Day 112...Walk Like An Egyptian - 16th Octber

We've got our room till later this evening, so we didn't have to pack up or organise anything this morning. Had a cautious inclusive breakky downstairs. Its weird now. Everything you look to put in your mouth strikes a small chord of fear. Something so natural is now really scary ('wat if its something to do with this thing that makes me sick? This glass may still have been wet when the drink was put in. The cutlery too - what about that? Can I eat this egg? No dairy, no food that can't be peeled. What about stemed veges? What if they haven't been steamed long enough? aaargh)

We met our tour guide, Mohamed downstairs. I saw him looking at us and thought it was another randy Egyptian, but then he smiled and waved and it was all good. He's a lovely guy, fairly young in his late 20-s mid 30's I think. We were also surprised to hear from him that we are the only 2 in the group! Just us and him. We asked what the smallest group he has taken - and the answer was 10! So this is rare. We were pleased tho. And kind of not, as I was looking forward to hanging in the background and causing trouble. now its one on one attention and I have to behave! hee hee.

We got in the van (the driver was waiting for us) and drove to the Pyramids. I still marvelled a their size! And coz its Ramadan, it was a quiet period - for both tourists and touts. So it felt like they were almost ours. the Great Pyramid is the pyramid of Khufu (Cheops is the other name -pronounced kee-ops). There are different names for things, as when the Greeks arrived during the Graeco roman era, they couldn't pronounce the Egyptian words. So lots of things have been morphed from there. The Great Pyramid was built for Khufu's tomb, to help him get into the sky to join the sun god Ra in his boat. Being the first one built, the physics were great, but didn't count on the immense weight. The inner roof of the tomb collapsed, crushing the remains. Mohamed asked us how the pyramids were built, and I made him laugh by replying 'aliens'. What they did was progressively pile up sand, then clear it away at the end. A pretty good effort, considering how long ago this was. And also that its so hot that all you want to do is hide under a palm tree.
The second Pyramid is calle Khafre (Chepren) and has a few 'starter' tombs, before he explained he wanted to be in the top, so he wouldn't get crushed like his father did. Menkaure (Mycerinus) is the smallest one, and has a big gash in the side from when the British used it for target practice for their cannons! Fools. (The Egyptians don't like the Brits too much either)

It was so amazing to actually stand there and touch them! To finally be doing that! And be so amazed at their size. I would have loved a good stand and stare, but Mohamed kept us moving and entertained. We took some photos and I got some laughs by walking like an Egyptian on the Great Pyramid. I also got a bit distraced by the camels!! Particularly the cops on camels. Yes. Cops on camels. We got to touch the top cover of one pyramid, which has been removed/ I would have loved to have seen the Pyramids in their original state. Not only would they have been 3m thicker on each side, but would have been white and not the sandstone colour we see today. But in the 1800's the emperor Mohamed Ali pilfered all the covering stone for his palace. He left a cap on the top of one because he didn't need it, and now you can see the difference. he was a prett destructive bastard, giving precious Egyptian presents to everyone around the globe. The obelisks we've been seeing in England and France etc, were all donated by him.

Near the great pyramid, there was a rectangular hole. An archaeologist found heaps of wood buried there. After years of work, he managed to put it all back together and assemble a funerary boat - a huge one.
It was now in a building next door and you could see a bit from the ouside. Inside cost cash and we couldn't be bothered. Next to the Pyramids were tombs for their wives. We got to ener one (but weren't allowed photos). A small rectangular building, it had a tiny slanting shaft that we had to basically climb down one at a time. Inside was just a square room, no decorations. It was extremely hot and a bunch of us got trapped in their while an old overweight woman had a bit of trouble. It was great fun being in their though, trying to imagine mummies and treasures. Once we got out - it was actually cooler outside than down in there!

Net, we walked down to the sphinx. It is actually the head of a pharaoh with the body of a lion - a god entitiy to ward off bad spirits. when the Greeks arrived, they thought it looked like one of their mythicl creatures - the Sphinx, and so thats where the name stuck. He seemd a bit smaller than expected, and was being restored which made his arms look a bit artificial. It was next to a big temple, which was used for the 70 day ritual of mummification, before being sledded by ox to the pyramids. The magnificent size (albiet without roof) and the degree of the straighness of the columns astounded us. Also their other ingenious, such as the use of windows and using the reflection of light of strategically placed marble to light up the room.

After that, Mohamed took us to a papyrius musuem. I was interested in going, since reading River God and the character wrote his scrolls on papyrus. Many places cheat and use banana leaves. Apparently you can tell if it has uneven brown patches - from the seeds of the papyrus - which means it is genuine. The place we went to was supported by the government and hunky dory. We watched them make some papyrus for us and ended up buying two pieces for hell cheap. We had a laugh (bu first tripped out) when he preended to rip us off the the tube to contain them - it was free but they said it was 1000 egyptian. hee hee) Plus they threw in a free little print. aww.

Driving to the Egyptian Museum after that, we had a quick stop for lunch. We thought most of the food places would be shut and dead during Ramadan but we got a place that did a real tasty schwerma (kinda like a hot meat and salad roll) which we ate in the car. We were to learn that the Muslims here are very religous, but don't let it really affect everyday society. They go to the mosque when they can, or go when there is someone looks after the shop. So stuff doesn't suddenly shut down. Plus there are a lot of coptic christians around too. Mohamed didn't eat anything, he's fasting for Ramadan. he's an exemplary Muslim, and taught us alot. He's about to get married to a Muslim woman who's a solicitor. He respects other cultures,loves his own and is very intelligent. He has done a study in religous theology, so knows intricately Judaism, Christianity and Islam, so is full of great info. He teaches us so much in an interesting, unbias way. He's also completing his masters in Egyptology, can read hieroglyphics and such - so i love him! Priceless guy, considering where we are.

Disappointingly, no photos are allowed inside the Egyptian Museum. Not even without flash! Argh! Mohamed showed us many fascinating things. Everything was original, except for a copy of the Rosetta stone, which is in London I think. Basically, hieroglyphics couldn't be deciphered, until they found this stone which had the same message carved in three different languanges, one of which was heiroglyphics, one was greek. So they could figure out the hieroglyphics from there.

We went through the progression of Egyptian art - from being unable to do necks (which is why you see some pharaohs with those big wigs coming down either side) to being advanced to make figures in lifelike poses - giving a rich insight into daily life. There were scribes, women working with cloth or millet etc. One period in art they thought big ears were cool. (Big changes usually occured during ech high times of prosperity - after what is called an 'intermediate period'.) There was a sculpture of the cheif of the royal wardrobe who was a dwarf , with is wife putting her arm around him affectionatly. Children in Egyptian art are shown with a thumb in the mouth and a side lock. Royalty is shown with the false beard, left leg forward and wearing the double crown of upper and lower Egypt. Hatsheptsut was one of my favourites. She was a wife of the pharaoh and when he died, took on the persona of a male, pretended to be descended from gods - and got to rule for quite a while. She also started the whole eyeliner thing that you associate with Egyptians. In the Amarna room, the art during Akhenaten's time - was greatly different to all others. Akhenaten tried to remove all the gods of the old religion - including Ra and Horus, and tried to have just one god - Aten. (Its a sun god, seen as an orb with rays). The sculpture sin here have big lips and soft bellys. Something he was a homosexual, but other theories think that he was trying to lure both male and female to his religion - one god. So to do that, he had to look asexual, so as not to alienate one sex. There was a lovely sculpture of his wife's head there too - Nefertiti. She looked very sophisticated, like one of those women you'd see in Sanctuary Cove on the gold coast or something, buying armani and stepping onto a boat. She had a small head - Egyptians were smaller back then. Also in that rom was a coffin lid of glass - GLASS. Nathan was blown away by that. Glass so long ago!
We also saw pts and jars, a toilet, and cloths. For some reason the material really struck a chord with me. Seeing that, lasting all these years felt funny.

We reached the Tutankhamun rooms. Thought to be the son of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, there are now theories that he was the younger brother. The pharaoh died young at 18, and new tests show septicemia from a cut in the bottom of his foot. Any other damage to the body was done when he was a mummy and very delicate. First, we saw the large coffins. He died young, so his tomb in the valley of the kings wasn't ornate. They had to hastily make do with a russian doll type making of several coffins, one fitting inside the other. They were beautifully made, covered in cold and images. It was cool seeing all that gold! The most popular room had all his most precious stuff. Ther ewer his smaller sarcophogi, carved in a body image, rather than the boxes that were outside. His famous golden death mask was there. After seeing all these photos of it - there it was , face to face so to speak. Fabulous. His throne was there, with the back depicting the prince being annointed with perfume by his wife, while Aten shone down. Necklaces, the canoptic jars which held his organs, and ushabti (small statues) were there too. No mummy has ever been buried with his 'people. No one has ever been killed for that. THe theory may have come from the ushabti, which are little statues representing people, to help the king in the afterlife. There was also a great sculpture of the jackal god - Anubis. He's by far my favourite. I then like Thoth, the ibis headed god of knowledge, then Sobek the crocodile god. We also saw the Yuya and Thuyu rooms, which were the best finds before Tutankhamen.

Mohamed left us for a while to explore on our own, so I forced Nate to cough up some money to stare at dead people. The mummy room was dark and cool when we entered. I got a shock at first too - they put the most ghastly one at the front door! Seqenere II, I think it was. His arms were all twisted up, his mouth half bared and a big sword hole in his head. He was almost like in a 'eeeggggh' position, and all you needed was a hidden spring to fling him upright and scare the shit out of people! NOthing like the regal portraits they have around the rest of the museum eh!
Ramses II was also there - the longest ruler and one of the most popular. One mummy was very tall. Only one did I get an impression of what his face would have looked like in life, and I think that was more eerie than the others. The others looked like NIght of the Living Dead, bad 80's corpses. THe women were the same. Two were really creepy as they had false eyes stuck in. It gave us a jump to see that! ONe lady was even buried with her mummified pet baboon (which was still wrapped up thankgod).

Maybe I was paranoid too, but it smelt a bit funny in there. I had a bit of a chuckle with Nate too - after all these glorious sculptures, and paintings - particularly the sarcophagi and death masks...underneath was a hideous little shrivelled dead thing. ew.

Fully pleased, we left back for the hotel.(Via a failed shopping incident for demure shirts). We rested in our hotel room before we had to pack up and be downstairs for our 7.30pm train. The station was busy with men in robes, guards with guns and people dashing everywhere. Egypt has a smell of dust, heat, spices and the scent of strange sweat from spicy food. We saw the 'bbq' train go past. It was going the same route as our train, but takes 24 hours and is packed full of people (and animals) in the hot hot sun. I almost wanted to go on that one for entertainment, but it would have been hell.
Our train was 15 minutes late (which wasn't too bad according to Mohamed), things aren't to punctual here. Nate and I had a little sleeper cabin. We had dinner on the train. Then our chairs turned into a single bed, with second bunk bed on top. With Nates nocturnal activities, we thought it best I sleep up top. It was snug up ther, and though I was woken a few times I was soothed by the rocking of the train and went back to sleep quickly.