Well, One More From Egypt
I spent the last two days holed up in a nice hotel overlooking the pyramids. I had planned to visit them again, but the air pollution was the worst I have ever seen anywhere both days and I really did not want to go out in it. At one point I could not even see the pyramids! I did read the local English paper two days in a row and I discovered that main topics and editorials often cover the very topics which I find to be so horrible about Egypt. At least they are honest and discussing their little problems including fundamentalism, pollution, corruption, over-population and bad driving. The corruption apparently includes their system of almsgiving where all employed Egyptians donate a portion of their salaries for charities through their mosque. It is voluntary yet it really is not since your local mosque is keeping track. The article was about how corrupt is the system with little accountability. No kidding!
There was no sunset this evening in Cairo as there was none yesterday. The sun just faded out as the air got too thick with particulate matter. The light was kind eerie from about 3:00 PM on. I took a taxi to the airport where I am now enjoying an empty airport, Starbuck’s – my second time ever and free wi-fi. I have four hours to kill which will be quite easy to do. I had a great taxi driver on the way over. He spoke great English, was funny, enjoyed talking about how crazy Ramadan makes people especially at the end of the fast when behind the wheel, and he skillfully avoided many idiot drivers and pedestrians on the way. It’s people like him that provide just a glimmer of hope that there are decent people here.
There were two sites that I wanted to see in Cairo that I missed. One is the Citadel which sits on a hill overlooking the city and includes forts, ramparts and mosques. The other is the Northern Cemetery where people live inside the old cemetery. We passed both on the way to the airport. The views from the Citadel did not exist today. The air was so bad that I was grateful I did not bother seeing it. It took me a minute to recognize the cemetery. I could see it through arches on an aqueduct. I was looking at a horrid slum with very odd concrete box homes when I realized that it was a cemetery being used by live people. I was equally grateful that I did not go there. It looks like one sad and pathetic place to visit.
There is also one final pharaoh topic to cover. There is a controversy about whether the ancient egyptians were black or white. The topic does not mean as much to me as it does for some who apparently want to prove that there was a great black society. For me, I have seen what I believe to be great black societies existing today in Africa so I don’t need an ancient one to prove anything. I read that “Dr Z”, the very infamous head of the Egyptian antiquities bureaucracy scoffs at this notion although I have not read any specific scientific evidence that goes one way or another. I have seen a lot of information on the internet, though, and it all seems to have an agenda including people that believe the pharaohs were Celts or some other nonsense because one mummy has red hair. Personally, I feel North Africa is a real melting pot of peoples and I really can’t say what degree of blackness or whiteness constitutes a black or white or brown or green person. After seeing a lot of ancient Egyptian art depicting the royals, gods and common folk, I can tell you that they do not make it clear either. See, I saw white, black, brown, red and green paint used for skin color. I said the green ones represented the Martian Dynasty. “Dr. Z” and the rest of the antiquities department has started a DNA lab which they hope to use to probe mummy DNA. This could definitely lead to some answers although I bet it only leads to more questions and more political posturing. What I can honestly say is the following. I did not see one Egyptian that looked like the people depicted in the ancient art. The face structure is totally wrong and the body shapes don’t match up either. This has nothing to do with skin color. Furthermore, I saw many people in sub-Sahara Africa last year that are from northern countries like Sudan who look just like the pharaohs from a face and body structure standpoint. This included seeing a woman in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania who looked exactly like Nefertiti or at least what the “Berlin bust” depicting her looks like.
Tags: Africa, egypt, Travel
vagabondrick
I read the issue with great amusement as I was reflecting on a similar situation with a black tribe in Africa that claimed to be descended from Jews. The most amazing thing was that their claim was correct!! They were descended from Levites that lived in an ancient city somewhere in the neighborhood of Yemen. Terrible drought, etc, led them across into Egypt, then on down to Zimbabwe (I hope that is correct) and eventually to their current location. Intermarriage evolved the arabian features to negroid, but the special DNA marker (Cohin) survived and the original south arabian town was uncovered – along with the family names that they had maintained for thousands of years! Who knows about the “original” egyptians. Anyways they did have ruler of a different race at various times (ie Cleopatria descended from a general of Alexander the great!) so the elite who were mummified really doesn’t tell about the common people.
I do find such thing interesting myself. Thanks for sharing.