My Egypt Trip - V

Having reached Cairo, we had another easily-attained sleep. Next morning, we were ready for the final leg of our journey. Neevin was her usual beautiful-self in a spic green dress.

The day seemed like the hottest of all the days we had spent in Egypt. The traffic was huge too. Since we had only half a day at our disposal, we had to drop the Citadel from our itinerary. As known now, it was another important location of history which we had to miss. Incidentally, the location has its relations to one of my favourite historical characters, Saladin.

Old Cairo:-

We went to the old Cairo first, famous for its ancient churches, synagogues and monuments. We had to walk through a relatively narrow street into the area. After about a 5-minute walk, we reached the famous Old Roman Fortress, now lying below the ground level. Built on top of it is the Hanging Church. I had not been to any church till then, so was quite expectant about the opportunity.

Hanging Church is the most famous church in Egypt, supposedly built around 4^th century AD. It was very beautiful from outside and quaintly eye-catching inside. I had the first view of altar, pews and the frescoes inside a church. It seemed they had intentionally kept many things in an old and worn state, probably to retain their archaic look.

Coming out, we found another church lying adjacent to it. As told by Neevin, it was the Greek Orthodox Church which she didn’t visit as she was a Coptic. The Christians in Egypt are called Coptics and are the most populous ones there. Interestingly, I had a chance to visit Greek Orthodox Church here in Cyprus recently, and found it to be a bit different with people kissing the pictures of Jesus as a ritual.

Anyway, we then went to a synagogue, Ben Ezra, the oldest in Egypt. It was another first for me to visit a Jewish worship place. The central part there was more expanded, and actually elevated, finally rising in a pulpit. I don’t know whether it was a particular feature of that synagogue, or common to all. The Jews in Egypt have become very few in number recently.

It didn’t take us much time to visit these places, but still we were left with only a few hours to visit the Cairo Museum, our last destination. Swerving through the Cairo traffic, we reached the site, the place which was the home to the mummies of the great pharaohs of the past.

Cairo Museum:-

It was indeed crowded there, the reason of which really doesn’t need any telling. While going through the security check, one guard incidentally told us we had got the best guide in Egypt to escort us. No further words on his indulging remarks:). Cameras were not allowed inside the museum, so we had to leave them at the counter. But before that, we took a good number of snaps in the lush green and cool fountain-seeped environs outside.

Egyptian Museum is a two-levelled building (ground floor and first floor) containing antiquities of great interest. Entering the museum, we could find so many things-statues, paintings, rocks etc in front of us. It was a sea of ancient world wonders before us. But the most important things were on the first floor.

Yes, the mummies’ room! The cost of entry into the rooms was the highest of those of all the other places; but many people go to see those reclining centuries-old corpses only, so it was justified. The first room was a medium-sized one, surprisingly (I had visualized it to be a big hall containing the royal mummies in different chambers, he he :) ) Great lesson: Everything is a downer if you expect too much of it. Nevertheless, the mummies are there to see right from the door. Lay in a series, the mummified bodies are kept in glass chambers with detailed labels on them. The first or may be, second of those (if I remember correctly) was that of Queen Hatshepsut, the Great Royal Queen. She had one of her teeth protruding out. The reason I looked at her quite attentively was that our guide, Youssef, at Luxor, had said she was very beautiful. 3000 years later, I couldn’t make it out from her face, but her hair was indeed free-flowing. That was the case with most of the other mummies: nails were spotless, hair very much grown, some even luxuriant, cheeks and heads prominent. No doubt, some of them were the products of the recent chemical works done on them. I just laughed and wondered inside me about the sheer belief and science of those Egyptians. The world would have been a better and more developed place if they would have been still surviving! Ramses-II’s mummy too was there. He looked very thin, but age does take its toll! The second room was very much similar to the first one and contained mummies of other royal persons. I could not spend much time on the lesser known ones’, because we had to head off to another marvel of modern world-the treasures of Tutankhamen.

The treasures occupied a large area along almost two sides of the first floor. Practically all the materials related to his life-chariots, gloves, jewellery, gameboard, the famous throne and mask were on display. He was buried within a series of caskets, all made of pure gold. Such ostentatious wealth! It simply spellbound me. Tutankhamen, despite being a famous pharaoh, was no match in clout to the bigger kings, such as Ramses-II, Akhenaten, Hatshepsut etc. Imagine Ramses-II’s treasure that would have been buried with him. In my stupefaction, I did ask Neevin a stupid question about the treasure ever being targeted at by the gutsy thieves, ala those in Hollywood Movies. I wouldn’t mind even a minuscule share of the booty!

Last, we saw a replica of the Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta Stone is the antiquity which helped decipher the ancient Egyptian languages. It contained three sections with a text written in three different languages-Classical Greek, Hieroglyphics and Demotics. The original piece now rests in Museum of London. It was the only item there which was not authentic.

Seeing only the above things took us about 2 hours and that was what we could afford. Neevin did show us the other things but I don’t remember even an iota about them. But may be, those are for next trip, if it at all happens. We bid adieu to Neevin, wishing Good Luck and exchanging our FaceBook account details. But before that, I asked her whether she understood whatever we talked in Hindi. She nonchalantly replied, ‘thoda thoda’, ala Sue in RDB :) Hope we didn’t say any of those usual commonly-uttered flattering words in her presence.

Mr. Michael escorted us to the airport and we seemed to have befriended him even more by the time we reached there. Thankfully there wasn’t much rush at the airport that time around, and we easily passed through the Security and Other Checks. The Egypt Air flight was on time, and the return journey started in the same way of me falling into ponderous thoughts as in the incoming one. This time though, the thoughts were more educated and refined.

I had never thought Egypt would be such a great place. My preconceived notions, most of them forced and based on fatuous opinions, were torn asunder. A few days are hardly a measure of time to build an opinion, but sufficient enough to quash the ludicrous ones. I saw disporting smile on a beautiful face, dreams in the eyes of a young Muslim girl, optimism of a boy, affability of a senior genial guy and the ever-moving promising buzz of life that was Egypt. Muslims were not all bearded, belligerent and inhuman; Egypt was not another world; and above all, life was not at all different. And do you know, that is true of all the places and people in the world.

My heart was more cheerful; mind learned and ideas emboldened; and all slowly nestled on the perch of my eyes which gradually closed themselves to acknowledge the sleep of a more lettered kind.