Who Ruined The Pyramids?

So yesterday was the big day- pyramid day. But before that, let's go back to Friday. We all met in the morning for a bus tour with Dr. John Swanson, Egyptologist Extraordinaire, to see the city of Cairo on a broader scale. Once we started out, an hour early mind you because of runs to Costa Coffee, we made for Cairo's ring road. The highway encircles the entire city of Cairo and we were able to see the city, with the invaluable commentary of Dr. Swanson, in a very large and historical scope.

To say that the outskirts of Cairo are poor would be an unethical understatement. The city's 19+ million population is expanding rapidly and the city is constantly swelling outwards. Because of this move, the poorest of the city have been pushed to living in slums in the city's outer ring- which has now begun to break one of Dr. Swanson's general rules of urban Cairo and build "housing" on incredibly fertile farmland. The people who live in these areas make about $200-300 per year and live in unthinkably deplorable conditions. This is about 10% or 1.7-2m people. Because of this extreme poverty, and because of the fact that I landed in Egypt with about $900 cash, I don't feel all that annoyed when I'm asked to pay and extra 2 or 3 Egyptian Pounds (L.E.) for things. I think I can afford the $.20.

We saw a lot of Cairo on this bus trip, eventually making our way up to the cliffs that overlook the Nile river valley and the city. Cairo's wealthiest people, another 10% of the city's population, have made their way out to these cliffs beyond the outskirt slums and begun to build beautiful communities there. We also drove through the "city of the dead," or the neighborhood near the cemeteries, Old Islamic Cairo, medieval Cairo and downtown Cairo, initially set up to imitate the Champs d'Elysees in Paris. The majority of Cairo is very poor and polluted by American standards, some of it is very beautiful and amazing. Generally, the people are incredibly friendly. The tour was a great tool to get to know where the city has been and why it is who it is today.

The Rock Piles

Yesterday was our trip to Giza and Sakara. We made our way by bus (with a terrible tour guide who may or may not have known things about the pyramids, but definitely couldn't convey it well in English) first to the Giza pyramids (about a 20-30 min. drive from the dorms). The great pyramids actually aren't at Giza. At one time, they were about 15 miles from Cairo- to get to them, you'd have to use the outer village of Cairo, called Giza, as a jumping off point. However, now the city has expanded so far that it surrounds the pyramids on almost all sides. Despite the surroundings, the monuments are impressive. The structures stand tall (there's three pyramids there) and the stones from which they're built are massive unto themselves. We walked into the mid-sized pyramid, which is really more of a crawl down a long shaft (which smells like Egypt's armpit) and then up another shaft, and eventually into the burial chamber which is a large room with a small tomb. A man stood inside, pretending to work there and direct traffic in and out of the room, he was really just there to take tips by taking pictures for people.


We wandered around the pyramids for a bit. Not a lot of shade there. And we told countless people we didn't want camel rides (secretly I did, but I didn't want to get hosed on the price). Even more people are there selling bottled water (a necessity- though if you didn't bring your own, you're dumb), head scarves and souvenirs. All of these things suck and aren't worth the price and the people get pretty pushy. I finally resorted to speaking the few Irish Gaelic phrases I knew when people tried to sell stuff to me, knowing there's no way they'd be know that language- it worked pretty well and threw people off their game.


We next made our way to the Sphynx, which sits behind a small labyrinth of stone pillars. I found this to be the most impressive of the monuments, as the sculpting is absolutely exquisite. To think that such work lasted so long, except that whole nose incident, kind of floors you. However, these people hawking their wares were even more pushy than at the pyramids! It would have been nice to get 5 minutes just to stand and look at the sculpture without 10 kids crowding around me trying to sell me useless bookmarks and overprices postcards. It's hard to
balance the knowledge that these people are incredibly poor with the fact that you just want to enjoy the history of the sites, but at the time, it's just so distracting. I did, however, talk to a little girl who was selling bookmarks. She was 7 and her name was Dina. She told me, in very good English, that she likes school and learns English and Math there. I paid her a little to take her picture and it reminded me of the kids I used to work with back home and how good a life they have, and I had growing up, in comparison to children in almost all other parts of the world. Yet she was still a sweet little girl, happy and funny- it'll take me a long time to figure this world out.



We finally made our way- after a short lunch and trip to a small museum dedicated to Imhotep, the ancient architect- to Sakkara, the site of the oldest pyramids. The step pyramids at Sakkara sit behind an elaborate hallway of large columns, the residence of many stray dogs. By the time we got there, we were all exhausted and the sun was blazing hot. There is no shade at the ruins and we stumbled slowly around, taking pictures and missing air conditioning. The beautiful part of Sakkara is the view out to the desert, where you look and see a few other pyramids in the distance, the great pyramids the other way, and vast fields of sand in between. However, the beauty was a bit lost on me, due to the heat. I got some good photos and hopped back on the bus.

Last night was not all that interesting. Long nap after the trip and drinks and sisha (don't worry, that's just the name for the Egyptian tobacco pipes everyone- and I mean everyone- smokes here; aka hookah) with some people in the program. Today should be an uneventful day of studying.


My old link for snapfish should work for my new photos. If it doesn't, email me and let me know. I got a lot of the group in the last couple days. Peace