Day 11 – Mons Claudianus - 2/5/2010

This day was our last working day in Egypt. Mons Claudianus was our destination. This was another mining town, much better preserved than Mons Porphyites. Our trip was a much smoother ride. Most of what should have been an extremely bumpy ride, was a nicely paved road that had opened only a few days before we arrived. Charles and I were re-united in Tamer’s Land rover. Tamer showed us Google Maps on his ever present iPhone. It showed us our gps location and the site of Mons Claudianus and was able to work even without a cellular signal.

We went off road not too far from what Italian archeologists believed was a Roman aqueduct. We exited our vehicles to inspect it. Ken seemed dubious about the evaluation. There were no signs of pottery tubes or a trough or hydraulic cement. We followed a path parallel to the “aqueduct”, Tamer pointed out small stone buildings he believed to be guardhouses. This was roughly the same path the cut stone from the quarry would follow.

A little farther down the road we found a ruined Roman water station.  Here we found our first samples of quartz diorite. Quartz diorite could be cut into huge columns and was the second most favored stone of the Romans, right behind porphyry. Inside the water station we found a water reservoir lined with hydraulic cement. The village supporting the water station was well preserved, the interior walls still standing. Ken told us not to bother spending much time here. The main site of Mons Claudianus was much better preserved.

Mons Claudianus was much larger. Our Land rovers parked just outside the village. Half hewn columns and piles of broken pottery lay just outside the walls. We found well-preserved pieces of potter on top of a huge abandoned quartz diorite column drum. We walked around the outer walls of the main site before entering. The wall was well preserved, still standing as high as 16 feet. Some of the towers were still stood.

We walked around to the opposite side. The town was built near the mining site itself. A huge ramp just outside the town lead to the quarrying site. We entered the town itself. It was the most well preserved Roman site I had seen save the ruins of Vesuvius. Some doorways and halls were still preserved. One room had the original plaster intact, some of the coloring was still visible.

We found an entire enclosed room with its lintel column supported roof intact. Because of the smallness of these rooms it was thought that these small rooms were slave houses. However, pay records were found. These were skilled workers paid time and a half to work in such remote sites.

Leaving the city we walked up the ramp to quarry site. The recent flash flood had washed out half the ramp. From the top of the ramp we could look down upon the whole of the ruins of Mons Claudianus. At the top of the ramp was abandoned stone work. A path led onwards to the quarry site. We saw stone masons marks in the living rock left behind two thousand years ago. Over the hill we saw the valley where much of the quarrying had taken place. Dotting the valley was a dozen or so circular stone buildings whose purpose was unknown to us: possibly guard posts, storage,  lighting towers or kilns?

As we walked further we saw a giant column abandoned two thousand years ago. While working on the column it had cracked. At least three sets of repairs could be seen on the column, but the crack had spread even further. We gathered by it, taking turns walking the length of it.

We walked down the valley. Along the way I gathered some genuine Egyptian sand promised to a coworker. The Land rovers couldn’t meet us at until we reached the bottom of the valley; the rains had washed out the road. We gathered up at a rocky outcropping at the bottom of walk and headed down the road in the Land rovers.

We stopped where centuries ago the Romans had left behind several pillars. Tamer had set up a lunch buffet a top one of the pillars. Lunch was flat bread sandwiches, fresh fruit and a variety of juices. After lunch we gathered around a pillar and had our group photo.

We started on our way home. Along the way we stopped at a Roman water station. A modern road had been built just a few hundred feet away from it. It was a walled fort with one principal tower rising above all. An ancient well eighty to a hundred feet deep was protected inside the walls. There were no protective barriers along the well and it was a little scary edging closer to the well to a get a glimpse of the shimmering hint of water below.

Finally, we walked a great distance of the length of what the Italians regarded as an aqueduct. At points we could see what appeared to be a trough. But inside there was no evidence of piping or hydraulic cement. We heaped disapproval at their hasty judgment, but couldn’t offer a better reason for this walls existence.

Day 10 – Mons Porphyrites - 2/4/2010

We awoke the next day refreshed and ready for Mons Porphyrites. Breakfast was adequate. It of course included the standard Cocoa Puffs. They had cereal and rice, made to order omelets, some kind of beans and some kind of Indian food I didn’t try.

We finally could see our hotel in daylight. In fact it was a little resort with clusters of buildings. Surrounding the hotel was a little tourist village, like something from the West transported over brick by brick. The hotel was surrounded on two sides by the Red Sea.

We loaded ourselves into the Land rovers. However, do to some re-jiggering of the passengers Charles and I were split up. I got into a Land rover that had Ken while Charles remained in the Land rover with Tamer. We didn’t have to travel very far on paved roads before heading towards the mountains and Mons Porphyrites. Tamer and Ken had selected a hotel as close as possible to the site.

After leaving the paved roads we moved onto a road of sand. This sand road was raised a few feet above the rest of the desert. It was much bumpier than the paved roads but was still relatively comfortable. The sand road seemed to head straight for the mountains that loomed ahead. After a half an hour or so the sand roads ended and the Land rovers were driving on open desert, the four of the spreading out so as not to obscure the view of the drivers behind. As we approached the mountains the ground went from sand to larger and larger rocks. The road had become much bumpier and the ride was starting to upset our stomachs. Ken called for Tamer to stop and take a rest. Most stretched their legs, others it as a bathroom break and one of the drivers took the time to perform the one of the five daily prayers of Salat, turning towards Mecca just over the Red Sea. Tamer gave everyone a date filled pastry and off we went. We stopped just a little while later to see an ancient Roman loading ramp. The blocks of porphyry would be loaded onto wagons using a great stone ramp. It was here we saw our first porphyry stones.

We continued onwards. The stones became even larger and the ride all the more rough. The mountains rose up on either side of us. We seemed to be driving through a river made of stones. Rain occurred in this region only once in eight years. When it does rain the result can be catastrophic. There is little earth to absorb the rain so a great torrents of water flow through these canyons. The violence of these storms can be seen in the size of the rocks of the riverbed. We had just missed the last storm. It had occurred two weeks before we had arrived. There were puddles in the desert that were still drying.

My stomach became all the more upset as the ride became rougher still. This was the roughest ride I’d been on, matched by none except the worst roads of Kenya. The drivers were following a path along the riverbed, but the recent rain had washed large stones across our path. Three times the drivers had to stop the cars and clear the path for us. There was little in the way of vegetation. Along the whole path we saw less than twenty trees. I’d look out from the car and see one solitary, scrawny tree in the middle of the riverbed. When we saw three of them were within visual distance at the same time, Ken quipped that that was the Eastern Desert forest.

At last we reached we reached Mons Porphyrites and at first it wasn’t much too look. It is merely ruins built into the sides of the mountain walls. We stopped in front of a fallen temple. This temple was for the benefit of the workers who mined the porphyry that the Romans valued so much. Porphyry is a purplish stone that is very hard. The Romans valued it for its strength and for the symbolism of purple. Purple was the royal color. Not much remained of the temple. On one side were stairs carved into the bare rock. A few columns were strewn about. Pottery shards were strewn about. We gathered from the temple a collection of pottery shards gathered together, in hopes of gluing them together into the jar it once was.

We walked along the side of the canyon searching the ground for good quality porphyry and interesting pottery shards. Charles grabbed a fair size hunk of porphyry. We filled the video camera bag with the stuff and left it behind to pick up later. Only 400 people have visited Mons Porphyrites since the end of the Roman era, there wasn’t much chance of thieves making off with our stones.

We found a spot where a French expedition had left many old pieces of pottery behind, letting it be sorted and catalogued for another day. Further up a hill they had dug up graves and taken nearly intact pottery. They had left them behind, exposed to the elements. The graves themselves seemed to have been dug into living rock of the canyon.

Further along and further up a hill were the remains of the village of workers. At a glance it seemed just a pile of stones, but further inspection revealed the outlines of houses. We walked among the ruins of the buildings. Occasionally support pillars still standing from the Roman era jutted about the stones. As we moved into the center of the fallen village there walls and even doorways still standing. As we moved to the opposite side of the village all that remained was a vast field of stones. Among these we saw our first sign of life in the desert: a red and black bug.

Past the village was an outcropping of rock upon which looked to be a little guardhouse made of stones. Upon this outcropping were holes dug by the French expedition. They had been digging up graves. The femurs of the ancient burial were visible with a little wiping away of dirt. Strewn around the place were fragments of bones. We found what appeared to be a finger bone, vertebrae and parts of a hip joint.

From there we walked into the middle of the riverbed where five pillars stood up from the ground. Here we found signs of a Roman well. Here we found channels of stone and hydraulic cement. It might have been designed to be open to the air.

We slowly walked back to the temple, where the Land rovers were parked, looking for pieces of porphyry. We made a stop along the way to fetch the camera bag. Others had found pieces of Roman glass. By the time we had reached the temple, lunch was almost ready. We were all there but Ken, who was still mounting a search for a massive specimen of porphyry. Tamer was gently pointing him to pieces that were within reasonable distance of the roads.

Lunch had to wait for Ken; after all he was the one paying for it. On a rocky outcropping below the temple Tamer set up a buffet. There was bread, tuna fish, cream cheese, tomatoes, oranges, bananas and potato chips. Afterwards a plate of hard candy was set out.

After lunch we headed back home to the Sultan Bey hotel. The ride was every bit as bumpy, but we were satisfied. When we returned home we walked around the surroundings a bit, long enough to touch the Red Sea with our hands. We purchased a box, a fish and a vase at a nearby tourist shop.

Day 9 – Goodbyes and the Eastern Desert - 2/3/2010

This day was the end of the trip for ten of the twenty-four members of our party. Fourteen of us were continuing on to the Eastern Desert for the now cancelled camping trip. We all went off to the airport together. Saying our goodbyes as the would-be-campers headed of to the domestic gates and the rest headed home. We saw one last glimpse of our fellow travelers through a window as we headed down an escalator to our gate.

It had been a busy night for Ken and Tamer as they attempted to fix what the Egyptian police wrecked. Four days previously Tamer had our twenty feet by twenty feet custom-made tents all set up. The food was bought, the permits from the army received. Everything had been set. Now they had to scramble for an appropriate hotel for the three days we’d be there and something to do for the first day.

The hotels along the Red Sea are not made for tourists interested in ancient Roman ruins. They’re made to handle planes full of Russian tourists wishing to hang out by the shore and drink themselves to oblivion. None of them have the slightest interest in Mons Porphyrs or Mons Claudianus.

We arrived at the Hurghada airport after a very brief flight. The airport looks brand new and only half constructed. The police seemed especially worried about security. They hired a Russian private security guard to protect us. From the air Hurghada looked like a small town clinging to the shore surrounded by a vast desert.

Instead of a bus we boarded four Toyata Land rovers. Luckily both the accelerators and breaks operated perfectly. What was especially cool about these Land rovers was the snorkels that lead from the engines. The snorkels prevent dust and sand from entering the engine by raising the air inlet above the level the sand and dust kicked up by desert travel.

There were five Land rovers to carry the group. We were parceled out four to a car. A fifth car was used as backup and storage space; most importantly lunch. We traveled a road that never strayed far from the coast. Near Hurghada the coast of the Red Sea was lined with resorts catering to Russian tourists, some only partially complete. As we got further away, only occasional small coastal towns would interrupt our travel. Always to West was the desert and behind them high mountains and sometimes dust storms between them.

We traveled for two hours. There wasn’t much in the way of traffic; human, vehicle or animal. We were escorted by the local police every step of the way from Hurghada. Instead of assigning one set of local police for the entire trip, every thirty minutes or so our caravan would have to stop and get an entirely different set of local police. Efficiency is not the Egyptian way.

We ducked the local police when we reached our first stop: a Phosphorus Mine dating back to Roman times. We walked through a tunnel in a hill while exploring the site. It was carved out by the British during World War II and originally had a train. The British used the phosphorus for explosives. Afterwards we stopped briefly for lunch consisting of sandwiches, cucumbers, fresh fruit, beans, juice of all kinds and potato chips.

After lunch we descended into phosphorus mine, or at least a few of us did. The footing was treacherous and according to Tamer the mine was two miles long. We were shown the seams of phosphorus still visible in the walls of the mine. After walking around for a while we were off again.

Not too far from where we left the desert road and the local police was an ancient Roman port. Thousands of years ago the level of the Red Sea had been higher. The port now lay hundreds of yards from the sea. Only the bases of the building remained. Scattered all around the port were filler from Roman and Byzantine times. The filler included shells and coral. We picked up several large specimens. Quickly the review of the port turned into a scavenger hunt turning up some excellent pieces of pottery (including part of a strainer that I kept), large shells and some human looking bones.

The last site of the day was Quseir fort. This fort was built by the Ottoman Turks as a part of a series of forts used to protect pilgrims destined for Mecca. The fort was in-use up to 1975. The first thing we saw as we entered the gates of the fort was the well. In the event of a siege water would be of prime importance. The walls of the fort were intact. Inside the fort were cannons. These were especially of interest by our Egyptian security force. He had his picture taken next to them and liked handling the cannon balls. In the center of the fort was a stairway down into the forts cistern.

The day was nearly over and we had to get to our hotel. Instead of the tents in the desert we were forced to stay in a modern resort. It was a two hour drive back to Hurghada and the hotel. We watched as the sun slowly sank behind the mountains. It was nighttime by the time we reached El Gouna, a small tourist village only eleven years old. We arrived tired but happy at the the Sultan Bey hotel. It was a pleasant resort hotel with everything one would expect. Our room was spacious and had high domed ceilings.

Dinner was included with the hotel room. It was buffet style served in a restaurant opposite of the hotel lobby. We ate here for the next three nights. It was adequate, but some of the foods were oddly favored. At least one of the choices turned out to be adequate.

Day 8 – Old Cairo - 2/2/2010

Today was Old Cairo day. We would see the old Christian and Jewish section with some Roman ruins to boot.  Most frightening we were to take the Cairo subway. I dreaded the thought. It had been Ken’s intention to slip the government provided security guards that morning. We were to assemble in the hotel lobby and quietly sneak out in twos and threes to meet Soha near the Egyptian Museum. Then we were to proceed to the Subway station. This would be an adventure even for Soha, who though living in the city for all her life had never used it. Ken’s cover had been blown. Wallid was there and might have blown him in. I’m not sure why Ken doesn’t want security tagging along. He did it successfully once the last trip I was on for a walk through the Cairo Bazaar.

Wallid also bore some rather bad news. The police had denied our permit to camp in the desert. The Egyptian army had previously granted the permit but the local police had butted in. It turned out that the President of Egypt was visiting the area. I’m guessing that might have been part of the denial. Also an Al-qaida cell had recently been busted. Whatever the reason no Americans were allowed to camp in the desert. After much arguing that the ruling was unfair, citizens of all countries were denied overnight access.

With our Egyptian secret agent leading the way we managed to get to the subway station. There was only one beggar, a woman, who sat on the steps to the station. The station was clean and modern. The one-pound fair might also have been too steep for many. Squeezing onto the subway train proved difficult, it was reminiscent to the crowded Japanese trains that required dedicated people pushers. Charles and I were split up. I stayed with Ken, not seeing that Charles had already gotten on the train. We only stayed on the train for four stops. At each stop the train got less crowded. It was very comfortable by the time we reached our exit.

Right outside the train station was a Roman tower. It was impressively tall and even more so when you looked down to see how much of the tower had been buried by the rising ground level. The Nile had once been near this tower and had undoubtedly guarded commerce along it. Over time the course of the river changed.

Near the ruins were several Coptic Christian churches; one built so close to the ruins as almost to hang over it. Security was tight at all these places. Guards were posted at every corner. 

The first church we saw was the hanging church. It was the seat of the Coptic’s version of the Pope. It is surprisingly small, but very ornate. It resembled an Eastern Orthodox Church. Parts of the church had been taken from Roman temples. A slab of porphyry was used in the decoration of the pulpit. The Church had a small gift shop where I bought mom her rosary, we had failed to get one last trip. I also bought a couple Coptic crosses for gifts at work.

We visited a couple other small Coptic Churches, a Coptic museum and a rather heavily guarded Jewish Temple none of these places allowed photography. There are only a hundred or so Jews left in Egypt and this Temple was now just a historical monument. 

Dinner was on our own that night so we headed over to the Hilton Center for a bite at McDonald’s. To Charles surprise he successfully ordered two hamburgers with ketchup only. The food was very good, though the meat in the quarter-pounder was merely acceptable. It was extremely cheap, even cheaper than a McDonald’s at home.

Across from the McDonald’s was a movie theater. We saw “The Book of Eli” in theater number one. Theater number one was huge, almost as large as an IMAX screen. It resembled the large Holiday Showcase Theater of old. However this one had a stage and stage lighting. They must hold live performances there too. The seats looks like had once been luxurious but now were worn and broken. I had to move into a new seat. I imagine this is what the Holiday Showcase Theater would look like now if they hadn’t been torn down.

The picture quality was excellent. The sound however was a problem. The center channel speaker, which handles all dialog, kept cutting in and out. The actors spoken words would cut in an out, becoming incomprehensively muddled. Since almost all the movies there were in English this must not have been a problem for them. Everyone was reading the sub-titles. Needless to say this perturbed us, but we muddled through. 

Day 7 – Medieval Cairo - 2/1/2010

After a restful night at the Ramses Hilton, off I went to breakfast. Charles skipped breakfast because he felt fat from not exercising. The Hilton’s continental breakfast was extensive. It head every cereal you can imagine including, of course, Coco Crisps. In addition to the normal cereals was a real treat: Sugarsmacks. There were sausages, cooked tomatoes, made to order omelets, pancakes, French toast, and a chocolate fountain. What really caught my eyes was something labeled “mini-Burgers.” These turned out to be meatballs in tomato sauce. Around the corner were potatoes with a startling resemblance to tater-tots. After a bowl of Sugarsmacks, the mini-Burgers and tater-tots I was fueled for the day.

We gathered in the lobby awaiting the arrival of our Egyptian guide, Soha. She was thirty minutes late. Wallid, our organizer for the trip, told her the wrong time. Wallid wasn’t very efficient on this trip. Soha should have been with us for the previous days in Alexandria but he had told her the wrong dates and she was in upper Egypt on another expedition.

Soha had been our guide in Cairo during our first trip to Egypt. She had been very knowledgeable, and spoke excellent if softly spoken English. During our last trip she had expressed the same views about Islam as the monk Cedrak had. Certain people were corrupting it with primitive tribal customs not stated in the Koran. On our last trip Cairo had been cold and rainy. During our tour of Sakkara, she had to wear a fur-lined coat. Luckily the unseasonably cold weather had broken and the temperature was comfortably in the seventies. One odd thing I noticed about Soha is that she has no eyebrows. Instead she has tattooed-in eyebrows. Likewise, there are tattooed lines along her lips. I guess it’s permanent makeup.

Away we went on the bus to old Cairo. We passed bread vendors balancing stacks of flat bread balanced on their head. As we left downtown Cairo and headed to old Cairo the streets got narrower and grimier. Vendors, mostly old men sat by the street side selling their wares. It was early yet so most of the tourist shops hadn’t opened.

The ancient city walls define the boundaries of Old Cairo. Three gates still remain. In many European cities the old city walls have been torn down. It’s nice to see these remain.

Our first stop was one of the city gates: Bab Zuwayla. My first impression of the place was how filthy it was. Right next to the gates were piles of garbage being picked at by skinny, sickly cats. The gates had two towers rather resembling a mosque. The gates, left open to allow vehicle traffic from the busy but narrow road, were massive. The construction of the gates resembled that of ancient Egypt. Above the gates were murder holes through which boiling oil would be poured on attackers. In the gate entrance, on the side of the walls are decorations of clamshells. These symbolize rebirth and resurrection going back to Egyptian times.

Just a little past the gate, beside the narrow road was our first mosque of the day. It was one of the oldest and most beautiful mosque. We left our shoes to an attendant before entering the mosque. We were instructed to hold our shoes in our left hand with the tips pointing downward. All the mosques we went to had an attendant to keep track of the shoes. All of them expected tips for their service.

This mosque had a dome and according to Soha that indicates that it contains a tomb. Sure enough under the dome we found the tomb of a king. The locals call these tombs “mostabas” or bench in Arabic. Traditionally Muslim would be buried under ground, but this one is above ground. It mimics the old Egyptian pre-pyramid tombs of a similar shape.

This mosque proved very well suited to Soha’s quiet voice. It was so early we had the whole mosque to ourselves. The mosque is square shaped, along each side are many pillared halls, the ground carpeted. Each carpet had an arrow pointing in the direction of Mecca.. The center is open to the air and in the middle of the open air is a fountain where one can wash one’s hands and feet.

Soha had us all sit on a long bench facing where she explained the workings of the mosque. Along one wall is a inset area called a mihrab which indicates the direction of Mecca. Everyone faces Mecca while praying. If one were actually in Mecca everyone would pray in a circle. Women are separated from men by a curtain covering part of one side of the rectangle. Near the mihrab is a lectern called a minbar where the iman stands and reads. Near that is a stairway where a reader shouts out the beginning and end of each prayer. This was necessary prior to the advent of speaker systems. She also spoke of the five pillars of Islam and answered questions about its practice.

We gathered up our shoes after paying the required baksheesh to the attendant or protected them. We continued along the narrow street. It was still early and the shops still had corrugated steel doors shut.

The street vendors were out in force selling oranges and bread. One vendor smoked a hookah as he waited for his customers. I thought Islam forbade smoking, but it appeared to be everywhere with shops openly selling hookahs. In fact we saw an advertisement with a picture of a child smoking from a hookah.

As we walked along shops started to open. Soha bought some nuts from a recently opened shop. Branching from our street were even narrower, dirtier paths. Ken had said ten years earlier this area would have smelled like an open sewer with waste and trash and clogging the streets. It still retained a bit of its earlier “charm.”

Cats were everywhere. They lined the streets and gathered around the vendors. The invariably looked skinny and some were in poor shape. One young cat dragged behind him a broken useless leg.

We saw a shop owner about to open his shop. Ken pointed out dozens of brown stains in the shape of an open hand on the corrugated steel door. For good luck, the vendors would dip their hands in blood and place these hand stains all over their door. I found that very odd.

We also saw grown men holding hands. In Europe it was common to see women and girls holding hands. It was very odd to see men doing it, even more odd to see security guards holding hands. I’m not sure what it is supposed to signify.

By the time we had walked the length of the street most of the shops had opened. We saw a fez shop even though Soha said nobody wears them anymore. We saw shops with giant fluffy bundles of sheep fur. Towering above the street were the towers of mosques that seemed to be everywhere. Cairo is called the city of a thousand mosques.

We entered the second mosque of the day, the Alhakim Mosque. It had an interesting origin. Apparently the ruler Alhakim was rather brutal and oppressive. His rule became increasingly erratic until one day he declared himself Allah. After being warned by his sister, he decided to take a walk outside without his bodyguard. He was never seen again. He left behind a nice mosque however. It was similar in structure to the prior mosque however along the walls of the mosque were little forms called “paper dolls”  as they resemble cut-out figures.

Old Cairo is a bizarre mix of old and new. I saw traditionally dressed men using cell phones. Young kids wearing the latest styles mixed with an older man trailing behind a goat. Horses and donkeys shared the street with motorbikes and small trucks.

We reached the other side of the city walls. Ken attempted to get us into their inner workings of the inner walls. On his last visit that area had smelt like a sewer, since then they had cleaned it up. Unfortunately it was under repair and even the urgings of our security force wouldn’t allow us in. Ken took us through our second city gate. Off to the side was the tomb of a king. Over time the ground level has risen and now the tomb itself was nearly buried. Ken tried to get us near the outside of the outside walls but this too had been blocked off, for no apparent reason. We could vaguely see that some of the pharonic stones had been re-used in building the wall. Hieroglyphics could still be clearly made out.

On the outside of the old City walls was a very busy street. On the other side, past a row of cheap looking restaurants were very poor slums, the worst we had seen so far. They made the poorly constructed brick tenement buildings look bad. On that side of the street laid the City of the Dead.

The City of the Dead is an active graveyard that dates back several hundred years. Up to as recently as fifty years ago it was a custom to spend the weekend at the grave sight of one’s ancestors. To make their stay comfortable they built houses around the graves to live in. The rich had luxurious multi-story complexes; this cemetery had more decidedly modest structures. As the practice of staying over for the weekend started to fade the poor decided to move in.

The population of Cairo is over twenty-five million. It seems odd for the poor to live among the gravestones of the dead. Over the past few years the government decided to evict these squatters and move them into tenement buildings outside the city. As we walked through the City of the Dead we saw ramshackle buildings with padlocks on them, preventing their previous occupants from returning. Viewed from above the vast extent of the City of the Dead can be seen. It looks aptly named, for it is eerily quiet and one does not see tombstones from that vantage point but just empty slum house after empty slum house.

There were still people living there however. Those who remain are the guards. It was odd to see children playing, chickens being raised, and even a glass blowing shop among the Islamic gravestones. We did see one famous grave, that of a Swiss traveler. He spoke Arabic so well he was able to slip into the holy city of Mecca. He traveled all over Egypt and is most famous for having discovered the massive monuments along the Southern Nile.

We were led out of the City of the Dead through a passage behind the glass blowing shop. It was in sharp contrast to the City of the Dead. There was people everywhere, children followed after us shouting “Hallo, hallo!”

We gathered up on the bus and headed out for lunch. Much to our despair it turned out to be the most expensive meal of the trip. We were led to the tourist trap called “Soiree.” They served a passable lunch buffet but charged $25 for the privilege. If we had known how much it would have cost ahead of time we would have skipped lunch entirely.

Off we went to the Citadel of Saladin. The traffic in Cairo is slow. It’s so slow that vendors prowl the thin concrete median between lanes, selling bread, air fresheners, oranges and various other sundries. The Citadel of Saladin with its many led covered domes and high spires is impressive. It seems inspired by the great church of Constantinople the Hagia Sophia. It lies on top of an outcrop of rock and surrounded by great walls.

The Citadel itself was closed that day but we were able to enter the Well of Saint Joseph. The Well of Saint Joseph was created to provide water for the Citadel. It is extremely deep and the water itself comes from an aqueduct that snakes through the city. Great wheels powered by donkeys at the top and bottom of the well drew water up to the Citadel. I had just recently seen a special on the History Channel about the well and was excited to get to see it in person.

The Egyptian government only recently opened the Well. On his last trip, as a birthday present some friends took Ken to the well. Unfortunately it was still closed. We tried to enter the well but found the door locked. Ken was devastated. Our Egyptian appointed security guide wouldn’t take “No” for an answer. After much discussion the local curator with two young comely attendants in toe came to open the well for us.

We descended into the darkness. There was a staircase that spiraled down the central well. The well itself was twenty or thirty feet across. At intervals there were windows in the walls of the path that let in natural light from the open top well. Only a handful of us had brought flashlights. There were only a few electric lights provided. Many stopped halfway. Dust was everywhere and it made the footing uneasy. After fifteen minutes or so we reached the end of the staircase. At the bottom was the wooden wheel that was turned to draw the water up. The water itself was several hundred feet further down. We threw in a stone and counted the seconds till it splashed. I could dimly see the glint of water down below. After much celebration we made the rather more arduous climb up and saw the corresponding wheel at the top of the well.

On we went to two more mosques. One had a broken clock given to Egypt by the French. The Egyptians claimed the clock never worked and seemed rather teed off about it. The second and more impressive mosque was the Mosque of Mohammed Ali. It was inspired by the cathedrals of Europe and is very ornate with many lead covered domes. There were many chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Many had broken lights that hung at angles. All were covered with dust and dirt. I found it odd that the rest of the building seemed clean but the chandeliers were filthy.

Leaving the mosque we could see the whole city from our high vantage point. It was quiet atop the Citadel but as we approached within a few dozen feet of the outer walls we could hear the incessant honking of cars and all the sounds of the busy city intrude upon the silence.

As we headed back to the hotel we followed a road that paralleled the old aqueduct. Much of it was completely intact. Some of the breaks were for trains tracks and roads. The arches of the aqueduct rose higher and higher as we went. Through the arches could be seen shops, slums, dirt, parked cars and debris.

For dinner we went to the Felfela restaurant, which should be distinguished from the Felfela Café. It was a much higher-class joint than the cafe. I had forgotten the name of the restaurant but remembered the stereotyped statue of a plump Egyptian smoking a hookah. I had a concoction of rice with four chunks of lamb; the center was some white creamy substance. I didn’t find it appetizing.

Day 6 - Goodbye Alexandra and the desert road to Cairo - 1/31/2010

In the morning we said goodbye to the Paradise Inn, after breakfasting on the cake we ordered the night before.  There was one last stop in Alexandria, the archeological dig of Kom el-Dikka, right in the middle of downtown. As Alexandria is a relatively new city, around 330 BC, this site was also relatively new, containing Greco-roman artifacts. Our native guide attempted to speak to the Polish excavators in order to arrange a tour, but the Poles didn’t speak Egyptian. It didn’t occur to him to try to speak English, which they spoke fluently. Unfortunately we could only view from a distance. In a general tightening up of access, much of the site was roped off. Despite Ken’s best efforts he couldn’t finagle us access to the site.

The most impressive part of the site was a nicely preserved roman theater; it even has the seat numbers intact. Very small, it was not intended primarily for theatrical efforts but for  the reading and discussion of laws. I got Charles to pose as a Roman orator. His acting chops were not up to the task. Paralleling the theater is the remains of a roman road. Lining one side is a row of columns, on the other a row of shops. Still unearthed on the opposing side is a row of shops and columns over which a canopy probably had been draped, providing shade.

Near the entrance to the site is a display of Greco-roman artifacts recovered from the sea. The statuary on display here had been smoothed and worn down by the action of centuries of the waves. There also was a series of desalination tanks. Objects recovered from the sea are placed in a series of tanks with a gradually decreasing salinity. Much of these objects were recovered near the former location of the Great Lighthouse of Alexandria. As the water level raised a large portion of the ancient city slipped into the sea. Some believe vast treasures lay out in the bay, but the action of salt and water destroys so much.

After that, it was back to Cairo via the desert road. There are two ways to Cairo now, the Nile road inhabited by farmers with donkeys slowing traffic and the new and improved desert road. Naturally we took the desert road back to Cairo. The trip took three hours, so we stopped for refreshments half way through. We stopped at one of the oldest rest stops along the desert road, a large impressive building seemingly from different times. There was a large snack shop and a cafeteria. The cafeteria tantalized us with pizza boxes but no pizza, instead selling some odd pastry or sandwich concoction. In the snack shop I found a carton of cookies called Neo that looked suspiciously like Oreos ™, they tasted like them too, much better than Hydrox. After almost buying fish flavored potato chips, we settled on vinegar and salt. Two Pepsi’s later we were back on the road.

We headed on to Cairo. We passed a futuristic village the SmartVillage, allegedly planned out and computerized by Bill Gates. We saw two traffic accidents. The closer to Cairo the crazier the drivers get. Alexandrians are paragons of driver safety in comparison. We passed rows and rows of tall palm trees, almost reaching the elevated highway on which we drove. In the middle of the divide vendors would walk selling items such as Egyptian flags to soccer fans, bread to hungry drivers and air fresheners. As we left the highway we saw open-air markets run year round, some dedicated to used clothing, some to used car parts. Traffic snarled as we reached downtown Cairo. Finally, near the banks of the Nile, we reached the Ramses Hilton our home for the next three nights.

We arrived at 2:30pm and had until 8:15pm for dinner that night. At 6pm was the Africa Cup match, much anticipated by the locals. Dinner was later the normal due to the horrible service we would likely get if eating during the match.  We would have watched the match however our TV was broken. Charles and I decided to explore the Ramses Hilton Center mall across the street from the Hilton. Everyone entering the mall has to pass through a metal detector. Tourists can walk through the metal detector without hindrance, but locals get the whole nine-yards having to take everything out of their pockets. The same went for the Hilton itself. I suppose they do a bit of profiling themselves and will continue doing so until tourists start blowing themselves up.

The first floor was a food court, the most remarkable aspect to my eyes were all the people using hookahs. Last trip I’d only seen them in the Hilton lobby, they seem to be everywhere in Cairo. Perhaps I hadn’t noticed them previously. The mall was vertical so up and up the escalators we went. Most of the shops were tourist shops, some more for the local tourists than foreigners. Most of the others were clothing and CDs.

At the top was a McDonald’s and opposite of that was a movie theater. We decided to stop and see a movie. We saw a list of movie times at one of the three box-office appearing sites. Most people seemed to be going to see Avatar, 3D glasses in hand. There were three theaters on one side and two on the other. A metal detector protects each side. After some discussions with the locals it appears that there are five movie theaters each showing one individual movie, each movie in each theater starts at the exact same time. That seemed odd given the varying lengths of the films, especially Avatar with its monstrous length.  We chose “Sherlock Holmes.”  After waiting in three different “lines” we managed to get our tickets and select our seats from a chart. Note that there is no such thing as a “line” in Egypt everyone crowds the ticket booth and the strongest one shoves themselves to the head of the line. We noted that we were the only ones going to see “Sherlock Holmes” for that showing. Security was tight, after passing the metal detector the ushers confiscated my poor camera, putting a sticker on my ticket as a claim ticket.

We had the theater all to ourselves. It was a narrow, bowling alley style theater. The movie started twenty minutes late than the 3:30pm advertised time, there must be some flexibility due to length. The movie started with no trailers. Instead a seemingly handwritten movie license card was projected on the screen. The only English on the card was “Sherlock Holmes.”  The movie was interrupted midway for a two-minute intermission. I’ve only seen that once before, on the Isle of Malta. When the movie was over we got up and the projectionist immediately turned off the projector, not wasting the precious bulb life on unseen credits.

Back to the hotel we went, keeping an eye on the Africa Cup via the BBC web site. Our dinner would be delayed if it went to a shootout. We didn’t need the web site to learn when Egypt scored their only and decisive goal. The near constant honking of horns from the Cairo streets starting honking in a melodic pattern which I can only assume was some kind of anthem. It grew louder a little later when time expired with Egypt victorious.

It was off to Paprika, a restaurant a half-mile or less from the hotel. At intersections, people waving Egyptian flags celebrated their third straight Africa Cup win. Paprika was near the Nile and we saw boats running up and down the Nile flashing lights in celebration. People walking in groups waving flags walked along the Nile. As dinner progressed we saw trucks full of fans waving flags driving back and forth along the streets. A camera crew slowed down traffic as they interviewed fans whipped into frenzy by the red light on the camera.

Dinner itself was good. I discovered “lemon drink” which was kind of like thicker lemonade with some milk substance on the top. I finally had lentil soup for the first time this trip in Egypt. It was good. Dinner was veal chops and rice. It was good, but not quite as tender as I expected. Dessert was “milk pudding” which was essentially rice pudding without the rice and a little bit of burned sugar as topping.

We walked back to crowds of soccer fans celebrating their victory, not much diminished in the hour or so we’d been eating. Back to the hotel and to sleep we went ready for medieval Cairo the next day.