April 1, 2006

From the dark streets of Africa-6
Good bye Egypt, Thank you Egyptians

Like other visitors, the first thing that stroked me in Egypt especially in Capital City Cairo was a Nile river crossing the entire desert and 1, 200 km of that lays in Egyptian territory, [which is only one fifth of it’s total length].
Nile is very important for Egypt and Egyptians, as they say ‘The Nile is Egypt and Egypt is the Nile’. Historians believe since ancient times the Nile has nurtured flourishing civilization along it’s banks and even now exercise powerful attraction over travelers eager to admire in this uniquely beautiful setting the great works produced by that civilization.
Another wonder of that civilization is the Pyramids [which also considered the 7th wonder of the world]. Area of Giza is the center for Pyramids in Cairo, which has now been absorbed by greater Cairo, whose modern buildings stretch out. As far as the renewed pyramids these were built by the IV dynasty pharaohs cheops, and Mycerinus on an esplanade in the desert near the Nile Valley, as their eternal place of rest.
My new Egyptian guide Ahmed Maghraby was beside of me when we reached to the one of the 4 pyramids, The Great Pyramid of Cheops, which according to him was the largest among those.
137 meter high, each side measuring 223.3 meters, an estimated 2,200,000 million stone blocks from this colossal structure, each weighing an average of 2.5 tones. The north side had two entrances, the original, 17 meters up, and a second, opened lower down by the Arabs. There were three chambers in inside at different levels, the central of which, exactly at the axis, contained the serdab. Over this, at the end of a larger access ramp known as the Great Gallery, is the funeral chamber, where the mummy was placed. This chamber contained two small openings or airshafts leading to the exterior, through which the pharaohs’ ba or ‘breath of life’ was believe to be liberated. In the exterior near the south face, the parts of a great wooden boat measuring almost 43 meters in length were found in 1954.
Cheophren,s pyramid: is somewhat smaller than that of cheops, through it appears larger because it,s stands on a higher site and because of the greater angle of inclination of the faces. I told that, there are two chambers in inside, but there is no certainty that Chephren was buried there.
Mycerinus Pyramids:- is rather smaller than that of his uncle Chephren. Originally planned to be half of the size in which it has finally built, this pyramid stands 62 meters high tough, with the original limestone covering, which was lost in 16 century, it would have measured 66 meters in height.
Beside the valley temple is the enigmatic Great sphinx , cut out in the rocky place next to the temple, is a 24 meter high sculpture. Sphinxes, mythical creatures with human face and the body of a lion, were placed near temples, thought to be guarded by lions. As I told by Maghraby, the Sphinxes face was a portrait of Chephren, himself, thus the guardian of his own tomb
Lying on the northwest corner of Africa, Egypt extends along the Sinai Peninsula to the Asia border. Of the country’s total area of 1,001,449 Square kilometers, 96% is desert, and only the remaining 4% is cultivated and inhabitant. The desert climate predominance here, characterized by very hot summers with temperatures often over 40 C, south of Luxor and 10-20 C in winter.
Keeping these facts in mind, February- March or October November is the best session to visit Egypt, if some one is interested in sunshine or sun bath, than this is a good destination in all session. During a 8 day of visit to Egypt, I also found this country the cheapest destination for shopping, but of course you need to have strong bargaining skills to buy products in your favor, or some one from Egypt who will monitor that everything goes in your interest. I had some one a smart person living in Cairo to do this business for me. A nice man even he didn’t like to be named in my diary, but he was the kind of person that I never can forget his service, his hospitality, honest. I accept his invitation to stay at home on that night with out any kind of hesitation.
Hospitality of this family remained me emotionally back home, since I was tired after years of Diaspora life in Europe. He and his family was insisting to host me few more days to be able to took me around, I also wished to stay at least to visit the mountain ‘Jabal-I-Tor’ where prophet Mousa ‘Mosses’, used to talk to God. But since I was with tour, I couldn’t do this, finally on 9th February 2006 on midnight I was on a way to Prague the capital city of central European country, Czech Republic, the town where I live since 2002.