Cairo (Egypt)

With some reservations but with Terry's encouragement I flew to Cairo. Some Middle Eastern countries are off limits to Terry as a Fulbright Scholar (for security reasons) but not me. Otherwise I wouldn't have considered going without my wife. Security in Egypt is on the minds of many here. Many Egyptians work in Jordan so my early morning flight was filled with young men snapping pictures of each other in the waiting area. They said the overland bus route through Sinai is too dangerous, so many workers are flying for the first time. While waiting I met a man similar in appearance to me, holding a Canadian passport and looking Western in every respect. Appearances here can be deceiving. Come to find out, he is Iraqi, a mushroom farmer with a doctoral degree. But I digress.

I was met at the Cairo airport by a tour guide offering "stopover" tours. We went to the Egyptian Museum and saw all the mummies and other antiquities you could ever hope to see, over 250,000 pieces. Soon to be constructed in Giza by the pyramids is a new museum, largely funded I understand by USAID, which will double the size of the exhibits. Cairo is an enormous city, the largest in Africa, with 22 million residents. It dwarfs even Istanbul. The traffic is incredible. Lanes are only a vague suggestion. I saw an Egyptian woman covered from head to toe pushing some kind of cart in a traffic lane on a major street as though she belonged there with cars weaving and honking to get around her. We drove to a Christian area where we toured two churches, one full of religious relics (essentially body parts of long dead saints and martyrs covered in ornate cloth and religious jewelry) and the beautiful Coptic St. George's Church. Then we went to Giza and the pyramids. The pyramids are on the periphery of Cairo (Giza) so the view is of the huge city in one direction and Sahara desert in the other. As we approached the pyramids a small storm brewed up, first with sand then rain, adding even a bit more drama with people, horses, and camels scattering. Then we were off to visit the Sphinx, my favorite. Legend has it that Napoleon's artillery took target practice on the Sphinx and blew off its nose in 1798. Then we had lunch at a nearby restaurant with many Egyptian foods served on small plates to be eaten with flat bread followed by mixed grill of lamb and chicken with rice. Over lunch we discussed how recent terrorist activity in the Sinai Peninsula has affected tourism in Cairo. For example, last year my guide was booked every day in December but this year I am his only booking for the month. After touring Old Cairo with its narrow streets and scenes straight out of biblical times, we headed to the airport, satisfied from a wonderful day. At the airport I had some extra time until my flight so I took in an amazing array of people and national costumes, from all over the Middle East and Africa. It was a people watching experience beyond compare. I arrived home tired but very happy Terry had encouraged me to go on this adventure.