Alexandria, Cairo and Suez Canal

November 18 – Wednesday – Alexandria

We landed in the first of the many sites that Daddy visited and we each went our separate way: Bob to the Battlefield of El Alamein , where a critical battle representing one of the turning points of WW II occurred. It was here that Rommel’s Afrika Korps was defeated by the British under the fresh command of Montgomery. German domination of North Africa was ended, and they were prevented from capturing Cairo, and the Suez Canal. Bob had had high hopes for his adventure, but was disappointed by the guide (who was not very knowledgeable), his fellow tourists (who didn’t seem quite clear on the historical significance of the site), and the site itself, where only the German memorial to its fallen impressed him.

I was in pursuit of the sites seen by Herbert and Walter in 1927, and went to see the Roman remnants of the town with a lovely guide whose name translated to Eternity. Our first stop was the original temple of Serapis, and was known as the Sersapeum complex. It was destroyed by the Christians in 300 CE (one no longer uses the phrase AD since it is too Christian, rather one says CE, standing for Common Era). The only remains are the incorrectly named Pompey Pillar, the outlines of buildings and two statues. Much more has been dug up since 1927 and everything has been made more modern. From there, we were off to the Catacombs of Kom el Shugafa. It is amidst an entire necropolis area where its antiquities seem to be quite casually handled by the Egyptians. No signage, no attempt to protect things from tourists treading on old things, and all of it outside in the polluted air of Alexandria. We took a brief look at one tomb and the hieroglyphics on the walls depicting the noble once buried here. We then descended down over 100 feet via 89 shallow spiral steps into the first level of the catacomb where the mummified bodies were stored with their important belongings. One could look down to see the two additional tiers but they were not accessible to us. The sarcophagi were gone, the belongings had been taken, but one could still appreciate the techniques used to lower bodies into these subterranean places; the many recesses which allowed over 300 people to be buried here; and a few wall paintings, faded with time and light, which could still be seen.

Our final visit was to the Greco/Roman Amphitheater which had not been discovered in 1927. It is being dug by the Polish archaeological school in Warsaw. (who knew!). It is a wonderful excavation where the amphitheater, like all the others we’ve seen , is now used for concerts and other entertainment. The signage was non-existent except for one large description at the entry; the little store was closed, so I could get no information, and god knows where the items discovered are being stored or kept.

Alexandria is one large ruin, since it was the second most important city in Egypt, but most of it lies under the harbor or under the modern day city. To uncover much of it would mean dislocating all its 20th century inhabitants. Personally, this would not be a disaster since modern day Alexandria strikes me as a very poor, dirty and backward town. The two most important items of its past were the famous Pharous Lighthouse, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, and the Library of Alexandria which was established by early Ptolemaic rulers and held over 200,000 documents representing the largest collection of written knowledge of the Egyptians. Both these things are gone and while the “Alexandria Quartet”, of Lawrence Durrell, spoke lovingly of the Corniche, and the faded glory of 18th century Alexandria when it was a resort area, that too is gone.

I just kept taking pictures of streets teeming with humanity; stores selling all manner of things from meat hanging outside in the fly ridden air, fabrics and clothing, plastic ware of all sorts and chickens ready to turn into someone’s dinner. The main transportation was an ancient trolley whose cars were so patched and painted that it was a joke; donkeys laden with people or goods; ancient carts being pulled by humans, horses or donkeys; shared vans where people were hanging out of the windows so jammed were they; buses with windows missing; and in between elegant Mercedes or Toyotas.

This is distinctly a harbor town and near to the harbor was the poorest of mankind. Our guide had a different image of her town, which she spoke of as being clean and orderly and known as the Pearl of the Mediterranean. Wherever that may be, I didn’t see it. It was just sad to see a town with such an amazing history so completely neglected and down trodden. Cleopatra and Antony would not recognize their old hometown.

At dark our ship sailed on to our next port – Port Said, from which we will visit Cairo.

November 19 – Thursday – Cairo

Egypt is a country in a permanent state of security alerts. Here the threat is less from other countries, but is more from its citizenry, who are not all happy with the government of Hosni Mubarak. This is where Anwar Sadat was killed by his own military in 1981, and Mubarak has been in power since then. So we were very aware of the tourist police, who were there to protect us. We had to travel in a convoy of buses, with armed military leading and following the convoy. At all intersections as we left Port Said, heading to Cairo at 6:30 am, there were police holding back traffic so we could sail through, and all along our route there were soldiers with submachine guns. On most buses there was an armed guard in addition to the tour guide. There was no straying or wandering, and every time we descended from our bus we were aware that we were being guarded. Sometimes it was almost ludicrous – a large gentleman in a two piece suit with his gun sticking out of his jacket so awkwardly that he might just have well been in full uniform…he wasn’t fooling anyone.

We kept being told how much Egyptians love tourists, and we could see people waving at us and children smiling, but what about the youth who on their way to work , and were being held up because of us? And those women behind their burkas… what did they think about us heathens? While our guide, Mohammed Ali , was young, well educated, enthusiastic and humorous, you were always aware of a police presence.

Our three hour bus ride, from the port to Cairo, allowed us to see the countryside. It was eerie at one point to look to our left and see a large cargo ship apparently sailing through sand and grass – only to be told that we were following the Suez Canal. We passed new suburbs being built north of Cairo. The intention was originally that these new suburbs would be cheaper for young people to buy and it was designed for them. But like in all countries, wealthy real estate agents bought up the units and sold them to the people who had cars and were able to commute back into Cairo – the wealthy. So of course, the wealthy moved out to the new more open suburbs and the young people reside in crowded, dirty Cairo. According to Ali, Cairo is now the second most populous city, being preceded only by Mexico City.

Most of the suburbs looked like ghost towns, with gaping open windows and unfinished construction. We were told that this is because residents would pay a higher tax on a completed building, so it is left in a state of construction forever …but the satellite dish on the roof gives away its true state.

Driving, as we got into Cairo proper, was ‘creative’, to put it mildly. The concept of lanes was a joke, and traffic lights seemed to have only a decorative purpose. (That might have explained why we passed so many automobile repair shops.) Short cuts through narrow dirt roads and rutted paved roads gave us a chance to see Cairo’s less elegant housing: mud bricked huts, grass roofed sheds, old 18th century high rises black with soot where laundry hung out the windows, and modern 20th century buildings crumbling with neglect. While Ali saw new buildings and a vibrant hometown, we saw incredible poverty. There were herds of goats being guided down streets, water buffalo being herded near the pyramids; wild dogs roaming in packs; pony-led carts carrying people, grain or objects; small corner carts selling street food; sheep being slaughtered and flayed at the street corner while their still living comrades awaited their death; men sitting at coffee shops watching the world while smoking from a water pipe; floating dead donkeys in canals; and ancient buses and taxis – it reminded me of Delhi. Bob and I are agreed that we won’t be coming back to Egypt anytime soon.

But, we aren’t here for the sociology of 21st century Cairo! We are here to see the wonders of the ancient world, and to learn as much history as Ali could cram into our heads.

Our first stop was Sakkara to see the Stepped Pyramid, and the complex which was built during the reign of King Zoser around 2600 BCE. We walked across sand and through a colonnade made up of columns which looked like bunches of reeds, but built of limestone. We came into an open courtyard where important festivals took place and to our right was the famous Zozer Step Pyramid. Daddy had stood here, and it was eerie to be again in the same place. This tomb started as a simple mastaba , or rectangular raised structure, under which the noble was buried. But somehow it kept growing until there were five additional mastaba – one on top of the other forming the pyramid. At one point it was covered in a smooth limestone to give it a finished look, but this was removed as people built their homes. After all it was a hike to get to the quarries five miles away, and here were limestone blocks just for the picking. So now it looks fairly rough and of course, we couldn’t walk on it. We took our proverbial tourista pictures and returned to our bus.

Next stop was the ancient capital of Memphis, for a quick stop to see the small outdoor museum containing an enormous, reclining, statue of Ramses II, weighing over 120 tons…and a small sphinx. There were more little kiosks selling trinkets than there were statues.

At last, lunch at the Mövenpick, an elegant restaurant where we, and our armed guards, dined at a buffet lunch with lots of unique but interesting food. I tried a fresh date for the first time in my life and must say I like the dried ones a whole lot better, but it had to be tried along with lots of interesting ‘goo’ made of either sesame, yogurts or ??, who knew what, but it was garlicky and great. To accompany our sampler meal we each had an Egyptian Sakkara beer. We try to sample local beers where possible since all that the ship provides is Becks, Heineken and Budweiser. (!?!)

Our next stop was the famous pyramids of Giza. Of course because they are so famous they attract an enormous amount of very aggressive vendors who don’t easily take ‘no’ for an answer….“want to buy a camel, lady?”, “want a picture on camel, lady?”… and of course necklaces, hats, postcards, and real alabaster pyramids …for only one Yankee dollar. Like in India, you know that these vendors are all being driven by some hidden master who demands that they generate a certain amount of revenue each day or they lose their jobs. But no matter how persuasive, we avoided their blandishments.

There are three very large pyramids, each important in its own way. The biggest is the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops) which in 1927 Daddy had the opportunity to climb. At one point it was faced with limestone blocks, but those have totally disappeared and one sees the huge rocks , each one at least four feet tall and three feet wide weighing 10-15 tons. (Thinking of the slaves required to move these from a quarry miles away gives one pause. The movie of Cleopatra showed slaves being whipped as they hauled each stone and I can only imagine the difficulty). Daddy described having two ‘assistants’ who helped him up to the top pushing and pulling him as required. Even then he commented on how hard it was, and I could only imagine getting up, and worse having to come back down again. Since no one is allowed to do this anymore, all we could do was take lots of pictures and be impressed…. Which we were!

We were then driven to a panoramic viewing spot where one saw the other two temples as well. The Khafra pyramid stands close to Khufu’s, and still has some of its limestone façade in place at the top. The last pyramid is that of Menkaura , which is the smallest of the three. This one being more ‘modern’ is made with granite a more durable stone. We took all our pictures and walked back to our bus which was making one last stop – the Sphinx. To get to the base was so crowded and claustrophobic, that we chose to simply take pictures from afar. When I was here fifteen years ago I had gotten closer, but it was no less attractive.

Having taken just a few more pictures we walked back to the bus past a TV show set, which was doing some interviews. Of course , there was the mixing console to remind Bob of his days of yore, speakers and Klieg lights everywhere, and translators doing simultaneous translation….. a little of the 21st century amidst the sands of 24th BCE. It is a shame that the pyramids are such a focal point of tourism. The buses, the vendors, the zillions of tourists take away from the site such that while you may want to stand and contemplate this amazing structure, there is absolutely no chance to do this without being pushed aside by another person with a camera or way-laid by some very aggressive salesman.

Our last stop was the last of the sales opportunities. We were shown how Papyrus was made and of course given the opportunity to buy some. Bob and I watched the demonstration and then headed back to the bus ready for our three hour trip back to the port. (I read on the news that that evening the youth of Cairo went on a rampage hurting many police – why? Because they’d lost their chance to be an African representative in the World Cup, by being defeated by Algeria at a game in Sudan).

Our trip back seemed endless since it was getting dark and difficult to watch the world outside. But of course we had our escorts at both ends of the convoy and this time they had flashing red lights and sirens to keep people out of our way. It was a very long day and as we came out of the customs building crew members, and a five-piece Dixieland band, were lined up along the gangway to sing and welcome us back with soft drinks and white moistened towels. It was a lovely touch, and made us forget how exhausted, gritty and brain-dead we were. A quick shower to refresh us and we were off for an elegant dinner. We are spoiled.

Bob stayed awake until 1:30 a.m. to watch the ship entering the Suez Canal. I slept.

November 20 – Friday – Suez Canal

Our ship convoy consisted of twenty-one ships of all size and purpose. Each ship has one pilot and is asked to go no more than eight knots and keep a distance of 2000 meters from the next ship. As a result of this careful choreography there have been no accidents in the Canal. (Only the time when Nassar sank all manner of boats, clogging up the Canal during the 1956 unpleasantness with Britain, France and Israel. ) In our convoy were container carriers, oil tankers, two other cruising ships, a navy ship, and assorted others which I never really saw. Unlike the Panama Canal which is made up of a series of locks, this one is ‘simply’ a waterway wide enough and deep enough to carry all but the new super tankers (that is to come). Each convoy coming from either direction stops in The Bitter Lake, and there await the opportunity to continue in one direction or the other. We awoke in The Bitter Lake, and were surrounded by ships. At noon we started south again on the last leg of the canal, which was interesting to see in the daylight. On one side of the canal it is lush (thanks to the Nile) and on the other it is a sandy wasteland. On both sides one saw the remains of armed sites where in prior times the canal was being guarded and defended by Britain or Egypt.

We slowed down as we neared the city of Suez, where we believe there was a change of pilots, and later we attended a lecture about Jordan given by a lovely Jordanian woman named Nadia, who educated us about the traditions of Jordan and other middle eastern countries. We learned that every person has four names: your name, your father’s name, his father’s name and your tribal or family name. Women do not take their husband’s name so that my name would be Beatrice Herbert Wilhelm Meyer and my husband would be Robert William Joseph Ring. We also learned that one doesn’t touch the mouth as you put food in – rather you allow it to pass through your lips via a piece of bread or such. Jordan is currently governed by King Abdullah, the son of King Hussein – both of whom are revered by the citizenry. Nadia also sells jewelry which is made of local stones of Jordan and created by women in small villages to give them employment. It is lovely modern jewelry.

And that was pretty much our day. Tonight we will sail the length of the Gulf of Suez, and by tomorrow morning we’ll be at Sharm-el- Sheikh, at the tip of the Sinai Peninsula. It is now a large, Egyptian resort town.

And so we relax and enjoy the sun and the warmth.