Beyond the bustling markets and tumble-down buildings in modern Cairo an ancient world is still being unearthed. By Paul Rodger
Sometimes you have to listen to your instincts. In front of me stretches a long corridor, not more than a metre high and wide, angled towards the bowels of the earth. I can’t see the end point for the bent-over bodies shuffling down ahead of me. Their exhalations and exertions add to the stale air rising back towards the entrance.
I’m outside the shaft that leads to the tomb buried deep inside the Great Pyramid of Giza. It’s worth a look, obviously, and I’ve paid my entrance fee. But now that it’s time to get on my haunches and get moving, my better sense is telling me “uh-uh, no way, not on your life.” Claustrophobia is like a rope tethering me to the spot.
Other tourists happily join the queue at the entrance and start the descent towards the chamber that was the final resting place of Pharaoh Khufu. They emerge ten minutes later red-faced, with their shirts sticking to their backs. They offer excited exclamations in Japanese, Italian and Lithuanian.
Multitudes visit Egypt’s Great Pyramid every year, and a good many make the journey down the dark, dank corridor to the structure’s core. But there’s really no need. As its name suggests, the Great Pyramid’s glory is in its sheer size (for 3800 years, the world’s tallest man-made structure), its straight lines, its utter immovability, and the mysteries associated with its making.
Those that do explore it, however, are in esteemed company. Alexander the Great is said to have taken some time out of his busy empire-building schedule to pay a visit to the tomb himself (so no claustrophobia for that happy camper!). It’s staggering to think that when he brought his conquering hordes into the area of the Nile delta in the 4th century BC, the Pyramids of Giza were already considered ancient.
Napoleon is also thought to have spent some quiet time in the tomb late in the 18th century, but his visit was so recent it might as well have been yesterday.
I don’t need to follow in the footsteps of those pint-sized military men, or my tour group, I tell myself. So I do the only proper thing. I take my backpack off, sit down, and quietly contemplate this sight that I doubt I will ever lay eyes on again.
On board the tour bus and cruising past unattractive blocks of flats, it’s possible to snatch glimpses of the Pyramids of Giza in the near distance. They stand like sentinels over scruffy Cairo and you could believe they’d been there since time began. Meanwhile, the flats look like they’ll be lucky to survive the next 50 years.
We’re on our way to Cairo’s Khan el-Khalili market. Our guide Hassan has the microphone in his hand and he has us enthralled with pearls of wisdom about some of the local customs. As we pass a KFC eatery, he tells us we should give it a miss… unless we’re keen to “try some Kentucky Fried Camel”. The bus responds with hoots of laughter.
We jump out of the air-conditioning and into Cairo’s hot air with Hassan’s advice ringing in our ears: “If you pay more than half the asking price in the market, you’re being ripped off. Remember that these people haggle for a living.”
The streets that ring the market are narrow and dusty. They’re also a riot of activity. Take a walk past men sitting on stoops in their traditional jellabiya garments, shop owners selling sugar cane juice, young women striding purposefully in colourful headscarves, junk traders who trundle by with their carts yelling “Beee-kya!”, and past the stores selling tourist trinkets, and you’ll find items of genuine value: gold jewellery, antique cameras, Egyptian cotton, spices and aromatic oils.
But Hassan was right. The shop owners are experts in the black art of haggling.
Having strolled into a shop selling jewellery boxes inlaid with shiny mother of pearl, I settle on a price and proffer a note to the shop owner. But he just scratches his head and turns out his empty pockets – it seems he can’t find adequate change for the money I’ve handed over. Hassan would be ashamed of me – not only have I failed to heed his advice, I’ve just paid MORE than the asking price. It’s the perfect ruse for scamming clueless tourists, but I’m not too disappointed – I‘ve just picked up a couple of good presents for what would be a bargain price back home!
The following day, it’s time to get back on the history trail. Our tour group quickly discovers that the pyramids, as emblematic as they are of ancient Egypt, are quite unlike any of the country’s other historic monuments. They may have witnessed the sun coming up for millennia, but many other ancient sites have only recently seen the light of day.
Some of these have been uncovered purely by accident. We board our bus for a day trip to Alexandria, on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, to visit one such find. The city’s famous Kom El-Shouqafa catacombs were discovered in 1900 whenby chance, a donkey pulling a cart fell through a hole in the ground. It revealed an enormous burial chamber from the 1st century AD.
A large spiral staircase takes visitors three stories below ground. Cut into the rock walls all around are recesses, each built to contain a sarcophagus. It’s like an enormous honeycomb for the dead. There’s also a main burial room, where intricate carvings melding Egyptian, Roman and Greek styles suggest it contained a person of noble blood.
Anyone familiar with ancient Greek mythology (or who has seen Clash of the Titans, at least) would instantly recognise one of the carvings as Medusa, whose hideous face turned anyone who looked at her into stone. Needless to say, I manage to emerge without becoming a Bunnings garden ornament.
Later in our trip, we journey down the length of the Nile to visit the remarkable Valley of the Kings near the ancient southern capital of Thebes (now Luxor).
Contained in the limestone cliffs that form the Valley are 63 tombs belonging to pharaohs and powerful nobles who lived from the 16th to the 11th century BC. Thankfully, my claustrophobia subsided long enough for me to visit three of the tombs, where the hieroglyphics and scenes of Egyptian mythology brought to life the fascinating lives of the ancient kings. A new tomb was found as recently as 2006 and more excavations were underway even while we visited. It seems the Valley might yet reveal more secrets.
Before our Egypt trip is over, we have one more site to visit, and to get there we must fly. It’s worth it to visit arguably the grandest and most beautiful temple in all of ancient Egypt. It too was recovered from an earthen embrace in the country’s south. Legend has it a small boy reported seeing what appeared to be part of a temple protruding from the desert. The monument that was discovered in 1817 bears his name: Abu Simbel.
Built by one of the strongest pharoahs to ever rule Egypt, Ramses II, it features four colossal statues of the pharaoh at the entrance. Inside are three rooms that decrease progressively in size. Twice a year, and only then, a shard of light penetrates the temple down its axis and illuminates the back wall in the last and smallest of the vestibules, where can be found statues of Ramses and three deities who were worshipped in his lifetime.
Even during this extraordinary moment, which lasts only half an hour at a time, one of the four statues remains in perpetual darkness – Ptah, the God of the Underworld.
As crowds bustle round to view his likeness, I wonder what he thought of being dragged into the open from beneath Egypt’s shifting sands.
Cairo’s Khan el-Khalili market is a great place to sample local fare.
Pop into one of the local ahwas (cafés) and you’ll find food familiar to Western palates, such as plates of hommus, baba ghanouje and tahina, into which can be dipped pita bread. Dishes like kofta and shawarma (what we would call a kebab) can also be found on a typical menu. Delve a little deeper and you might find pigeon on the specials board. It’s considered a delicacy and said to have ‘Viagra-like’ properties.
Make out you’re one of the locals by taking a seat outside and ordering a sheesha pipe. The tobacco in the pipe comes in a variety of flavours (like orange, cherry or apricot) and is mild on the chest. It’s also perfectly accompanied by a cup of mint tea. It’s not uncommon for a hawker to pass by and offer you unshelled peanuts, which he’ll throw onto your table unannounced. If you want the snack, you simply pay up; if you don’t, he gathers his peanuts and wanders off. It’s table service, Egyptian-style!
Special Member Offer |
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Pay a deposit towards this trip by May 31, 2010 and the optional tour to Abu Simbel (valued at $367 per person) is included free.* The offer is valid for new bookings on tours departing on October 4 and October 11. For more information or to book a place, call NRMA Travel on 1300 053 052 or visit www.nrmatravel.com.au. *Conditions apply. |
Open Road May/June 2010.
4WD
