Wandering Jews - Visit to Egypt (Part 1)

A group of my fellow students started our trek into Egypt from Eilat, Israel southern most city as well as a port on the Red Sea. Since it borders the Negev, the Israeli southern desert, Eilat has been compared to Las Vegas sans the gambling. With its long boardwalk and beach-front hotels, I would liken it more to Atlantic City with euro-trash teenagers instead of misery octogenarians. Besides being a popular beach town for Israelis, it is a convenient launching point into both Egypt and Jordan.

We crossed the Israeli-Egyptian border at 5 AM and the comparative levels of security were in stark contrasted. While Israeli was thorough with a healthy level of skepticism, Egyptian was a fee and a hand-shake. We met our guide, a very kind and unassuming man named Waldi in Taba, the Egyptian border city. We traveled about five hours through the Sinai whose geography ranged from sharp and tightly clusters mountains to an endless expanse of desert.

Egypt has a population of about 80 million people whom inhabit 10% of the land mass – the Nile River Valley. Needless to say, this river valley, moreover, Cairo is a densely populated city with one quarter of the population. In the 16th century, Egypt’s capital move from Memphis to Cairo and it is the home to a number of major Egyptian historical and cultural landmarks such as the Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, Saladin’s Citadel, and Mosque of Amr ibn al-A'as. It is a vibrant, noisy city on a collision course with modernity. Emma Lazarus, the composer of the poem inscribed on base of the Statue of Liberty, had vague understanding of the “teeming masses” when one compares the flood of immigrants to the New York at the turn for the last century to the average day in Cairo. Cairo is the city that neither sleeps nor comprehends the concept to quiet. Even in the wee hours of the morning, the din is bombastic.

Being predominantly a Muslim county, the dress is distinctly modest, yet fashionable. The clothing of the women ranged from full covering of abaya to a simple hijab or head scarf. The younger generation would don a complementary hijab to coordinate with their D&G t-shirts and their Seven jeans. For the most part, the men wore jeans or slacks with a long sleeved shirt. With the oppressive summer bearing down, I admired their religious tenacity.

The Egyptian Museum boasts the largest collection of Pharaonic antiquities that was not absconded by the British, the French, and various tomb raiders and looters. Primarily noted for the treasure of King Tutankhamun, this museum is reminiscent of the museums of the Victorian era or that of the lectures of full tenured Cambridge professors ….. brilliant, but confusing. Our Cairo guide with his distinctly manicured moustache, his unassailable tagline, “Attention, please. Attention, please,” and his Italian-esque addition of vowel sounds to English words was a welcomed resource in this labyrinth of Egyptian history. King Tutankhamun was a minor pharaoh ruling from 1333 BC – 1324 BC during the 18th Dynasty or the New Kingdom period. Being rather historically insignificant, his tomb was discovering intact in 1922.

According to ancient Egyptian beliefs in the after life, the king’s body must be preserved or mummified as well as all of his possessions be replicated and placed in the tomb. Therefore, most of the collection consisted of items a king would require in the eternal after-life – beds, thrones, chariots, weapons, clothing, slaves, etc. An interesting point was the housing or the storage compartments for the items resemble that of the housing unit for the Ark of the Covenant. The piece de resistance is the treasures of the actual mummy – the ceremonial jewelry, accouterments, and garbs. The mummy was encased on two sequentially smaller glided coffins and a golden sarcophagus. The golden head-dress was spectacular and, if one inspects it closely, one can perceive the hieroglyphics “King Tut” on his grill.