Thursday, April 26, 2012
Entry into Alexandria was unusual. They had over a dozen large war ships anchored in port. Their port looked like a graveyard for half sunken ships. It was a little like playing dodge um’ cars just getting to our dock. I found it strange that they wouldn’t at least try to salvage some of the large sunken tankers. That was our welcome to Alexandria, which was named for Alexander the Great who never actually lived here but was buried here. I am not going to even try to do a history recap here – when it starts prehistoric, it is more than I can condense in a paragraph. All I know is I have been awaiting this stop. This is the jumping off point for Cairo and the Pyramids, Sphinx and the Egyptian Museum. I hated the seven hours in a “motor coach” but it was worth it. Let’s start with the small stuff. On the drive to Giza I was fascinated with these “pigeon palaces”. They have these domed pigeon houses everywhere. They serve squab for most festive occasions and the more pigeon houses you have the richer you are. They are a status symbol here. All the shops were closed this morning. Why? Well, because shopping hours are from noon to midnight. On the ride to Giza, the guide was telling us army service in Egypt is based on education - one year if college educated to five years if illiterate. The women are supposed to do one year of social service. What she also told us, which we hadn’t realized, was that this was the first time cruise ships have been back to Alexandria since the riots in Cairo a year ago. We went to the square where the riots were and saw the burned buildings and some of the damage from the riots. The museum was right in this square. She said there was suppose to be a demonstration today, “but just ignore them.” We finally arrived in Giza where there are a couple of the wonders of the ancient world, the Sphinx and the Pyramids. The Great Pyramid of Cheops alone covers 13 acres. It is hard to comprehend the size of this thing from pictures. It is said there are enough stones in this one Pyramid to build a 10 ft. wall all the way around France. There are two thirds of a million limestone blocks, ranging in weight from one ton to 50 tons with the average stone weighing about two and one half tons. When you look at the picture try to imagine that each of those “bricks” weighing more than two tons. It is about fifty stories tall. Now that’s what I call a tombstone! It took over 100,000 workers. It was thought for a long time that the pyramids were built totally by slave labor. Fairly recently they uncovered graves of pyramid workers and now they believe that many of the workers were paid, skilled labors. The size of each pyramid depended on how long the king ruled. The Giza Pyramids dates back to a couple of thousand years B.C. It is just amazingly that these the pyramids are still standing and in relatively good shape after over 4,000 years! The outside of these things were originally coated with a substance to make them smooth and protect from them from sandstorms and erosion. The top was capped with gold. There is no gold left and not much of the protective layer except that white looking stuff you see at the top. They say only about 25% of the tombs and pyramids have been uncovered. I would have to say seeing the pyramids was a monumental experience. I was surprised that the pyramids are almost in the suburbs of Cairo. Then, just east of the Pyramid of Chephren is the Sphinx. The Sphinx has the body of a lion and the head of a human carved out of granite. It was believed to be modeled after the Pharaoh Chephren and is suppose to be the guardian of his tomb. We have seen some impressive burial sites lately. Then it was time for lunch and a drive through Cairo to see the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities. With 107 rooms and 120,000 objects, needless to say we didn’t see it properly, but we did hit the highlights. The King Tut exhibit was impressive – the gold mask was exquisite. Unbelievable gold and mosaic work on his sarcophagus. The mummies were interesting. What was amazing to me was whether you were talking about sarcophagi or papyrus drawings, the colors were still vivid after over four thousand years. How come now they can’t make a blouse that doesn’t fad after the first washing? I learned that to tell a boy sarcophagus from a girl’s sarcophagus – you aren’t going to guess how. They show the ears of boys and cover the girl’s ears. Also, who knew the Rossetti Stone was a thank you note for lowing taxes. Well, I guess anyone who has read up on it – which obviously wasn’t me. You hardly knew where to start in this museum it had everything from Prehistoric Egypt exhibits to the Roman era to the fantastic gold and inlayed stone artifacts from King Tut’s tomb. It was an exceptional day. The drive home seemed endless but we finally crawled back to our stateroom after about twelve hours of sightseeing - another of my bucket list items successfully checked off!
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