” and again your in the good books (Shaik Zayed was the ruler of the UAE till recently)
Anyways, after a few more mosques around the area, I headed for the famous Citadel of Saladin..situated on a hill over looking the city of Cairo. Once again, breathtaking views, and a wonderful piece of architecture in the Citadel…it was well worth the long walk early morning! At 11am, I headed back to the hotel for a short break, coz soon I had an appointment with the Pyramids!!
Traffic in Cairo is CRAZY, to say the least. The road rules are openly flouted, and the taxis and cars are all over the place. If you are crossing a big road, God be with you over that short journey, and better to just run with your life! Reminds me of Bangkok, where the traffic is crazy as well, but not THIS crazy!! Horns are used every 2 seconds, and so are flash lights, those are the only rules to the game!!
The great Pyramids are in Giza, an area 18 kms away from Cairo. A short and cheap trip in an AC bus (2 LE) of around 30 minutes brought me to the ONLY wonder of both the ancient and the modern world. As such, the Pyramids are the only existing wonder of the ancient world nowadays. Goosebumps ran all over me as I stood in front of this massive structure, and my mind went back 4500 years back. I had no words to say. I was thinking. Thinking of the stunning buildings in Dubai, the buildings in India, the buildings in Bangkok and all the others places I have seen. Construction of all types and sizes and magnitudes.. but 4500 years back what did these guys have in terms of equipment and technology to build this precise and correct pyramids on a perfect square base extending into the skies? Each block was bought from Aswan and Luxor around 2000 kms away from Cairo, and each block weighs around 2 tonnes. 2.5 million blocks like this make up this Pyramid of Khufu (the biggest n most famous). My mind was whirling around the facts n figures and this massive structure, I just cannot put it into words. We were like ants in front of it, and so was our technology and intelligence. I did not mean we..just as humans. "We" as the smart, modern, intelligent people were NOTHING compared to the people 4500 years back. How smart were they!! And it is not just the pyramids, everything they did was well planned and executed…!
In the Pyramid complex, everyday at 8am and 1pm sharp only, 150 tickets each are given out for getting inside the pyramids..I was fortunate enough to get at ticket at 1pm, and made my way inside, along with others. Parallel to the sloping surface of the pyramid around 10 meters towards the top is the entrance, a very steep passage way (4 feet height and breadth only!) extending around 100 meters into the center of the pyramids. There are grips for the feet to pull yourself up and forward, and railings to hold on and hike yourself up each step. Extremely claustrophobic and several people gave up mid way and were coming down the same way, but determined to get to the bottom of this mystery I made my way up. After the steep passage were around 10 meters of crawling under low passages, and into the Tomb of Khufu we reached. It was a poorly lit room, which had a simple tomb devoid of anything else. Probably all other stuff were taken away by the authorities. There was not much to see, but it gave me a sense of immense satisfaction to be deep inside the great pyramid!
Back outside, I quickly made my way to the other two smaller pyramids (made for his wife and daughter) and took a short camel ride to the Sphinx, another superb piece of construction. Tired as ever, I reluctantly wound up the Giza sight seeing and caught a bus back to the city after a quick lunch. Unfortunately, I slept off and missed my stop and the next thing I knew, I was in another part of Cairo..hehehe…Since I had time on my hands, I just boarded another bus going back, and well, it was good in a way because this time I kept my eyes open and saw a good part of the non-touristy Cairo! Anyways, on the way back to the hotel, I quickly checked my mail and well, two of my friends in Cairo had mailed me their numbers of contact..so I gave them a call, and we arranged to meet up for dinner at 8. Away to Heliopolis I went, which is were the rendezvous was. This part of Cairo is around 10 kms away from the city center, it is near Cairo Intl Airport. It was nice fun to meet Emad, Heba and Ayah, all 3 pure bred Egyptians. Just in case you are wondering, Emad was a guy and the rest two were girls ..hehe.. we all had a nice time in a café catching up, and after dinner and more talk and roaming around, I called it a night at 1 am and went back with Emad who dropped me at my hotel. Tomorrow was my last day in Egypt.
8am,22nd January: After breakfast, I headed to the nearby Egyptian Museum to get my dose of mummies and other stuff. The place was packed with tourists even before opening time, and I managed to get in by 9 am. This place is a huge collection of historical stuff, full of statues and tombs and what not dating back to thousands of years …it also had the Greek and Roman treasures as well as the Pharaonic stuff. The highlight of the museum was the world famous Tutankhamen’s treasures.. King Tut died early as a Pharaoh, and the discovery of his tomb in 1962 was a big big step in history. There is an entire room dedicated to his treasures. Let me just explain. Egyptians mummified almost everything in sight, including animals, after death. They believed in the “Afterlife” a whole lot. After the mummification of King Tut, for example, they put the body into a coffin, then put that in another coffin, and then put the 2nd coffin into a bigger 3rd coffin! Then this was kept in box like structure, and again, 2 more structures like this on top of the other! Keep in mind that EVERYTHING was made of pure gold, including the boxes n stuff. King Tuts face was covered with the 11kg gold “death mask”, and his face with the unmistakable beard is so popular whenever Egypt is mentioned. The special head gear and the funny beard etc which are often seen when you talk about Egyptian Pharaohs constitute that face mask of King Tut, and it was also in the museum. Now, along with these boxes and coffins, EVERY thing necessary for a person to live was provided to the mummy for the “afterlife”. This included gold chairs, tables, cots, slippers, daggers, sticks, rings, masks, toe caps etc..all in pure gold.. Food was provided for the corpse (mummified cows, goats etc) and fruits and other eatables were also present. Wonder of wonders, all of this is still there in that museum and it was so well preserved 4500 years back that it continues to mind boggle people!! I was just speechless seeing all this, while a little shiver came over me as I remembered the curse of the mummy. Apparently the tomb SHOULD NOT be opened ever, and well, it has been opened and is on display, and whoever opens the tomb is doomed. Whether or not this is true I don’t know…but still…when you are amongst corpses thousands of years old, you cannot but help shiver a little…
Next stop in the museum was the Royal Mummy Room. This room was the scariest room, coz it contains 11 of the most treasured mummies in their full glory. Most important of them is the mummy of King Ramses. Extreme care and caution has been taken to preserve these corpses and maintain them for future generations to see. Each mummy is in a glass casket with pressure and temperature controlled. When I went there, there was no one else except another lone backpacker tourist like me from Manchester, named Richard. As I entered, I saw him already touring, and the look on his face was that of awe. Soon I realized why. The general notion of bandages running all over the body of a mummy white and tight is a little wrong. Yes of course the bandages are there, but over the years most have been torn and tattered, and they are certainly not white. I was stunned to see the corpses of Ramses, and other kings and even a few queens, INTACT with hair, teeth, toe nails and eyes. The flesh was almost gone, but the bones were still very much intact, though they were charred black in color. Of course, the other bits n pieces were all blackish in color too..but it was amazing to see the crooked teeth n stuff in the skull amidst the bandages of the mummy. The shivers ran down my spine as I thought about these corpses who were resting peacefully, well over 4000 years in age. Did they know that I was there? Did they know that they were still popular world over 4000 years after their death? Would the dreaded curse of the Mummy descend on me coz I was there? These were the kind of questions going through mine (and I’m sure Richards) mind as we went around. Even the most arrogant person on earth would become humble amidst such a fearful collection of history, and the room was so silent and serene and calm..I cannot explain anymore, it just has to be experienced!
Back to the present. After a quick conversation with Richard, I headed for the mosque for Friday prayers. I decided to go to the Al Azhar mosque in Khan E Khalili, because I was eager to see inside of it. When I reached there, I was greeted by massive security. It was almost as if they predicted riots to erupt all over! Cops cops and more cops… all equipped with helmets and shields and sticks and guns…anyway I made my way to the mosque where a lovely Quran recital was happening..the kind of recitals you normally catch on Middle Eastern television channels when they are mourning the death of a leader or something. It was a pleasure to sit there n listen to it, and after that the Qutba and prayer happened.
At 2pm I made my way into the Khan E Khalili bazaar to do some souvenir shopping, which was another excersise in bargaining!! I wound by 4pm and headed straight to the Nile River, bags and all…I hadn’t been to the Nile yet and time was running out!! The whole Cairo had desceneded to this area, families and kids and teens and what not…it was festival time!! Eid celebrations were on full swing, and I found myself amidst a sea of humanity!! I quickly made my way to the boat area, where short and sweet pleasure cruises were taking place for the Egyptian crowds. A more costlier and touristy cruise area was also there, but I opted for the Egyptian area to get a better feel of the place!! I took 2 short ten minute cruises on the beautiful Nile River, along with blaring Arabic music and general fun courtesy some really active teenagers! It was real fun, and totally enjoyed it, though the bags with me were a bit irritating! Egyptian guys of around 20-30 are like the ones u see in the music videos…quite handsome and well dressed and 90 percent of Egyptian girls are breathtakingly beautiful !! Yes, most of the people go obese after 30 or 35, but the 20-30 age groups as such have healthy people, from what I observed!! Though very Islamic in nature, Cairo has its fair share of girlfriend boyfriend stuff happening, something u normally don’t get to see in Dubai with the locals usually… Western culture is in heavily, and all you get to see is jeans and boots n all the other fashion stuff as well as heavy make up, but covered from top to toe.
5pm. It was time to make a move, as I had a train to catch back to Alex for my flight at 00.35 hrs. Reluctantly, I trudged my way against the teeming crowds, leaving behind happy faces and celebrations and sounds…my mind and heart telling me not to leave, but the thought of being at work at 9am the next day loomed large. On my way back to the hotel, I stopped by for “Koshary”, an Egyptian food. I was dying to try it out but could not find the right place till now, so decided to go for it now. It is a heady mix of pasta, rice, minced meat, beans n other vegetables, topped with some “masala” and the fried onions etc we Indians put in “biriyani” normally. It tasted like heaven!
After goodbyes at the hotel, with bags packed I left to catch my train to Alex at 1900. Reached Alex at 2100, had dinner (Koshary again!!) and left to the airport. I was happy to talk with the cab driver who dropped me at the airport, and I was happy to hear him gush “Amitabh Bacchan” yet again as he heard India from my mouth. So what if I had heard it 10 times from 10 egyptians, this country and its people were so nice to me. The flight to Sharjah was once again delayed by an hour, but I had a nice time talking to a Turkish couple who worked in Umm Al Quwain. They told me all about Istanbul, and I told them all about my place in India-Kerala…suffice to say, if I win a jackpot bumper prize soon, its destination Istanbul for me !
8am,22nd January: Reached Sharjah, rushed home to Dubai, dropped bags, took a shower. 9am back to work. Egypt was a part of my own history now, though the memories are forever going be so fresh. I wouldn’t say the Egyptians were as friendly as in people in Bangkok, but then again, each place is different, isn’t it? Egypt is full of rich culture and history. And more. Sigh. If only life were a long nonstop journey all over this beautiful world.
Shazil Rehman, Dubai
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