Cairo...beyond the pyaramids...

1st Sep 2008:

This was our final day in Cairo, and our third day (ever) in the African continent. Yesterday’s high point was the laser light show, and some of the stats that we picked up about the pyramids:

- They are about 150 m in height, or about 50 floors!
- It took about 20 years for the construction of each one of them (knowing that the average life span of a pharaoh was about 40-50 years, I am guessing that they started building a pyramid for the burial of the king when he was 21 or something to complete it in time ;)
- There are some 300,000 slabs of stones, each of which is about 2.5 tons in weight (how did they carry it up 50 floors??)

Pretty impressive stats, eh?

Anyway, for the final day in the city, we decided to make it a bit hectic and catch some of the other “must things to do in Cairo”. Our list:

- Take a peek at the treasures in the Archaeological Museum
- Practice our bargaining skills at the Khan-al-Khalili market
- Take a self-guided walking tour of the citadel
- Wrap it up with a felucca (boat) ride over the nile
- Come back to the hotel, have a quick shower, collect our luggage, and get to the airport in time for our 10pm flight to Nairobi

Despite the heat, and the fact that our plan gave M a chance to indulge in some shopping, we were not delayed much, and were able to do most of the activities in our plan! Here’s a run-down:

First, some random pics from our breakfast at the terrace of our hotel, overlooking downtown Cairo:

Kicking-off the day with a juicy start

Pretty terrace wall

More posing on the terrace

Now, about the musuem. The Museum is considered to have one of the most priceless collections of ancient artifacts, and I couldn't agree more. The contents were very impressive, although their display and the upkeep were not in line with their value. Despite the fact that the relics in the museum are more than four thousand years old, little care is taken to preserve them from the hazards of an open environment, or humidity (the museum is not air-conditioned), or even the touch of visitors & tour guides (no – most of the stuff is not cased). But in any case, it is a “must see” for anyone visiting Cairo.

The Central Hall of the museum

The most impressive part is – yes, you guessed it right – the Mummy Room. There are in excess of 20 preserved mummies on display, and most are in pretty solid conditions. Thankfully, the museum authorities do a good job of preserving the mummies, with humidity controls, glass casings etc. Each mummy has a short description, and these are just really interesting stories. For example, we came to know that King Ramses II, one of the most celebrated pharaohs, had 87 wives! Also, that the Ramses clan had a very distinctive nose – kind of a hooked structure, if you ask me. After a while, we started looking at the noses of mummies, trying to predict whether they belonged to the Ramses family or not – and we were right 100% of the time! Really weird noses those Ramses had…

A mummy, though not of a pharaoh (the hands are not folded in front of the chest). Taking pics was not allowed, but a security guard proactively approached us and offered to let us take pics if we took care of him later on...

Of course, it was completely surprising that these bodies had survived the vagaries of some 5000 years of time…You could see the skin, the facial features, the teeth, and even the hair! You could distinguish if a mummy belonged to a pharaoh or not – if the hands were folded in front of the chest and crossed each other – bingo, this was the mummy of a pharaoh. There were also mummies of friends, close confidants, even pets – anyone who the pharaoh might need when he came back to life…

There was a section on King Tut’s treasures…you can get a sense of the extent of his majesty’s valuables when I tell you that the casing of his mummy was made of solid gold weighing 110 kgs! And this doesn’t include the solid gold headcase! Both the casing and the headcase are on display, so if you are in need for some $ and consider yourself good at lock-picking, you know where to try your luck ;)

Other interesting tidbits that we learned…the Egyptians, very much like Indians, made Gods of every phenomenon that they either didn’t understand or couldn’t completely control. So there were Gods of lightning, rain, birth, food, water, mummification, and for life after death, besides others…Another interesting piece of info – the official pose for royalty always had the left food forward – this was supposed to convey power. So every statue of a pharaoh or a God would have the left foot forward. More interestingly, if there were multiple important personalities depicted in the statue, you could deduce the hierarchy by comparing how much extended the left foot was – the bigger the step, the more important the person! This was all narrated to us by the guide of an Irish group that had allowed us to join them, since we didn't want to hire a guide just for the two of us. By the way, this guy was the only one in Egypt that I came across who didn't ask for baksheesh. In fact, he refused to take money even when we offered! It was a big surprise, since by now the whole baksheesh culture had sickened us a bit...

Anyway, I could go on and on about the museum, but you have to see it for yourself. We wrapped up our stay there when our tummies started growling, and made a beeline to the Pizza hut, for a quick pasta and another glass of mango juice!

In the snap: Used tickets to the Mummy Room, Mango Juice, and dear friend - the Lonely Planet

This was followed by a trip to the Khan-al-Khalili market, where we had a ton of fun bargaining like crazy for a few souvenirs. I also went inside a mosque for the first time in my life! This was followed by a wonderfully relaxing tea-sipping + people-watching session, sitting out in the open on a “dewan” (couch) in the market.

D, close to the Khan-al-Khalili mosque

M, sipping tea, while the server tries to lure a busload of Koreans

Sipping Egyptian tea

One of the shops in Khan-al-Khalili market

We wrapped up the day by taking a 1 hour private felucca trip down the Nile. Our bargaining skills polished by our efforts at Khan-al-Khalili market, we were able to negotiate the rate for the felucca from $400 to $40 pounds! While the view wasn’t that great, the experience of floating over the Nile was a memorable one, just knowing the significance of the Nile for this region and its ancient civilization. You just need to make one trip to Egypt to understand why they call the country “the gift of the Nile”. As the plane descends into Cairo, you see yellow sand & desolation everywhere, except for small patches of greenery and life along the Nile. Even now, everyone lives pretty much close to the river, and most of the country (I forget the number – it was at least 70%) is still unpopulated as there is no water!

Yes, we had this huge 30 person boat to ourselves (plus the boat captain)

Having relaxed at the felucca, we came back to our hotel, settled our dues, freshened-up, bid goodbyes to the wonderful owner of the hotel, went to the airport, once again requested the immigration officer to not stamp a fresh page in our passports, and took our seats in the plane to Nairobi. The Egypt Air flight provided us with my worst ever flight meal: boiled rice with boiled carrots (that is it!). We decided to skip the meal and catch some sleep instead. But time flew by quickly, and before we knew it, it was “seat backs forward, tray table folded” time…time to experience the real Africa!