Egypt- Misr – where history is "present"!

 Egypt/ Misr- One of my dream destinations since childhood. Maybe because of the books I read as a child which romanticized history and mythology, I always had Egypt, Greece and Rome on my to-visit-if-ever-list. 

Our earlier attempt of planning an Egypt tour was scuttled by the revolution when Egypt bade good bye to Congratulations AKA Mubarak.

But this time- when Sonali decides to do it, we do it! 2019 was the year to visit Egypt for us.

Initially we, with our limited knowledge of history had planned only for Cairo, Giza, Luxor and the Temples of Abu Simbel and Karnak. But the more you dig into and read about it, you get tempted to add more and more places. One story leads to another, it again leads to another and this keeps going on.

Finally we decided to add only few places more. After all you cannot see 5000 years of glorious history in 10 days. We added Aswan, Kom Ombo, Hatshepsut temple and a few more such places which would not make our tour very hectic.

I just lived my childhood dream when I saw the first glimpse of the great Pyramids from far. I cannot put it in words but the strange child-like feeling of getting something which we have been waiting for long.

The Pyramids are just GREAT, no other word. When you climb into the great pyramid (Pyramid of Djoser), of course it is just vast emptiness inside, but the very feeling of you entering such a magnificent human achievement of almost 5000 years ago, is 'Greatly Humbling'.

Shashank was rushing into the Pyramid, but Sneha though excited was at the same time clutching very tightly to me or Sonali when climbing the very narrow path.

When you see the Great Pyramid along with its two smaller ones in a panoramic view and see decorated camels loitering around, and if by a fortunate chance, there are no tourists blocking your view, it really brings back your childhood romantic images of Pyramids and Pharaoh to your mind.

Then again when you see these same pyramids from the side of the Sphinx, it add the missing touch of grandeur to the Majesty of the Pyramids.

Our visit to the step pyramid of Sakkara was interesting in many ways. Hollywood as always makes a mockery of things which unfortunately stick into the impressionable minds of the kids. Thanks to our guide Kero, kids came to know that Imhotep was a great architect, Scientist and a great doctor. Where as in the Movie has shown as a villain and his love interest Anak-sun-Amon actually lived thousands of years later.

When Shashank and Sneha started their barrage of questions to the guide, I was startled. Then they reminded me that last year they had to select one ancient civilization and do a project. They had selected Egypt. I was pleasantly surprised that they had read up so much and above that they remembered so much.

Out of nowhere Sneha asked the guide, "where is the tomb of Imhotep? Are there a million animal mummies in his tomb?” I thought it was just her imagination. But the Guide was also surprised and asked her how she knows this. She just gave a shy smile and cowered behind my back. She had read about it in her school library book. The guide said it is not fiction or imagination, but there were mummies of one million pigeons found in grounds leading up to Imhotep's tomb.

Good going Sneha! Proud of you!

Now we all know at least the basics of the Ancient Egyptian religion - Amon-ray, Sun god Tut (female) and earth god Gebb (male). Mother of Gods Isis, The God of afterlife Osiris, protector God Horus (falcon) and of course Anubis (Dog head- Jackal Kopf).

The kids had, all through the tour a game of identifying the Gods on the walls and pillars of many temples we visited.

Coming back to reality, travelling in Egypt needs a huge security cover. We realised this when we were picked up from the airport by the Hotel Car and even this car when we reached the hotel was checked by sniffer dog and a detector under the base of the car. From being amusing, it gets scarier when you go on sightseeing tour with a Gun man carrying a machine gun sitting in your car and when you see military Tanks at road blocks, especially the ones leading up to sources of water and the High dam. So sad that the world has come to this.

Of the many temples we visited the Abu Simbel definitely stands out in the majesty. The great statues of Ramses II and his beloved Nefertari are beautiful and so huge and towering all over the landscape. It definitely would have served their purpose of 'sending a message to the Nubians' to beware of who rules the place before attempting any mischief.

The fascinating story of Kom-Ombo and Edfu Temples, the stunning beauty of Luxor temple and the immensity of Karnak Temple with its Sphinx road speak volumes of the great civilization. The museum of the Mummy of the crocodile was unbelievable. How mythology or may be just the society’s preference of love (Osiris) over hatred (Sobek – Crocodile faced God) fashioned a civilization’s view of a reptile.

Not to forget the Hatshepsut temple where a lady ruled over the great Egypt, but had to resort to deceptive ways to be accepted as a ruler, just for being a woman. Then again she proved to be a great ruler.

The visit to the Valley of the Kings was also very interesting. It has all the tombs from Ramses to Tutankhamun. The great lengths to which the pharaohs went to safe guard the tombs and their treasure (also) from the workers, reminded me of the kanada movie KGF. But ultimately most of it was robbed by the workers themselves. The story of how a shepherd boy accidentally found the hidden tombs and which lead to the discovery of the Valley of the Kings is very interesting.

We actually went inside the tomb of Tutankhamun and saw his mummy there. All the other treasures and Golden Sarcophagus and the Golden mask and his jewelry is still kept in the Cairo museum.

The wealth is unimaginably huge.

That said, the present day Egypt is a far cry from this glory. The city of Cairo, especially is not at all well-kept. The infrastructure looks as old as the old kingdom era (sic) but not as strong. Very dusty, absolutely order less and chaotic traffic. But other cities like Aswan and Luxor are maintained very beautiful.

The people, not just the sellers, are very kind. Especially if they see Indians they are very warm to us. No, I am not saying this as rhetoric. Sellers are always polite to everyone, but the general public too are very nice. They see us, come to us and ask if we are from India and if we say yes, they talk so warmly, “India- very nice”, “India-Beautiful people”, “India-beautiful country”, “Amitabh bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Dharmendra, Sunil Shetty!!!!' Yes, even I was shocked when they said Sunil Shetty.

In Egyptian bazars, bargaining is a must. For Indians it gets much better as they automatically reduce prices for us. Still you can go further.

One very funny thing we saw was, when our Cruise was on Nile, suddenly some small rowing boats came and tugged themselves to our ship. They started shouting and calling people to sell their ware. They just throw their ware, mostly Egyptian cotton clothes and such stuff and you can see it and buy if you want. You pay them by stuffing the money in another packages they throw along with the things you want to buy. This was fun. “India?- very beautiful, Namaste, for you special price (this was less than 70%) and he threw an Egyptian cotton Sheet. To my neighbour who was a Chinese, it was a hard sell. Then finally “Hey Chinese! Why no buy nothing?” everybody on deck started laughing!

Talking of cruise, there was one special thing we experienced. The SETP DOWN of our ship on river Nile from Upper Nile to lower Nile. We are sailing and suddenly we come to a closed gate. On the other side of the gate the water level is eleven meters lower!

Imagine this, a huge river Nile, cut by a metal door and water level on both sides differs by eleven meters. Standing on the deck we could see the gate and beyond and see the difference. Then we wait at the gate, slowly the water level on our side drops (controlled) and our ship goes so many meters down, gates open and then we go to other side and gates close again. It is to seen to be believed.

For the kids the most enjoyable part of the tour was the beach resort of Hurghada. Stunning deep blue waters and the day long playing on the beach and in Swimming pools- 24 hours were not enough in a day!

When we were travelling in a desert, we stopped at a place and we could see at a distance small hills and in front of that long continuous lakes with the reflection of the hills on the waters of the lakes. Now why 'am i telling this? 'cause this was not a lake at all. This was just a mirage. I have seen mirages before but not like this. Very impressive (My choice of word fails me here).

Just like what our tour guides in Turkey did, here too our tour guide took us on a an un scheduled stop at a Perfume factory (Traditional Itr), A traditional stone sculpting workshop and a Papyrus (5000 year old method of making paper from a grass) museum cum shop. These stops were at no extra cost to us, but surely did earn a lot of money to the local artisans. Almost all of us tourists bought so many things there. A very good way to encourage local business.

One question of Sneha to me and to our guide. “Are there still people who can speak and write the original Egyptian language of the kings? And are there people who still follow the pharaoh’s religion?

Our guide's answer: No! Only about 25 people in Egypt can be called expert in hieroglyphs. The language is dead and so also the religion.

Sneha was very sad to hear this.

I did not respond. I want her to figure it out herself.

I remember the couplets (poet Iqbal) which I had heard first time from my father.

Yunan-o-Misr-o-Roma, Sab Mit Gaye Jahan Se,

Ab Tak Magar Hai Baki Naam-o-Nishan Hamara,

Kuchh Baat Hai Ke Hasti Mit’ti Nahin Hamari,

Sadiyon Raha Hai Dushman Daur-e-Zaman Hamara.

- Sandeep Kulkarni

March 2019