in past years in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings further south in Egypt.

 

The pyramids sit in a wilderness of sand and stone and heat.

Ha ha.  To understand this photo, you need to check the previous blog where our guide was taking photos of me touching a pyramid.  LeRon couldn't figure out what we were doing.  This is what he saw (thinking I was crazy!)  I should put this picture in the previous blog but don't think I want to go to the work of doing it.

You can see why LeRon thought I was crazy.  I do look rather silly.  Be sure to see the previous post to see me touching the top of a pyramid.

This is the third largest pyramid -- built for the tomb of the grandson of Cheops.

Camels crossing the Sahara Desert.  It looks so romantic but actually riding a camel is not that comfortable.  I think it's something you need to get used to.  But then riding a horse is something you need to get used to too.

At a scenic overlook there were many camel drivers hoping to make a few dollars giving tourists a ride.  Not many takers on this very hot, almost 40 C day.  And this being the month of Ramadan, Muslim people were fasting with no water to drink, so there were not many Muslim tourists either.

Look closely and you can see the city of Giza in the back, shrouded in cloud (or smog?)  From a distance, you don't really appreciate how large these pyramids are until you stand right beside them and see the size of the stones, layer upon layer, rising above you and see how huge these structures really are.  The sides are steep.  Even though there are signs warning you not to try climbing up, in actual fact, it would be very dangerous because the sides are so steep and the stones would be difficult to climb.

Another view of the lower stones of the pyramid (the third one, which was once faced with granite) with the city in the background.  The lower courses of stone around the entryway have been reconstructed with smooth granite blocks to show what it originally looked like, only it would have been all the way up on all 4 sides.  This pyramid was built by Cheop's grandson and is the smallest, though still large, of the 3 main pyramids.  The largest one, built by the grandfather Cheops, was faced with smooth limestone.  The second largest pyramid, built by Cheops' son, was faced with marble and still has that marble facing on the top Apex.   When all three pyramids were all complete and whole, it truly must have been one of the great marvels of the ancient world.

If you enlarge this picture, you can see 2 entrances to interior passageways.  However, our guide told us that most of the above-ground pyramid is solid and most of the passageways and tomb chambers are underground.  Our guide told us that it took 100,000 slaves over 30 years to build each of these pyramids.  Those that didn't perish building it were slain upon completion to hide the secrets of the entryways and interior tombs and treasure chambers, as well as to be servants to the buried Pharaoh in the after-life.  I'm sure glad we live now and not then.

When the pyramid was first completed, the entire exterior surface was faced with marble.  Over the centuries, the marble has been removed and used for other purposes.  All that remains covered with marble now is the top Apex.  It truly must have been grand to behold it all covered with marble when it was new, about 5,000 years ago!

Colleen is standing at the base of one of the smaller "Queens" pyramids.  Even though it is dwarfed by the 3 much larger Pharaohs' pyramids, it is still a formidable pile of huge stones.  One noticeable thing is that the soil around the pyramids is all coarse sand and small stones.  All of the stones, some of them very large, were carried here on barges on the Nile River from southern Egypt.  What an absolutely Herculean task considering how many thousand tons of stone that must have been for these 3 huge pyramids here and the numerous smaller ones as well. 

The centuries have taken their toll on what was once a smooth surfaced Queen's pyramid. We went down inside the Queen's tomb underneath this small pyramid.

Hieroglyphics on the  wall of one of the the burial chambers are still visible as they were deeply carved.

This burial tomb was pretty fancy with statues carved out of the stone walls and hieroglyphics on all the walls.

Close-up of the hieroglyphics.

Cheops' son's pyramid in the background against a sampling of the stones that surround one of the smaller pyramids.

This could be a David Roberts painting.  He toured the Holy Land in the early 1800's painting pictures of life as he saw it.  This scene of a camel on the road, Muslim tombs in the background reminds me of his paintings only this is a photograph.  The rounded mounds in the background are the remains of tombs of lesser nobles.  The area in front of the mounds is a modern Egyptian Muslim cemetery.

A closer-up view of the Muslim cemetery and ancient burial tombs.

This photo says "Egypt" to me.

Goodbye Sphinx and pyramids.  So glad we got to see you.

Our guide Michael was about the age of our oldest son who is also named Michael.  He was an excellent guide with good English and a kind and caring attitude.  He was so happy to share the pyramids with us.  Also to make a few bucks for guiding us.  During the month of Ramadan, things close at 3 p.m. so not many tourists come.

Hard to believe the Sphinx is 5000 years old and still in such good shape.  So glad we got to see it, nose or no nose!