An Egypt "extra": Petra, Jordan

The Egypt trip had an "extra" tagged onto it- three days in Jordan.  I had never really known much about Petra, before the trip, but it turned out to be  the most spectacular day of the entire excursion. Probably my own ignorance about Petra made it moreso.

Because I've spent a lot of time in the Colorado Rockies, I've done a lot hiking.  Imagine walking along something that resembled a hiking trail with rock walls on each side and suddenly seeing this:

The "Treasury" at Petra

There you have it: your initial view of the ancient city of Petra, built by a people called the Nabbateans

sometime around the 6th century BC. It is Jordan's most visited tourist attraction.  What is kind of surreal about it, is that it looks like a Roman ruin, except that it is carved into cliffs and there are camels running around.

Petra, now a World Heritage site, was unknown to the outside world until 1812.  In ancient times, Petra controlled the trade routes that passed through it to Gaza in the west. It is naturally fortified, by the towering rocks around it.

Petra was vital into the early years of the common era, although under Roman rule, it declined rapidly because of changes in trade-routs.  An earthquake in 363 destroyed many buildings.  They were known of in the Middle Ages, but not rediscovered by the west until the 19th century.

Petra is best seen on foot, although carriage-rides and horse-back are other options.  We spent the day wandering around amazed by the buildings and equally interested by the local Bedouin population that mans the site and it's craft markets.  There is a building at Petra that is reached by 800 steps carved into the mountain. 

It's this building that is, for want of a better name, called the temple, although no one really knows what its purpose was.  Our guide told us, at this point, that we were short on time, so we opted to let donkeys do the climbing for us.  On one side of the steps was a sheer drop down the mountain.  I asked my donkey driver, a 15 year old Bedouin boy who spoke excellent English, to keep a tight rein on his donkey, who, incidentally, was named Jack. (His friend's donkey was name Michael Jackson).  Well, we made it up to the temple and down in one piece and the whole experience, which included purchasing an

item from a merchant who had set up shop on the steps, was exhilerating.  

Egypt had been fascinating and Petra made the whole trip even moreso.

www.sonypictures.com/tv/shows/.../episode_guide/?sl...ep...

Camels in Egypt

This is a classic image Egypt- camels in front of the pyramids.  The shortest cruise-ship stop-offs in Cairol include a camel ride in front of the Giza pyramids.  In general, the camels are cooperative and their drivers are always williing to take a photo of you on top of their beast Recently these camels took a walk and turned up in the middle of Tahrir Square in Cairo.  This was in February 2011, during the protests.

Where did camels originate? According to a Bedouin legend, camels originated with the Jews. It was in an encounter in antiquity between the Bedouins and Jews, in which a group of Bedouins defeated the Jews and took their camels.  From that time, according to the legend, Bedouins have had camels and the Jews became farmers of sheep and goats.

Scientists tell us that camels do not have an Arabian origin. Fossil evidence suggests that the camel's original habitat was America.  It was domesticated in North Africa and imported into Arabia. Camels are mentioned in the Bible.

This photo was taken at an Eyptian camel market.  Egypt's largest camel market is at Birqash which is 35
km outside of Cairo.

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The Pharaoh was a Woman

Hatshepsut as Pharaoh
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bubble_Boy_(Seinfeld) - Cached  

Egyptian women have had a central role in the recent protests.  Because in many families it is the men who work outside of the home, it has been the women who have had the time to keep the protests going.
On the surface this female activism would seem unprecedented, but a look at Egyptian history will show that these women have a spiritual ancestor in Hatshepsut, the 18th Dynasty queen turned Pharaoh.

Hatshepsut (1503-1482 BC) was the daughter of tuthmose I and Queen Ahmose Nefertari.  She married her brother (this was the custom among Egyptian rulers) Tuthmose II and had a daughter named Neferuri.
Tuthmose III, the son of Tuthmose II by another woman (it gets complicated) was married to Neferuri.
Tuthmose III was young when his father died and Hatshepsut became regent.

Hatshepsut had herself declared Pharaoh and devised a mythology about herself, involving a scenario in which the god Amun Ra took on the appearance of her biological father to mate with her mother to support herself in this role. She portrayed herself as a male in carvings, dressed in the traditional dress of male rulers.  She initiated many building projects.

After her death, Thutmose III ordered her name and image to be taken out of public display.  He was successful in erasing her memory and it wasn't until the 1060's that her existence was known about. Her mummy was positively identified in 2007.

Hatshepsut's Tomb

The Egyptian Army Saving Egypt for Themselves

The Wallstreet Journal disclosed that the egyptian army had used private aid from the United States to build a hospital for soldiers ;only problem is that they were also taking paying private patients .The news media in the US is hailing the loss of pwer in Egypt as a people's revolution sttarted on Face book but in reality is was started by the army becaue they didn't want Muhabra's son to follow him as the new presidenthttp://www.sonypictures.com/tv/shows/seinfeld/episode_guide/?sl=episode&ep=407http://movies.nytimes.com/person/851478/Jon-Hayman

Facebook: Egyptian Prime Minister Resigns

Giza Pyramids- Cairo

Could King Tut ever have dreamed of the current events in Egypt? Of course not.  But  for that matter could Mark Zuckerberg have ever imagined that his social network would, in just a few years, become a  forum for revolutions and the venue for tendering resignations of leaders?  The previously unimaginable happened earlier today when the resignation of the Egyptian interim prime minister was announced on a Facebook page- that's what the NY Times stated in its report of the event.

The Pyramids at Giza are ancient structures dating from thousands of years ago. Yet a few miles away (the pyramids are at the edge of Cairo, not miles away in a remote desert), a revolution that has changed the Arab world was begun in  the most high-tech way.  It's really odd the way things happen.
http://movies.nytimes.com/person/851478/Jon-Haymanhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/jon-hayman

LUXOR: ANCIENT CAPITAL AND CITY OF GOD AMUN RA

Karnak Temple Luxor

Although there were protests in Luxor, the focus was the Egyptian capital, Cairo.  But, Luxor, the ancient city Thebes, was once the capital of Egypt  during the Middle Kingdom.  It lies in the middle  of Egypt across from the Valley of the Kings and Queens where the tombs of the pharoahs and their families are located.                                                                  

Thebes/Luxor was the city of the god Amon Ra and was the religious capital until the Greek period. Amon Ra's temple,the Karnak Temple Complex is located in the northern part of Luxor.  It is an incredible experience to wander through the huge temple and imagine what it must have been like in ancient times.  Although what we see is mostly white stone, in ancient times, the sculptures were brightly painted and the remains of this painting can be seen in some        
places.                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

     A tourist destination in Luxor, is the Karnak Temple Complex at night.  At first attending a light show in the temple seems a little hokey, but it is a really fantastic experience.  To wander through the ruins- the temples, chapels, pylons and other buildings amidst colored strobe lights, music and readings is a fantastic experience and I highly recommend it.                

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bubble_Boy_(Seinfeld)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Nile Tours are Back: cruising at Luxor

Feluccas on the NIle

One of the things starting back this week are Nile cruises.  We didn't do the official Nile cruise which involves a couple of days floating on the Nile anywhere between Luxor and Cairo. The most common are the 4-7 day cruises between Aswan and Cairo on large cruisers.  Some are the height of luxury and some are more modest.

We did, however, cruise on the Nile on a small, old-fashioned Egyptian wooden sailing boat called

One course of our multi-course meal

felucca.  Our sail was a two hour lunch cruise catered by a local luxury hotel and the food was outstanding.  Elegantly served by a formally-dressed waiter, course after course of Egyptian food was brought to us at a low table in the center of the boat.  It was impossible to eat all the food, but we tried.

After lunch the next order of business was sight-seeing along the river- scenes from everyday life along the Nile.  My favorite sights were the camels- not decked-out the way they normally are at the Giza pyramids or other tourist sights, but camels just going about their daily business. It seemed odd to see

Camels going about their day

 camels just casually standing around, mixing with other animals.

It's great that travelers, once again, are going to be able to share in this part of life in Egypt.