After a much needed night of sleep we're ready to strike out and see Cairo. First up is the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities. Dawn's grandfather, who has been living in the country for a number of months, accompanies us. He has developed a relationship with a local car service that drives us around Cairo for the day. I am certainly glad I don't have to drive. In fact, I need to take a moment to talk about Egyptian driving.
There are no traffic lights in Cairo. I'm being literal. I'm not saying that there are only a few traffic lights, I'm saying there are absolutely none. How do intersections work? Well the first (or the most aggressive) driver pulls out and everyone else honks and only nearly hits the vehicle. There are also many roundabouts... but the rules about yielding the right-of-way aren't observed. In fact, I'm prepared to say that "right-of-way" is a completely foreign concept to a Cairo driver. Instead they honk because you're right in their way. There are lines suggesting the presence of lanes on the roads, but they are considered merely suggestions. Roads can swell to as many lanes as you can fit cars and bikes side-by-side. Then everyone can honk until they get to go the way they want to. People also honk to alert other drivers that they are there, like when they're planning to spawn a new lane adjacent to them. I remember hearing about this tribe in Australia that exclusively used the cardinal directions to describe the locations of things. To be able to effectively communicate you had to know which direction was north at all times, even indoors. As a consequence of this cultural predilection, researchers discovered that they carried a top-down map in their head of their current locations. That's how they managed to always know where north was. I think Egyptians driver might have developed a similar top-down map cognitive device, because I can't imagine keeping track of what's happening on all side of the vehicle at once, while honking, frequently toggling the hazard lights to indicate rapid deceleration (how quick can you find your hazards switch....do you have a reaction to reach for it?) AND talking on a cell phone. It's phenomenal. The truly surprising thing is how calm the drivers actually are. The driving is aggressive, but I didn't witness any rage like symptoms. It was managed madness.
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities is located on Tahrir square, yes, that Tahrir square. It houses the largest collection of Pharaonic antiquities. Its roughly ordered by time periods (Old, Middle, and New kingdoms), but many things aren't labeled, and lots of cool things are just kind of scattered around. Like giant stone relief carvings, or statues, or sarcophagi. I would love to include photos, but cameras are strictly forbidden in the museum. Seriously, sarcophagi are piled like 5 deep all around the edges of the rooms, not really on display, but just kind of stored that way. There is a lot of seriously cool stuff if you take the time to wonder around and decide to focus on a particular item.
One understated item that caught me eye was a collection of clay tablets that represented diplomatic correspondence between Egypt and neighboring civilizations. The tables were written in cuneiform. You always read about cuneiform in history books, but its something else to be standing before a pile of cuneiform tablets. The collection had a short description on yellowing paper that looked like it had been type on a typewriter in the 1950’s. It said that the tablets where inscribed, then baked to dry them. Then they were wrapped in another layer of clay and baked again. When diplomats received the little clay bundles they had to smash the outer clay layer with a hammer to get to the inner tablet. Neat.
Afterwards we contacted our driver who picked us up and took us out to Giza to visit the pyramids there. I found it to be a surreal experience. Since grade school I've seen pictures of these pyramids. Practically everyone knows about them. They're part of our collective consciousnesses. It's another thing entirely to be standing there right before one of the Wonders of the Ancient World. I kept looking out into the desert and then would turn around and... bam! Ginormous pyramid. It surprised and delighted me every time. Less delightful are the souvenir sellers and their camel/horse ride co-patriots. My experience is one way or another they will exact a price out of you. From the moment you near the pyramids people start trying to sell you things. Like pounding on the car while its still moving aggressive. On foot they follow you around repeating their pitch and trying to engage you in haggling for their good or service. Their pitch is the result of a kind of producer/non-interested consumer arms race. They have learned that being polite and friendly is an excellent way to strike up a conversation. They ask people where they are from. Then tell you that they love that country and offer to give you an item as a gift. etc. Or perhaps even though they're holding an armful of souvenirs they aren't actively selling you anything they are just being friendly... until they start selling you something. As a result tourist walk around and actively ignore the people following them around being friendly. At some point it really started to bothered me that I was making a concerted effort to ignore the friendliest person in the world who just wanted a scrap of conversation. Even worse, I was ignoring a entire set of people. Is this who I am? Someone who would spend the money to travel half-way around the world but wouldn't give the locals, whose country I'm a guest in, the time of day? I suppose so. In the end we all lost. They didn't get any of my money and I felt like a bad human being. Perhaps buying a trinket would have been a win-win solution... At least for one such encounter. While I found them annoying I fought the urge to think too much about wishing they weren't allowed to be there After all, this is a tourist attraction and I am a tourist. It seems like its only fitting that the home team makes the ground rules.
Here’s an interesting thing I didn’t know about the pyramids. Where you’re right at the base, so close that you can reach out and touch the pyramid and you look up... it doesn’t look so big. It looks like a sizable, but not enormous pile of stone. If however you walk a bit away from the pyramid and look back... whoa... it’s the biggest thing ever. Strange how it plays with your perceptions like that.
There are no traffic lights in Cairo. I'm being literal. I'm not saying that there are only a few traffic lights, I'm saying there are absolutely none. How do intersections work? Well the first (or the most aggressive) driver pulls out and everyone else honks and only nearly hits the vehicle. There are also many roundabouts... but the rules about yielding the right-of-way aren't observed. In fact, I'm prepared to say that "right-of-way" is a completely foreign concept to a Cairo driver. Instead they honk because you're right in their way. There are lines suggesting the presence of lanes on the roads, but they are considered merely suggestions. Roads can swell to as many lanes as you can fit cars and bikes side-by-side. Then everyone can honk until they get to go the way they want to. People also honk to alert other drivers that they are there, like when they're planning to spawn a new lane adjacent to them. I remember hearing about this tribe in Australia that exclusively used the cardinal directions to describe the locations of things. To be able to effectively communicate you had to know which direction was north at all times, even indoors. As a consequence of this cultural predilection, researchers discovered that they carried a top-down map in their head of their current locations. That's how they managed to always know where north was. I think Egyptians driver might have developed a similar top-down map cognitive device, because I can't imagine keeping track of what's happening on all side of the vehicle at once, while honking, frequently toggling the hazard lights to indicate rapid deceleration (how quick can you find your hazards switch....do you have a reaction to reach for it?) AND talking on a cell phone. It's phenomenal. The truly surprising thing is how calm the drivers actually are. The driving is aggressive, but I didn't witness any rage like symptoms. It was managed madness.
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities is located on Tahrir square, yes, that Tahrir square. It houses the largest collection of Pharaonic antiquities. Its roughly ordered by time periods (Old, Middle, and New kingdoms), but many things aren't labeled, and lots of cool things are just kind of scattered around. Like giant stone relief carvings, or statues, or sarcophagi. I would love to include photos, but cameras are strictly forbidden in the museum. Seriously, sarcophagi are piled like 5 deep all around the edges of the rooms, not really on display, but just kind of stored that way. There is a lot of seriously cool stuff if you take the time to wonder around and decide to focus on a particular item.
One understated item that caught me eye was a collection of clay tablets that represented diplomatic correspondence between Egypt and neighboring civilizations. The tables were written in cuneiform. You always read about cuneiform in history books, but its something else to be standing before a pile of cuneiform tablets. The collection had a short description on yellowing paper that looked like it had been type on a typewriter in the 1950’s. It said that the tablets where inscribed, then baked to dry them. Then they were wrapped in another layer of clay and baked again. When diplomats received the little clay bundles they had to smash the outer clay layer with a hammer to get to the inner tablet. Neat.
Afterwards we contacted our driver who picked us up and took us out to Giza to visit the pyramids there. I found it to be a surreal experience. Since grade school I've seen pictures of these pyramids. Practically everyone knows about them. They're part of our collective consciousnesses. It's another thing entirely to be standing there right before one of the Wonders of the Ancient World. I kept looking out into the desert and then would turn around and... bam! Ginormous pyramid. It surprised and delighted me every time. Less delightful are the souvenir sellers and their camel/horse ride co-patriots. My experience is one way or another they will exact a price out of you. From the moment you near the pyramids people start trying to sell you things. Like pounding on the car while its still moving aggressive. On foot they follow you around repeating their pitch and trying to engage you in haggling for their good or service. Their pitch is the result of a kind of producer/non-interested consumer arms race. They have learned that being polite and friendly is an excellent way to strike up a conversation. They ask people where they are from. Then tell you that they love that country and offer to give you an item as a gift. etc. Or perhaps even though they're holding an armful of souvenirs they aren't actively selling you anything they are just being friendly... until they start selling you something. As a result tourist walk around and actively ignore the people following them around being friendly. At some point it really started to bothered me that I was making a concerted effort to ignore the friendliest person in the world who just wanted a scrap of conversation. Even worse, I was ignoring a entire set of people. Is this who I am? Someone who would spend the money to travel half-way around the world but wouldn't give the locals, whose country I'm a guest in, the time of day? I suppose so. In the end we all lost. They didn't get any of my money and I felt like a bad human being. Perhaps buying a trinket would have been a win-win solution... At least for one such encounter. While I found them annoying I fought the urge to think too much about wishing they weren't allowed to be there After all, this is a tourist attraction and I am a tourist. It seems like its only fitting that the home team makes the ground rules.
After spending a good while walking around, between, and amongst some of the best know landmarks on the planet... we followed a path down a small incline and visited another famous Egyptian landmark - the Sphinx. I guess technically it’s just a sphinx (there are lots of sphinxes in Egypt), but because it’s the largest and best well known I feel ok giving it a definite article. It goes without saying that the Sphinx’s profile is probably one of the most famous faces in the world, which is why it was so odd that Dawn was so interested in its butt. I guess her logic is everyone knows what the Sphinx’s head looks like, but how often do you see a picture of its butt? That’s the sort of thing you have to be a world traveler to experience. Until now. Ladies and gentleman with out the means and/or inclination to visit the Sphinx may I present to you its cute hinder.
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