thetravelingminstrel

September 22, 2023 – Saqqara

For now, let’s set aside the magical fact that the crescent moon was directly above the pyramids on my first night in Giza; that the place I booked has a roof deck with a view of the pyramids; and the surreality of the pyramids being right there before my eyes the whole time…

Set that aside and raise your hands if, like me, one of the things you looked forward to at the height of the pandemic was the premiere of Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb on Netflix!

Lugging overweight eyebags with me from a restless night on a bus from Luxor to Giza, I booked a day tour to Saqqara, Memphis, and the Pyramids of Giza.

Saqqara is a treasure trove! Until now they continue to unearth new findings from the site. If not for limited time, I would prefer to spend at least three days exploring Saqqara alone!

What seems to be a pixelated image of a building is the entrance to the complex, followed by a colonnade made of limestone that pre-dates Doric columns by thousands of years and believed to be its predecessor. The end of the colonnade opens to the Pyramid of Djoser, the oldest pyramid in the world, designed by Djoser’s architect, Imhotep, circa 2630 BCE. By stacking six “mastabas” of diminishing size on top of each other, he created the first step pyramid.

Entombed in Saqqara are kings and noblemen from the first dynasty up to the Ptolemaic period. What differentiates the bas reliefs here from those in the previous tombs I’ve seen are the daily life depictions: There is one of a butcher, a birthing scene, and even a circumcision scene! Details abound! I could hardly believe that I was walking into the documentary that had provided me with so much wonder during the darkest times of the lockdown.

Displaying the souvenir eyebags from the overnight bus from Luxor to Giza.

A podcast episode that I listened to around the same time I watched the documentary pointed out that Cleopatra’s era is closer to the invention of the iPhone than it is to the construction of the pyramids of Giza. It still blows my mind. When dates are mere numbers written on a page, the breadth of history’s timeline cannot be fully grasped until such a comparison is made. The novelists made those epochs come alive for me, but to be here… to be here is entirely something else.

The Pyramid of Djoser. The oldest step pyramid in the world.

September 21, 2023 – Ancient Thebes

Based on the rising and the setting of the sun, the pharaohs built their homes and places of worship on the east bank and their tombs and mortuary temples on the west bank of the Nile. From the Old Kingdom pharaohs who had pyramids constructed without inscriptions inside their tombs, to the New Kingdom pharaohs who preferred elaborately decorated rock-cut tombs in the Valley of the Kings, the same pattern is followed.

My excursion to the west bank of what once was ancient Thebes began with the grand Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut that was exploding with sunlight by the time I arrived. At the time it was built, Egyptian architects and artists were believed to be in a phase of reinterpreting the traditional forms of architecture. The temple is said to be an exemplification of this particular period of artistic revolution, and is considered to be one of the architectural wonders of the ancient world.

I was already overflowing with thoughts and impressions by the time I proceeded to the shadowy depths of the Valley of the Kings. By the time I finished visiting the tomb of Seti I, one of the most beautiful tombs in the valley; Tutankhamun’s, whose tomb still contains and displays his mummy; and the tombs of the Ramesseses, I was already feeling a sensory overload. But at the same time, hushed. Thoughts of life and death, light and dark. Egypt does this to you so beautifully.

September 20, 2023 – Of Ego and Sound at the Karnak and Luxor Temples

“Why do you know so much about our history?” asked my elderly guide for the Karnak and Luxor Temples.

“I don’t! There’s so much I don’t know yet that’s why you have to tell me more.”

“Well, you know more than anyone I’ve ever guided. When I ask you something you are able to answer.”

“Maybe it’s Naguib Mahfouz. He made different layers of Egypt’s history come alive for me — from the Pharaonic times up to the revolution.”

“Mahfouz?! You read Naguib Mahfouz?! This is my first time as a guide that I have met someone who reads Naguib Mahfouz! You know there’s a museum and a coffee shop in Cairo…” He trailed off when he saw me nodding, shook his head, and smiled in disbelief.

And there I was thinking how he’d be in for a pleasant surprise if he meets my friends and my book club!

After a brief silence, “Are you sure history is not part of your work?”

“It should be part of everyone’s work.”

“I think you are a genius.”

And just like that, friends. I have been promoted to genius status. I love Egypt.

I did get one answer wrong, and the correct answer fascinates me as a musician. When he asked what the gigantic columns in the Hypostle Halls of the Karnak and Luxor Temples were for, I answered, “Ego.” Haha!

Apparently it’s for sound! The priests used it as amplifiers for their chants so that their voices would resonate far and beyond the temples!

I stand corrected. Now I know that the columns are for sound… and ego. Haha! But shhh… don’t tell him.

September 19, 2023 – Days and Nights in Luxor

When asked for my name here, I say the version easier for the Arabic tongue to pronounce: Mira. Eyes light up as much as when I say my full name to English speakers. It was only today when I had my name written as hieroglyphs on authentic papyrus that it was explained to me that it was the “Ra” that made it glow.

So this is Luxor. While daytime is mostly spent exploring what once was ancient Thebes, nights are such a dream made of halva ice cream, pensive moods, reading more Mahfouz, and a lone oud player tugging on strings of nostalgia and silences. Evenings in Luxor make me feel that I have really rested for the first time in months. I think my soul has been given back its glow, too… and that’s when one feels that one truly got what they came here for.

September 16, 2023 – Kom Ombo and Edfu

I left Aswan at five in the morning and headed for Luxor. In between these two dominant cities are the two lesser-known cities of Kom Ombo and Edfu. Normally, tourists who want to visit Kom Ombo and Edfu have to book a special tour from either Aswan or Luxor. But here’s a travel cheat: Arrange a private car through your hotel and specify that you wish to stop by the two cities on your way to Luxor. Aside from saving time and getting to explore these sites in your own time without a tour group rushing you, you will pay the same rate as a regular transfer to Luxor and save approximately 100USD for another trip to these cities.

Kom Ombo is unique for many reasons. While it was constructed during the Ptolemaic period, additions were made during the Roman period, making it a double temple with two sets of gods. It does not have a pylon (a monumental gate common to most Egyptian temples), but it features a nilometer (a structure for measuring the Nile’s clarity and water level), and most curious of all, the only set of surgical instruments found in the bas reliefs of ancient Egypt — evidence set in stone of how priests practiced medicine and magic and functioned as doctors.

As for Edfu, it is one of the most well-preserved temples in Egypt and its high state of preservation is lure enough. Interestingly, its inscriptions feature the ancient Egyptian creation myth and details of the temple’s construction.

If only I could, I would go to all these ancient sites on sunrise and again on sundown. There is nothing like morning light seeking entry through passageways that only it can beautify. Imagine having a gentle light furnishing columns with a variegated tenderness, and acting as your guide as it paints sections of beams and hieroglyphs golden to call your attention.

September 15, 2023 – Agatha Christie’s Birthday

On the way to the market, there was this sudden impulse to stop by and dine at the hotel where Agatha Christie set and wrote parts of Death on the Nile. Dine five-star and proceed to the open market — what a rather silly and Mira thing to do. But hey, best of both worlds!

I sent the photos to our family group chat but hadn’t intended to post them… until someone excitedly announced in the Ex Libris group chat that today is Agatha Christie’s birthday! What are the odds that I would be in Aswan on her birthday! This same someone also happened to gift me with a copy of Death on the Nile before I left for this trip!

The stars have aNiled. This is definitely one for the (Face)books.

September 14, 2023 – Aswan: The Unfinished Obelisk, Philae Temple, and Abu Simbel

Aswan. This is where Egypt begins. It only seemed logical to begin my excursions to the ancient Egyptian archaeological sites here.

If you’re wondering what that drill is doing there… well, I wanted to finish the obelisk! Who wants unfinished business anyway?! Haha… kidding. They were constructing a ramp for tourists and the carpenter kindly offered to take my picture.

In one of Aswan’s stone quarries, one site has intrigued me almost as much as the pyramids. Had it been completed, it would have been the largest obelisk ever built by the ancient Egyptians. The speculation that it had been commissioned by Queen Hapshetsut added to my wonder. Needless to say, within an hour after landing in Aswan, I was already at the site of the Unfinished Obelisk, fascinated by the existing evidence of the ancients’ construction process.

The following day, I set out early and hired a private car to take me to Abu Simbel. The ride itself was exciting as I witnessed a most enigmatic sunrise, passed checkpoints due to the proximity to the Sudanese border, saw more Nubian villages and the place where they quarantine camels from Sudan, drove through an otherworldly terrain, and finally beheld the twin temples originally carved out of the mountainside in the 13th century BCE, during the reign of Ramesses II.

But when it comes to idyll, Philae Temple Complex takes the throne. A small ferry took me to an island on the Nile and I was immediately transported to the pages of Mahfouz’s Rhadopis of Nubia. The Temple of Isis built in the reign of Nectanebo I in 380-362 BCE is the island’s most striking feature, and yet through the different architectural structures, one could see the Pharaonic, the Ptolemaic, the Romans, and the Christians, stamping their identities on the landscape. It has never been this clear to me; how architecture IS identity.

September 13, 2023 – Aswan: Nubian Village

Looking at a map, one might wonder why Lower Egypt is up north and Upper Egypt is down south. The terms are derived from the flow of the Nile from the highlands of South East Africa down to the Mediterranean Sea.

Aswan is a city on the banks of the Nile, known even in ancient times as the place where Egypt begins.

From the subdued and earth tones of Alexandria in Lower Egypt to the bold and bright colors of Aswan in Upper Egypt! What an abrupt change of culture and climate for a flight so brief! Traffic involves camels and donkeys, and even the coffee is thicker and darker!

My Aswan itinerary included a trip to the Nubian Village. Little did I know that the guest house I booked was right smack in the middle of the Nubian Village — a far cry from the Aswan depicted in Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile and the Aswan in which she wrote parts of the novel. Although I also intend to explore that tamer Aswan (sans death haha) in the coming days, I’m more than grateful to experience this Aswan that’s just as much a mystery and a most wonderful shock to the senses!

September 12, 2023 – Aciman’s Alexandria

“Then, as always at a certain moment, just before the sunlight began to pound the flagstones, things quieted down for a while, a cool breeze swept through the streets, something like a distilled, airy light spread over the city, bright without glare, light you could stare into…”

Now I know what André Aciman meant. On my second day in Alexandria, I went around the city of his childhood while its eyes were but half open, and I walked into that light of which he spoke. And I think he would be happy to know that I met several adorable stray cats and a bookseller whose name is Meghid along the way; and that I put his book down on the Roman flagstones just as light was gently spilling into the ancient amphitheater, as if it were liquid filling a cup.

In this memoir, the young André tends to read too much — as most people who become writers do. A grown-up chides him to live some more instead. Because isn’t there always this misconception that when one reads so much, they don’t live enough? Oh, André. I know what you know… people who tend to read too much, tend to live too much, too.

September 11, 2023 – To Ithaka

I could have trespassed. Cavafy’s house was temporarily closed for refurbishment, but the workers were away for their noontime break, and someone left the front door ajar. Too bad I wasn’t well-versed in Egypt’s laws on property transgression and had to decide against the risk of spending time inside an Egyptian jail.

I do, however, admit to these things: Sticking my head in and taking a peek through the marble staircase, and summoning Sean Connery’s reading of Cavafy’s Ithaka in my head as I walked down the street where the poet lived…

© 2023 MDR
Bibliotheca Alexandrina
Alexandria, Egypt

“As you set out for Ithaka / hope your road is a long one / full of adventure, full of discovery. / Laistrygonians, Cyclops, / angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them / you’ll never find things like that on your way / as long as you keep your thoughts raised high, / as long as a rare excitement / stirs your spirit and your body. / Laistrygonians, Cyclops, / wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them / unless you bring them along inside your soul, / unless your soul sets them up in front of you…”

Unless you bring them along inside your soul. One of my favorite lines from this favorite poem. Almost everyone who learned of my upcoming trip immediately expressed concern about the dangers of a woman traveling solo to Egypt. What I carried in my soul was my mom’s prayers, and I left no room for angry Poseidon, Cyclops, Laistrygonians, and Fear. And true enough, I encountered none of them.

And I hoped for my road to be a long one, with many summer mornings when, with what pleasure, what joy, I entered harbors I was seeing for the first time! And I visited many Egyptian cities to learn, and to go on learning…

I keep Ithaka always in my mind. Arriving there is what I’m destined for. I do not hurry the journey at all. Better if it lasts for years, so I’m old by the time I reach the island, wealthy with all I’ve gained on the way, not expecting Ithaka to make me rich… And if I find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled me. Wise as I will have become, so full of experience, I’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.