June 10, 2009

• Indiana Josh and the Road to Jordan: Saqqara and Aswan

  With the heat of the day causing the air to shimmer like a mirage before my eyes, I took one final look at the pyramids
  
  
  Then like so many others before me, I turned my back on the past and continued forward…into the further past. Turns out I am really bad at time travel.

  The next stop was Saqqara just south of Cairo/Giza. Upon seeing the entrance, I held out much more hope of finding the stargate
  
  
  In fact, I am pretty sure I even saw Anubis looking over my shoulder at one point
  
  nah, couldn’t be.

  Saqqara is home to the step pyramid. You see, the ancient Egyptians didnt instantly seize upon the current pyramidal shape as perfect (though years of practice taught them a 52 degree angle is the most stable which is why the pyramids have survived multiple earthquakes to the current day)

  No, they used trial and error to learn the ideal shape in which to house their pharaohs.
  
  This was the incarnation immediately before the one we are familiar with. Before this existed came the bent pyramid and the square pyramid.

  Nor did the pyramid exist by itself. Instead it was surrounded by a funerary complex, which would include the burial of the architect, tombs of favored servants and even temples
  
  But I must remind you when visiting temples in Egypt you MUST NOT READ FROM THE BOOK OF THE DEAD
  
  And wouldnt you know it just as I was trying to escape from the temple of DOOM, I ran into my perpetual conscience in the hall of the dead
  
  I secured myself in a hiding place
  
  while short round demonstrated his Air Jordan pose because we know the audience eats this stuff up
  

  The funerary complexes and burial grounds were all situated in a similar way. Sites for tombs would be in a place elevated with respect to the Nile, so yearly floods would not erode or destroy the tombs. The sun set (died) in the west, so they would always be placed to the west, and hot dry areas were picked so as to better preserve the bodies and buildings. The dichotomy between where people lived and where they buried their dead is pretty impressive, but since I dont want to spend a thousand words telling you, I will just show you this
  

  Didnt expect that much green in a desert didja? Anyway, it was off to a local restaurant for dinner and nostalgia…have an extra helping of each, on me!
  
  
  

  next stop was an overnight train to Aswan, the southernmost city in Egypt. I spent most of the night getting to know my fellow tour group, mostly through copious amounts of alcohol consumption on the train and the infamous “cat head” story. Ask me about it sometime.

  

  Aswan is less developed than cairo and most people still live a fairly simple day to day life…though normal things like a trip to the butcher are not quite what you may be used to
  

  On the whole though, Aswan is famous for a couple of things

  1. The stupidly ridiculous heat: As the southernmost city closest to the equator it gets hot. Also, there was a heatwave while we were there 47 celsius, 117 farenheit. In the shade. of which there wasnt much.
  2. Spices. I had a chefgasm.
  
  
  I mean sure it’s no spice house in chicago, but all the colors! and varieties! w00t!

  3. The Aswan High Dam: resulting in the largest man made lake (lake Nasser) the Aswan high dam not only provides power to just about every corner of Egypt, but also to several neighboring middle eastern and african countries. Now that is dam powerful (get it?)
  
  This however is the only picture I could take because the men with guns get edgy if you start snapping photos all over the place, and then they take your camera and go have a nice talk with you.

  For those of you keeping count, this would be 2 times I could have ended up in an egyptian prison. How many more do you think there will be?
  
  Luckily the soldier was in a friendly mood, so I got to take a bonus picture of the friendship monument. The name is pretty much all I remember about it, but it looked nice…

  Next time, it’s back to the temples and a taste of ancient egyptian life on the Nile…

  • 10:02 pm
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