Movies, Luxor, Aswan, and Terrible Train Rides

Apologies for the lack of updates recently, but nothing too exciting happened during the two weeks between my Alexandria trip and this past weekend. My friends and I have all had midterms, so it was hard to find a time when anyone was free. The highlight of my last weekend was seeing the movie “Watchmen” in the movies here, which was the first movie I’ve seen in an Egyptian movie theater. Movie theaters here sell popcorn and soda like they do in the U.S., but they allow you to choose your seat on a chart when you buy your ticket, have ushers to show you to your seat, and have a very short intermission about halfway through the movie. The movie itself wasn’t terrible, but it also wasn’t great and I was slightly let down as I was a huge fan of the graphic novel (or comic book for cynics) that it was based on. I figured out pretty quickly into the movie that we were in fact watching an edited version that was probably designed for Middle Eastern audiences. One of the characters, a superhero named Dr. Manhattan, is a giant, blue, nude, alien-like man that was “anatomically correct” in both the comic and the unedited movie. However, any scenes that would have showed this were skillfully edited out in the version I saw. Additionally, I heard from those that saw the unedited version that there were several “intimate” scenes in the movie, yet these only lasted a couple of seconds in the edited version. On the other hand, all of the excessive violence and gore was present in the version I saw.





ANYWAY

Last Thursday AUC was closed for a new Egyptian holiday called “Taba Liberation Day,” which is used to mark the day Israel handed over the border town of Taba to Egypt in 1989 following a very long dispute. My friends and I decided to take advantage of the three-day weekend to travel, and so my friends Rachel, Dan, and I made the trek to Luxor and Aswan this weekend. These places, especially Luxor, which contains the Temples of Karnak and Luxor, are renowned worldwide for having the best preserved Ancient Egyptian artifacts and buildings in all of Egypt, and are places that everyone in Egypt should definitely try to see. We tried to make the trek before tourist season really kicked off, even though the places are full of tourists year round, and before the weather got unbearably hot since they’re towards the south of Egypt (closer to the Sudanese border than Cairo).

The trip started with an overnight train ride to Luxor that began at 8:30 PM and ended at around 6 AM (about 9 and a half hours). It wasn’t too bad since the seats were comfortable and I spent more or less the entire ride sleeping or at least attempting to do so. When we got off of the train, the first thing we did was find the cheap hotel I booked in advance, called the Nubian Oasis Hotel. On the inside I quickly noticed it was decorated with more posters of Bob Marley than a 16 year-old surfer’s bedroom, and it came as no surprise that we were offered hashish more than once while we were there (all of these offers were declined, no surprise to those that know me). While walking around town, I noticed that Luxor truthfully didn’t seem to have too much going for it other than the tourist sites, and I had read in guidebooks that the town is very heavily dependent on tourism. After a quick Egyptian breakfast of falafel, my friends and I hopped on a 1 LE (18 cent) microbus and got a ride to the Karnak Temple.


Karnak Temple from the outside

With the exception of the Pyramids at Giza, the Temple Complex at Karnak is the largest and most well-preserved remnant of Ancient Egypt, and has existed in some form or another since the 11th Dynasty of Egypt (2134-1991 BC). The temple complex is massive, and the part available to the public (The Temple of Amun) took us at least a couple of hours to see. From the giant obelisks and pylons covered in hieroglyphics to the dozens upon dozens of columns and pillars, everything one would expect in an Ancient Egyptian Temple was here. I took dozens upon dozens of pictures of the temple, which did not bode well for the rest of the trip as I was in the “well I already have 50 pictures of hieroglyphics and pillars” mindset. In short, I was glad I saw Karnak, as it was definitely one of those places everyone has to see in Egypt.



Karnak Interior

Our next stop was the Luxor Museum, which is smaller than the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but at least was very well lit and labeled. It also had some of the most impressive and well-preserved statues I’ve seen, along with two rather creepy mummies with their faces unwrapped. Next stop was the famous Luxor Temple (built around 1400 BC), which is smaller and more straightforward than Karnak but an equally must-see attraction. Like Karnak, this Temple had hieroglyphics and pillars galore, but also randomly had a large Roman mural on the inside from the 3rd Century AD and a 13th Century Mosque built in the middle of the Temple. There was also a Temple caretaker that insisted on pointing out random hieroglyphics and also insisted on taking awkward pictures with us in order to not-so-subtly get a tip out of us. We relaxed for a while in the Temple’s large open courtyard (The Court of Amenhotep III), until what appeared to be a field trip from an Egyptian all-boys high school showed up and continuously approached us. This gave us our cue to leave, and we walked back to the hotel, stopping for fresh strawberry juice (note: freshly made juice in Egypt is amazing).



Some of Luxor Temple

For dinner, we ate at a classy-looking restaurant near our hotel where I finally got to order the Egyptian delicacy that is stuffed pigeon. While pigeons are viewed as flying rats in places like New York, they’re frequently farmed here and our shuttle bus from campus passes by people attracting pigeons to coops by waving flags (at least I think that’s what’s going on here). Pigeon meat actually tastes somewhat similar to dark meat on turkeys, only I don’t think I would order pigeon again since it’s such a chore to eat; there’s a ton of bones and relatively little meat.



Stuffed pigeon

The next day, we all set out on a tour arranged by our hotel that included the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Hatshepsut, the Valley of the Queens, and the Colossi of Memnon. These sites are all located on the less-populated west bank of the Nile, and the tour allowed us to travel from one place to another without having to worry about cab fares and provided us with a guide. An important note about this day is that it was between 90-100 degrees out, so we all wore sunscreen and stayed in the shade whenever we could. Anyway, here’s the four sites summed up:

Valley of the Kings: Purchasing one ticket allows you to see any three tombs, with the exception of the Tomb of Tutankhamen that costs 100 LE extra (about $18) to see (50 LE for students). Our tour guide told us not to bother, since everything in the tomb is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. I can’t recall the three exact tombs we visited, but all contained paintings that were incredibly vivid for being around 3000 years old. No photography was allowed inside of the tombs though, so you’re just going to have to take my word on this site (or google image “Valley of the Kings”)

The Temple of Hatshepsut: An imposing giant temple located more or less within a cliff that is dedicated to one of Egypt’s most famous female rulers. Some of the hieroglyphics in this Temple were still brightly colored, which I always find fascinating. On a not-so-bright side note, this is where the "Luxor Massacre" occurred in 1997 where 59 tourists were killed. Because of this attack however, terrorism in Egypt is extremely unpopular as it tends to scare away tourists, which in turn devastates the Egyptian economy.


The Temple of Hatshepsut, complete with tourists

The Valley of the Queens: Relatively similar to the Valley of the Kings, only we spent less time here as a ticket lets you see two tombs instead of three. The Tomb of Queen Nefertari is here, which is regarded as the most beautiful tomb in Egypt and apparently appears as if it was painted yesterday. However, to spend 10 minutes in this tomb costs 20,000 LE, or about $3500, so I don’t think I’ll ever see it in person.

The Colossi of Memnon: These are simply two giant (60 ft) seated figures of Amenhotep III that are on the side of one of the roads on the west bank of the Nile. While they’re not in the best condition since their faces are more or less gone, their size and the fact that nothing else is really around them makes them a very interesting sight.


The Colossi and I

So that was Day 2 of the trip, which concluded with a 3 hour train ride south to Aswan. On the train ride, we met a German woman that spoke perfect English and told us a lot of Aswan and Luxor’s features. Our first night at Aswan only consisted of finding a cheap hotel and getting feteer pizza for dinner (kind of like a quesadilla).

Aswan is a lot more friendly-looking than Luxor, as it has an impressive downtown area that isn’t too close to any tourist sites and has some beautiful views of the Nile at sunset (which we sadly didn’t get to see). We arranged a driver through our hotel again, which I’m sure was cheaper than taking a taxi everywhere for the day and was far easier. The first place we visited was the Aswan High Dam, which contains the Nile on one side and Lake Nasser, the World’s largest man-made lake on the other.


My friends and I on the Aswan High Dam


The next place we visited was Philae Island, which is reached by water taxi. The Island contains a sizeable Temple that was not originally there- it was originally in a space that is now underwater due to the first Aswan Dam. Tourists used to look at it underwater from boats, but between 1972-1980 the UNESCO moved the entire complex onto nearby Agilika Island. I have to say that for something that is over 2000 years old and was underwater for several decades, the Temple is in amazing shape and is very impressive.


The Temple of Isis on Philae Island

The next stop was a red granite quarry in Aswan, as apparently all of the red granite in Egypt comes from Aswan. The quarry contains a giant unfinished obelisk that would have been the largest in Egypt if it had been completely excavated, yet a flaw in the stone prevented this from occurring. We then took a very short water taxi ride to Elephantine Island, where we visited two small museums and a massive complex of ruins. However, my friends and I were the only tourists visiting at the time, which seemed unusual since every other site had been mobbed by tourists and this place seemed to contained a ton of history.


Some of the ruins on Elephantine Island

After seeing all of the sites one could see in Aswan during the course of a single day, we decided to take the train home since we had classes the next day. A first class train ticket would have cost us 170 LE, but we opted to buy second class tickets as they are only 60 LE a piece. The problem: foreigners aren’t allowed to buy second-class tickets at the station and can only buy them on the train. This worked out fine for us at first, as we all had seats in second class and were prepared for our 13 hour train ride back to Cairo. However, buying a train ticket on a train doesn’t mean you are guaranteed a seat (all train tickets have assigned seating when you buy a ticket at a station), and we found out on numerous occasions that we were indeed sitting in the assigned seats of other passengers. This caused us to move our seats at least twice as the train took on more and more passengers, and finally around midnight it appeared all of the seats on the train were taken. My friends and I found a spot in a very narrow corridor in the train’s café car and attempted to sit when we could….this didn’t really work though. On the plus side, I was sitting next to some very friendly Egyptian men that I spoke to completely in Arabic for quite some time and they complemented my speaking ability. In the end, if I am ever traveling with anyone that complains they are uncomfortable in the future…..


Egyptian friends and the corridor described

Alexandria

Alexandria and the Mediterranean Sea

As I enter the second month of my Cairo adventure, classes continue to be going well and I'm starting to get used to most aspects of Egyptian life. I feel a little more comfortable speaking Arabic to people, even though I can pretty much only ask questions and not really carry on a conversation. I am getting a lot better at understanding what people are saying though.

This weekend some friends and I decided to take a trip to Alexandria, which is Egypt's second largest city and is located right on the Mediterranean Coast. While many international students decided to make this weekend into a 4-day weekend since we have off for the Prophet Muhammad's birthday today, two of my professors still held classes yesterday and some of my friends had obligations they couldn't miss Sunday evening. However, Alexandria makes for a very good weekend trip as it is only about a 3 hour train ride from Cairo and I got to see a good deal in the two days I was there. While I didn't get to see all of the city's attractions or swim in the Mediterranean, I figure this gives me a pretty good reason to return.

The Alexandria trip began early Friday morning, when my friends and I left Cairo at 8:15 on a second class train. There are 3 train classes available on the train; first class means wide and comfortable seats (kind of like Amtrak), second class means slightly less comfortable seats and some people end up standing (kind of like a commuter rail), while the lowest class means few seats and most people stand crowded together (kind of like a subway). The train ride took us past many pastoral scenes of farmers utilizing water buffalo and small villages where women could be seen balancing baskets and other items on their heads. While we got off the train one stop too early, this stop was also technically in Alexandria and a short cab ride brought us downtown. There, we immediately found a cheap hostel that we learned of from guidebooks that didn't pretend to be fancy but at least was cheap and was a place to sleep.

My first impression of Alexandria was that it was a lot less crowded and polluted than Cairo, and I really generally enjoy coastal cities and towns (New York represent). The city has a beautiful waterfront that is never too far from any of the attractions. However, since it is not yet hot enough for European tourists to flock to Alexandria, the few tourists that do visit in the off season (that would be us here) get a lot of attention and we were asked to buy tacky jewelry and carriage rides several times.


The Roman Amphittheater

The first place we visited in Alexandria was the Roman Amphitheater, which was built in the 2nd century AD and is located in a compound that also contains the ruins of a Roman bathhouse and lecture halls. Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great in 334 BC, hence the name (you probably heard this in Middle School social studies classes), and was under the Hellenistic rule of the Ptolemaic Dynasty for almost three centuries. While the city became Roman territory by 80 BC, the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra VII took control and the city didn't really become Roman controlled until Octavian(Augustus) Caesar defeated Cleopatra and Marc Antony at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC (This battle also marks the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire). Sorry for all of this historical background, but people that know me know that I love Roman history and historical sites. The Amphitheater was in very good condition for something that was almost 2,000 years old and was buried under a mound of rubble for hundreds of years (the Arabic name for it is Kom al-Dikka, which means "Mound of Rubble"), and we had a lot of fun posing on the Amphitheater and looking at the nearby statues that were underwater for thousands of years. The Amphitheater also had a certain spot at the bottom where you could hear your voice echo from several directions, which was pretty incredible.


The three friends I traveled with, Heather, Jessica, and Rachel

After a quick lunch at Dagaag Kantaakee (KFC in Arabic), we visited the Bibliotheca Alexandria, which is a massive library that is also part museum. The building itself is massive and one of the most modern pieces of architecture I've seen, and the library interior is state of the art for researchers, even though the library truthfully has relatively fewer books than most in the US. The library contained some exhibits that I found very interesting, including one that had old maps and drawings of Alexandria, which I found out was bombarded by the British in 1882 when they tried resisting British colonial rule (I guess it was smart not to wear my shirt for the band "British Sea Power" that day). They also had an exhibit on the former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat that included a lot of his personal items, including the blood-stained uniform that he was actually assassinated in. We sent the night getting dinner and hanging out on the city's sea wall on the Mediterranean for a while, which we noticed seemed to be the cool thing for young Egyptians to do.

The next day we got up early again to walk to the Citadel of Qaitbay located by Alexandria's harbor. On the walk to the Citadel, we could see many fishing boats that were all beautifully pained shades of pastel (usually sky blue) with designs on the side. Once we got to the Citadel, we immediately noticed that there appeared to be a school trip that day, since there were hundreds of Egyptian schoolchildren there. From the moment we got to the ticket window to the moment we left, these children walked up to us asking our names and practicing their English with us. They also kept asking us to appear in their pictures and to take pictures of them, and whenever I said something in Arabic they'd be pleasantly surprised and start speaking in Arabic (apparently I know less Arabic than an Egyptian elementary schooler). As far as the Citadel itself, it was built in the 15th Century and is in very good condition. The architecture was very interesting on the inside, since I haven't really been to any castles before, and its location on the Mediterranean allowed me to get some great pictures.


The Citadel of Qaitbay, with teeming masses of Egyptian Schoolchildren


Me and the Citadel's wall on the Mediterranean

The next site we visited was the National Museum of Alexandria, which contained artifacts from every era of Alexandria's history; it started from the Pharonic Era, went into the Greco-Roman and Islamic Eras, and finished with the Modern Era. We then headed to one of Alexandria's many beaches, as we hoped it would warm enough to swim during our visit. However, while it was 80-90 degrees and sunny Friday, it was much hazier and cooler on Saturday (there were sandstorms in most of Egypt actually), and the water was freezing since it is still March after all. Since we'll probably return in April or May though, it will hopefully be at the point where it's so hot that I don't care about the temperature of the water.


Me in the Mediterranean

Rain and the Egyptian Museum

I apologize for the few pictures in this entry, but the only place I visited where it was worth taking a camera, the Egyptian Museum, did not allow photography. Truthfully the past week was relatively uneventful, so there is not too much new to report.

I still enjoy all of my classes most of the time, and I haven't had too much intense work to do yet. In my Modern Middle Eastern History class, my professor's own opinions continue to make the class more interesting, including the previously mentioned example of her always calling Sunni Islam the "true path" of Islam. We touched on Israel last week, and my professor reminded us that the British Mandate of Palestine (now modern-day Israel) was 93% Arab and only 7% Jewish before WWII. I'd say that this bias is pretty consistent among Egyptians, as murals commemorating Egypt's initial victory against Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur/October War can be found in Cairo and a very noticeable group called "AUC Stduents for Gaza" exists on our campus. In my other Middle Eastern History class, I've been learning a lot about early Islamic Empires/Caliphates, which I'm actually finding very interesting. Feel free to ask me how Sunni and Shi'a Islam split when I return (I have a feeling no one will take me up on this offer).

On Thursday night my friends and I ate at a hotel's restaurant and got a table on its balcony, which gave us a very nice view of the area. While eating at restaurants such as these are nice, they certainly aren't something I can do too often. An expensive meal in Cairo only comes to about $10 US, but I do have to buy all of my meals so even cheap dishes like Koushari (the pasta/rice/macaroni carb explosion that costs between $.55 and $.90 US) and Shawarma (like a very meaty footlong sub that costs around $1.80) add up. While I'm on the subject of food, the highlight of my Friday was my Feteer for dinner (we really didn't do much Friday). Feteer, sometimes called Egyptian pancakes, are somewhat similar to crepes, and my favorite variety is Chocolate and Banana Sweet Feteer (for the equivalent of $4 US I am made extremely happy for about half an hour).

Aside from delicious food, the only other highlight of my Friday was the odd weather: rain. While it frequently looks overcast in Cairo, potentially due to the smog, it has only briefly rained once during my stay here. Friday however, it poured heavily out of nowhere and then began hailing. The spontaneity of the downpour and the warm weather made me think of Florida, but this deluge only lasted at most 15 minutes and placed everyone on high alert. Due to the desert climate, Cairo receives about one inch of precipitation a year, meaning I was even more surprised when it briefly rained Saturday night.

On Saturday morning, some friends and I visited the Egyptian Museum, which is located relatively close downtown. The Egyptian Museum contains most of what Egypt is famous for- mummies, the Tutankhamen collection, statues, sarcophagi, and other Ancient Egyptian artifacts- meaning it is perpetually packed with tourists. From the moment we entered the museum area and passed though 3 metal detectors (tourism is a huge part of Egypt's economy after all), we were surrounded by French, British, and German tourists.


Not my picture


The Museum itself is massive, and it is nearly impossible to see everything in it in a single day. I found this to be especially true to be true since I only saw a third of it after spending about 4 hours inside. While I will probably return so I can see the Old Kingdom artifacts and the Greco-Roman influenced artifacts, I did get to see most of the Middle Kingdom artifacts and the Tutankhamen Collection. Unfortunately, the reputation that a significant portion of the Museum's collection is poorly lit and not labeled is true. Not only did me make this guess as to the certain functions of some of the artifacts, it also made me wonder what the person being mummified would think if their carefully crafted sarcophagus was just placed in a glass case on a shelf with no label thousands of years in the future ("I can't believe I died, had my organs removed with hooks and placed in jars, and was mummified just for this!)". Some of the artifacts were incredibly interesting though, such as ridiculously detailed dioramas depicting daily life and model boats that were placed in tombs to accompany the deceased in the afterlife. There were also chariots, jewelry, and some beautifully decorated sarcophagi and canopic jars (jars that held organs post-mummification). The most famous artifacts however, and those that can be found on the cover of several social studies textbooks throughout the US, are those belonging to King Tutankhamen. Although he had a very short reign of 3 years and died when he was 19 (he's called "The Boy King" in the Museum a few times), his collection of mostly gold-plated artifacts remain in pristine condition, most notably the mask placed over his mummy.



Also not my picture

I didn't get to see any actual mummies in the museum, as this required a special ticket that cost 50LE, so I think I'll rely on the MET in New York City to see those in the future. While not too much happened travel-wise this weekend, I do plan on traveling this coming weekend, and I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures.