“Don’t tell anyone, but on the pagan day of the sun god Ra, I kneel at the foot of an ancient instrument of torture and consume ritualistic symbols of blood and flesh. …And if any of you care to join me, come to the Harvard chapel on Sunday, kneel beneath the crucifix, and take Holy Communion.”
― Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol
Go-Date: Day 61, Monday. March 25
Lesson Learned: There is almost too much to see in Egypt. You become numb to all the fabulous sites. Pace yourself.
Old Cairo
We started our day in Old Cairo which contains the remnants of those cities which were capitals before al-Qahira, which is more than I knew before, and will probably not hold a place in my memory for more than a week or so. It was interesting, but not what you think about when you go to Egypt. When we arrived it was cold. Egypt has been unseasonably cold since our arrival. It even rained (lightly) when we were in Old Cairo. Don’t budget more than 2 hours for your stop here. You can see the Mosque of Amr and the Mosque of ibn Tulun (which we skipped), very little remains of the old city. This area also encompasses Coptic Cairo and its many old churches and ruins of Roman fortifications. We spent more time in the Coptic Museum, and the Hanging Church than anything else before we hit the road.
City of Garbage and Coptic Cliff Church
Manshiyat Naser, also called Cairo’s Garbage City, is one of the poorest areas in Cairo, it’s also predominately Christian. It is a place where the inhabitants are trying to create an economy out of the things that other people throw away.
This area is home to more than 262,000 people. It is Cairo’s main destination for garbage collectors. Every night, the garbage collectors bring Cairo’s rubbish here to be recycled (it started long before recycling became popular in the US, maybe as long ago as 1948). The area has poor living conditions and garbage almost everywhere, on the streets, on the roofs houses, and in the houses themselves from what I could see. There’s a lack of basic infrastructure such as sewers, electricity and water and living standards are below anything in the US. The community covers about 5.54 square kilometers and lies at the base of Mokattam hills (which hides a hidden treasure), and its economy depends completely on the collecting and recycling rubbish. Its an amazing sight, and one that I’d venture to say that 99% of the tourist that come to Cairo never see.
Saint Simon Church or The Cave Church
Hidden behind the City of Garbage lies Saint Simon Church which is the largest church in the Middle East, is located in Garbage City and is used by its Coptic Christians. The church was established in 1975 and has seating for more than 15,000 worshipers in the large sanctuary, the Cave Church is fantastically carved out of rock and is mainly used by the Garbage City’s Christians. There is a second, smaller sanctuary hidden at the back of the canyon that probably holds around 4,000 worshipers.
Walking in Memphis
Memphis was the ancient capital of Aneb-Hetch, the first nome (a territorial division) of Lower Egypt. Its ruins are 20 km (12 mi) south of Giza and Cairo. Memphis became the capital of Ancient Egypt for over eight consecutive dynasties during the Old Kingdom (2686 to 2181 BCE). The city reached its peak of power during the 6th dynasty (2345 to 2278 BCE).
The city was founded by the pharaoh Menes as the capital of Egypt during the Old Kingdom. Today, it’s on the desert fringe, with Nile canals feeding the farms in the area. Originally, it occupied a strategic position at the mouth of the Nile Delta (which saw real estate dropping and moved east to a better neighborhood), and was home to kings, queens, hedge fund managers and all sorts of movers and shakers. Its had a port, and contained lots of workshops, factories, and warehouses so it was sort of the Amazon.com of the ancient kingdom. During its golden age, Memphis thrived as a regional center for commerce, trade, and religion. Today its about 2 acres of ancient monuments and a couple of stunning statues of Ramses II. I highly recommend an hour or so to check it out.
Who Stepped on my Pyramid?
Saqqara is a huge, ancient burial complex, serving as the necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. A necropolis is just an academic word for a cemetery, especially a very large one belonging to an ancient city. Saqqara has several pyramids, including the Step pyramid of Djoser, as well as a number of mastabas (which is the Arabic word meaning ‘bench’). Its only about 30 km (19 mi) south of Cairo, so it’s an easy drive once you get outside the city. I thought you would just refer to it as the Pyramid of Djoser, but the accepted term for everyone here is Saqqara. It is really large and covers an area of around 7 km by 1.5 km (4.35 by 0.93 mi). Its all desert, its all hot, and you need a hat and lots of sun screen. It was a funny day, we started out wearing jackets in Old Cairo, and by Saqqara we were scorched. We thought we might also make it over to the bent pyramid this day, but we packed too much to see in it and we ran out of time.
Also, Saqqara is really old, much older than the pyramids at Giza, the oldest complete stone building complex in history was built here. The Pyramid of Djoser was built during the Third Dynasty (approximately 2686 to 2613 BCE or almost 4,700 years ago). It was designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979.
Ellen and I enjoyed our visit to Saqqara. Its huge. We also enjoyed that its much less crowded than Giza. We spent about 3 hours here. You can even take a camel ride if you are so inclined.
After leaving Saqqara, we stopped at a café that gave a demonstration on how to make traditional Egyptian bread in a wood oven. It was interesting for about 5 minutes. The bread the girl made was the high point of our dinner. Back to Cairo.
