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.

In case you haven't heard...

In case you don't read World news, there was a bomb attack in Cairo yesterday at the Khan el-Khalili Bazaar, which is always packed with tourists. A French teenager was killed and 20 others, mostly French and German tourists, were wounded. Reports of what actually happened are somewhat conflicting, but the bomb was either thrown from a hotel balcony or planted under a bench right outside of the famous al-Hussein Mosque. Since Khan el-Khalili is so crowded all of the time and has very narrow streets, the bomb, which was reportedly small and homemade, was able to do a lot of damage. A second bomb that did not go off was successfully defused as well. No news reports I've read know who could possibly be behind the attack, but when I asked my Egyptian roommate, he said it was probably "just some fool." Organized and defined terrorist groups don't really stake a claim in Egypt, and terrorist attacks happen less than once a year. However, news sources do report that this attack might have been motivated by Egypt's neutrality in the recent Gaza conflict, as many Egyptians are angry at their Government for not opening the Gaza border and helping the Palestinians. Hopefully this attack was it for the year, as it is already one too many.


Al-Hussein Mosque in Khan el-Khalili. The bottom left corner of this picture is where the attack occurred

........Well now that I have that update done with I'm wondering if I should say that Thursday night I visited Khan el-Khalili with some friends and ate Egyptian pancakes. I've visited the area twice before, and was hoping to visit again, but might not be returning for some time now.

On Friday my Friends and I visited Coptic Cairo, which is located in "Old Cairo," a former 3rd Century Roman Fortress named Babylon. The Copts are a Christian sect that accounts for 10% of Egypt's population, and they practice a form of Christianity more similar to Greek and Eastern Orthodox Chrisitanity than Catholicism or Protestantism. Coptic Cairo is incredibly easy to get to, as it is located right across the street from a metro stop, making the whole journey to get there only cost 2 LE($.36).

The first place we went to was the Coptic Museum, which cost 25LE($5.45) and unfortunately did not allow any pictures. It was full of 6th and 7th century Coptic Christian artwork, which reminded me a lot of Early Medieval European artwork (heavy contour lines and not really shaded). The Coptic Language looks vaguely like Greek, and it was interesting to see the transformation from Coptic to Arabic as the more popular language after the Arab conquests in the 10th Century. For whatever reason, I think it's really cool to see Christian artwork adorned with Arabic calligraphy and Bibles with illuminated manuscripts of Arabic letters.


No pictures :(

The next site we visited was the Hanging Church, which was built in the 11th Century. It's apparently called the "Hanging" Church because it was built on top of a water gate (literally, not Nixon-style) in the old Roman fortress. The church is a major tourist site, as told by the high presence of what were presumably Europeans wearing shorts, and had a large souvenir store where one could buy Bibles and Christian books written in Arabic. Inside, I was once again deeply interested by the juxtaposition (that's the word!) of Christian icons with Arabic calligraphy instead of Latin or Greek.


The Hanging Church

Me inside of the Hanging Church

The next part of Old Cairo/Coptic Cairo we visited was the Church of St. George, which is actually a Greek Orthodox Church built in the early 20th Century. Although not Coptic and not as old as the other churches of the area, it still had a very impressive dome ceiling and interesting Greek Orthodox icons in the limited section tourists are permitted to visit.

We then visited the Church of St. Barbara, which is one of the oldest Churches in Cairo, and was originally built during the 5th or 6th Century. However, since all of the sites in Coptic Cairo closed at 4PM, we only had a view minutes to view the interior before it closed. We also were unable to see some other sites in Coptic Cairo, such as the Church of St. Sergius (which is said to be built on the site where the Holy Family stayed after fleeing from King Herod) and the Ben Ezra Synagogue (where the baby Moses was said to be found- I don't think it's used anymore since there's less than 200 Jews in all of Egypt). Hopefully, I'll get to see these places before I leave.

We wrapped up the trip with a visit to the Mosque of Amr ibn al-'Aas, which was built in 642 AD and is the oldest Mosque in Egypt. While men don't have to dress specially for a mosque and women usually just have to don a headscarf, my two female friends had to wear a somewhat ridiculous-looking shining green cloak with a hood that the Mosque provided, which made them pretty uncomfortable. I'm not entirely sure why this Mosque required such strict attire, as my friends were dressed conservatively and the Egyptian women were only wearing headscarves, but luckily I don't think any other Mosque has this requirement for entry. On the plus side, the Mosque was very beautiful on the inside.

Apparently there's somehing called "pyramids" here

Ahh, classic Egypt. The Great Pyramid and the Sphinx

So my second week of classes was generally uneventful, as I've started to fall into a regular weekday routine of bus, class, library, bus, dinner, study, sleep. Waking up at 7 or 8 AM and getting back after 6 PM every weekday leaves little time for exploring these nights, so only expect exciting new developments after the weekend.

On Friday, my friends and I decided to see the most famous of Egypt's historical/tourist sites: The Pyramids at Giza. After getting up bright and early Friday morning, we walked to the nearest Metro stop and took the train to the Giza station. Once we exited the station, we were confronted by many a cab driver that offered to take us to the Pyramids. However, we declined all of these offers, and one man that walked up to us offered to show us how to take the bus to the Pyramids. This man, Abdul, escorted us to the bus stop and then explained that we could either take the tourist entrance to the Pyramid complex, where we would have to pay several fees to see everything, or the entrance used by Egyptians that included a camel ride for a one-time fee. We opted to take the road less traveled, and Abdul came with us on the bus to show us where we could pay this fee and pick up camels to ride around the Pyramids.

When we got off the bus, it was very surprising to see the Pyramids rising up from behind the buildings of Giza that go right up to the walls of the complex. Abdul brought us to a small tour business, and we paid 120 LE ($22) for a 2-hour camel ride around the Pyramids.

When the camels were brought to us and I mounted mine, I immediately regretted wearing my tighter pair of jeans that day. Camels are slightly wider and much taller than horses, so riding them is not very uncomfortable and requires a pretty wide stance. However, camels also don't travel nearly as fast as horses, so I found myself not really holding on to anything most of the ride since my camel always opted to walk.


This was another camel in our group named Tiger. My camel was named Moses.

After we got on our camels, a man came up to us and offered us soda, even opening the bottle cap and placing them in our hands so it would be really difficult to refuse. While this soda seemed free for about a minute, it actually cost 10 LE, which made me recall that the Pyramids were a prime location for swindlers in Egypt. We continued, being lead by two guides that knew how to make sounds that would make the camels move faster or kneel down so we could dismount.

During the Pyramid tour, we stopped multiple times to take pictures, and at one point got right up the the Pyramid of Khafre/Chephren (The Pyramid with the capstone that's actually the second largest but looks the largest because it's on a hill). I have to say that the Pyramids are a lot larger than I expected them to be, and it's amazing to think that something of their size was built around 5000 years ago using 1.5 ton limestone blocks. The Pyramids are also incredibly precise, with the largest size disparity on any side being 2 inches (this means it's pretty much a perfect square). I took several pictures, which I'll have to post the link to in the future, and really enjoyed being able to ride a camel around potentially the world's most famous historical site while the calls to prayer resounded from the nearby mosques.


My friends and I standing on the base of the Pyramid of Khafre


This is more to scale. Click on it to see full-size

While I didn't get to see everything I wanted on the camel ride, such as getting close to the Sphinx or going inside any of the Pyramids, I can't say that I wasn't satisfied in the end. I figure I'll probably come back at a future date to see everything I missed, but will probably opt to travel on a horse when I do.

When we got back to the place where we picked up our camels, we found Abdul, who invited us to lunch and tea at his house. Since behavior like this is very rare in the U.S. and we felt we would be intruding, we declined at first, but we eventually accepted as he sincerely insisted we join him. I'll admit that due to the fact that he knew all about the camel tour business and the presence of people like the soda vendor, I thought that Abdul just wanted to bring the camel tour business new customers at first. However, it turns out that Abdul was a genuinely nice person that wasn't really interested in selling us anything and just wanted to share his home and food with outsiders.

When we went to Abdul's village (it turned out to be a Bedouin village) a short ride away from the Pyramids, he showed us his home where he lived with his wife, his siblings, and their families. His apartment, though small, was very nicely furnished and decorated, and he introduced us to his wife (the two of them were both very young, I'd say around 25). He served us a delicious lunch consisting of pita bread, falafel (the best I've had, it kind of reminded me of chicken nuggets), mashed potatoes, fuul (beans), a cheesy-salad thing (people know I abstain from these), and fruits and vegetables (I also avoid these). He also served us some very good tea, and we discussed the Arabic language, family culture, and his own background (he worked in a jeans factory downtown and his father taught English, which is why he spoke it so well). We'll probably see him in the future to return the favor.

While Adbul was leading us out of his village, we stopped at a small cafe where he offered my friends and I free shisha. I abstained, since my allergies were still recovering, but the ability to sit outside on the cafe's deck gave us the opportunity to witness a wedding procession where dozens of cars, laden with people and gifts passed through the narrow street in front of us. Then, several of the village's women came in a procession, carrying wedding gifts on their head. It was kind of surreal, since I had never seen anything like it before. After this procession, a flock of the village's children came to our table and treated us the way the kids treated the ice cream man at the summer camp where I worked a few summers ago. They came up to us and talked to us with what English they knew, and we talked to them with what Arabic we could. Since the village really didn't appear to receive many tourists or foreigners, I have a feeling they rarely see outsiders just sitting on the street, and they were very excited to talk to us and kept asking us to take their picture. When we tried leaving, they followed us to the minibus, where we spent a few minutes saying goodbye to all of them.


The wedding procession

Nothing too eventful happened when we got back or the next day, aside from me eating some delicious chocolate and banana feteer (like crepes), and this week looks to be a normal class week. Hopefully I'll have more adventures to come.

Shopping Malls and Islamic Architecture

After a long first week of classes, some friends and I decided we wanted to go to a nice restaurant in downtown Cairo. We made this plan around 8 PM, and when we arrived at the restaurant around 9 PM, we discovered that it was closed. An Egyptian man (surprisingly named Mohammed)referred us to a nice-looking restaurant, yet when we got there and saw the prices, we made a not-so-subtle exit. We're guessing that this man was friends with the restaurant's owners. Another Egyptian man then volunteered to lead us to a cafe that we thought might have food, but actually turned out to be just a bar. We ended up eating shawarma (a Middle Eastern sandwich that's kind of like a gyro)at a take-away place, and then returned to the previously mentioned bar and sampled Stella, the most popular Egyptian beer.


Pictured: My new Egyptian friend Stella

Friday (remember, the Saturday of the Middle East) was spent on a voyage to Citystars mall, which wassn't too cultural but was something I was bound to visit sometime. We took the Cairo Metro there, which is surprisingly clean and easy to use. One Egyptian Pound (less than 20 US cents) gets you to any metro station in Cairo, making it much cheaper than a taxi. Unfortunately, the metro only consists of two lines and does not go near too many sites of interest. A third line that includes a station relatively close to my dorm is under construction now, but probably wont be finished for a year. The Cairo metro also has two cars that only women are allowed to travel in, which allowed my female friends to get on a train where all of the mixed-gender cars were full. When my male friends and I got on the next train, we found out that the mixed-gender cars are more or less all male riders when it's crowded. It also turned out that the metro didn't bring us as close to Citystars Mall as we thought, so we had to take a relatively long cab ride there.


Not pictured: The Cinnabon that was right behind me when I took this

Citystars turned out to be the largest mall I have ever seen in my lifetime by far. My Egyptian roommate was surprised when he found out that none of the malls I had been to in the US were as large. The mall has 6 floors of shops, a massive food court, a movie theater, a hypermarket, and an indoor theme park. Nearly every Western food/clothing chain can be found in the mall, and all of the prices are apparently conveniently multiplied by 5.5 so you're not saving money with the exchange rate. We stopped and got drinks at one of the many Starbucks in the mall, which was located next to a Johnny Rocket's that had Egyptian waiters dressed in stereotypical American 50's uniforms. At Starbucks, I guess I made the mistake of attempting to order an iced mocha in Arabic, and wound up with a Frappuccino instead. Although very westernized, the mall was definitely an interesting combination of Western and Middle Eastern ideals in some aspects. For example, every floor contained a prayer room for Muslim men and women, and stores selling conservative Muslim women's clothing would be next to a designer handbag store.

After going into random stores in the mall and seeing that I would not be able to buy imported CD's for good prices at their Virgin Megastore, we decided to get dinner at one of the only Mexican Restaurants in Cairo in the mall. Although my dinner of rice and tacos cost almost as much as it would have in the US, it was definitely worth it as Mexican food is something I will grow to miss dearly here.

The next day we decided to go on a quick excursion into some Cairo markets, which turned into a second visit to the area by the Khan al-Khalili Bazaar. While we took a cab to al-Azhar Mosque, I was not expecting us to visit so many sites in Islamic Cairo that day. We wondered around the area surrounding al-Azhar, which is the most respected and revered authority and institution in Sunni Islam. After walking through one of the main drags of Khan al-Khalili and into a back alley, we eventually lost the tourist crowd and stumbled upon what I recognized as one of the original gates of Cairo from its conquest in the 10th Century.



It turned out that this gate was connected to part of Cairo's original North Wall (pictured above), which we followed until we came upon a second original gate called Bab al-Futuh (Gate of Conquests). Going through this gate brought us into the main part of Fatimid Cairo, which is a part of Islamic Cairo known for its 11th and 12th century Mosques. Immediately inside the gate, we saw some tourists entering a mosque that was built in 1012 AD, so we decided to follow suit. Entering a mosque consists of removing your shoes and giving them to a caretaker, and if you're a woman, covering your hair with a headscarf.



The interior of the mosque, which turned out to be called the al-Hakim Mosque, was absolutely beautiful and contained some amazing Islamic architecture. It also had a large polished marble floor and unique stone minarets, which are the Mosque's only original remaining feature. We spent a good amount of time admiring the Mosque and taking dozens of pictures before leaving to explore the main road of Fatimid Cairo.

While we did not enter any other Mosques in Islamic Cairo that day, we did walk past several mosques and madrassas (Islamic schools in this case) that have been around since the 11th and 12th centuries. They all had beautiful Islamic architecture, and I was not disappointed by the designs of the minarets, domes, and arches in these historic structures. I think a return trip to Islamic Cairo might be in order in the future, especially since I found out my guidebook has information on almost every mosque and historic site in this area.

Wait, classes?

Yesterday marked the completion of my first week of classes at AUC. This post is mostly about the "study" part of my study abroad experience, so there's not too much about exotic places here (save for the Cinnabon on campus).

So five days a week I have classes at the AUC new campus, which I arrive at between 9 AM and 10 AM every day and depart from around 5 PM daily. Due to the fact that the new campus is so isolated, every day begins with a 30-45 minute bus ride and ends with an hour-hour and a half bus ride back. This bus ride is mostly spent talking to friends, listening to music, sleeping, and doing homework (in that order). Getting up at 7 or 8 AM and not getting back to the dorm until around 6:15 PM almost feels like a full-time job. However, since my schedule goes between classes and hours of free time spent in the library, I guess it's not really that intense.

While the new AUC campus is gorgeous with its sophisticated design, it is a dramatic departure from any other part of Egypt I've witnessed so far. Take the food for example. The new campus contains several Western-style eateries and one Egyptian Food vendor, which is by far the cheapest meal option and the one I eat most often. Familiar names such as Cinnabon and McDonald's are on campus, yet their prices are close to the same as what you would pay in the US (A cinnabon is about 15LE, which is about $3 US, and a McDonald's meal is about 25 LE, or about $5 US). Additionally, after ordering some Egyptian McDonald's, I found out that it unfortunately tastes the exact same as in the US (which reminded me of a book I read freshman year about McDonalds), even if the Egyptian McDonalds has food like the "McArabia" available (basically replace the bun with a pita). For these reasons, I end up eating falafel most of the week.

While the campus is clean and has an unnecessarily high number of fountains (for the middle of the desert), the greatest contrast between AUC and downtown Cairo I've noticed is the people. I should start by mentioning that AUC is 80-90% Egyptian students. While downtown Cairo is full of women dressed conservatively and wearing headscarves and men wearing relatively normal-looking western clothes, the AUC campus is like a fashion show for both genders and the percentage of women wearing hijab (Muslim conservative dress, generally headscarves) is much lower. Most of the American students, myself included, came to Cairo with moderately-priced clothing for travel purposes. The Egyptian students on the other hand, tend to wear expensive-looking designer clothing that looks more expensive than all of my band t-shirts and cowboy shirts combined.

As far as my classes go, I'd have to say that despite not getting everything I wanted, it could be worse. I'm enrolled in two Arabic classes, two history classes (both of which are Middle East history), and one political science course. The two Arabic courses are four days a week each, meaning I have Arabic in some form at least once a day. Since my friends know that I really like learning Arabic, I actually really appreciate this and hope I learn a lot by the end of the semester.

My first Arabic class is my Modern Standard Arabic course, which represents my fourth semester in this particular part of the language. For those that don't know, Modern Standard Arabic is very formal, and is used more or less only in official announcements, writing, and the news. Attempts to use this on the streets of Cairo when asking for some kushari will be met with odd looks, laughter, and occasionally a complete lack of understanding. However, despite its seeming uselessness, it is used everywhere in the Middle East, unlike the local dialects (an Egyptian would not be able to understand an Iraqi or Moroccan if colloquial Arabic was used). My Modern Standard Arabic course's professor doesn't know English too well, so the overwhelming majority of dialogue in the class is in Arabic. This is a significant shift from my professors at AU, who would break down the language and explain it in English most of the time. I can't say that I didn't learn a ton about Arabic at AU, but this new approach seems like it will be really effective at getting me to increase my speaking and listening comprehension abilities.

In contrast to Modern Stanard Arabic is my Egyptian Colloquial class, which nearly every American student I know is taking for its usefulness. I have very little experience with Egyptian Colloquial Arabic, with the exception of a few short lessons at AU and a phrasebook, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to say what I need to in Arabic by the end of the semester. The dialogue in this class is also mostly in Arabic, and our professor does a lot of teaching by correcting us whenever we don't know a word or use a modern standard word. I have also never had homework like I have in the class, as all of our assignments consist of recording ourselves speaking and then e-mailing the professor the recording.

My Modern Middle East History Class seems very interesting, since I really know very little about Middle Eastern History and everything I learn is new information. The professor, despite her claims to impartiality the first day, has also made some very biased comments, which actually make the class more interesting. For example, when explaining the significance of Al-Azhar University as the most important Sunni Islamic school, she repeatedly added that Sunni Islam is the only "true path" of Islam. She also went on an interesting side note about how the Taleban are not representative of Islam at all, and how militants, terrorists, and conflicts between Muslims have really marred the religion's reputation worldwide.

My second history class, Survey of Arab History, is my only class that is overwhelmingly Egyptian students. At orientation, they warned the international students not to take 200-level classes, as they would be too easy for Americans, and on the first day of this 200-level class I found out what they meant. Most of the Egyptian students in the class are math and science majors, and about half the class raised their hands when the professor asked who was taking it because they had to as a core requirement. However, despite how easy the classwork looks, I found that I knew almost nothing about Arab History from pre-Islamic times to the 20th Century, so I'm stil learning a lot of new information. From an alternative perspective, it would be like an Arab student coming to the US and learning about the Revolutionary War and Civil War in a general course for non-majors.

My political science course, Government and Politics of Egypt, is taught by a German professor that some friends from AU who were here last semester warned against. While I tried to switch out of this class, dropping and adding classes here is very difficult as it is not done online and there is no waitlist system like there is at AU. I'm deciding to stick with the class and hoping for the best, since the topic itself seems really interesting. I also get to write a research assignment on my first choice of available topics, Political Islam in Egypt.

Okay, so sorry if this post wasn't all that interesting and lacked pictures, but not much exciting happens during the school week. I go to campus, come back and eat dinner with friends, and then do homework and go to sleep a lot earlier than I do at AU. My next update will probably come after I do some fun things this weekend.