Study Tour - Day One

The first day was primarily travel... First we flew from Adelaide to Melbourne. From there we flew 14 hours to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, and after a four hour stopover, we flew another four hours to Cairo. We were crammed in like sardines on the plane, even though we were flying Etihad, a reasonably well reputed airline. On the upside, the entertainment and hospitality was excellent.

Upon arrival at Cairo, we discovered that two of our tour party had the unfortunate experience of their luggage not arriving with them in Egypt. It appears that they may not be able to retrieve it until we get to Amman, in another five days. Fortunately for Brooke and me, our luggage made it ok, and so far all is well.

From the airport, after a lengthy delay due to our attempts to locate the missing luggage, we met our tour guides, Ahmed and Moe, and began our Egyptian tour right away. Our first stop was the Egypt Museum in Cairo. There is a fair bit of unrest in Egypt at the moment with Presidential elections underway, and many people have been protesting, with the heartland of protest country right on the doorstep of the museum.

The museum itself was a modest building, with no real technology or high tech security systems, but we were forced to pass through two security checkpoints prior to entry. It seems to me that the main reason for these security checks is to prevent people from taking photographs inside the museum, but with mobile phones allowed in the building, it seems that it would be reasonably difficult to police. The other aspect of this is that rather than high tech security alarms and delicate cases behind elaborate barriers, they simply had men wth gun wandering the corridors of the building presumably ready to shoot anyone that stepped out of line.

The pieces within the museum were fascinating. The history, intricacy, and craftsmanship attached to each and every piece is mind-blowing. Perhaps the epitome of this triumverate of characteristics is found in the Tutenkhamun exhibit. While King Tut was something of a "nothing" king, the fact that his tomb was discovered completely in tact, free from tomb raiders and gold scavengers, has made him the most well-known king in the world. The incredible workmanship that can be seen in the exhibit, most notably in the gold pieces, such as his mask, coffins, sarcophagus, shrines, and other accompanying pieces, would be world reknown if it had been crafted in this day and age. The fact that, without any of the tools and technology that we possess in the 21st Century, these items were made almost 3,500 years ago is truly astounding!

We learned that King Tut lived somewhere around 1350 B.C., which is near the time of the Exodus. This means that the chariots we saw in the King Tut exhibit woud have been just like those that chased Moses and the Israelites across the desert and into the Red Sea. Amazing that we still have things that were made and crafted from the earliest days of the Biblical narrative that we can still see today. Unfortunately, we couldn't touch these items, as they were some of the few that were encased in glassed cabinets, nor could we take photographs, but the experience of seeing thing like these, and recognising that other chariots, just like those we saw at the museum, were a part of one of the most important events, if not the most important event, in the Hebrew Bible.

On top of seeing these chariots, our tour guide gave us some suggestions on who key people may have been and which Pharoah may have been in power at the time of the Exodus. Moe, our guide, purported that Queen 'Hat-Cheap-Suit' was the most likely candidate for the daughter of the Pharoah that discovered Moses in the river. One of the key questions he asked in his analysis was a rather simple question: Why would the daughter of the Pharoah take a baby boy she found floating in a basket on the rver as her son? The answer: To legitimate her claim to the throne. Queen HatCheapSuit had daughters, but no sons. Her step-son succeeded her on the throne, and she lived during the window that scholars estimate Moses' life to have fallen within.

We also came across another important figure in Egyptian history that crosses over with the Bible. King Amenhotep IV chose to change his name as he did not believe in the Egyptian polytheistic system of gods. Rather he claimed a monotheistic belief consistent with the Israelites, and chaged his name to Ahkenhaten. He is also the first king to have erected statues and images of himself that may have been considered less than perfect, including bulging curves and less handsome features than those portrayed in the images of previous kings. He did this, as well as present himself as gender-less in sculptures, so as to help his people understand a gender-less and intangible God.

I think I got my second wind, after beng awake for almost 40 hours straight by this point, on our way to the next stop of the tour: a cruise on the River Nile. To get to our cruise, we crossed over the Nile from Cairo into Giza, and pulled up at a rather nice looking vessel called the M.S. Aquarius. The cruise was a refreshing journey along the river, as we meandered up and down a short stretch of the Nile, enjoying the Egyptian hospitality. While we cruised, some of us pondered what it might have been like to see the Nile turn red, seemingly to blood. While we understand today that plooms of algae would cause the Nile to change colour, to the ancient Egyptians, surely this would have been a sign, and not just ay sign, but a sign of catastrophic doom and destruction. An imposing thought. Imagine the very lifeblood of civilisation turning to blood! The Egyptians didn't rely on rain, but the river to irrigate and water their crops, so the Nile turning to blood would have spelled the end of life for them.

We finally made it to our hotel after our Nile cruise, in time to enjoy some dinner at 7.30pm Cairo time. Dinner was a buffet of various flavours, but I have to admit that given the advice I got before coming to Egypt, I wasn't very adventurous with my choices. Even so, I could still taste the flavours of spices common to the region coming through. The aroma permeated the entire room, and coupled with the music playing in the hotel grounds and the apparent festivities taking place under the rotunda by the pool, even after almost 46 hours without sleep the sense of Arabia and Northern Africa was strong.

Within the grounds of the hotel, what you might call a street vendor was showcasing a tattooed camel, offering photography advice and craftily coercing people into photographs with the camel, as well as rides. Some of our group fell for the rouse, and ended up unwittingly taking a camel ride. Of course, the vendor then demanded payment. They are both crafty and persistent which is a good combination for a street vendor, but dangerous for the unsuspecting tourist.

Sadly, I ended up speaking with the vendor, as I was foolishly taking a photograph of the illuminated hotel sign atop one of the main buildings. The vendor offered me advice on the best location from which to take photographs, although I politely declined his suggestions. He maneuvered his camel into my shots, and then grabbed a towel and wrapped it around my head. Before I knew it, the camel was kneeling right in front of me and the vendor was ushering me onto it. I think I was a little shell-shocked, which is probably why I ended up climbing on.

Suddenly, the vendor was holding my phone, with which I was taking my photographs, and giving his camel instructions to stand up. I think he took a bunch of photos, I can't be sure as I haven't yet looked at them, and then took the camel by the rope around it and led it around the grounds, while I was still on it! I called out to him telling him that I didn't want to ride the camel, but he just kept walking. Eventually, he got the camel to kneel, and I was able to alight. The vendor started rubbing hs fingers together as though to suggest payment. I informed him that I wasn't carrying any money, but he insisted that I give him something and suggested that I go back to my room and get something for him.

Fortunately, he gave me back my phone, and I was able to catch up with a couple of people from our tour group by the lift. When I got back to the room, I was distracted, as I often am, by a conversation that I had over dinner where I offered one of those that lost their luggage in transit a power adapter so that they could charge their electronic equipment.

By this point, having been awake for almost 48 hours, I was completely exhausted and went to bed, forgetting about the still-waiting street vendor. I never did pay him... and I will definitely be on guard for future encounters!