I had the privilege to visit Egypt this Easter break. It was a week long trip aiming to visit all the monumental wonders that the country beholds. Pyramids are the obvious answer but there are many more that have not been hyped as much as they should have.
Many those who visit Egypt mainly know of the cities like Cairo, Luxor and probably Aswan. But there are many more cities both old and new that add to the glory of the Egyptian mythology. Fayyum, Saqqarra, Memphis, Edfu, Denderah, Kom ombo and Nubia are just few of the off the track cities that are worth the visit.
Egypt is like an open air museum, each day each place there are more and more excavations, on our visit to Cairo museum, we spotted these boxes that were full of some or the other remains, one of the box said: “2nd century B.C ornaments” while the other one said, alabaster from 14th century A.D. It makes me ponder, did those pharaohs know that they would leave behind not only a lost civilization but also a huge employment opportunity, the sole bread and butter earner for Egypt for hundred of years? Many times it also makes me think of what happens to us when we die, will our future generations excavate us in the same way and then how old will the Egyptian civilization date back to?
River Nile originates in Sudan and then flows into Egypt, it gives to this land, flourishing agricultural valleys and undulating landscapes on which settled world’s most earliest recorded civilizations. Thebes (Now Luxor) and Memphis (Can be called as the old Cairo) grew manifolds due to this enriching river. Nile saw many come and go that we cannot fathom, but now its just reduced to a trade, more than 300 Nile cruisers transport more than 50,000 tourists, spilling as much waste as they can. They boast of the river as mother Nile but when it comes to adding to its splendor, I bet you can’t count on them.
Nubia was another fascination for me; Nubia is the region in the south of Egypt, along the Nile and in northern Sudan. Most of Nubia is situated in Sudan with about a quarter of its territory in Egypt. In ancient times it was an independent kingdom. Many centuries showed many different expansions and invasions over this wealthy and stable kingdom and then finally with the end of colonialism Nubia was divided between Egypt and Sudan. These people are far more socio-economically disadvantaged within Egypt, as compared to Sudanese Nubians in Sudan. What an irony, once the trading and commercial hub now, u see the Nubians working as felucca sailors, waiters, cleaners and even street shops, they are majorly discriminated just because of the language they speak and their skin color and then we talk of racial discrimination internationally!!
Many those who visit Egypt mainly know of the cities like Cairo, Luxor and probably Aswan. But there are many more cities both old and new that add to the glory of the Egyptian mythology. Fayyum, Saqqarra, Memphis, Edfu, Denderah, Kom ombo and Nubia are just few of the off the track cities that are worth the visit.
Egypt is like an open air museum, each day each place there are more and more excavations, on our visit to Cairo museum, we spotted these boxes that were full of some or the other remains, one of the box said: “2nd century B.C ornaments” while the other one said, alabaster from 14th century A.D. It makes me ponder, did those pharaohs know that they would leave behind not only a lost civilization but also a huge employment opportunity, the sole bread and butter earner for Egypt for hundred of years? Many times it also makes me think of what happens to us when we die, will our future generations excavate us in the same way and then how old will the Egyptian civilization date back to?
River Nile originates in Sudan and then flows into Egypt, it gives to this land, flourishing agricultural valleys and undulating landscapes on which settled world’s most earliest recorded civilizations. Thebes (Now Luxor) and Memphis (Can be called as the old Cairo) grew manifolds due to this enriching river. Nile saw many come and go that we cannot fathom, but now its just reduced to a trade, more than 300 Nile cruisers transport more than 50,000 tourists, spilling as much waste as they can. They boast of the river as mother Nile but when it comes to adding to its splendor, I bet you can’t count on them.
Nubia was another fascination for me; Nubia is the region in the south of Egypt, along the Nile and in northern Sudan. Most of Nubia is situated in Sudan with about a quarter of its territory in Egypt. In ancient times it was an independent kingdom. Many centuries showed many different expansions and invasions over this wealthy and stable kingdom and then finally with the end of colonialism Nubia was divided between Egypt and Sudan. These people are far more socio-economically disadvantaged within Egypt, as compared to Sudanese Nubians in Sudan. What an irony, once the trading and commercial hub now, u see the Nubians working as felucca sailors, waiters, cleaners and even street shops, they are majorly discriminated just because of the language they speak and their skin color and then we talk of racial discrimination internationally!!
The ancient monumental feats that were achieved are no doubt incredible, but for the amount of international funding that is showered on Egypt, I sometimes feel it is let down, so much of hype, air of royalty is nothing but a mere trade, that has had its country men so dependent on it, that to maintain the pharaoh land status they may even go lengths to stir the conspiracy theory.
2 comments:
Was interesting to read about Nubia. Sad to notice the racism. I guess by now the people of the world would've formed some sort of a skin-colour gradient with a layer being entitled to discriminate against all others below it (immediately and subsequently) in the gradient. I guess I should start practicing tht too. against everyone even a fraction darker. but wait, I'll have to be careful with the sun in tht case, not to get a tan.
silly descendants of monkeys that we all are!
BTW, if there are not enough problems already, you can suggest the Sudan and Egypt govts to draw inspiration from India and launch something on the lines of the Cauvery water dispute. All the media attention will be fun and beneficial.
Anyways, it was always very soothing to read about the world-renowned aura, beauty and mystique of the region and nice to see tht u could discover (read explore) some things of your own.
i can really bet on the types of discrimination that we adhere to, colour unfortunately starts very young, when i was born and my mother was told that it was a girl her first question was: kya larki gori hai??? (is the girl fair?)
tan maynot be permanent, but i dont know what others who have a permanenet tan feel like!
I think that is such a superb idea, egypt is into tourism trade anyway, now water dispute, lovely worldwide publicity, infact this was the first thought that crossed my mind, when i visited the high dam, that demarcates lake nasser and rivr nile! we bloody indians cant think of anything but fishy, poor sudanese, they are yet not over with their war disputes, another dispute may just be enough to get another civil war roaring!
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