"See the Pyramids along the Nile . . .": Trip to Egypt and Jordan, February 5-25, 2009

Egypt has always been one of our must-see destinations. When we learned that three friends (Pamela Smith and Steve and Pat Pickering) felt the same way, we all reserved places for the 2009 version of the Stanford Alumni Association’s annual Nile College, which promised to provide a wonderful introduction to 5000 years of Egyptian history, art and architecture—with a few days in Jordan as a bonus.
Leaving Sun Valley around noon on February 5, we rendezvoused with most of our 60-odd fellow participants at Charles de Gaulle on February 6 and flew on with them to Cairo, arriving that evening. Apparently assuming that its alumni are used to 8-o’clock classes, Stanford began the program the next day with an early morning lecture by Prof. Hernant Katchadourian, the faculty member accompanying our group, and an introduction to our two learned Egyptian guides, Dr. Tarek Swelim and Ms. Fetiche Posma-Zaalouk, both of whom proved to be superb.
Our first two days were spent in the Cairo area, visiting the 5,000-year-old Step Pyramid in Saqqara, the Egyptians’ first attempt at such a structure, and Dashur’s Bent Pyramid and Red Pyramid, two subsequent iterations. We next ventured out to Giza, where Egyptian architects of the Old Kingdom had demonstrated their mastery of the form in building the Great Pyramid of Khufu (aka Cheops), into which we climbed to visit the King’s Chamber, and the progressively smaller, but still massive, pyramids of his successors, Khafre and Menkaure. A special treat was a visit to the Sphinx (don’t blame the French; its nose was missing well before Napoleon arrived), where we listened to remarks by Sphinx researcher Mark Lehner, whom you may have seen on the National Geographic Channel.

The Step Pyramid and a reconstructed temple


In front of the Pyramids of Khufu and Khafre


Todd, Georgia and friend--very appropriate for we met for our first date by the sphinx at the New York Hilton

From Cairo we flew to Luxor (aka Thebes) in Upper (i.e., southern) Egypt, where we boarded the well-appointed and well-provisioned Sun Boat IV, our floating hotel for the next seven nights. That first evening was spent at the flood-lit Temple of Luxor, originally built during the New Kingdom (1539-1075 BCE) and used despite its considerable size only once a year for a festival honoring the Theban god Amun and his family. The following day we sailed north to visit Abydos, the New Kingdom center of the cult of Osiris, Lord of the Underworld, husband of Isis, and father of the falcon-headed Horus, a staple of temple art.


Sun Boat IV docked at Luxor


Temple of Luxor


Ramses II at the Luxor Temple, originally built by Amenhotep III, with further modifications by Alexander the Great after he was declared the son of the Theban god Amun by an Egyptian oracle


Abydos outside the temple of King Seti I, honoring Osiris

A highlight of our trip came at dawn the following morning, when we took our first-ever hot-air balloon ride, over the mortuary temples built on the west bank of the Nile across from Luxor. We looked down on the partially restored temple of Hatshepsut, the New Kingdom queen who declared herself king and dressed the part (at least in her artistic representations), including a pharaonic beard. Another aerial sight was the massive temple complex of Ramses III, one of Hatshepsut’s successors. We later visited both sites, marveling at the still vibrant colors in the friezes at Hatshepsut’s temple and listening to members of a University of Chicago team explaining their work in recording in minute detail the carvings on the temple of Ramses III.


Balloons aloft


Mortuary temple of Ramses III


Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple


A vulture, symbol of pharaonic power, in Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple

Far and away the biggest temple complex in the Luxor area is Karnak, an immense site begun in the Middle Kingdom (1980-1630 BCE) and enlarged over the next 1900 years. Like the Temple of Luxor, to which it is joined by a long alley of sphinxes, it honors the senior Theban god Amun, from whom successive pharaohs claimed paternity. We wandered through this vast complex with jaws dropped but did not encounter any of the falling stones that threatened Agatha Christie’s travelers in “Death on the Nile.”


Entrance to Karnak


Karnak


Karnak at dusk

From Luxor we sailed south to Aswan, stopping at Edfu to see the Temple of Horus, constructed in the Ptolemaic period (332-30 BCE; the Ptolemies were a Greek dynasty founded by one of Alexander’s lieutenants) not long before the Roman conquest of Egypt. Honored here are the falcon-headed Horus, his mother Isis, and his wet-nurse and later consort Hathor. (Sounds kinky, we know, but after all pharaohs often married their half-sisters.)


Horus at Edfu, reputed to be the most photographed statue in Egypt



Pylon at Edfu with Horus and Hathor accepting gifts from a pharaoh

Arriving at Aswan, we toured the extraordinary high dam and visited several other temples before returning the following day to Luxor. We then flew south, almost to the Sudanese border, to visit the temple precinct of Abu Simbel, which was rescued from the rising waters of Lake Nasser after completion of the high dam. The temple features four immense statues of Ramses II, perhaps the most imperialistic of Egypt’s rulers in the New Kingdom, who commissioned this structure to remind the Nubians that he was not a pharaoh to be trifled with.


Abu Simbel

We flew from Abu Simbel back to Cairo, where we were pleased to find that our 34th floor room in the Four Seasons afforded a wonderful view of the Pyramids across the Nile. The next day we toured with our Stanford group a Coptic church and the Ibn Tulun Mosque, founded in the 9th century, the oldest remaining in Cairo. Then in the afternoon we set off with Pamela, Steve, Pat, and a guide for a walk through Islamic Cairo, including several more mosques and some rich street scenes. Although there were few, if any, other tourists on our route, the local vendors and shopkeepers took us in stride, with few, but friendly, interactions. As our guide assured us that photography was not a problem, we took a number of pictures.


View from our hotel room


Ibn Tulun Mosque with rare, ziggurat-inspired minaret


Islamic Cairo


Islamic Cairo


Islamic Cairo


Mosque of al-Azhar, founded in the 10th century

A few final impressions of Egypt:
The country is huge with a population of some 81 million people. Around 18 million live in Cairo, which is expanding rapidly outwards with the haphazard construction of low-rise red-brick tenements without adequate water and sewerage. These newly built semi-slums contrast with vibrant Islamic Cairo pictured above and the Garden City, where our hotel was located, which was developed on the bank of the Nile in the late 19th century along the lines of a contemporary European urban neighborhood. In some outlying districts camels were very much in evidence. Traffic was heavy, even (or perhaps especially) on the limited-access expressways that run through the city.


Cairo suburb

A large majority of Egyptian women wore head scarves, whether for reasons of piety or to avoid hassling by ultra-conservative Muslims. However, properly scarfed young women were frequently seen in the company of young men who, we suspected, were not their brothers. A small minority of women wore burkas, and, for obvious reasons, we could not guess their ages.


Fellow tourist avoiding sunburn at Great Pyramid

Finally, the Obama factor. Early in our trip an attendant at one historic site asked Georgia where she was from. When she answered, "America," he responded with a big smile, "O-ba-ma." Similar exchanges occurred later at other locations.


Temple attendant

After a sandstorm had abated enough for the incoming flight to land, about half our Egypt group flew to Amman February 19 for the six-day extension in Jordan.

Far smaller than Egypt, Jordan has only about 6.1 million people, of whom some 1.2 million live in the capital. Like Cairo, Amman has undergone rapid horizontal growth, but the quality of recent construction is far higher, thanks in large part to the influx of capital from expatriate Iraqis and wealthy citizens of the Persian Gulf countries. The area of our hotel looked much like a southern European subdivision, and even the older parts of the city seemed much more prosperous than corresponding sections of Cairo. The road network throughout Jordan was excellent, and Amman’s streets and expressways were modern and relatively uncrowded. This modernity contrasted sharply with the lifestyle of the Bedouin who could be seen throughout our route.


Bedouin encampment by the Dead Sea

After a night in Amman, we drove north to visit Jerash, a well-preserved Roman city that is the scene of an annual music festival of international renown. As the following photos suggest, this was the first of two (and thankfully only) rainy days on the entire trip.


Jerash, Temple of Artemis


Jerash, main street

Later that day our bus took us southwest of Amman to a resort area on the northeast coast of the Dead Sea. The location is extraordinary for geological, meteorological, and political reasons. At some 1,300 feet below sea level, the Dead Sea is, of course, the lowest point on earth with correspondingly pleasant temperatures in mid-winter. Across the sea, however, the land rises steeply, and in the morning we could see snow on the mountain peaks. All the land across the sea is part of the West Bank, occupied by Israel in 1967 and a lasting bone of contention with the Palestinians. At night we could see Jericho, where Joshua had his confrontation with the Canaanites after crossing the Jordan, and the glow of the lights of Jerusalem was visible above the mountains. The sea itself was as fascinating as promised, providing extraordinary buoyancy, although we were warned against getting sea water in our eyes.


Storm clouds over the Dead Sea


“Look, Ma, no hands!--or feet!”

From the Dead Sea we climbed out of the Rift Valley to Petra, the primary reason we signed on for the Jordan extension. It did not disappoint. Petra was a very prosperous trading post on a caravan route between the Mediterranean and Mideast before and during the early Christian era. Its inhabitants, the Nabateans, borrowed freely from neighboring civilizations, particularly the Greco-Roman, but maintained their independence until the reign of the Emperor Trajan. Their free-standing homes and other secular structures have disappeared in this earthquake-prone region, leaving only their temples and tombs, which they had carved into the red rock cliffs. We approached Petra via a 1,200-meter-long “siq,” an extraordinarily narrow rock fissure that opens at the end to reveal the obscurely named “Treasury,” Petra’s most famous monument. We then continued for well over a mile marveling at the tombs, temples and one theatre carved into the cliffs. However, the best sight required a 45-minute climb to the top of a ridge, where the Nabateans had built the so-called “Monastery,” a temple standing alone on the mountainside.


The “Treasury” at Petra


Exit of the Siq as seen from the "Treasury"


The “Monastery” on a cliff above Petra

Our route back to Amman took us through several small cities and Mt. Nebo, where Moses reportedly sighted the Promised Land, died and was buried. Throughout our travels we were impressed by the omnipresent pictures of King Abdullah II, sometimes alone, sometimes with his father King Hussein, and sometimes with his wife and children. A particularly large example was the billboard pictured below, which, our guide explained, was erected by a Bedouin tribe as a tribute to the king.


Billboard in Madaba

Back in Amman we had a few hours to relax and nap before leaving for the airport to catch our 2:00 a.m. flight to Paris on February 24. With further intermediate stops in Seattle and Salt Lake City, we finally arrived home at 11:00 that evening, tired but very grateful for a fantastic experience.