Middle East Mosaics: Egypt, Turkey, and Morocco

Our time in Egypt is dwindling, only slowed by the fact that we are racing against time in our attempts to prepare and give a presentation on a series of different topics about Ancient Egypt. There's an added edge to these presentations: we will be giving them to a group of Carleton alumni and trustees who are coming to join Carleton's president, Rob Oden, or Rob as we have been so lucky to call him (actually, he's incredibly friendly and informal when it comes to our lectures and classes. Of course, I'm sure it helps that we've now seen him both sick and in his running gear, which while different, is still nowhere near as silly as my dad looks when he wears his biking gear. Sorry, Dad, but the muscle shirt does give you somethingother thana serious touch).Our success will also be measured by how awake we keep the alumni, as we are giving our presentations starting at 7:30 in the morning, the day after they arrive in Cairo. Intense discussion and study sessions have been held, and my group (Djoser, Imhotep, and the Saqqara Complex in case you were curious--essentially it boils down to pyramids) has decided to open with a clip of Steve Martin's SNL skit with King Tut. We are a curious crew here. Yup.

Besides the tours of the Saqqara and Dashur pyramids tours we will be taking with the alumni, our last exursions as a group have already come and gone. It's an interesting that we finished our visit to Egypt with a trip out to the Giza pyramids and the Great Sphinx, since that site is usually the first place that people go to when they visit Egypt. (This is actually a part of my group's presentation, the idea of Egypt abroad and how it essentially can be defined as "pyramids" when it comes to tourism.) Little known fact: there are actually 10 pyramids at Giza: 3 pyramids of the kings, 6 for queens, and then one more which I can't remember the function for.

I've read some guidebooks that state that upon seeing the pyramids at Giza, there can be a sense of disappointment. I can understand that, I suppose, since I think the imagination tends to build things up so that they seem ballon-ified (such an effective neologism that I've just come up with!). But for me, they seem just as serene and monumental as I imagined they were built to be. Standing next to the largest of the three, the sun was nearly blocked from view at noon. When we wandered around to the other side, the sandy gold of the stone, speckled in shadow from the various ledges of rock, drew in the eye, so that it was like looking at another sand dune in the distance, ever-looming and foreign. We went inside the second-largest pyramid that Khafre built during his reign. While it's something of a novelty to say that one has been inside of a pyramid, it's really not that spectacular, folks, hate to disappoint you. It's not meant for the claustrophobic. Inside there were no decorations, only a large name scrawled on the wall of the egyptologist who discovered the tomb inside back in the day (of course he found nothing, since it had been ransacked and robbed eons ago). The only thing that remained was the large sarcophagus that Khafre was in. And the only reason it stays in the tomb is because it is actually too large to fit in the doorway. Apparently the sarcophagus was lowered into the burial chamber as the pyramid was built. Talk about innovation and strategy.

The "graveyard" of the Old Kingdom of Ancient Egypt was a huge stretch of land, all the way from Giza to Dashur, a distance of forty miles, I believe is the estimate I heard at one point. I could be completely wrong, but I'm in Egypt so let's pretend that I'm the resident expert for just a minute (that is to say, I'm in a rather silly mood but am open to correction if the case should apply). The Great Sphinx sits before the three pyramids, guarding their place and position in the vast graveyard. It's a pretty hard thing to fathom, imagining a stretch of land that large that holds so many rulers and dignitaries, thousands of whom we will probably never find. Back to the Sphinx: I think that out of all the antiquities, I was most excited to see the Sphinx. Possibly because it's the Sphinx. Needless to say, I was pleased.

On a different note: this morning we went to a "girls-friendly" school in Dashur, a village area that has around 300-400 families. The Abu Sir (pronounced Ceer) School is a one-room classroom where girls of all ages can come and learn at any point in their lives at any pace, essentially. We had the pleasure of meeting three students. One girl was 12 and in first grade. All of them wanted to be teachers or, in one case, a doctor. After driving an hour from Cairo through some of the more depressing sites that I have seen on the trip thus far, it was an incredible experience to walk into this classroom. I had flashbacks to my preschool Montessori days, when the world was new and exciting and touchable--tangible in a way that sitting and spelling just doesn't really capture. The walls were covered in art, stars that held the girls' wishes for their future careers, and learning tools that they themselves created. The director of the school and a liason for the company Apache (an American oil firm, actually, that decided to create 200 schools in village areas that don't have a large enrollment of girls) spoke to us about the conditions of education in these areas, painting a rather bleak picture. Apparently even in the public school system, there are students in fourth grade that are still unable to read and write. It's a widespread problem that we have heard others speak on. But if you are so inclined to help, as I am after visiting this school, consider this: to construct one school here that can teach 36 girls and honestly change their lives, it costs $15,000 US dollars. That is so affordable that I question Apache's decision to stop at merely 200, when there are still girls in these areas that wish to go to school. Right now, however, the focus is on creating a legacy of appreciating education that will last, since the chances of these girls leaving the village and persuing further education is not incredibly high. In the time between, however, it was an uplifting experience. I don't think that I've experienced that inspiration of hope in quite that way; it was as if stepping into this building and viewing the creative beauty that these girls created out of materials that were, quite literally, garbage, breathed air into struggling lungs. And these girls were so excited to be learning.

It's infectious!

I think I will stop there for the night, since 1. nothing else culturally inspiring has happened since this morning, other than seeing a Coca Cola logo sewn into a sail on the Nile; and 2. It is currently thunderstorming in Cairo.Apparently strange things do happen.