20th Anniversary Trip to Egypt - Gizo & Cairo

- Gizo & Cairo - Luxor & Karnak - Hatshepsut Temple & Valley of the Kings - Edfu, Philae & Abu Simbel -

We are so different, yet have so much in common. Its been wonderful these years together, and being able to see both the Aztec and Egyptain pyramids during this, our 20th anniversary year, is emblematic of the divine favor that our union has been blessed with.

This is our guide and group during the Giza portion of the trip. Two of them, mother and daughter Sue and Amanda have roots in the Baltimore area, and joined us after already touring Greece.

It goes without saying the pryramids at Giza are immense! Maybe it's just me, but when I could tune out all the activity buzzing around me, I could almost sense the gravity of their mass. I took the two photos below to illustrate how hard it is to portray the magnitude of these structures in photographs.

This shot of Thedra taken straight on, gives a sense of how huge the blocks are at the base of the pyramid.

And this shot is angled up, towards the top of the pyramid; and no, the topmost part of the structure can't be seen from the base! Fun fact: abundant archeaological evidence has for some years now categorically debunked mythical claims that the pyramids were built by "slaves."

Since late 1950s travelogues featured on grainy, black and white television, I've wanted to be near and see the Great Sphinx. The Sphinx predates the pyramids and is situated in an adjacent valley.

Unless you have academic, diplomatic or some other special authorization, the days of seeing and taking photos of UNESCO Workd Heritage sites without throngs of visitors are gone (I won't go into how I got this "tourist-free" shot). Super-self-evident fun fact: the profile of the Great Sphinx at Giza is clearly indicative of the Africoid phenotype, as are the physiometrics of many Old and Middle Kingdom pharaonic mummiess. The subtext here is that while the Kemites (ancient Egyptions) were not genetically "pure," anymore than anybody on Earth today can claim to be genetically pure. The people who ruled Kemet and built the colosso structures at Giza were by contemporary definition, African, not Arab or ethnic Asian people. Again, we're talking about 5,000 years of history. So-o-o-o, Narmer, Khufu Ramsesses II, and the founding dynasties of Ancient Egyptian civilization can't be lumped together with the Johnny-come-lately Ptolemaic "dynasties" of the Greeks or Roman regents of Egypt, a few hundred years BCE.

For example, the much ballyhooed Queen Cleopatra VII - (51BCE to 30BCE) who one of our guides described as "not good looking, and not bad looking" was more importantly, Syria, not Egyptian. So we have today Eurocentrist egyptologists, historians, and mass media all promoting the notion that this non-native Egyptian who married into what was effectively post-pharaonic rule, was somehow the ethnic archetype for the people who populated Kemet at the time the pyramids were built, thousands of years before. Meanwhile on the other hand, there are some of us, in our frustration with the academic and popular "White-washing" of Egyptian cultural achievement, want to cast Cleopatra VII as a powerful and beautiful Nubian queen of Egypt's great age. This when the historical fact is that she was neither.

...And don't even get me started with Nefertiti, an ethnic Syrian princess who married into the Egyptian royal lineage; or her famed bust, its dubious provenance and the scandalous resume of its "discoverer," Ludwig Borchardt.

I thought this was clever in an amusing sort of way. The graphic concept will almost certainly show up at some pont in one of my satirical memes.

Pharaoh Djoser's Step Pyramid was far more impressive than I'd thought it would be after seeing Khufu's pyramid. But again, seeing these monuments in person mades for a very different experience than otherwise.

Again, you kinda had to be there right?

In temple ruins at the Step Pryamid with Sara, and our eventual ride-or die tour buddies Amanda and Sue.

Ye ol' "Come, you want take photo wit' me?" Then after you take the photo, "That will be $2.00." It was cool though, being routed through the "Valley of the Vendors" at each site. People are just trying to feed themselves and their family. As in most places we've been, the admixture of unjustified debt to former colonizers (the Britain and France collected the revenues from Suez Canal traffic until Nasser was able to put a stop to it), burdensome World Bank terms on loans, defacto sanctions on technology imports, and yes, some corruption, life is difficult for people of color across the globe. But I found Egyptians more persistent than aggressive with this sort of thing.

There was of course the obligatory camel ride near the Pyramids. I decided to give in and go along, though I had absolutely no interest in doing so. And once it was over I was completely vindicated, with a chorus of regret and complaint echoing incessantly until the ride was done. Camels smell belligerently camel-like, are uncomfortable to ride and easy to fall off. Camels in concessions like these also are subject to scratch their itching heads or necks on whatever camel colleague is nearby, to include the feet and legs of the rider on that adjacent camel. Shyt was annoyingly unpleasant, just as I'd warned Thedra.

Our time in Cairo and Giza (Cairo on the West bank of the Nile) was split between a first day and a half in Giza, then a day and a half after returning from our Nile cruise. So I'll circle back and add a few more photos of Old Cairo and the Cairo Museum (with a predictable rant over how much of this culture has been looted and carted off to museums in Berlin, London or Paris).

We also visited the Ben Ezra Synagogue while in Old Cairo, but were told photos were not allowed - even as we saw a tourist blatantly filming the interior while we were inside. This photo of the interior (By Abdelrahman Farag) is from a Wikipedia artifcle.

Interior of Ben Ezra Synagogue (By Schlanger)

Walking towards the "Hanging Church" in Old Cairo

- Gizo & Cairo - Luxor & Karnak - Hatshepsut Temple & Valley of the Kings - Edfu, Philae & Abu Simbel -