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Ancient Egypt and the Nile
February 2007
(Grand Circle Travel Tour/Cruise)

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Good morning, Ha-BEE-bees! Such was my phonetic rendition of the Egyptian equivalent of our "Y'all!" or "You guys!", with which our program director, Bilal -- a handsome, elegant, articulate, very well educated, and completely bilingual Egyptian – greeted us each morning as we boarded our bus.

Our adventure started with the panic-producing realization -- five minutes after our friend had dropped us off at the Fort Myers airport -- that we'd left our camera in the trunk of her car. The saga continued when the replacement digital one we bought at JFK airport proved to be defective! Not all was lost, however, since the couple from Montana we had met in Greece and who accompanied us on this trip, kindly let us use the pocket-size digital camera they had brought as a spare. We thought our troubles were over, but, at the end of the first day -- the one with the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx, with the Sound & Light Show that night at the same site --, Robin inadvertently erased all the pictures taken that day... To add insult to injury, we found out when we got home that, for some mysterious reason, the last 15 or so pictures were completely blurry! Even if Hewlett Packard agreed to reimburse us 100% of the camera, batteries and gigabyte card we'd bought at JFK, this was a real bummer for the photographer in me.

On a scale from 0 to 10, our opinion of Egypt Air is about a 1. It's not a 0 because they did, after all, manage to get us there and back on all six flights we flew with them. Slow and uncaring service by mostly grumpy young men, many signs of poor maintenance in the aircraft (the closest TV screen to us was not operating, as well as the classical music audio channel; we ran out of TP and paper towels, along with broken footrests and crooked table trays) and, worst of all, NO ALCOHOL served! That did it for me. What do you mean, an 11-hour flight without wine???

This adventure consisted of the first four days in Cairo, followed by a flight to Luxor where we embarked on a seven-day river cruise to Aswan on the Nile on the lovely river cruise ship M/S Anuket -- which is owned by Grand Circle Travel --, and return to Cairo by air to return to the U.S. (again with Egypt Air). This itinerary included over a dozen sites to discover and visit, during all of which I thanked God I had brought my tripod seat cane, which earned me envious looks from fellow passengers who wished they had done so. In this travelogue, I chose to limit to a minimum the technical, historical and architectural data, to concentrate, instead, on cultural and societal issues and concerns of life in modern Egypt.

As soon as we landed at the Cairo airport and hearing Arabic right, left and center, we again felt -- as we had in Greece 18 months before -- the estrangement of hearing totally foreign sounds (in this case, Arabic). Alien visually as well, since we were unable to decipher the unfamiliar symbols, thus making it impossible for us to memorize the words, much less to understand their meaning. Most of all, this was our first exposure to Islamic religion and culture. It reminded us that while Greece is part of Europe, Egypt is a third-world country.

From the eighth floor balcony of our hotel room downtown, the noise from the street below was deafening. We couldn't even see the pavement, covered as it was with a never-ending ribbon of cars glued together and practically at a standstill on both sides of the river and on the bridge. We figured out later, while riding in our coach or in taxis, that Carenes (inhabitants of Cairo) use their horns instead of their brakes! Get out of the way or else. And they do. Pedestrians are on their own, and street signs must be intended just for decoration. There are no lane dividers, and from above, a two-lane street looks like an intricate jumble of cars edging their way ahead of the next guy in every which direction. We saw hardly any motorcycles at all, and no dogs.

The oddest part of it all is that we never saw an accident, fender bender or a crash. Most cars looked like refugees from the nearest junk yard: covered with dents, nicks and scratches. No new cars anywhere. The fact they cost exactly twice as much as in the US may have something to do with it. The only new car we saw was a taxi we hired, who insisted on charging us more than we had been told to offer "because his car was brand-new." To which Robin answered: "OK, then, what would you charge if it were an old car?" That notwithstanding, and unlike in the U.S., their rates are very low, and bargaining is expected, as it is with any and every purchase -- except upscale shops.

Trivia: The retired claims adjuster in me couldn't help but inquire about the car insurance situation in Egypt. The stark reality is that most cars are not insured since hardly anyone except the wealthy can afford insurance. When I pursued it further by asking what happens when cars do collide, we were told that in case of just body damage, people in the street congregate at the scene to form a self-appointed jury, and decide right there and then who is at fault, therefore responsible for the damages. Superficial damage is seldom repaired -- which explained their cars’ overall early-junkyard appearance. In cases of injury, the person who has been determined the responsible party by the street "jury" will pay for the medical expenses of the injured party. Imagining how such an honor-based system would work in the U.S., our busload broke out in hysterical laughter. In other words, if you want to be a civil lawyer, or start a collision repairs business, DO NOT go to Egypt! You'll starve to death.

One of the first thing we did after settling at the hotel was to go buy some wine for our room. Yes, there are liquor stores in Cairo, though few and very small. However, they only sell products grown or bottled in Egypt. Do you see where I am going with this? If not, try to picture drinking what looks like white wine but tastes like tree bark marinated in turpentine. Do you get it now? I mean, what would you expect in a country that not only prohibits alcohol, but only has sandy soil to grow grapes in, and where it never rains? Only the red wine was barely drinkable. Even in the restaurants and bars at the hotel, the wine selection was limited to one generic white and one generic red, both from South Africa. They certainly weren't delectable, but did nicely at the time. As for the Anuket, they unfortunately only had the vitriolic Egyptian variety to offer.

We also had to stock up on bottled water. We had been warned not to drink tap water, and not to use ice cubes, because of the amount of chlorine in it. It was, however, made available free to us daily on the Anuket. There was a kiosk near the hotel who sold two one-liter bottles for $1. So we loaded up, notwithstanding our puzzlement when we learned that if we only wanted one bottle, it would cost us $2. We've never found the answer to that riddle.

We later learned that even the Carenes don't drink water from the tap. Our program director -- who is well off and lives very well -- could afford to install a central purifier in his house. They don't drink bottled water either, because it's loaded with minerals, which, after several years, will damage the kidneys. He explained that kidney disease is the #1 killer in Egypt because of this abundance of minerals.

Trivia: To document the above claim: a fellow passenger managed to remove a spot on a white blouse by just soaking the sleeve in plain tap water in her sink. There was enough chlorine in it to bleach the spot off...!

After our errands, we joined our friends from Montana for the welcome dinner (cum vino -- such as it was) at the only Egyptian restaurant at the hotel. We loved the food, which is much tastier and varied than in Greece. They have many wonderful ways to cook and season vegetables and salads, using a lot of coriander, turmeric, and cinnamon. Egyptian bread consists of tasty pitas, which, at our hotel, were shaped, and baked in an outdoor stone oven, by two old women crouched on their heels to demonstrate their baking skills.

With Egypt surrounded mostly by desert, it took us a few hours to adjust to the severely arid climate of this part of the world -- a far cry from southwest Florida, but similar to the mountain desert climate we experienced in Salt Lake City. The humidity is usually around 10%, though it will reach 0% at times. Since it rains only every two years, and even so only a sprinkle, rain gear was not required equipment. It was pleasantly cool the first few days in Cairo -- upper 60's to upper 70's --, enough to wear a light jacket when outdoors. However, Luxor, and especially Aswan, both way south of Cairo, were already in the upper 80's. When at the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, where it was hot in February, we wondered what could possess any tourist to visit this part of the world in the summer, when temps reach 140F…

Egypt's flag (as seen on the first page of this travelogue) comprises three horizontal stripes of white, red and black -- representing peace, bloodshed and fertile soil respectively. It is the most modern and least conservative (a moot point at best...) of the 22 Arab countries, and the leader among them for art, TV and movies. With 2/3 of its surface consisting of both the Sahara and the Arabian deserts --, two-thirds of its population of 73 million are concentrated on the very fertile banks of and all along the Nile river, which is their one and only source of water. In places, we could see nothing but desert sand beyond those narrow strips of small towns huddled alongside the river. The longest river in the world, it is also the only one which flows south to north, causing the southern half of Egypt to be called the Higher Valley, while the northern part is called the Lower Valley -- contrary to what would seem logical.

At its source, the 4,132-mile Nile is made up of two rivers: the White Nile -- which starts at Lake Victoria in Uganda, and flows through Uganda, Sudan and Egypt -- and the much bigger Blue Nile -- which starts at Lake Tana, in Ethiopia, and flows through Ethiopia into Sudan. All told, the tributaries to the Nile flow from Zaire, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. The Blue and White Niles meet in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, to the south of Egypt. The Nile then flows as one river, northbound past Cairo, and farther north forming the fan-shaped Nile Delta, the end tips of which are punctuated by the two cities of Alexandria to the west and Port Said to the east, before emptying in the Mediterranean Sea.

With a population of 17 million, the capital of Egypt is the largest city in the Middle East and Africa, with two million cars fighting for its street space. Standing at the center of all routes leading to and from the three continents of Asia, Africa and Europe, Cairo lies west of the Nile, across which is its twin city of Giza, east of the Nile. We found it the dirtiest, noisiest, most crowded and indescribably polluted (even worse than Beijing) city that we'd ever seen, and showing little evidence of any maintenance of houses and apartment buildings. The other cities of Alexandria, Luxor and Aswan were cleaner and prettier. But the overall impression in all cities was one of poverty.

Trivia: Cairo is twice as old as Paris, seven times as old as Berlin, and 15 times as old as New York City.

The adventure really started the next, first full day, Day 3, with a morning lecture on Ancient Egypt, by our own Bilal who'd majored in egyptology in college. As he said as a preamble, "It's difficult to cover 5000 years of history in one hour, but I'll try!" Whether we retained all of it or not, one thing clearly stood out: Egypt's history is one of having been continuously occupied from the time of the last Pharaoh (332 BC) until 1952, when Colonel Nasser overthrew the last king, Farouk, son of Fuad I, and Egypt got its independence. What with the Greeks; Alexander the Great, who built Alexandria which replaced Memphis as Egypt's capital; the Romans; the Arabs, who brought Islam and the Arabic language, and built Cairo and made it Egypt's capital; the crusaders; the Turks; the French under Napoleon, whom the British felt obligated to chase out and replace for the last 70 years before Egypt's independence. One thing immediately struck both of us: while Ancient Greece's culture was very much concerned with the arts, sports, the human body -- mostly naked -- and other various aspects of life, Egypt's ancient culture was entirely focused on preparing for the afterlife, and totally preoccupied with death.

In the afternoon, we visited the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, which was unbelievably crowded and noisy. For me, the highlight was the Rosetta Stone, discovered in 1799 by a French soldier digging for what would be Fort St.Julien, in el-Rashid (Rosetta), a town on the Mediterranean Nile Delta. The writing was a message about Ptolemy V -- ruler of Egypt at the time -- which was repeated three times: in Greek -- because Egypt was under Greek rule at the time later) two Egyptian languages-- demotic and hieroglyphic (more on that subject further on). The three languages said the same thing, but people couldn't match the Greek words with the hieroglyphic words.

Finally, in 1822, a French egyptologist named Jean-Jacques Champollion (who has a street named after him in Paris) figured out how to decipher hieroglyphic writing. After Champollion cracked the code, they were able to match the unfamiliar hieroglyphs to the familiar Greek word and to understand the entire message on the Rosetta Stone. I purposely didn't say "translate" because it was done by transliteration instead, since they were dealing only with symbols.

This, like all the other sites we visited during the entire trip, felt like a modern-day tower of Babel: we heard everything from English and French, to German, Chinese, Japanese, Russian and Spanish, to name only those I knew or recognized. We found all educated Egyptians spoke English, as well as those workers in the hospitality industry in contact with the public. Restaurant and hotel staff and storekeepers did speak it too, but not maids, cleaners or taxi drivers. Peddlers managed with a modicum of whatever words they had learned to get their point across. Sign language was always helpful. The only Arabic word we learned was shoh-KRAHN for “thank you”. Again, no clue of the spelling.

That evening, we were treated to yet another of Grand Circle's trademark events on every trip: the "home-hosted dinner." To give us the opportunity to experience a real home and family life in the country involved, there is always one evening spent at the home of a local family. Usually bilingual and used to foreigners, the hosts are able to answer our questions and to ask some of us as well. The groups take various forms: it can be two or three couples in one home -- as was the case in France last October, or several together, served buffet-style -- as was our case this time. I guess it all depends how many "volunteers" they can recruit for the occasion. It was a useful experience for us, because the apartment where our group of 15 was received turned out to be quite upscale, extremely well-appointed and very spacious. Despite the fact that the street and run-down outside appearance of the building, and poorly maintained halls and stairs, had led us to believe otherwise.

We were disappointed, however, because only the woman and her 20-something student daughter were present (father and son probably thought it was a waste of their valuable male time). Since the mother didn't speak English, and understood very little, all of us, mature adults, only had a very young person to answer all our questions. Although she was charming, lively, and quite intelligent, her privileged life was sheltered, and her life experience and objectivity were inadequate to reflect a true picture of life in modern Egypt. Especially with social matters, about which her youthful eagerness to show us how liberated her country was, didn't quite reconcile with our impressions or research on the subject. More to follow on that later. By then, we were getting used to the absence of wine!

Egyptian society is very traditional and conservative (though less so than other middle eastern countries) and intently focused on the family. The Egyptian family is a vast and extremely tightly-knit network of extended families, and a far cry from our American nuclear family. Removed from that supportive context, most Egyptians, especially women -- who, like everywhere else, are the ones to make life happen -- have a difficult time emotionally adjusting to the isolation caused by moving away from their nuclear center. All generations are close to each other, sometimes live under the same roof, and children are expected to take care of their parents. They all take care of each other.

The following day, Day 4, was devoted to the famed Pyramids of Giza and Sphinx. Armed with a camera which, -- though requiring toothpicks to push buttons so small that you could swallow the camera like a pill if you breathed hard while shooting -- was going to let us immortalize this unforgettable site, the seventh wonder of the world. The Pyramids' shape signified eternity, and they were meant to protect the pharaohs and kings whose tombs were hidden in underground burial chambers. Going back to 2600 BC, they are made of blocks of soft limestone covered by hard sandstone -- with no mortar used anywhere to secure one layer of blocks to the next one of decreasing size. The Pyramids of Giza preside over the Nile Valley on a high plateau, and consist of three main ones for three kings, plus several smaller ones for their wives and noblemen. The largest pyramid -- built by King Cheops -- was 455' high and contained nearly 6.8 million tons of limestone. The second one -- 30' shorter but looking higher than his father's because built on higher ground -- was built by his son, King Khafre. The third one -- built by Khafre's brother, King Menkaure -- was a mere 205'.

The Sphinx is located at the site of the original quarry having provided the blocks for the Pyramids. With the body of a lion -- embedded directly into the bedrock -- and the head of a man, the Sphinx represents the wisdom of mankind combined with the strength of the lion, and was meant to protect the kings buried under the Pyramids. It stood as a gate to the Pyramids, and wasn't visible for several millennia, during which it was buried under sand because of the changing desert terrain. The sand was finally cleared away in 1905 to expose its entirety.

Located around the base of Khafre's pyramid are five large boat pits, two of which contained the perfectly preserved remains of royal barges, believed to take the deceased safely to the afterlife. Early this century, one barge was removed from its pit and reconstructed and placed in the Solar Boat Museum, located on the pyramid's south side. It was a sight to behold, but our photos of it were among the erased ones

Not far from the Sphinx is a free-standing building, called the Valley Temple, where bodies were mummified prior to burial. For those of you who are into that sort of things, I'll describe the lengthy and involved process, which I found fascinating. (For those who aren't, pretend this is a commercial break, go to the bathroom, get yourself another glass of wine or iced tea, or call your children.)

First, all the inner organs were removed, such as lungs, stomach, intestines and kidneys (which were later replaced by the liver) and thrown out. Then, in order to dehydrate the body, the abdominal cavitywas filled with a solution of water and salt -- changed every day for 40 days. The same solution was sent up the nose and the mouth until the liquid came out clear at the other end, to make sure all body liquids -- which is what smells in cadavers -- are flushed out. When that's done, the eyes are thrown out and replaced with I-can't-remember-what, probably a precious stone, and the arms are crossed over the chest before being placed in a wood coffin. Next, it will be placed in a stone coffin and taken through all the burial chambers (necessary to avoid tomb robbers later) until put down in the final burial chamber. Although nothing was mentioned about the wrapping of the body in the ribbon-like material we always associate with mummies, we assume that it is the understood last step of the process since, otherwise, what would hold the bones and skin together?

My personal impression of the whole site was of suffocattion. I felt oppressed by the crowds, the noise, the peddlers, the lack of space (the site is very close to the city itself), and the camel drivers constantly hassling the tourists for rides. I don't deal very well with that kind of behavior and wouldn't have ridden one of their beasts, even if I felt up to it -- which I didn't. Robin didn't either, so we don't have a photo to show what we would have looked like if we had played Lawrence of Arabia.

All mosques are singled out by their minaret -- a thin, tall, needle-like tower -- from the top of which is broadcast, five times a day, via loudspeakers, what is called the "call to prayer," or Al Azann. This consists of quotes from the Q'ran being recited by their Muezzin. On top of the minarets are red or green lights that go on as soon as it grows dark. And since there are so many mosques everywhere, the glow of these lights is quite pretty at night. I can vouch for the fact that the calls to prayer get old fast when they are blasted out 100 yards from your hotel or your ship -- especially on Friday, their holy day, when it seems that we heard them every hour. Not too thrilling since they don't all do it at the same time -- as is the case in Saudi Arabia where everything stops and everyone prays at the same moment.

Men gather to pray anywhere, but preferably at the mosque. When I asked why it was better to pray there than anywhere else, I was told that it was "more beneficial." No further details were provided to explain why the site makes a difference in the efficacy of the ritual. But, there were only so many waves I was willing to make, so I didn't pursue it. Children are taught to start praying five times a day according to Islamic custom after age 10. Whether they actually do or not, seemed to be a matter left up to each individual family. When men do pray as a group, they use a mat to cover the ground or floor, to protect their foreheads which hit the hard surface several times a day. This explained why we saw so many men with a callus on their foreheads. Each group has a leader, who stands ahead of the group and starts the incantations. Women, however (what did you expect?), pray also but by themselves, and indoors. Within the family, the husband leads the prayer, and the wife and children stand behind.

Trivia: Trivia: We liked hearing that, in modern Egypt, people are becoming aware of having to limit the number of births. Birth control is free and female physicians are available to dispense the information. The subject of abortion didn't come up. When ready for birth, a woman's mother moves into the household for several months, as she is expected to teach her daughter everything she has to know about child rearing. Although the idea of having one's mother spend months with them after the first birth didn't excite our group much, you must admit that it takes a lot of the pressure of new motherhood off the shoulders and nerves of young first-time mothers! I bet of lot of you reading this will concur.

After an afternoon rest, we headed out to our planned outing in the evening to the Sound & Light show at the Pyramids and the Sphinx again. A remarkable display of history and high-tech lights and sounds, which was unfortunately disrupted by sounds that turned out to be lamentations from a funeral taking place nearby. Before and after the show, we were treated by a local band to a recital of more or less contemporary tunes such as "On the way to Tipperary”, and some light Offenbach tunes. The weird part is that their instruments looked and sounded very much like bagpipes. Bilal said they were Egyptian instruments, but I never did find out their name.

Public schools and universities are free and open to all, with mandatory attendance from age 6 to 15 since Nasser came to power (it was only till age 12 before that). In secondary school, the higher your grades the more choices you have after that, e.g. engineering, medicine or law. However, graduating from the university does not guarantee students jobs. For those who don't have high enough grades for university, choices are the military academy and the police academy, (which makes one wonder...), but you are assured of a job when you graduate. Those who don't finish high school are considered illiterate. University graduates always aim for the private sector, which is much more lucrative. If they prefer jobs overseas or in the Gulf area, they have to know foreign languages and computer experience also. Those who wind up in the public sector do not have enough money to live on, and complement their meager income with private tutoring and tourism. But gasoline is very cheap, and Egypt produces its own oil and natural gas, water and electricity, so, although public sector salaries are dismal, utilities bills are minimal.

Evidence of Tourist Police on our cruise boat

We learned the first day that, after the shooting of 27 tourists in Luxor in1996, Egypt formed a Tourist Police. This created many jobs for unemployed people, and was meant to ensure that what constitutes 8% of Egypt's GNP -- mainly the tourist industry -- was adequately protected to keep the foreign currencies coming their way. Every single tour bus and every single tour company has to report on a daily basis its schedule and its itinerary to the Tourist Police. All cars were searched before they could drive up to the hotel entrance to pick up or drop off passengers. While in Cairo, there was always a man in a suit (though those in the street are in uniform and well-identifiable by the public) and a bulging pocket, never saying a word but sitting at the very front of the bus. On the train to Alexandria, we found out that the well-dressed man sitting across the aisle from Robin and me, who had two cell phones and a laptop plus a two-way radio, and was treated by the train personnel with the utmost respect, was, in fact, a high-ranking police official. On the way to "particularly sensitive sites," our coaches were preceded and followed by motorized police escort, sometimes with sirens on -- such as on the way to and from the Pyramids' site for the Sound-and-Light Show. We didn't know whether to feel harassed, or well-protected. At first, we found this constant police presence slightly oppressive, but we got used to it. Besides, this hovering had its good sides since it helped us get to our show on time! Also, we knew we could trust the uniformed ones in the street, with the Tourist Police badge, to hail and negotiate a cab for us to return to the hotel.

Day 5 was devoted to Alexandria, on the Mediterranean, where we went by train, again accompanied by our "escort." With six million people, this second largest city in Egypt was founded in 352 BC by Alexander the Great, and was only one of 16 cities around the world to be named after him. It's considered the seaside playground of wealthy Egyptians, who either own or rent houses or apartments in the summer to get away from the oppressive Cairo heat. By the way, the shores of the Red Sea serve the same purpose. Although the traffic was the same demented maze of insanity as in Cairo, it was a welcome relief after Cairo's noise, dirt and pollution. However, as in Cairo, laundry was hanging out to dry out of windows, decorating the otherwise gloomy façades of buildings with cheerful splashes of bright colors. A great many coffee shops bordered the sidewalks, where men (only) spend a lot of time drinking tea, smoking water pipes, and playing backgammon, dominoes and cards.

Trivia: A very popular game in the Middle East, dominoes are a forerunner of mah-jongg. Dominoes were really invented in the 12th century by the Chinese, even though a set of tiles resembling dominoes was found in Tutankhamun's tomb. The game may be Asian, but the name is European, taken from the winter cap worn by Christian priests, which was made of black cloth with a white lining. The game first appeared in Italy in the 18th century, possibly brought by English seafarers.

Several public parks and beautiful beaches along its 14-mile corniche (same French word used on the Riviera, or road following a coastline) were for the enjoyment of public and tourists alike. Since Islam prohibits uncovering any part of the body except the face and arms, even modern people such as our program director and his wife, wear jeans and T-shirts in the ocean. The city felt very European to us, and not Middle Eastern although minarets were everywhere.

Unlike what we were, perhaps naively, expecting, we found no remnants of the famed and ancient Library of Alexandria, whose construction had been started in 2300 BC by Ptolemy II. But all there was to see is the new -- and gorgeous -- modern library, inaugurated in 2002: a stunning metal, stone and glass structure, with breathtaking views of the sea, but nonetheless only a monument to modern technology and an impressive abundance of documents and books, with no vestiges of past ancient beauties.

The highlight of Alexandria was the Montazah Palace, an ornate and luxurious sprawling mansion owned by King Farouk, the last king of Egypt -- although he was of Albanian origin. On a slight hill overlooking the sea, the palace grounds also contain the spectacular Helman Palestine Hotel, whose dining-room was set up for a superlative lunch for us. Dessert was a humongous heart-shaped cake decorated with strawberries in honor of Valentine's Day, which we greeted with enthusiastic and appreciative applause.

While "shopping" on the boardwalk after lunch, we quickly realized that most street vendors prefer U.S. dollars, especially the street peddlers, who were the plague of our whole trip. While understanding their dire needs and the importance of our contributions to their national economy, I must admit that I profoundly dislike their aggressiveness. I felt literally and relentlessly assaulted every time we got off the bus, or left the hotel or ship, or simply walked around as we did in Alexandria. I found it downright oppressive at times, but we didn’t think asking Bilal how to say 'F... off!' in Arabic was an option.

On the way back, our coach drove by two "satellite cities." Set up like our gated communities, they are small cities constructed from the ground up in the middle of the desert, miles outside of Cairo limits. They are intended to entice people to move out of the crowded, impoverished and polluted city. Although the concept might seem similar to our American suburbs, they have little in common. Despite offering all the amenities people would never have in a house or apartment in Cairo, they are isolated clusters, unconnected to a cultural life and far removed from the services available in the city. People enjoy the ease of life, the clean air (? they are still in the desert, where the wind blows the sand everywhere), the safe and quiet streets where children can ride their bikes, etc. However, the main complaint is the distance from their families. And since very few people own cars, the incentive to move there is not as strong as was hoped and planned.

The coach ride back from Alexandria was also a great opportunity to discover how houses are built in the country. Mud bricks are laid out to dry before they become the main building material. When there are any, roofs are made of straw. They often do without, since -- like in Peru -- they don't pay taxes on their house or building until the structure is completed. A farmer's house is located in the middle of his land, and villages have all their houses huddled together, as close to the river as possible.

Trivia: Interestingly enough, and even though they look like just shacks, most houses and apartment buildings have satellite dishes, as they do in the cities.

In the afternoon of Day 6 , and after relaxing in the morning, we enjoyed the company of a young trilingual Egyptian student of theater at the American University of Cairo -- whose name had been given to us by a Salt Lake friend of mine who had recently taught acting at AUC for a couple of years. He expertly found a cab for us and took us downtown, where we visited the Citadel, a vast walled complex which includes the famed Muhammad Ali Mosque and that of Sultan Hassad, exquisite examples of Egyptian architecture which were built in 1830 and between 1356 and 1363 respectively. We focused not so much on history with him, but on picking his young brain on his lifestyle, beliefs and aspirations. He was delightful, bubbly, funny, very friendly. The sprinkling of his speech with a spattering of typical American expressions popular with young people in the U.S. reflected his daily exposure to American culture at AUC -- where most students' parents are ex-pats. Meaning his sentences were mainly structured around “like”s every five words. Sounds familiar?

A lecture, followed by a Q&A session, in the late afternoon, was the highlight of the day. It was given in one of our hotel conference rooms, the night before we left Cairo for our cruise, by an American woman who had lived in Egypt for 15 years as an ex-pat with her Egyptian husband. I was very eager to hear her tale, and went prepared with many questions that most Westerners have about Islamic society.

She confirmed, as we had already intuited ourselves, that people in Egypt – like in many countries in the world -- hate U.S. government policies, but like Americans -- and their money. Members of our groups -- who are experienced travelers and know better -- and our tour leader alike were very careful never to engage in political discussions, which could have lead nowhere. In fact, we were all very impressed to see how our guides handled telling us about their country's history and past and present situation in the middle east, without innuendos, or slurs or attacks. It was a perfect example of professional journalism, where both sides are presented and no stand taken.

Our questions -- from men and women alike -- concerned the treatment and life of women, mainly the wearing of the famous veil and other related oppressive garb(s). Bilal also spoke about it, but we were eager to discuss it with a non-Egyptian resident of Egypt. To begin with, Egyptian city-women only wear the veil on the head but not covering the face, even with western modern clothes. Modern men wear western clothes, sometimes covered by galabeyas (long robes). In the country, however, both genders wear the long robes: When women's robes are black, it indicates that the woman is not available for marriage.

The black robes and head garb with just a slit for the eyes are worn by women only in the very conservative countries like Saudi Arabia. You could tell Saudi men as well, because they wore long dark robes, with the large white, or red-and-white hankies – that look like French café tablecloths – on their head, held in place by crown-like bandannas.

Our bus driver sharing a Smoke with a Friend

It seems that the wearing of the veil has become a subject of contention in recent years. Although young liberated women didn't wear the veil for many years, we were told by both the student of the host family, and the American ex-pat, that the wearing of it has recently (in the past five to eight years) taken a renewed significance of traditionalism and Islamic faith. For instance, the home-hosted dinner student was wearing one, but she did admit that it bothered her mother (who was sitting there but didn't understand the conversation), who wore one herself as is fitting her generation. When I challenged her on that, asking why she had chosen to go back to the veil, what dimension it added to her life, and how it contributed to her well-being or happiness, she appeared unsure of how to deal with such pointed questions, and simply answered that "it was between her and her god." Which, unfortunately, left the question unanswered.

The ex-pat had converted to Islam prior to meeting her husband in California, where they married and lived five years before deciding to emigrate to his homeland. She had the group in stitches when she related that her husband -- obviously of the modern, liberal variety -- calls a Saudi woman with the slitted black mask, "the Mother of Zorro." She herself dresses like a westerner, and so does her husband. But her husband's sisters wear the Egyptian veil, so do her nieces. Conversing with her was very enlightening, and it made it very clear that, if it weren't for the fact that she lives the privileged life of what used to be called "the colonial days", i.e. with several servants and all the benefits and advantages of the wealthy, she'd be out of there in a flash!

Trivia: Boys have mandatory military service, except if they are the only boy in the family because they are expected to take care of their parents. The length of the enrollment is based on their schooling. Someone with a university degree only has to put in one year in the army. Someone with just high school is required to serve two years. Those without a high school degree are considered illiterate and must sign up for three years (that, again, speaks volumes...). Only girls who go to medical school owe one year of military service to be performed in a public hospital.

Familiar as I am with the adaptation to other languages, cultures and countries, I was looking forward to hearing her experience. As I suspected, she spends more time with other ex-pats -- thus speaking English most of the time -- than with Egyptian women. Which caused me to doubt that her tale could reflect what life is like for middle-class Egyptian women. This might also explain why, after 15 whole years, she still speaks only what she called "colloquial Arabic" and can just "manage" relating to her in-laws. She neither reads nor writes it. I couldn't help wondering why she didn't formally learn it with lessons at the AUC, since she had so much free time. Another moot point, I guess.

Moving right along, we are now coming to Day 7, when we left Cairo to fly south to Luxor, for the second phase of our trip. It was Islam's holy day, so the minarets were bellowing out their calls to prayer with hypnotic frequency. The flip side was there was no traffic, which was good.

We first boarded our ship, which was a very pleasant surprise, with everything above our expectations. The cabins were most comfortable, very spacious, with large bay windows, a very adequate bathroom, and sufficient storage space. The common rooms were very well appointed and elegantly furnished. Of course, the bar left a great deal to be desired, but that's all I am going to say about that.

A new experience for all of us was to become acquainted with the reality of river cruise ships: there is little actual docking space along the river banks, so "parking" is on a first-come, first-served basis. Which means that subsequent ships must park alongside of yours in as many layers as necessary, instead of in front or behind as do ocean cruise ships. They line up their entrances (always mid-ship and the same height in most cases) so that passengers can embark and disembark by simply walking through the lobbies of every ship. In some instances, we were in the last position, and had to walk through four ships to get in or out. It was quite fun, actually, but a lot of work for the crew on departure day, because they had to haul our luggage out to the river bank in the same manner. Of course, we loved being stationed in the last position out, since we could then look out to the other side of the Nile and the countryside in our cabin. If we were on the "wrong" side, we were either facing the quay and the town; or we were sandwiched on both sides and could see zilch. We had several opportunities to admire the precision and skill involved in moving these babies into and out of position.

After our first lunch on board, we -- mostly women -- headed out to an essential-oil factory, which was quite an experience. Since I am a believer in the curative power of herbs and the efficacy of natural ingredients and remedies, I was delighted to sniff, and test, and sample. I wound up buying four different bottles of essential oils to alleviate several aches and pains.

Trivia: Lotus flower, which you rub into your hands before massaging your forehead and sinus points, will relieve stress and anxiety; Myrrh, which is good for aches and pains, can be rubbed into joints or sore areas; Frankincense: a few drops in a glass of hot water to breathe in deeply will relieve symptoms of colds and flu; and Tut-Ankh-Amon -- three drops in a glass of water left on a counter will get rid of cooking odors in kitchen or dining room.

The world's greatest open-air museum, Luxor became the capital of Ancient Egypt 1,500 years ago, under the name of Weset. Later on, Luxor was called Thebes by the Greeks, and means "the city of palaces" in Egyptian.

A prettier and cleaner city than Cairo, it straddles the Nile, with a population of one-half million spread over both west and east banks. The production of sugar cane is its main resource, and tourism, of course, its main industry. In Luxor as in Cairo and everywhere, Egyptians are very friendly and helpful people, but they are also not as structured as westerners.

Trivia: Some people on our ship took a taxi one night in Luxor, and on the way home, instead of turning left to go to the dock, the driver turned right. "Hey, hey, where are you going?" they protested. The driver grinned easily, and said: "Time to eat!" And he went to pick up something at a nearby shop. It's only after he finished his meal that he took them back to the ship. In the same vein, our guide always referred to "Egyptian minutes," or "Egyptian time."

Luxor is the site of many, very famous monuments of Ancient Egypt, i.e. the Luxor Temple on the east Bank, and the Karnak complex at the northern end of town. The west Bank was the domain of the deceased, with many mortuary temples and tombs, and, most of all, the Valley of the Kings plus the Valley of the Queens.

Later that afternoon (after a well-deserved nap), we started with the visit of the Temple of Luxor on the east bank. Famous for its pylons (walls surrounding the entrance to a temple), it was built in stages, starting with Ramses II in 2400 BC. It consisted of two huge temples, made of red and black granite, honoring Ramses II and his wife Nefertari. The main entrance is marked by two obelisks, 120' high. Only one is intact, and only the base is left of the other since Napoleon saw fit – when he invaded Egypt -- to abscond with it upon returning to Paris, where it has been standing in the middle of the Place de la Concorde ever since. The sun was setting by the time we left to return to the ship, and the light was playing wonderful games with shadows on those ancient columns and buildings. We tried to do them justice with our pocket camera, but the results aren't are rewarding as we'd hoped.

Trivia: Egypt has a national health system, where medical care in public facilities is free for all. However, like in England, it's all based on a first-come first-served basis, and those who can afford it will go to private clinics and hospitals. Complementary insurance is usually necessary for the latter. The main diseases in Egypt are kidney disease (from the long-term effects of drinking mineral water), hepatitis and cancer. AIDS is not present, and malaria has been eradicated.

Day 8 was one of the nicest of the cruise. Not only did we visit the west Bank: the Valleys of the Kings and Queens, and the Colossi of Memnon, in the morning, but we sailed northbound all afternoon to go to Qena. Sailing northbound took us away from the hordes of similar river cruise ships and boats, which are streaming day and night in and out of Luxor, and crowd the Nile all the way to Aswan.

First thing in the morning, our coach crossed a bridge to the left bank, and on through sugar cane country to go south to reach the site of the Valleys. Sugar cane is cut by hand, and loaded on a train that takes it to refineries. The farmers own the land -- which was nationalized and re-distributed equitably by Nasser after he became the first President of Egypt in 1954 --, but the government owns the plants for which it also provides the fertilizer. When the harvest is sold, the state's investment is paid back, and the farmer keeps the difference.

We spent the morning visiting both Valleys. The tombs had to be built on the west side of the Nile to guarantee eternity since the sunset signifies the end of the day. All the tombs were carved into the hillside, and are currently marked by square-shaped entrances like to a tunnel. They used tools made of iron to dig the tombs -- and flint tools before that -- to dig the tombs into the hillside. The Valley of the Kings contains 63 tombs, with 16 open to the public. Tut-Ank-Amon's was the only one that had not been previously pillaged when discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter. There are now close to 80 tombs in the Valley of the Queens but only five are open to the public, including the magnificent one of Queen Nefertari, favorite wife of Ramses II. Photographs are forbidden inside, so you have to rely on postcards and a variety of spectacular websites to view them.

The number of tombs open to the public varies and rotates periodically. Although the arid climate had always helped preserve the stunning colors of the wall paintings inside, eventually carbon dioxide from the breaths of visitors started affecting them. Ancient Egyptians used natural substances for colors -- such as carbon for black, ochre for yellow as well as red, malakite for green, and lapis lazuli for blue and turquoise -- which they mixed with egg whites, and not water. This is another reason the paintings were so well-preserved when the tombs were discovered. However, with sustained exposure to outside air, bacteria eventually alter the nature of the paints. This bacterial invasion is checked regularly by the Department of Antiquities. When alteration is discovered, the tomb is closed to the public, and the inside is sprayed to eliminate the bacteria and restore the surface to its original quality.

Trivia: I asked how the workers could see, when they did those exquisite paintings in those many burial chambers, all lined up one after the other deeper into the mountain side? They used combinations of copper mirrors which refracted the sunlight, starting from the outside opening and bouncing the light from one mirror to the next, to the final spot where the artists worked. Wasn’t that clever? Although I am sure quite precarious.

Once at Qena, and after dinner, we all hopped on what they called "the tchou-tchou-train", a little train of the sightseeing variety, such as those used in many cities to take tourists around, with several open-sided "cars" hooked together. They were clean and brightly painted, and we snaked our way through the town -- very clean and well-kept, earning its reputation of being "the cleanest city in Egypt" -- for the greatest enjoyment of the locals who greeted us with friendly waves and hellos while strolling down the streets. Our destination was a Girls' Sporting Club, a facility built by a wealthy philanthropic woman, intended to provide girls with a place where they could practice sports like swimming without having to dress with the usual garb, without a veil, and even without the jeans/T-shirts that are required on public beaches. There is also a restaurant, which is also used for various events and performances such as the one we attended. Three young women, as well as three young men, treated us to a show of folkloric dances and music. The girls' heads were free of the veil, and it added to the performance where we're concerned. A little amateurish but delightful, with magnificent costumes. Even though we had a police escort both coming and going, we thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

The legal age for marriage is 16, though it used to be much younger many years ago. Marriages are still arranged -- in the country and in cities as well -- since they look at marriage as an alliance of families, not of individuals. In cities, however, there is more flexibility now than in the past. Now, if the girl or boy does not care for their parents' choice, they say so and the marriage won't take place. Traditionalists will explain the 40% rate of divorce in cities by this fact. In the country, where families represent power, influence and protection, marriage increases land ownership. Farmers are the sole rulers of their households, and nobody is asked what they think or want: the marriage is arranged, period. Interestingly enough, and even in the most modern layers of modern society, there is no dating per se. When a union is planned by the parents, the two young people (who most often had never laid eyes on each other) are considered engaged, before they even know each other. The engagements are official ceremonies, accompanied with much celebration and rituals. From then on, the two young people can spend time together to find out if they like each other or not. Never alone, though, since both boys and girls are expected to remain virgins until marriage.

Trivia: Our program director told us of his own wedding story, saying that he'd been "engaged" seven times, before meeting the girl who became his wife.

Day 9 was what is called "a sea day" on an ocean cruise: you stay on board to indulge in mental doodling, or staring, or playing cards, or reading, or catching up with your trip notes, but mostly vegetating. Trying to read in our cabin, I had a hard time concentrating on my book because of the charmingly unfamiliar scenery slowly unraveling in front of our sliding doors. No more cities, just very small villages scattered along the banks of the Nile, with cows, and donkeys, and camels grazing or just staring back at us, the ubiquitous minarets punctuating the scenery, no noise, and practically no other boats in sight. Just gliding quietly on the water, interrupted now and then by the cries and shouts of children busy on the river banks, either playing in the water or working in the water's edge gardens, and waving enthusiastically at us. We enjoyed this slow pace all the way back to Luxor where we'd pick up the rest of the southbound itinerary to Aswan and more treasures to discover.

In the late afternoon was yet another lecture, this time by our own Bilal about hieroglyphs and the Arabic language, which I had awaited eagerly. Hieroglyphic writing first began around 5000 years ago. Egyptians wrote in symbols called hieroglyphs until about 400 AD. When Egyptians wrote, they didn't just write one hieroglyph after another, like letters in a word. They arranged them neatly in rows and columns to look nice. Text is read and written from right to left on rows, and from top to bottom in columns.

Trivia: The Arabic language is taught and spoken in all 22 Arabic countries, from Morocco to Iraq. It's also spoken by Muslims throughout the world since it is the language of the Q'ran. Although modern spoken Arabic can vary greatly from country to country, classical written Arabic has changed little over the centuries.

Hieroglyphic symbols for Life and Security

They started as symbols, then evolved into hieratic writing (a short-handed cursive) and then demotic (a combination of both.) At the beginning, the kings' names were short, so the symbols were small, and included in a circle. As the names got longer, more symbols were used and the circle became elongated, forming what is called a cartouche, after the French word used for cartridge, thus oblong-shaped. All kings and pharaohs had their names inscribed in a cartouche, carved on their tombs. And many of us, typical tourists, had a jeweler on the ship make us our own, to be worn as a pendant on a chain, with our name spelled with hieroglyphs on one side of the cartouche, and three other symbols on the back (life, eternity, love, happiness, etc.) The scarab was a prominent symbol in ancient cartouches because it signified protection.

Arabic writing is a member of the Semitic alphabetical scripts in which mainly the consonants are represented, and its alphabet is now second in use in the world only to the Roman alphabet. It's a script of 28 letters and uses long but not short vowels. The letters are derived from only 17 distinct forms, distinguished from one another by a dot or dots placed above or below the letter. Short vowels are indicated by small diagonal strokes above or below letters. Arabic numerals are based on the number of corners on each shape.

With hieroglyphs in temples, you can determine whether to read from right to left or vice versa by looking at birds or animals: if they face left, you read from right to left, and vice versa if they face right.

Trivia: Egypt is one of the safest countries in the Middle East. Not only the police will maintain order, but citizens themselves interfere readily and spontaneously against lawbreakers. They will think nothing of running after a thief, or rallying forces to catch a criminal -- which they perceive not only as normal but also as their duty. The death penalty by hanging exists for capital crimes, i.e. first-degree murder, rape, crimes against security of the state, and trafficking of drugs.

The morning of Day 10 saw us exploring the second archaeological site of the cruise, the Karnak Temple. The largest religious space on earth, this awesome complex -- covering 100 hectares which include no less than 236 columns -- leaves you literally speechless, with your mouth hanging open. How the heck do you describe with words something that even photographs can't do justice to?

It was built over a thirteen-hundred year period, and includes three main temples, smaller enclosed temples, and several outer temples. The main temple of Amen alone is 61 acres, and would hold ten average European cathedrals. Originally, three obelisks graced its grounds, marking the three kingdoms of the time. Only two remain standing. The highlight for me was a row of statues of identical ram-headed sphinxes lining the main road into the complex and the two obelisks.

Sites such as Karnak, Dendera and Kom Ombo would most likely fall under the category of "god's mansions." While the god may certainly have been worshiped in these temples, it was also his symbolic home, if not considered his physical residence. (We both skipped Dendera for time-out, and only Robin went to Kom Ombo because I needed downtime, and was "templed out.")

That evening, after we sailed to Esna -- where we overnighted but didn't see at all because we didn't even get out --, the crew provided the entertainment. They did a magnificent job, with great costumes and a lot of laughs. I wish we'd had our own camera, which takes good pictures of moving objects. One of our guides performed ancient Egyptian dances: just watching him got us tired! We thought it humorous that, that night on the schedule, the ship's program was to show "Death on the Nile," the famous Agatha Christie movie with Peter Ustinov, Angela Lansbury, David Niven, and other celebrities. Which we watched in bed, for the fourth time for me.

In Islam, the basic purpose of marriage is still to reproduce, and women are still expected to -- and do -- stop work or their studies as soon as they get married. As westerners, we did find Egyptian society's expectations of women very fundamentalist: their destiny is still to be subservient to men, and to devote their life to catering to the needs of others, starting with their husband and their children. I was oh so tempted to ask how they would raise sons to be good sensitive husbands and equal partners. All of us older western women took this in with heavy sighs, haunted as we were by ghosts of times past, where our own culture planned nothing much different than that for a young girl's adult life...

Trivia: The almost naive way in which our program director (young man of 40) explained that, of course, his wife quit work "to take care of his needs" would have been touching if it hadn't been so infuriating. Another time, a guide made a point of explaining that the measure of his success as a father was to make sure to raise his three daughters so that they would become "perfect wives and mothers," i.e. to keep them on the straight and narrow path of Islamic womanhood.

We sailed for Edfu the following morning, on Day 11, after Robin had a chance to check out the wheelhouse with a small group of boat aficionados. He found out from the captain that our ship's water is Nile river water which has been purified enough to be used for dishes and washing, but not to drink. Thus more water bottles every day. You should have seen crate after crate being loaded on each time we docked! The sewage is treated biochemically and pumped back into the river -- which is subject to government inspection. The depth of the Nile averages 10-25 feet, and the ship drew five feet. It is powered by three 400-h.p. Caterpillar engines turning at 800 rpm with large propellers of about 3' in diameter.

Edfu is a very large and busy city, between Esna and Aswan, where the rules of traffic are the same as in Cairo, i.e. horns instead of brakes. Formerly called Apollinopolis Magna by the Greeks, it has 274,500 inhabitants. Public transportation is provided by Honda and Toyota minivans, not buses. Japanese tourists -- ubiquitous as always -- must have been ever so pleased. After briefly looking at a one-mile long open-air market, we discovered the temple of Edfu, which took 180 years to build, during the Greek occupation. Edfu is the best preserved temple in southern Egypt, with its original stone roof still in place. Its main attraction is the Temple of Horus, which is considered by most to be the best preserved cult temple in Egypt, and is the second largest after Karnak.

Back to the Anuket for lunch, after which I had a lot of fun with a cooking lesson in the dining room, given by our Restaurant Manager, a very congenial and round-bellied middle-age man, who was proud, with the help of his younger staff -- all very smiley Egyptians -- to show us how to make okra salad. With enough garlic and coriander, it was delicious. And I don't even like okra!

In the afternoon, Robin took the walking tour to Kom Ombo, while I was indulging in a massage. Built during the Greco-Roman period (332 BC-AD 395) it is the ancient site of Ombos, which is from the ancient Egyptian word "nubt', or 'City of Gold'. It was dedicated to two deities, the crocodile god Sobek and his wife Hathor. In Ancient Egypt, the city was important to the caravan routes from Nubia and various gold mines.

That evening was our "galabeya" party. Galabeyas are the long robes that Egyptians wear, men and women alike. Made of light cotton, they are perfect for desert weather and keep the air flowing on arms and legs. They come in millions of fabrics and colors, and are a joy to the eyes.

Trivia: Egypt's revenues come first from tourism ($8 billion annually), second from the Suez Canal ($3.5 billion), then from natural gas, and finally foreign currency sent home by natives working abroad.

Temple  of Isis at Philae, from the Nile — Temple of Isis at Philae, from the Nile

On Day 12, and after sailing the very short distance between Edfu and Aswan -- our final port of call --, the morning was devoted to the Old Dam and the High Dam, and the Temple of Philae. For thousands of years, the Nile River overflowed its banks due to rainfall on the Ethiopian highlands and melting snow in the Mountains of the Moon, on the Uganda-Zaire border. The flooding of the Nile normally begins in August and ends in October. The lowest water level in Cairo is in February, and the highest in August.

The original Aswan dam was the older dam, built by the British between 1898 and 1892. With only one small lock, it proved insufficient to meet the region's needs and was modernized in 1960, still producing electricity.

The construction of the Aswan High Dam started in 1960 when Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal. Its construction was fully finished ten years later, forming Lake Nasser, the world's largest man-made lake at the time -- 480 km long and up to 16 km wide. The cost of its construction was assumed entirely by Egypt's own revenues, and is considered the greatest public work undertaken by Egypt since the Pyramids. An expression of political tensions between the USSR, Israel, France and Britain, the high dam has controlled the annual flood since 1970. Its power station has a yearly output capacity of 2.1 gigawatts, and it produces enough electricity -- and Lake Nasser enough water -- for all of Egypt.

On the way to Philae, we stopped at the Papyrus Institute. The oldest form of paper in history, papyri were invented by Egyptians, and were made with the stems of the lotus flower. We witnessed a demonstration of the process, whereby the outer dark green bark is removed, and the white inside is sliced, pounded and pressed -- to get rid of sugar and water. Then it's cut into long strips which are laid flat on a board, in alternate horizontal and vertical layers. The result is soaked in water for hours or days, to get rid of water and sugar again, and is left in a heavy press. The finished product is the papyrus which was then painted and covered with hieroglyphs. The finished product neither tore, broke or wrinkled. And still doesn't.

And on to Philae. On a small island south of the city of Aswan now lies this awesome temple complex. It was originally located on another island, nearby but lower, which caused the temple to be flooded by the construction of the High Dam. It was fortunately rescued by joint efforts between the Egyptian government and UNESCO. Philae was a Greek word -- Pilak in ancient Egyptian - which meant "the end." South of Aswan, Abu Simbel lies in the middle of Nubia and is just eight miles from Sudan. Nubia was just a region, 100 miles north in Egypt (an Arab country), and 100 miles south in Sudan (an African country). This is reflected in the features of Nubians, who are definitely a combination of both: they are shorter, darker and heavier than Egyptians, with curly hair. The Nubian kingdom was flooded by Lake Nasser, after which 75% of its 75,000 people emigrated to Egypt, and the rest to Sudan. Intermarriages diluted the differences with each new generation. Their original native language was only a spoken one, but now, being Muslims, they speak mostly Arabic.

Philae was the last bastion of ancient Egyptian religion and hieroglyphic usage. The main temple is that of Isis, impressive and very well-preserved, though the paint decorations have been removed by the length of time it spent underwater. The complex contains all the elements of ancient Egyptian history, with Egyptian, Greek and Roman architecture blending together.

Again, lunch on the ship, and mid-afternoon -- and after a nap --, we embarked on something I was really looking forward to: a felucca ride on the Nile. The only means of transportation on the Nile -- for people and goods alike --, feluccas are sailboats with only one, large sail. They hold about 20 people, and were manned by Nubians. Before we left, we were told we had to bring life jackets on board, but not to bother wearing them. Once onboard, they showed us where to shove the jackets so they'd be out of the way: under our seats! There was a certain freedom and spontaneity in that which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Many feluccas plied the waters at that point, the sun was getting low and ready to set, and the light was just perfect. We learned that while the Nile flows from south to north and so does the current, the winds coming from the Mediterranean blow from north to south. Which makes for tricky sailing challenges for boats of all kinds. At that point, the sandy banks of the Nile were the closest thing we'll ever get to the Sahara desert: smooth, ochre-colored, wind-streaked sand hills. Closing my eyes, I expected to see Lawrence of Arabia galloping towards the shore. We sailed by the Mausoleum of the Aga Khan, father of Ali Khan -- who'd married Rita Hayworth, as some of you may remember -- overlooking the Nile from the top of its own, majestic hill.

This had been a full day, and when a group of people left after dinner to go explore the open-air Spice Market in Aswan, I declined and crashed. Robin went and bought some loose Iranian saffron at a bargain price-- which he later found he could have gotten for less than half the price at the Khalili Bazaar on our last day in Cairo before going home!

Trivia: The most popular sport in Egypt -- like in most of Europe and the Middle East -- is soccer, followed by squash and handball. American football, rugby and baseball are unknown there. Retirement age is 60 for men, and 55 for women, and life expectancy is 60/70 in the city, and 75/85 in the country. There also, women seem to outlive men by the same ratio as in the west. The disparity between the rich and the poor is evident, but, unfortunately, we didn't get a good sense of whether there is really a middle-class, and what proportion of the population it represents.

Day 13 was for the long-awaited, optional excursion to the famous Abu Simbel. Awakened at 3:45AM for a 5:00 departure for the Aswan airport to catch a 6:30 flight to Abu Simbel, I think we were lucid enough by the time we got there. Egyptians believed kings became gods after death. But the pharaoh Ramses II -- another megalomaniac with an ego the size of, well, let's say Napoleon's or Alexander the Great's -- decided he wanted to be a god while he was still alive. So he went about having two temples, oriented east-west, built right into a rock face, and facing east, at Abu Simbel. The first one was to himself -- but dedicated to Ra, the sun god -- with four 66-foot colossal statues of himself decorating the front, with others repeated time and time again inside all the inner burial chambers. The second one, dedicated to the goddess Hathor, was meant for Ramses' favorite wife, Queen Nefertari -- which means "beautiful companion". However, it consists of four 33-foot statues of himself, and only two of Nefertari. She was also made a goddess in the process. Statues of all the other relatives were life-size, and stood around the feet of the colossi.

This was February 22, the one of two days a year when the sun rays line up exactly through the series of inner chambers inside Ramses' tomb to illuminate his statue, on the very back wall of the last chamber. Some of you may have read about it in the paper (we did, in an English-speaking paper at our hotel), since it is a semi-annual event which always draws thousands of people from all over the world. Well, this was the day. But sunrise was at about the time we were up in the air on our way there, so we missed it by an hour. Which is just as well, because when our coaches got to the site, we were horrified by the number of buses and coaches: there must have been 50 or more of them lined up. But our guide told us that they'd be gone shortly, since they had spent the night on the sand, just to be there to witness the sunrise phenomenon. He turned out to be right, and we had the place almost to ourselves after they all left, and before more tourists arrived. Maybe that's why my most vivid and cherished memory of this whole trip will always be Abu Simbel. One of the reasons, anyway, as you'll see further on.

In the last chamber of the main temple, called the sanctuary, there are four statues against the back wall, but only three of them are lit by the rays of the sun twice a year: from right to left, the statue of re-Harakhty, with a falcon head, wearing a sun disk with a cobra on his head; then Ramses II wearing a blue crown; then the state god Amun-Ra, wearing a two-feathered-crown. The fourth one, Ptah, now headless, was never illuminated because he was the god of Memphis and of darkness.

The sheer scale of these testimonies to himself from a man who wanted to be a god is hard to describe. The Great Temple is over 100' high and 120' wide. The only thing we could compare it to was Mt. Rushmore -- well, somewhat, anyway. When it was determined that Lake Nasser would flood this masterpiece, UNESCO came once again to the rescue, and with the help of Italy, Germany, France and Sweden, raised both temples 200' up and 600' west of their original location. The statues were dismantled with block after block being sawed off, numbered and catalogued, to be re-assembled in reverse order in their new location, on the plateau, on a man-made rock hill, to reproduce the masterpiece bit by bit. The process is too mind-boggling to try to say any more.

As I was slowly walking alone in front of the temples and up the hill's sand path to return to the bus parking lot -- which was way behind the temples --, I suddenly heard a melody which came from loudspeakers on a ship slowly gliding on Lake Nasser, along the water's edge, the whole length of the site. The short piece, which repeated itself time and again, stopped me in my tracks. It was so stirring, poignant and majestic that, mesmerized, I sat on my cane/seat, turned around toward the Lake and the boat, and just listened, goosebumps all over. Sunlight was dancing with sparkly garlands on the water surface, and I let this haunting theme pound into my ears and my heart. I'll never, ever forget that moment. I started singing along with it, and had it memorized by the time I finally headed back to the bus.

As I found out later, it's called "Conquest of Paradise," the theme written by Vangelis (of "Chariots of Fire" fame) for the film "1492" about Columbus. Maybe some of you know the music or the film, but I didn't. However, two days after we got home, I had bought the CD and I have been listening to it since I started writing this travelogue.

After this dizzying array of spectacular examples of human achievement and natural beauty, going back to the ship to pack for our return to Cairo the next morning was definitely anti-climatic. Once the suitcases were reluctantly closed, we were greeted up on deck -- this was a planned event -- by a salvo of projectiles flying through the air from below, deftly thrown up four decks by... more peddlers. In a last-minute effort to have us contribute yet a few more dollars to the Egyptian economy, several small rowboats were huddled on the water along both sides of our ship, vying for the best position to catapult upward various items like scarves, galabeyas and small carpets for last-minute sales.

The game was based on the honor system: the stuff flies up at random, wrapped in plastic bags; if you want it, you hold it in your hand and holler down to the sender to negotiate a price. When you agree on one, they send up a capped jar where you put the money, which you throw back down, hopefully with a good enough aim that it will land in the boat of the sender. If you don't want the item that landed at your feet, on your head or on your lap, you just throw it back down. Unfortunately, many wound up in the water instead of the appropriate boat, due to poor aim or the frenzied jostling that was going on the top deck. I dearly wished we'd had a video camera.

Trivia: The Egyptian government is based on the U.S. system. The majority age is 18; there is a legislative arm, represented by the Parliament; an executive branch, i.e. the President and his cabinet, elected for five-year terms; and the court system, intended to challenge the president's decisions and rulings. However, since its members are assigned by said President -- without the necessity of further approval by the Parliament --, their objectivity and effectiveness are highly doubtful. Let's hope the current growing movement to change that to their being elected instead, will eventually succeed.

Day 14 started with another inhumanly early departure to catch our flight back to Cairo. One of our fellow travelers went through the endless lines waiting for a security check at the Cairo airport (where there is a mosque, for those of us who preferred prayer to humor to lighten up the atmosphere), chanting under his breath: "Time to spare? Fly Egypt Air!" By the way, Egypt Air flights, with each landing and take-off, play parts of the Q'ran recited on the P.A. system and shown on the overhead TVs. We debated whether it was a spiritual preparation for a disaster to come, or just an expression of their faith. We chose to believe the latter.

However, we were still early enough to enjoy our last afternoon exploring the Khalili Bazaar on our own, taking a cab over and back on our own. What an experience! Covering several blocks, the Bazaar has two halves, one for the locals, and one for the tourists. It is an incredible maze of myriad short, narrow and cobble-stoned streets, lined on both sides by small stalls selling everything Egyptian, and is known for its good prices. Some of our group had already gone on frenzied purchasing trips, which we didn't care to join since it's really not our style. But I did want to buy a couple of their famous, colorful, magnificent scarves, so I did. I am glad I saw and experienced it, but I didn't deal very well with the jostling and shoving of the merchants who -- once you show any interest at all -- literally throw things in your face or hands to make you buy them.

Egypt, how will I remember thee? With my five senses, of course. My ears, by that haunting melody at Abu Simbel; my eyes by the sight of the feluccas gliding at sunset on the Nile; my taste by the doubtful wines; my nose by the coriander in so many dishes; and my fingers by the rough feel of the skin of the Egyptians' hands that kindly helped us on and off the gangplanks or off the coach.

Did we enjoy our trip? An emphatic yes. Would we like to return to Cairo? A definite no. Would we like to return to Egypt? Unlike Greece, probably not.

Travelogues

Travelogues

EGYPT

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