My travel diary entry - Cairo, Egypt Day 2

We woke up bright and early because we were going to visit the pyramids of Giza Necropolis. At the breakfast table, we discovered Aish (bread similar to pita bread), and the fava bean dishes - Ful medames, Ta'amiya (Falafels), and Hummus dip. Tea being the national drink, did not disappoint hard-core tea-drinkers like my parents and myself.

You can see the pyramids at a distance as you reach the Giza Necropolis (officially this is called Memphis Necropolis). It consists of the

1.  Great Pyramid which is also known as the Pyramid of Khufu and one of the oldest and largest pyramid built in the 3^rd millennium B.C. This is one of the Seven Wonders of the World that is still largely intact. It is believed to be the tomb of Pharaoh Khufu that took 20 years, over 2 million blocks made from 5+ million tonnes of limestone, 8000 tonnes of granite and half a million tonnes of mortar which were transported up the river Nile.

2.  Pyramid of Khafre which is relatively smaller than the Pyramid of Khufu though it looks larger because of its elevated location and steep inclination

3.     Pyramid of Menkaure which is the smallest but it has three queen pyramids. The tomb of Queen Khentkaus here indicates that she was related to Menkaure though the exact relationship is unknown; the most common belief is that she was Menkaure’ daughter.

4.   The Great Sphinx (translates to Father of Terror) is statue made of limestone of a reclining / couchant mythical creature with a lion’s body and a human’ head. At about 240 ft long, 20 ft wide and a little less than 70 ft tall, it is the largest monolith statue and the oldest since it is widely believed that it was built during Pharaoh Khafre’ reign. Another belief is that it is statue of Pharaoh Khafre himself though none of these stories can be proven.

Even after the photo-ops, we dragged our feet while leaving this majestic place with its history and splendour. But we had no choice because we did not want to miss the Egyptian museum.

We took a small detour on the way to the Key of Life Papyrus near the Giza complex. I suspect that all the people on small / large group tours will visit this place after the pyramids. It was a 20-minute visit, during which we got to know the history and importance of papyrus scrolls in ancient Eygpt and some of our group members bargained and got papyrus art at what they believed were throwaway prices. Tip: There are very seasoned salesman here who are very informative and persuasive. If you have an eye for ancient art and can bargain up to the right price, you can get some really good stuff here.

Egyptians had a monopoly over Papyrus production which was a closely guarded secret in the ancient world. Though papyrus was used in the making of household items, it was the major ingredient in papyrus sheets which became the preferred writing material because it was light yet strong.

Memphis was the capital of Egypt during the 3^rd millennium B.C. (i.e. Old Kingdom) and widely believed to have been founded by Pharaoh Menes and under the protection of Ptah, the patron of craftsman. The old ruins are testimony to the rise and fall of this city. Tip: If you are a history buff, spend some quality time poring through the ruins and listening to its rich history during the era of the Old Kingdom.

Saqqara houses the first and the oldest pyramid i.e. Pyramid of Djoser or Step Pyramid. We admired the beauty of the desert while listening to the history of Imhotep. He was one of the chief officials of Pharaoh Djoser who is widely credited with the architecture of the Step Pyramid. He is such an important man in ancient Egyptian medicine that he was raised to a deity of Medicine and Healing and widely believed to be the son of Ptah.

I had thought that I would have to live on bread and milk on this trip because I am a vegetarian. If I was happy at breakfast for being wrong, then I was ecstatic after I discovered Koshary at lunch. This is more like a ‘khichdi’ that we serve in India (my version is - you toss lentils and rice and some of that leftover vegetables in your fridge, top it up with your favourite spices laced with ghee and voila you have leftovers looking very appetizing indeed), except this had macaroni and spaghetti… very mouth-wateringly delicious. Tip: Do not miss Koshary. Our guide told me that there is another very interesting vegetarian dish Mashi that is very similar to our Indian pulav or the Chinese pot rice… which I planned to try for dinner.

My parents tried the shawarma and the keftas and they said that those were finger-licking good! My uncle and aunt have a sweet tooth as does my mother and so together they sampled bakhlava (pastry topped with honey and nuts), babousa (semolina cake with honey and nuts), halwa (much like Indian halwa except this is made of sesame paste) and some rice pudding (much like the payasam in Kerala).

Next was Old Cairo or Coptic Cairo which is the home to the highest number of Coptic Christian Churches, whose founding father is St. Mark, apostle of Jesus. We were going to visit the Church of St. Mark later in the evening. Our first stop was the Babylon Fortress where the Coptic Christians took refuge when they were targeted. The Virgin Mary’ Coptic Orthodox church or The Hanging Church so named due to its location above the gate of the Babylon Fortress with its nave suspended over a passage, is the one of the most famous Coptic Orthodox church in Egypt as well as the oldest because the original church at this site dates right back to the 3^rd century. Next was the Ben Ezra Synagogue, the only synagogue in Cairo dating back to the 10^th century built on top of a church from the 4^th century. We passed by the Coptic Museum which according to our guide, has a lot of Coptic Art, frescoes and other antiques some of which are probably as ancient as the Coptic churches themselves. The church of St Sergius, also one of the oldest churches built on the site where Jesus and his family rested on their way to Egypt, is sight to behold with the marble columns and the depiction of the 12 apostles of Jesus. The church dedicated to Saint Barbara who was murdered by her father for trying to convert him to Christianity, is nearby and dates back to around 4^th century clearly evident from that Coptic architecture. Tip: Wear comfortable footwear for this walk around Coptic Cairo and remember to remove them before you enter the churches.

The Egyptian Museum or Museum of Cairo has the world’ largest collection of antiques from the ancient Pharaonic world. It has two floors – ground floor has papyrus scrolls in ancient Egyptian, Greek, Latin and Arabic and coins in metals like gold, silver and bronze from not only Egypt but also Rome and Greece. It is also home to the artifacts from the New Kingdom including sarcophagi. I really did not do justice to the ground floor because I was most interested in the treasures of the boy-king Tutankhamun.

Tip: If you really want to do justice to this museum, spend at least a day poring over the treasures on the display while hearing the ancient Egyptian history.

The first floor is filled with the items from the Pharaohs of the last dynasties and other artifacts from the Valley of Kings including King Tut or Tutankhamun. We saw King Tut’ treasures – his golden throne, jewels, his chests and caskets, his golden death mask, his golden chariots, and his exquisite gilded bier on which had rested his sarcophagus in his tomb. Nothing can prepare you for this exquisite treat of treasures of this famous boy-king.

The Cathedral of St. Mark is named after the founder of the Coptic Church - St. Mark, the apostle of Jesus. Here rests the relics from his life which was returned by the Catholic Pope Paul VI just before the completion of this magnificent cathedral rumoured to be the largest in Africa.

We then drove by Islamic Cairo which our guide mentioned was full of mosques and madrasas and other historical monuments of Islamic architecture. One of the mosques that held my interest was the Mosque of Ibn Tulun which is one of the examples of Abbasid architecture.  We saw the Citadel of Cairo which was built by Salahudin in the 12^th century A.D. and the Mosque of Muhammad Ali with its beautiful white minarets which do dominate the Cairo skyline.

Since we were part of a tour, we don’t really get a choice on the amount of time spent at each attraction and that was only compensated by the fact that we have really good overview of most of what Cairo had to offer.

Overall, I really enjoyed this day learning about different architecture, a taste of different religions and cultures all sewn together very nicely in this exotic city. Thumbs up from me!

Tip: If you are spending more time around, Alexandria, Luxor and Valley of Kings are not to be missed. Apparently, there are cruises around the Nile which cater to these destinations. For me, these are the reasons to return to Egypt.