Walking in History

by David Gourley

We had twice been to Egypt before, though not to either Cairo or Alexandria. Our first visit had been part of a two-centre holiday, taking us also to Petra in Jordan, which involved a stay on the Sinai coast and a visit to St Catherine’s Monastery. Our flight had a stopover in Aswan and we watched spellbound as we followed the course of the Nile southwards. The sight of the river from the air, snaking its way through a narrow green valley hemmed in by endless yellow desert, was awe-inspiring. We were moved by the thought that the earliest chapters in the history of mankind could not have happened without this life-giving river. A Nile Cruise leapt from a fairly low point on our travel wish-list right to the very top and we were back in Egypt within months, sailing from Aswan to Luxor and back. We were not disappointed. This was a fabulous experience.

That was in the mid-nineties. A year or so later, there occurred the appalling massacre by religious fanatics of tourists at the Temple of Hatshepshut, close to Luxor. Tourism in Egypt, which is vital to the country’s economy, all but dried up. However ordinary Egyptians were appalled, the Government cracked down hard and the rebels themselves renounced terrorism. Tourism is once again thriving. There have alas been recent bombing incidents but generally Egypt is peaceful and welcoming, its people among the friendliest we have encountered. The Government is taking no chances and tourist police abound at all the major sites. ‘Common or garden’ crime is very low, making Cairo and Alexandria two of the safest cities anywhere.

The Mena House, named from the first of the ancient kings of Egypt, is a historic hotel, opened in 1886 by an English couple, the Locke-Kings. Famous guests include Churchill, Roosevelt and Chiang Kai-Shek, who held a wartime conference here. The Great Pyramid of Cheops, the largest of the three Pyramids, towers over the Hotel and can be viewed from its swimming pool, which is the largest in Egypt. There is a choice of dining, including what modestly boasts of being the “best Indian restaurant west of Mumbai”, and we enjoyed some good meals. All in all it is a splendid and wonderfully atmospheric hotel.

Our tour company’s basic arrangement is a four night stay, with a comprehensive package of tours, but we extended for three further nights, fondly imagining we’d spend much of this extra time chilling out by the pool. However, the Pyramids beckoned! They were just a short walk away, and, though we had had an organised tour, we went back to them twice under our own steam. My bathing shorts never were unpacked.

We did have a fairly lazy first day. After our midnight arrival we indulged in a lie-in and did little other than a bit of exploration of the hotel. We also wandered up to the entrance to the Pyramids, but it was getting on and we did not think it worth paying the entrance fee. The next two days, by contrast, were crammed with sightseeing trips. We started with a visit to the celebrated Egyptian Museum, located in Cairo’s downtown. This was fascinating and we had the benefit of an excellent guide, Assem, who explained everything clearly and had an engaging sense of humour. Like most visitors we were particularly interested in the Tutankhamun Galleries, which house the contents of the tomb of this young pharaoh, who died aged 19. These were all the more interesting as on our last trip to Egypt we had seen the actual tomb itself, discovered by Howard Carter in 1922 in the Valley of the Kings. But there is of course a tremendous amount else to see and a half-day visit scarcely does the Museum justice.

Something that can be expected at the Egyptian Museum is heaving crowds, whatever the time of day - there is no avoidance strategy. We could have fared worse in this regard. Apparently the queue of people waiting to visit the Tutankhamun Galleries, which are on the first floor, sometimes stretches right down the stairs but things were relatively calm during our visit. I stress the word ‘relatively’. Guides are fond of telling the visitor that Egyptians invented this or that, and I for one didn’t know they invented the boomerang. To prove the point, some ancient boomerangs are displayed alongside two present-day Australian ones.

We next drove into Islamic Cairo to enjoy an Egyptian lunch – kebabs and koftas – at a restaurant in the famous Khan al-Khalili bazaar, which gives its name to the main dining room in the Mena House. Then a tour of the Citadel, the biggest attraction in Cairo after the Egyptian Museum. This was built in the 12th century by Saladin and fine views over the city are to be enjoyed from here. Legend has it that the site was chosen by means of hanging up pieces of raw meat in various locations, this particular site being selected because the meat stayed fresh far longer than elsewhere. The reality, most likely, is that it was chosen because it was by far the best location.

Our visit here included entry into the huge Mosque of Muhammad Ali, whose design was inspired by the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. This contains a clock which was a gift from King Louis Philippe of France. Egyptians are not at all grateful: it has never worked and is a poor exchange for the Obelisk that was carted off to Paris and stands to this day in the Place de la Concorde. Assem took the opportunity to give us a talk about Islam and invited our questions. A devout Moslem himself, he stressed that nowhere in the Koran does one find sanction for kidnapping, bombing or killing one’s opponents. Around 90% of Egyptians are Moslems, the remainder being Coptic Christians. But one does not to any great extent find the more fundamental type of Islam that might be associated with Saudi Arabia or Iran. Alcohol is not just permitted, it is produced. The local Stella beer is highly regarded and Egyptian wine can be passable.

Our day was rounded off by a son et lumiere performance at the Pyramids. The Sphinx does the narrating. It is a magical experience and one which guidebooks recommend as a good introduction to the site itself. Our first actual tour of the site was the following day, still as part of our programme of tours, with Assem expertly guiding us around. All manner of superlatives can be used when describing the Pyramids, the only one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World which still exists. There are three in all. The largest, the Great Pyramid of Cheops, was for well over four millennia (until the construction of the Eiffel Tower) the tallest building in the world. We used some of our spare time to go inside - not a lot to see but still a great thing to do. In the middle is the Pyramid of Chephren, which is nearly as tall. Third and by some way the smallest is the Pyramid of Mycerinus.

These Pyramids were ancient even in the time of the Pharaohs. The Pharaonic period did after all last for nearly 3000 years and, by the time of the New Kingdom, starting in 1550 BC and centred on Thebes (present day Luxor), they had been standing for close on 2000 years. So they attracted tourists even then. “They came from Thebes and there were guides like me, standing with little flags,” Assem told us. It used to be thought that they were constructed with slave labour, but it is now believed that skilled and well-paid artisans were used. How they were built remains something of a mystery. The Great Pyramid alone comprises 2.3m limestone blocks, each weighing well over 2 tons. But, give some people an occasion and they will not rise to it. One lady in our party told us, with the air of someone giving us the benefit of her pearls of wisdom, that, whilst she didn’t want to take anything away from the ancient Egyptians, the contestants in TV’s “Strongest Man” show could have tackled the job with no problem.

We descended to the Sphinx, which combines the head of King Chephren with the body of a lion. A sore point with Egyptians is that the Sphinx’s beard is in the British Museum. They would quite like to have the Rosetta Stone back as well. Today the Sphinx is in danger of gradually crumbling away. Pollution has a lot to do with this. The suburbs of Cairo, or more specifically Giza, come right up to the very edge of the site. From our hotel, we could turn right to the Pyramids and the desert or left into the bustling city.

Our day’s programme continued with a drive south into what is still countryside. I say ‘still’ because the city of Cairo, which is Africa’s largest, is expanding at a phenomenal rate. Here we visited two more ancient sites. Firstly Memphis, which for most of the Pharaonic period was the capital of Egypt. This is a fairly small site. It does not lack interest – there is a huge fallen statue of Ramses II - though, unless one is a scholar, one might not spend long here.

One could easily, on the other hand, spend ages exploring the Saqqara Complex. This was the cemetery for Memphis and is above all noted for the Step Pyramid, which is older even than the Great Pyramid, being in fact the world’s earliest stone monument (2650 BC). There is a lot else besides in this fascinating complex and an enormous area of it has still to be excavated. From here, we could see the Pyramids of Giza on the northern horizon and on the southern is the striking sight of the two Pyramids of Dahshur. One of these is, if you like, a conventional pyramid, the other is an architectural experiment which went wrong, resulting in the remarkable Bent Pyramid.

For the remaining three days of our stay our time was free. We went back into Cairo, finishing with dinner in the Four Seasons Hotel in Giza, where our table gave us a view over the Nile. Our drive by taxi along the Pyramids Road, running all the way into the centre of the city, was an experience in itself. The traffic is not quite as crazy as that in Delhi, which we’d visited not long beforehand. But that is not saying much. Well might there be a T-shirt informing passers-by that its wearer has “survived Cairo’s traffic”. Hyde Park Corner by comparison is a haven of tranquillity. Pedestrians looked as if they are taking their lives in their hands as they braved the several lanes of Pyramids Road. The idea that, to cross a busy road, one can step onto a crossing and the traffic will stop, would no doubt be regarded as absurd.

Much of our other two days was spent further exploring the Pyramids, this time on our own. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It is true that one experiences what Lonely Planet terms “The Hassle”, the eager attention of traders or camel drivers. However these people are in no way threatening; charm is one of their weapons and “no” will be taken as an answer, however reluctantly. Generally, at home or abroad, the fact that I have a moustache does not attract comment. Egypt is the exception. As on my last visit, an opening gambit was to greet “Mr Moustache” and I was commended on looking “like an Egyptian” or even “like a Pharaoh” (a trifle inaccurately in the last instance as I don’t have a beard).

We also visited the Solar Barque Museum, housed in a building which is modernistic yet blends in perfectly, affording a previously unobtainable perspective of one of the sides of the Great Pyramid. As far as is known, the Barque is the oldest boat in the world, having been reconstructed using 1200 pieces of wood that were unearthed in 1954. Such boats were used to bring the mummies of dead pharaohs across the Nile, and were then buried in the ground, there to provide transport to the next world. We were struck once again by the sheer magnitude of Egyptian history. Back in Britain we are rightly proud of the achievement of resurrecting the Mary Rose, now to be admired in Portsmouth Dockyard, but compared to the Barque she is of recent vintage.

On our last night we had a dinner cruise on the Nile. It cannot be said that this was a gourmet experience but we enjoyed the experience of sailing through the city by night – and the belly dancer was rather good. It was quite a wrench to be leaving the Mena House but there were four nights in Alexandria to look forward to.

We transferred by road to Alexandria, taking the Desert Road through the Sahara. It sounds romantic, but it’s actually flanked for virtually its entire length by huge advertising hoardings. In Alexandria itself, the drive was spectacular. This is a maritime city par excellence and we drove for a good few miles along the Corniche to our hotel, located at its far end. Immediately on our left was the Mediterranean and on the right the impressive seafront buildings.

Alexandria is an attractive city, though it has not really figured on the tourist map so far. A book purchased on an earlier occasion has pictures covering “all of Egypt”, defined as being from Cairo to Aswan, thus leaving out Alexandria. The city’s problem is that by Egyptian standards it is new, dating back only to 331 BC, having been founded, as its name implies, by Alexander the Great. It thus didn’t exist in the Pharaonic era, so offers none of its treasures. It is nevertheless well worth visiting and a lot of effort is now being put into attracting visitors. There is now an international airport of sorts and we were able to fly directly back to London with BA, albeit routed, somewhat to our surprise, via Beirut.

Our accommodation was indicative of the fact that tourism in Alexandria is an act still not entirely together. We stayed at the Sheraton Montazah, named from the adjacent Park, which houses the former Royal Palace. This is supposed to be the best in town and the Prime Minister of Greece, no less, had recently stayed there. It is classified as having five stars, ostensibly therefore of the same standard as the Mena House, which is nonsense. As an American guest commented, “in the States this would have 2½ stars”. There were just two restaurants, one mediocre and the other downright poor. I suspect that this is a hotel that has rested on its laurels; given there is little by way of competition, but we did notice that a Renaissance Hotel was under construction, so the Sheraton may have to start bucking its ideas up. We did, though, like the fine view from our window, taking in both the sea and the Park.

There was a busy programme of tours in Alexandria, and we were to see a lot of our local guide, a pleasant young lady called Samya. These not only showed us the various attractions but a lot of the city itself. I was interested, being something of a transport anorak, to see the city’s trams, which, almost uniquely in the world, include double-deckers. A pity we didn’t get to go on one! Our programme started straight away with a walking tour of the Zanket el Setat market. I am not terribly into markets and have an aversion more generally to shopping, bookshops excepted. But this was a fascinating walk along very narrow and picturesque alleyways, with no “hassle” of any description.

We then had two full days crammed with visits to various sites. There might be no Pharaonic treasures, but there is an excellent Greco-Roman Museum which one can wander around undisturbed by crowds. We then visited the mysterious Catacombs of Kom Ash-Shuqqafa, the largest known Roman burial site in Egypt. These were discovered in 1900 by an unfortunate donkey which fell to its death when a hole opened up in the ground. We also fitted into our morning schedule two remains from Roman times, Pompey’s Pillar and the Amphitheatre. We then joined Samya for a lunch in a large and very atmospheric restaurant, the Balbaa Village. This was not a touristy place: our fellow diners all seemed to be locals and, from our vantage point on the first floor looking down, we enjoyed the scene around us. The meal wasn’t bad either. Egyptian doesn’t really rank with Italian or Indian among the world’s great cuisines but I quite like kebabs and koftas, and acquired something of a taste for the local dessert, Umm Ali, a kind of moist bread pudding.

We finished in the Montazah Park, right by the hotel. Since the overthrow of the monarchy in 1952, successive presidents have used the former Royal Palace as a summer residence, Alexandria being somewhat cooler than Cairo. This is not open to the public, but the former royal hunting lodge is now a hotel, the Salamlek Palace, rather better than our own but too small effectively to compete. We had dinner here the next evening and this was quite an improvement on anything on offer at the Sheraton. There are plenty of pictures and memorabilia of the last king, Farouk, and his family. I am not sure he deserves to be fondly remembered, being a rather idle fellow who was fond of womanising and gambling and did little for his people. Yet Gamal Abdul Nasser, who effectively made the Revolution, though he did not take outright power for another couple of years, insisted against some opposition that the King’s life be spared and Farouk lived out his remaining years in European exile. A rather different fate befell his fellow monarch, the altogether more worthy King of Iraq, Feisal. He was beheaded after the 1958 Revolution in his country. The new dictator of Iraq thought Nasser might like to have a memento, a finger of the late King. Nasser was appalled. That was not how his regime did things. The finger was given a decent burial.

The regime established after the fall of the monarchy endures to this day, with three long serving presidents, Nasser, Sadat and now Mubarak(the first president, Neguib, is scarcely remembered these days). Nasser remains a national hero. He was accused at the time of being anti-British and pro-Communist but he was neither: he was just pro-Egyptian. Assem told us, clearly “forgetting” Neguib, that he was the first indigenous ruler since Pharaonic times. Even the royal family were of foreign origin, being descendents of Muhammad Ali, who seized the throne from the Ottoman Turks in the nineteenth century - and was an Albanian.

There was another round of visits the next day. We started with another Museum, the recently established National Museum of Alexandria. Then to the coast and Fort Qaitbey, located on the site of the Pharos. This huge lighthouse was, next to the Pyramids, the longest surviving of the Seven Wonders of the World, destroyed by an earthquake in 1303. There are two small terracotta representations of the Pharos in the Greco-Roman Museum. Some of its debris was used when constructing the Fort, which is a fine building. We were disappointed that we couldn’t go inside.

Our afternoon visit was to Alexandria’s pride and joy, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. The city is justifiably proud of this splendid new library, which is designed ultimately to hold as many as 8 million books, though for now the number actually held is still below 1 million. Built with international support, it is ultra-modern, yet recreates the original great library, founded soon after the city itself and regarded as the greatest of all classical institutions. The Bibliotheca naturally has a big role to play in the city’s drive to attract visitors. If they could recreate the Pharos as well, Alexandria would be well and truly established as a major tourist destination!

We found ourselves with an extra day in Alexandria, due to our flight being put back. Whilst we were not grateful for the subsequent 4.00am start to get to the airport, we were glad to have the opportunity to travel out to El Alamein, the World War II battlefield, located about 70 miles west of Alexandria. I had fondly imagined that, on the drive there, we would have the Sahara to our left and the Mediterranean to our right. The reality was different. We drove along a dual carriageway which was some way from the sea and urban sprawl, mostly unattractive, followed us nearly all the way. Much of this seemed to be new development, aimed at the better off, providing for example second homes by the sea for wealthy Cairenes, and can’t be doing much to improve the lot of the masses.

El Alamein itself can only be an emotional experience. It was here that Britain and its allies defeated Rommel’s forces, the first time in World War II we had beaten the Germans (as distinct from the Italians, who of course never had their heart in the struggle). It thus turned the tide of the war, being, in Churchill’s words, “the end of the beginning”. A rout ensued in which the Germans were chased right across Libya and out of North Africa altogether. The consequences of defeat are terrible to imagine. The Nazis were within striking distance of Cairo and Alexandria and World War II might well have been lost, or at any rate lasted a good deal longer.

There is a museum which was founded by Nasser – ironically in 1956, the year of Britain’s disastrous Suez venture - and extended by Mubarak. We spent quite some time here. Some of its space is devoted to the role of the Egyptian forces as our allies in the battle. Outside is a collection of tanks, artillery and other hardware from the battle.

Our visit to the Commonwealth War Cemetery was intensely moving. It is beautifully maintained and contains over 7000 graves of soldiers, mainly from the UK and its Commonwealth allies. We met a young Australian chap who had come to visit the grave of his grandfather. We looked at some of the inscriptions and wrote down one. This was on the grave of Captain A F Osborne, who died on 23 October 1942, aged 29. It reads:

“Went this day well?
I died and never knew.
But well or ill,
Freedom I died for you.”

Captain Osborne did not die in vain.

First published in VISA issues 61-62 (June 2005)