Egypt Calling

On the way to Alexandria...

Today I am on my way to Alexandria, escorting some travelers from the US, just boarded the train, although it is a very interesting way to watch the daily life in the western part of the delta of the Nile, the Train condition is the least I can say very bad, Egypt historically is the second Country in the whole world to have a railway and to introduce the Train service, but during the last 20 years and everything about the Train service became to be very bad, not to the standard, it wouldn't be exaggeration when I describe them as filthy compartments, the ride itself was quiet interesting, the train arrived Alexandria in the right exact time, 11.30 AM which I can say was quiet exceptional.

After a quick visit of the Roman Odium, we left to visit the Alexandria Modern Library, a beautiful building and an exceptionally impressive structure, it is built in the shape of the Sun disk, rising from the water of the Mediterranean, the Library have got several different sections  and Galleries, one of the most active sections of the library is the  Manuscripts department, the head of the department is a writer and a professor of Alexandria University, he wrote several books about Mystics and Mysticism in Middle ages Islamic societies, last year he wrote a very controversial book, it is a Novel he called Azazel, it is a story which took place in Alexandria during the fifth century AD, the main character of the book is a christian Monk of a pagan back ground, his name was Hipa, he called himself with that name after he was horrified watching the last great Pagan Philosopher and Mathematician Hipatia gets to be horrendously killed by a mob of Christian zealots, they were ordered to commit this crime by one of the most influential  fathers of the Church, at that time, the fanatic Monk Cyril, in the book hipa writes his diary about what happened in his life before and after becoming to be a Monk, and how he although being a Monk, should be celibate, becomes to be weak several times to his urges and passions, while he was writing his diary he gets to be intruded several times by Azazel (The Devils) who keeps on reminding him with his human weaknesses,and previous life before becoming to be an old Monk, the book historically is very well researched, and beautifully written, it won the Booker price, of the best book written in Arabic,during the year of 2008, the book was praised by many critics and readers, but the Coptic (Egyptian) church was very angry and considered it blasphemous, as it represents Saint Cyril who was one of the Great fathers of the Church as a fanatic and a criminal, I think when that book is going to be translated it is going to be no less famous and controversial than Dan Brown's Davenci's Code, if not more, as it is based on more agreeable historical facts, and beautifully written

By the Entrance of the Library there is a statue  commemorating the sad death of the Beautiful pagan philosopher Hipatia, it is placed on one of the sides of the entrance that it would be difficult for a visitor of the library  to appreciate it, in a way it was a successful visit of the city of Alexandria, the city which was once the greatest city of the world, and like any other city with such a long age, it had some periods of time with nonequivalent violence, perhaps the most horrifying of these periods, the end of the 4th and beginning of the 5th, when violence was the main way of struggle between the rising Christianity and the fading paganism, there is no doubt that Alexandria had a great deal to do with the rise and developing of Christianity that it became to be the religion we know now, but also there was great violence involved in such rise.

so long my friends and until next time

Salah Tawfik 

Karnak and the King...

Wednesday the 22nd April, this morning is going to be  a big day, according to the schedule I have. It is the day we are supposed to explore the greatest and most gigantic of the ancient Egyptian temples; Karnak. Every part of this temple is the greatest and the largest in any Egyptian monument but during today's visit I am not  concerned with how huge or impressive the pylons, the hypostyle hall, or the shrines of the temple are.

My concern this time is the exploration of the parts of Karnak related to Thutmosis lll 1458 BC, who was known as the greatest warrior Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, he added some very important parts to Karnak.

Arrived at Karnak 9 o’clock, fortunately it was the period in between the early morning visit when the temple opens at seven, and the midday rush of the Eastern European travelers, who get to visit Luxor in a day tour from the resorts by the Red Sea. The temple was nearly empty and although a bit hot it was better than loosing the feeling of the temple's merit because of the crowds.

Went through the main part of the temple stopping for a good time in the hypostyle hall, it is not just considered as the largest hypostyle hall in an ancient Egyptian temple, but in the whole world. Following this we walked through the central area of Karnak where there are 2 very large obelisks, the largest still standing on their original site. Just behind these two obelisks, there is a very small ruined pylon dated back to the time of Thutmosis lll.

Although very damaged and not as impressive as other parts of the temple, it has got a very interesting history that today inspired me to discuss with the group I am taking around two quiet interesting stories related to the pylon. The first happened outside Egypt in Thutmosis lll time, while the other happened before in the time of his stepmother and mother in law Hatshepsut 1479 BC.

The first incident took place in the Levant, Thutmosis lll, was a young king just ascended the throne after the death of his predecessor Hatshepsut. It seems that the Canaanite cites and towns felt that this the right time to rise up against the Egyptian authorities, so these cites started to threaten the Egyptian authorities and control in Canaan. This situation if it was not dealt with rapidly, could escalate, and possibly lead to an attack on the land of Egypt itself.

Thutmosis a young and very enthusiastic king, had to move fast, so he left Egypt with his army. Thutmosis proved to be brilliant in war and strategy, he was the first known general to divide his army into divisions, and also he was the first to use chariots and cavalry in big numbers. He had then the best-mobilised army in the world, which could be used to terrorize his enemies in high-speed attacks.

Thutmosis then had the option of sending his divisions through three different routes, he chose to send most of his divisions through the most difficult, and narrowest, of the routes, surrounded by hills where Egyptian troops could be easily ambushed if they didn't move cautiously yet quickly at the same time. They managed to do this successfully, and so these divisions managed to appear on the battlefield from the direction the Canaanites were not expecting Thutmosis's troops to arrive from. Consequently the Canaanites were defeated and the uprising failed completely.

What is quiet amazing is what happened on the same battlefield in modern times, when the same tactics were used by the British General Edmund Allenby, during World War l. Egypt then was a protectorate of the British Empire, while Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine were under the control of the Ottoman Empire. General Allenby was given a translation of the annals of Thutmosis lll, translated by the American archaeologist James Henry Breasted, and he followed the same tactics as Thutmosis, sending light Australian divisions through the same narrow path.

Appearing in the same battlefield and in the same manner as Thutmosis’s troops appeared thousands of years ago, Allenby defeated the Turks exactly how Thutmosis lll defeated his enemies thousands of years ago. The battlefield where both battles took place is in a valley thirty miles to the north of Jerusalem, it was called in ancient times Magiddo, better known as Armageddon. Something like that would make one wonder, couldn't the battle at the end of time prophesied in the Book of Revelations be no more than an echo of what happened in the same valley between Thutmosis and the Canaanites? I think it is quiet a relief to know that this catastrophic ‘end of the world’ prophecy has already happened. What gives me the chance to discuss this battle in this particular spot in front of this Pylon at Karnak is the carving of the names of the Canaanite cities that were captured after the crushing of the uprising.

The other historic incident which this Pylon inspires me to discuss with my fellow travelers, happened just in front of that same pylon, maybe just a few months before Thutmosis’ ascension to the throne of Egypt. The story happened during a day of a festival when the priests of Amun Ra were carrying the cult statue of the god Amun in its sacred barge in a procession. While they were walking in the main avenue of the temple they arrived at the same spot where we are standing in front of the Pylon.

Suddenly the effigy of Amun stopped the priests carrying it on their shoulders and directed them to one of the sides of the avenue. The statue stopped in front of one of the young priests who was standing watching the procession and made a very obvious sign that this young priest was going to become the King of the two Lands. This young priest was none other than Thutmosis himself, when he was still too young to rule Egypt. His stepmother and mother in law, Hatshepsut sent him to be educated at Karnak and ruled Egypt on her own, taking for herself all the titles of a Pharaoh. To save offending the people, who were always and from a very remote period of time ruled by men, she claimed divine birth. She said she was born due to a divine intervention from the god Amun himself, and she was the first human ever to claim that she was an offspring of a god. 

In order to make such a claim she had to gain the support of the priesthood of Amun and I believe that maybe after many years of supporting her claim, the priests of Amun became tired of her, and they changed their support towards her stepson. Quiet possibly something was arranged between both Thutmosis and the priesthood, where they would give him their support for his claim to the throne, and then he would then boost their wealth and power.

Karnak is a great and an impressive structure, but it is also a time capsule with all the documents written on its walls, and found around its different parts. It definitely can come back to life when we remember these amazing incidents happened on the  same grounds we are walking in modern times.

Until next time all the best

to all of my friends

Salah Tawfik

Abu Simbel and the western wind...

Wednesday the 15th of April was one of the longest and most exhausting days of this season. It all started at 2.00 o'clock in the morning, that was the time when I left the hotel (Conrad) in central Cairo. The Conrad in Cairo is a Nice hotel, very good standard of accommodation and service, the only drawback is that it is situated by the River Nile on the edge of the City Centre and in order to get to downtown Cairo, you have to take a Taxi, not a walking distance at all.

 

Left the Hotel with a group of American travelers to Cairo Airport for a flight to Aswan, from Aswan we were going to take a bus to Abu Simbel, 280 kilometres (nearly 175 miles) away, as we were going to get on a cruise ship for three nights to visit the Egyptian monuments in Nubia. Starting with Abu Simbel ending with Kalabsha, it is a very good idea to get to Abu Simbel from Aswan by Bus, rather than to wait in Aswan Airport for three hours to catch a later flight, but a sand storm in Aswan was what made this day one of the longest days and most exhausting. This time of the year is what we call in Egypt, the Khamaaseen, after the word Khamseen, which means 50 days. it is a period of time between the second half of March and the first days of May, when we get to have many days of very strong wind with sand, visibility then becomes very low.

Arriving Cairo Airport, I was informed that the flight is delayed for no one knows,how many hours, Egypt Air personal are very funny people, they pass by the passengers whisperring or mumbling in their ears as if it is a secret, there is a delay. At last after a delay of three hours, we arrived in Aswan.

 

The road to Abu Simbel is very near to the Airport, but we have to drive like 20 minutes to get our police escort from the police head quarters, then another 20 minutes to get to the road, we could have saved 40 minutes, but what can we do with bureaucracy!

On the road the wind was very strong with heavy sand, being in an air conditioned well equipped bus definitely makes things easier, one would wonder how people in the old times used to travel in such harsh desert conditions, traveling through the desert in such a sand storm reminded me of some stories we have about how strong this power of nature is, like the disappearance of an Army sent by Cambyses to destroy the temple of the Oracle in Siwa,it disappeared between Kharga and Dakhla Oasis. Or that of the disappearance of a whole camel caravan consisting of thousands of men and camels under the sands of the desert during the 19th century. I do remember also how one day Simon and I were exploring the Giza plateau when we were standing in front of the Sphinx and the pyramids in the background and suddenly these great monuments disappeared completely under a strong veil of sands as if they never existed.

Finally we arrived at Abu Simbel, quick lunch then to the temples. Getting to these two great temples we approach them from the left hand side and suddenly they are there in front of you, with all their greatness and overwhelming appearance, I cannot remember how many times I have been to Abu Simbel, I would say at least 400 times, and still I cannot but stand in awe in front of them. Especially the great temple.

That temple is mainly cut out of the rock to emphasize the concept of the divinity of Ramses, the Pharaoh, and how he appeared in the temple as one of the supreme gods of Ancient Egypt, everything in this temple assists in representing this notion. From his great statues guarding the main entrance, to how his name is represented as a deity on top of the entrance, I think that this is one of the most amazing features this temple has, when one of his names,(User-Maat-Ra) meaning (powerful is the cosmic order of Ra) is carved as a statue on top of the entrance. Also the four statues in the inner sanctuary of the four great gods of Egypt, Ra, Amon, Ptah as well as the king, Ramses, he is one of them, not less divine, in fact the three are embodied in him. Three in one, a notion in later centuries that becomes one of the core beliefs of Christianity, we cannot but wonder.

We stayed there for a couple of hours, although the weather started bad that day, it changed in the afternoon, still windy but no sands, so we stayed to watch the sound and light show. Although I am not very much into these types of shows as sometimes they sound too modern, taking a great deal from the merit of the site but this one of Abu Simbel is quiet impressive.The Narrator is the wind, speaking about the temple, Ramses the king as well as the god Amon his protector, also Nefertari, his most beloved queen, to whom the small temple is dedicated. Ramses wrote on the facade of her charming temple, (may the rays of the sun shine on your face forever) what beautiful words they are.

Watching the temples lit at night with the stars very bright in the sky above our heads in that clear evening, with such well composed music as well as very well prepared script made it up for the trouble we had at the beginning of the day.

A day that started with a strong wind, ended with the wind describing Abu Simbel to us, easily I can call this day, the day of the wind.

So long my friends and until next time  

 

Salah Tawfik