We took a hydrofoil from the east coast of Egypt (skip it--over built and ugly) to Sharm El Sheckh, on the southernmost tip of the Sinai Peninsula. Also, should be missed--except for diving in the Red Sea which was awesome. The most noteworthy site in the Sinai was this. Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? They are at the top of a mountain. It is not the highest mountain in Egypt, but is famous nonetheless. This is where Moses received the Ten Commandments, where he heard the voice of God in the burning bush: Mount Sinai . We hiked up in the afternoon, watched sunset over the desert and mountains and
hiked down by the light of the full moon. Awesome. Kind of weird being here. I mean it is in the middle of nowhere, but we went through something like 5 check points, where they stopped the car and checked all of our passports, with guys with machine guns at the ready. Hope all is well with all of you! We are off to Tanzania next.Ma'a Salaama (Goodbye, in Arabic)
The Beatties
We leave Cairo and fly south, to Aswan, in Upper Egypt. It is hard to get used to this description initially, as we are accustomed to North being Up, and South being Down. So, Where in the World are Ethan and Siena? This is the longest river in the world, snaking through an amazing 10 countries before widening into a broad delta to empty into the Mediterranean Sea. This is Upper Egypt because this river flows from South to North. It used to flood every year, providing passive irrigation, but, because of the unknowns of when and how high the floods would be, creating great uncertainty and, occasionally, some devastating famines. The river was home to the world’s first great civilization. This is the mother of all rivers: The Nile.
It is bizarre seeing Egypt from the air. It looks just like the map of the country. There is beige desert as far as you can see, except for this narrow strip of green, following the river. It isn’t like there is a gradual transition. You could draw the line with a ruler for the demarcation between the green of the river valley and where the desert starts. Bam, you are in the desert!
In 1902, the British built a dam taming the river. A second dam, the Aswan High Dam, was built in 1971 as the old dam wasn’t large enough to handle to unpredictable annual flooding. The hydroelectric plant here produces enough energy to provide power for the entire country. In fact, when originally built, Egypt used 80% of the electricity. Today, they only use 20% of its power. The rest of their electricity comes from solar panels. We have no problem believing this as we haven’t seen a cloud in the sky for the week we’ve been here. The rest of the electricity generated here is sent to neighboring countries. How wonderful that all of the electricity in the country is from clean and renewable sources.
In Aswan, we begin to see the amazing temples the ancient Egyptians built along the course of
the river. The sites chosen are beautiful. The work to build these enormous monuments with nothing but hand tools and lots of laborers is incomprehensible. How could they move these stones? How could they lift them to such heights?
We board a boat, a sort of floating hotel, with about a hundred other passengers. Most of the passengers are French, although a Polish group comes aboard the next day. We are seated with 2 British brothers who are studying Arabic in Cairo, two couples, one from Saudi Arabia and one from Moscow, both vacationing in Egypt, and a musician from Brooklyn, traveling around the world as we are. There is some logic to the seating arrangement as we are the only English speakers on board. Since we take all our meals together and tour all of the sites together with an English-speaking guide, we become fast friends in a short period of time.
In addition to temples, we tour several tombs. Concerned with the looting that had already occurred in the pyramids to the north, the later pharaohs built elaborate underground tombs. They were mistaken to think this would make them impossible to find. All of the tombs were looted. King Tut’s was, too, but they think the robbers must have been in a hurry so they didn’t take everything. We learn that the tombs are different depths related to how long the pharaoh ruled. The tomb was started on the day after the coronation, and the tomb couldn’t be completed until after the king died—otherwise it was considered bad luck. The longer the reign, the deeper the tomb. The builders had a bit of wiggle room as it took 70 days to mummify the body.
Here is one of our favorite temples, the ancient temple of Karnak in Luxor. The temple complex is larger than St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican and St Paul’s in London put together. This hall is unique in the world. There are 134 of these pillars, each about 8 foot in diameter, and 60 feet high. It felt like we were standing in an artificial redwood forest.
Last blog I wrote of the crazy drivers. Unfortunately, on the day I wrote that, one of our British
friends, Muneeb, was hit by a passing bus. Siena and I experienced both the medical system and the police system in Egypt in one evening. The hospital was efficient and relatively inexpensive (at least for me, coming from a country with a for-profit health care system). The police kept wanting me to “accuse” someone. I didn’t understand why. The word “accident” means it wasn’t intentional, right? We are delighted that, despite a broken foot, Muneeb is otherwise fine. This picture was taken earlier in the day. He sure wasn’t climbing up to the top of the Valley of the Kings in a cast with crutches…
In the rest of the world we have visited, a price is a price. Costs are more or less fixed. Here, the price is whatever the market (read: sucker) will bear. We bought a hat at the market, very proud of ourselves from getting the price down from 125 gineah (Egyptian pounds) to 40, only to have an Arabic speaking friend buy the same hat from a different vendor for 20 gineah. We did better than my father in Turkey, though, where he bought a small bag of chestnuts for 10 Euro (15 dollars, at the time of purchase). I believe it amounted to a buck fifty for each chestnut. And, they didn’t even taste good. In Egypt, it is definitely Caveat Emptor—Buyer Beware!
There are many places in the world where I can blend in, look like a local. Kim has fewer such countries. Here, no matter if we learn the correct pronunciation of the handful of phrases we’ve learned, we stick out like foreigners wearing Hawaiian print shirts and cameras around our necks. The Egyptian people are very friendly, and want to try their English phrases on us. “Hello, what’s your name? Where are you from?” We frequently have our pictures taken, sometimes with a stranger’s arm draped around our shoulders, sometimes in a crowd of children. The local children are very interested in our children, and we joke that our Frisbee is the best ambassador/icebreaker ever.
Itsa Eid (Happy Eid in Arabic)
It is bizarre seeing Egypt from the air. It looks just like the map of the country. There is beige desert as far as you can see, except for this narrow strip of green, following the river. It isn’t like there is a gradual transition. You could draw the line with a ruler for the demarcation between the green of the river valley and where the desert starts. Bam, you are in the desert!
In 1902, the British built a dam taming the river. A second dam, the Aswan High Dam, was built in 1971 as the old dam wasn’t large enough to handle to unpredictable annual flooding. The hydroelectric plant here produces enough energy to provide power for the entire country. In fact, when originally built, Egypt used 80% of the electricity. Today, they only use 20% of its power. The rest of their electricity comes from solar panels. We have no problem believing this as we haven’t seen a cloud in the sky for the week we’ve been here. The rest of the electricity generated here is sent to neighboring countries. How wonderful that all of the electricity in the country is from clean and renewable sources.
In Aswan, we begin to see the amazing temples the ancient Egyptians built along the course of
the river. The sites chosen are beautiful. The work to build these enormous monuments with nothing but hand tools and lots of laborers is incomprehensible. How could they move these stones? How could they lift them to such heights?We board a boat, a sort of floating hotel, with about a hundred other passengers. Most of the passengers are French, although a Polish group comes aboard the next day. We are seated with 2 British brothers who are studying Arabic in Cairo, two couples, one from Saudi Arabia and one from Moscow, both vacationing in Egypt, and a musician from Brooklyn, traveling around the world as we are. There is some logic to the seating arrangement as we are the only English speakers on board. Since we take all our meals together and tour all of the sites together with an English-speaking guide, we become fast friends in a short period of time.
In addition to temples, we tour several tombs. Concerned with the looting that had already occurred in the pyramids to the north, the later pharaohs built elaborate underground tombs. They were mistaken to think this would make them impossible to find. All of the tombs were looted. King Tut’s was, too, but they think the robbers must have been in a hurry so they didn’t take everything. We learn that the tombs are different depths related to how long the pharaoh ruled. The tomb was started on the day after the coronation, and the tomb couldn’t be completed until after the king died—otherwise it was considered bad luck. The longer the reign, the deeper the tomb. The builders had a bit of wiggle room as it took 70 days to mummify the body.
Here is one of our favorite temples, the ancient temple of Karnak in Luxor. The temple complex is larger than St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican and St Paul’s in London put together. This hall is unique in the world. There are 134 of these pillars, each about 8 foot in diameter, and 60 feet high. It felt like we were standing in an artificial redwood forest.
Last blog I wrote of the crazy drivers. Unfortunately, on the day I wrote that, one of our British
friends, Muneeb, was hit by a passing bus. Siena and I experienced both the medical system and the police system in Egypt in one evening. The hospital was efficient and relatively inexpensive (at least for me, coming from a country with a for-profit health care system). The police kept wanting me to “accuse” someone. I didn’t understand why. The word “accident” means it wasn’t intentional, right? We are delighted that, despite a broken foot, Muneeb is otherwise fine. This picture was taken earlier in the day. He sure wasn’t climbing up to the top of the Valley of the Kings in a cast with crutches…In the rest of the world we have visited, a price is a price. Costs are more or less fixed. Here, the price is whatever the market (read: sucker) will bear. We bought a hat at the market, very proud of ourselves from getting the price down from 125 gineah (Egyptian pounds) to 40, only to have an Arabic speaking friend buy the same hat from a different vendor for 20 gineah. We did better than my father in Turkey, though, where he bought a small bag of chestnuts for 10 Euro (15 dollars, at the time of purchase). I believe it amounted to a buck fifty for each chestnut. And, they didn’t even taste good. In Egypt, it is definitely Caveat Emptor—Buyer Beware!
There are many places in the world where I can blend in, look like a local. Kim has fewer such countries. Here, no matter if we learn the correct pronunciation of the handful of phrases we’ve learned, we stick out like foreigners wearing Hawaiian print shirts and cameras around our necks. The Egyptian people are very friendly, and want to try their English phrases on us. “Hello, what’s your name? Where are you from?” We frequently have our pictures taken, sometimes with a stranger’s arm draped around our shoulders, sometimes in a crowd of children. The local children are very interested in our children, and we joke that our Frisbee is the best ambassador/icebreaker ever.
Itsa Eid (Happy Eid in Arabic)
How can you help being happy with sunsets like this over the Nile?? Taken, I must add, by Ethan!
The Beatties
The Beatties
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