I went to Egypt 3 weeks ago

Dear Family and Friends, 

I'm sure you all have been waiting with baited breath to hear about my Egypt trip. No? Well here it is anyway. I apologize for the delay, I've fallen into the academic trap of having infinite flexibility over my work schedule, meaning I work all the time. I'm 50% kidding.

Preface

Before I left, I ran into a friend at URI who mentioned that she knew someone who was also doing the visiting PhD student program at KAUST this semester. After a few days of What'sApp messages, Olivia and I decided we had enough in common to book a long weekend trip to Cairo together, without meeting one another in person. Luckily a few days before the trip, we watched a bad movie together and had lunch and determined we could at least tolerate each other for four days. We are good friends now!

The Grand Tour

Olivia and I booked a private 10 hour tour of Cairo/surrounding area historical sites--Giza Necropolis, Memphis, Sakkara and Dahshur via Booking.com. Our tour was led by a Cairo native, Mahmoud who was incredible. We had a driver, Ahmed as well and the pair of them insisted on playing club classics at full volume between stops. Nothing like going between different ancient civilizations with Pitbull and Flo Rida in the background. Mr. Worldwide indeed. Our first stop was the Giza Necropolis which features 9 pyramids (8 more than I had anticipated, so the other 8 were a bonus for me). I learned that women also had pyramids, but they were smaller. I mean size doesn't matter right? The highlight of this stop was the pyramid overview because you can really see the vastness of the landscape. And I got to ride a camel! 

A lesson in Egyptian cowboy antics: camels are extremely obedient and the guide gave me the reins to parade around the dunes. To slow down, shorten the reins, which is necessary when going down-dune. The gait of the camel is unsteady, much like in Monty Python and the Holy Grail when the Knights of the Round Table clip-clop with the coconuts. So to balance, leaaaan back! 

After the Giza Necropolis we went on two side quests to a papyrus factory and a perfumery. After lunch, we headed to the Sakkura Necropolis, named after the god Sokar. The site is famous for having the oldest pyramid in the world, called the stepped pyramid. Here, we went into one of the pyramids which also had some fantastic hieroglyphics, which are in immaculate condition. The site also has a structure that was built with 49 columns to represent the 49 original ancient Egyptian cities. 

After Sakkura, it was off to Memphis which was an open air museum. The highlight here is a colossal statue of Ramses II, which was found facedown in a lake. The statue amazingly was complete until a British explorer tried to move it and broke the legs (classic colonizer move). Our last stop was the Dahshur Necropolis which featured two pyramids. One of the pyramids is well known because it was built too steeply and halfway up, it was corrected so it has an interesting shape. We went inside the other pyramid and it was an incredibly long descent into darkness. At one point we were the only people inside the pyramid which was awesome but somewhat creepy and we Scooby Doo skedaddled out. 

Egyptian Museum and Coptic Cairo

For day 2, we woke up at 10am, exhausted from our grand tour. We leisurely went to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, which very much gave Indiana Jones vibes. Many labels were handwritten and very vague. We were so disappointed to learn that there was NO AC in the museum. Egypt has so many artifacts they don't know what to do with them. There were statues on wood pallets and even the mummies aren't really protected. I think I had a more sturdy lock on my childhood diary. 

After the Egyptian Museum, we headed to Coptic Cairo which encompasses the Babylon Fortress and other historical Christian Orthodox churches. Weirdly, the churches were closed but we still were able to view the incredible architecture before being shooed out by the employees.

Cairo Citadel 

On our last day in Cairo, the only thing we did was to go to the Cairo Citadel to see the Mohammed Ali Mosque. Float like a butterfly, sting like a ... no, not that's Muhammad Ali! The Citadel is an enormous compound overlooking Cairo. Incredible to see the Pyramids of Giza rising out of the smog. The Mosque is built in Ottoman style architecture and we marveled at the green, red and purple stained glass. 

I'm going to Egypt again in 10 days, so my goal is to write my next email about fieldwork on the Red Sea before then.

Until next time, 

Lauren <3