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Egypt is a country of far-off legends, a land we learn about in grade
school as the oldest civilization. Camels and pyramids filled the desert
expanse that was all I could imagine of it. And then last spring the
opportunity to experience it in every real way was handed to me while
traveling with a performing Eurhythmy group from my school. This was very
near unbelievable right up to the plane ride. Amazingly, though perhaps not
that surprising, the feeling of ancient sophistication is very present. Not
that its old, old age stifles its energy, because Cairo is a city thriving
with life.
The constant movement can be seen on the streets, where there are no lane
dividers or crosswalks. The population is dense, the houses and tall
buildings all of the same dusty color are crowded together. The highest
energy is at the Khan 'a Khalili market, where venders throw their
merchandise in your face with friendly gusto and stalls crowd the tiny
winding alleys built with a thousand different styles of architecture. All
that is for sale-scarves, statuettes of gods and pharaohs, scarabs, genie
lamps, stain glass lanterns, jewelry, hookahs, shoes, perfume bottles, and
more-must be haggled over and reduced to at least half, if not a third, of
the original price in order to fit the custom.
The men everywhere are flirtatious, calling out hilarious pick-up lines
and marriage offers in figures of camels. The head-covered women are quieter,
not usually alone. Their presence brings an awareness of the Muslim
prominence for anyone who had not noticed from the starkly beautiful call to
prayer that goes off several times a day, and night, a lone voice that rises
above the city in slow melodic chanting.
Despite the men's forwardness, and the self-conscience attempts to be
appropriately dressed, I never once felt threatened. Traveling with a group
in a small funky bus we were required to have a bodyguard among us. Several
times police cars took the initiative to escort us, which was more
entertaining than anything as their presence was obviously only there to make
the American tourist feel more secure. The overall feeling was relaxed and
welcoming, very much in contrast to an unfortunate stereotype of low
hospitality that could sordidly be labeled today on a country bordering the
Middle East. In the Cairo Museum that hosts an immense collection of very
ancient artifacts, the security was alarmingly casual. The building was so
packed full of statues, hieroglyphed wall slabs, and sarcophagi there was
barely room to walk around. Many of the pieces, some four thousand years old,
were not even behind glass.
Going to the pyramids was similar in the experience of being so close to
something so old that was almost mixed in to the modern life. The first view
of the Great Pyramid was the single most incredible thing I have ever seen.
We were approaching from the city to the plain of Giza where the pyramids
are, right on the edge of Cairo, and on one side of the busy road the outline
of the Great Pyramid suddenly rose in the sky behind a line of apartment
buildings. The vast ancientness was immediately apparent. I went inside the
Second Pyramid, bent over and climbing on a steep ramp down a passage low on
oxygen that went far under the earth and up again into a chamber where a
pharaoh had once lain. The sheer massive size of the Pyramids and how well
they have been preserved is nothing under astonishing. Around the bases of
the pyramid camel-keepers offer rides on their strange animals to tourists.
The tourism is obviously blatant, yet not: they are there, the remnants of a
towering civilization, and that is all. The masses are welcomed to
admire.
Cairo is a dirty, grungy city, but I have never been anywhere more
beautiful. The smiling people never fail to give a greeting; even the curving
script of their language was designed to be beautiful in Allah's eyes. It is
a place, significant in the world, where admiration sits waiting to be
won.
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