Christmas 2009

The staff here on our compound expended a tremendous effort in order to make Christmas special for guys here without their families (I'm the only non-staff spouse here).

First, Christmas Eve started with a potluck. That's the back of me slicing up my corned beef:


Anne, and to her right, Chris and Vinnie. The other two guys are new staff either here at Beni Suef or visiting from Cairo.


Then our Bible Study hosted a Christmas Eve program at the Chapel which was followed by homemade rum balls, chocolate truffles, and Irish cream cheesecake by Linda as well as sweet breads from the kitchen:
















Here's Linda, Jim, Tony, and the other Dave at the bar afterwards:


The Egyptian staff decorated a few of the trees with lightbulbs, which put off A LOT of light. David's first comment was "How much wattage are those putting out??"


and they even made a giant gingerbread church, except it wasn't gingerbread but slabs of chocolate which they decorated. Quite impressive!


We were laughing about how our sole Christmas decoration in the house was a pine-scented Christmas candle, but we adapted and overcame: stocking caps for stockings and our green chair for holding presents. :)
















After opening presents, we ambled on down to the dining facility for a light lunch, recovered in the afternoon, and then 5 pm was Christmas dinner. I took a photo of the posted menus:





















Christmas dinner was scrumdillyicious. Here are the chefs taking a bow (well, figuratively, I guess):


















Omar explaining how he fashioned the chocolate bark for the Tiramisu Tree:


Two giant bowls of eggnog and, yes, they piped "Merry Christmas" in mashed potatoes:






























After dinner, we did our White Elephant gift exchange. We tried hard to get the gumball machine and the sheesha pipe but ended up with a pair of headphones and a baby blanket. Go figure. :)

Pyramids at Meidum and Hawara

A few days ago, we visited two pyramids that we pass all the time on the road....on our way back and forth to Cairo as well as David's commute to work. The Meidum and Hawara pyramids....each are about a 20 minute drive from our compound.

Remember the step pyramid at Saqqara?? It was the first pyramid, showcasing Imhotep's idea to stack the funerary mastabas on top of one another. Well, Meidum is sort of the next pyramid chronologically along the progression of techniques which climaxed with the perfect pyramid in Giza. Meidum was built in the 4th dynasty by, well they're really not sure by whom. It is commonly attributed to the ruler Snefru due to some graffiti they found on the pyramid from the 18th dynasty (about 1000 BC!!). The graffiti indicates that Snefru was believed to have been the builder.

With Meidum, Snefru took the step pyramid idea from Sazzara but then filled in the steps and smoothed off the sides to create a "true" pyramid. However, the angle was too steep and the limestone slap casing was never attached to the inner structure so the whole outer casing collapsed, leaving the inner step core surrounded by a huge pile of limestone rubble. So only half of the pyramid is visible.


This is the first pyramid I've actually entered. Can you see the small staircase we entered through the north side?? This steep passageway descended for about 200 ft. and then ascended into the uninhabited and unfinished burial chamber. They think this pyramid was simply abandoned and never used after the sudden collapse.


Here's an inside look of the burial chamber. This is the first burial chamber built in the body of the pyramid rather than in an underground shaft covered by a pyramid as in Saqqara.


And here's a photo of the passageway out:


Once outside, here's the causeway which leads out to the valley temple by the river. (I explained these standard features of the pyramid complex here ) None of the valley temple remnants have been found.


Per usual, the pyramid was surrounded by mastabas where family and courtiers were buried. We actually were able to enter this one (seen from the entrance of the pyramid).


This passageway was much more challenging. We had to walk in a crouch and squeeze through that little opening you see in the background:

One last note before I move onto the Hawara pyramid. One of the mastabas at the Meidum site (don't know if it was this one or not) is famous for a painted frieze depicting six geese. It was discovered in 1871 and was so detailed that they were able to identify the species. The frieze has been taken up to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and I happened upon it during my last visit....just tucked away in a side room with little fanfare.

(Photograph by Jon Bodsworth at http://www.egyptarchive.co.uk/html/cairo_museum_08.html )

By the way, we were given another police escort:


The truck full of guards is following us. :) This was actually the most relaxed site we've been to....there were guards at the entrance of the pyramid and mastaba who we followed through the passageway (who expected baksheesh or tips) but other than one guy (unarmed, civilian clothed, with great English) who described the site...we were pretty much left alone. No entourage.

OK, on to Hawara. Hawara was built much much later, in the 12th dynasty, and while you can see Meidum in the progression up the scale towards the perfect pyramid in Giza, Hawara's on the downslope after Giza. Apparently, the pharoahs at that time were expending their efforts elsewhere. Amenemhat III built Hawara and was buried here and my guidebook tells me that Hawara was the last great pyramid to be built here in Egypt; as you can see it's not much to look at. Like Lahun pyramid, Hawara's built with mud bricks and the limestone casing has been stripped so all we're left with is an eroded lump.


While unimpressive as a pyramid, Hawara is the site of one of the most famed tourist destinations in the ancient world. Apparently, the mortuary temple built adjacent to the pyramid was colossal. It was still standing in Greek times and Herodotus and Strabo were lucky enough to visit and write about it (5th c. and 1st c. BC, respectively). Scholars differ on how trustworthy these observations are, but Herodotus called it the Labrynth with no fewer than 3000 rooms and described it as surpassing "all the great works of the Greeks....put together". Unfortunately, there is nothing left except piles of limestone rubble....at least above ground. I read that the Egyptian government may be launching an underground excavation effort in the near future.

Khan el-Khalili

The Khan el-Khalili (known henceforth as The Khan) is the most famous marketplace in Cairo. It is located in the Islamic quarter (just a few blocks from our first walk in the Islamic district which I blogged about in July) , dates back to the Middle Ages, and its thousands of shops feature everything from tacky brass pyramids to beautiful handmade furniture and jewelry. This is where your blue Muski glass came from, Andrew and Jen and Suzy! Muski glass is recycled glass, usually brown or blue, which is named after the famous Muski street from the Khan.

It is overwhelming to say the least but thankfully I know some women who've taken me past the touristy souvenir shops on the outskirts into the deep nooks and crannies of the market, introducing me to their favorite shops and shopowners. This was my second trip to the Khan and, unlike the first, this time I brought my camera!































































Muski Street:


If you look closely, you can see a horse and carriage just barely squeezing through this narrow lane:

Karanis

Well, I'm back after a very nice month of visiting family and friends. Highlights included a baby shower/afternoon tea for Heidi, a very special visit from my friends Dee and Wendy from Fairbanks, a visit with the Lyons clan in Ellensburg, going to the MLS cup with Krista, Karina, and Kasey, and welcoming baby Maude who made her grand appearance into the world on November 23rd. Thanks for the special memories!!

But now I'm happy to be back reporting on more Egyptian adventures. A few days ago, we visited a Greco-Roman site right next to the base David works at every day (about a 45 minute drive from our compound) called Karanis. Founded by the Ptolomaic Greek settlers in the 3rd c. BC, it continued as a prosperous town once the Romans took over until the 4th c. AD.


Karanis was a site of major archaeological excavations in the 19th and early 20th centuries; all the buildings and streets had painstakingly been cleared of debris. But now, except for the temples and some wall remnants, virtually everything has been buried by sand.


















Oh and the uniformed guards are the ever-present Tourism police who take it upon themselves to give you a guided tour for baksheesh (tips). I assume that their mission is to protect the sites, hence the handguns (are they loaded???), but at each site, one guard assumes the role of tour guide, followed by an entourage of at least 4 other guards plus one man in a galabeya (a rural gown worn by the farmer men) and turbin. Why the farmer guy?? Who knows?? But it's extremely annoying because you're not allowed to just wander through the ruins on your own...if you want to veer from the path the tour guide wants to take you, then the whole entourage stops and follows you. I would understand if their main purpose is to protect the site from modern-day looters, but at each site we've been to, it is the tour guide himself who plucks arrowheads, roman pottery, and alabaster from the ruins and gives it to David with the warning to put it in his pocket and not to tell anyone. We have no doubt that if we gave them some serious money, they would let us take about anything home. So we're not impressed with the Tourism police....whether it be their English or their ethics.

Anyway, back to the site. These excavations turned up a considerable number of artifacts and documents which helped archaeologists piece together what life here might have looked like. Roman tax documents indicates different professions such as dyer, barber, registered translator, caravan driver, embalmer, sheepshearer, and flautist. There are also documents hinting at the hostility and mistrust encountered by the Roman newcomers from the Greco-Egyptian inhabitants. It was interesting for me to read that while the Greeks and Egyptians merged well together, particularly through mixed marriages, the Romans saw themselves as a superior and separate culture.
















This was a temple which dated to the 1st c. AD. They know this because of the Greek inscription still visible on the lintel above David's head (unfortunately, the camera didn't pick it up). The inscription says that it was dedicated to the emperor Nero, whose name was covered over and replaced by his successor, Vespasian. The temple was used for offerings to the Crocodile god, Sobek. Remember him from other sites?? Apparently, they found a considerable amount of crocodile mummies.

This was the second temple on the site.


And here's the remnant of a bathtub from the public baths which you can find at just about any sizable Roman site. The Romans liked to bathe. :)


When we had started our tour, the head guy asked what our nationality was, where we were from, and what road we were going to take to return....the questions seemed normal (except for the route bit) but he kept talking to someone on the radio, seemingly telling them what our information was, which seemed strange. After the tour, as we were returning to our car, there was a truck full of policeman parked by the car, and one of them hopped out and very nicely asked where we were living. When David answered "Beni Suef", the policeman seemed to not understand him. We always get this response because there are very few foreigners living in the town of Beni Suef and most don't know that there is an American compound on the Egyptian air force base there. So the policeman asked his question again, "Where do you live?", to which David replied "Beni Suef". The policeman asked helpfully "In Maadi, in Cairo??" (Maadi is the expat district in Cairo), "Nope, in Beni Suef". "Sir, where is your second house??" "Beni Suef" to which he finally shrugged his shoulders and asked David for his cell phone number, then returned to the truck.

David turned to me and said "I do believe we are going to get our first police escort". This was exciting. We had heard of this before. Every once in a while, a decision gets made that foreigners, for their own protection, should be escorted back and forth to Cairo when they visit a rural site. These guys had apparently been tasked to do this for us and the fact that we were purportedly living in the neighbouring farm town didn't seem to be of any consequence to them. So they took off and we followed. I think there were two policemen in the front and three in the back:
















We couldn't communicate that we lived on the air force base, nor would they be able to get on the base anyhow, so they wouldn't be able to escort us home, but we thought we'd drive with them awhile and then pass them by with a friendly wave. They drove pretty slowly and what was really amusing was that we kept hearing a siren aways off and kept looking for an ambulance but finally realized that the siren was coming from our escort!! So, even if it was for our protection, we felt more like sitting ducks as the escort managed to get everyone's attention as we slowly passed by!

We passed them by at our turn off, they followed us and caught up with us at the next town, asked us to stop and tried to clarify directions. Finally, we were able to convey that we really didn't need an escort and they let us go. I told David that I felt like Obama!! All in all, a very interesting afternoon. :)

October dive trip

Greetings all, I have been horribly remiss in keeping up with our blog in Wendi's absence. It wasn't even until today that I read her last post and realized she had created expectations for my performance. Just so you know - I experienced strong pangs of guilt for the first couple of weeks but they faded and for the last few weeks I have only occasionally even thought about writing. But then last night Wendi mentioned it during our phone conversation and since I have the next couple of days off (the Egyptians are celebrating the end of Hajj feast Eid al-Adha) I decided my excuses are running a little thin. So here it is - I can think of this as a kind of celebration for Wendi's return (she will be back here Dec 3).


We (our team over here) did our second dive trip the week Wendi left so she wasn't able to join us. Aside from her not being there the whole experience was much more enjoyable than the first one (we didn't have to do all the training dives for one thing). Having already experienced it once, the process of driving there, unloading the cars, loading the boat and getting out of port was a lot more relaxing. What really helped was the temperature - in June it was well over 100 and we had to wait for over an hour on the boat while the Tourism office did an inspection. This time it was only in the 80s, we arrived earlier, and less than an hour after driving in we were pulling out of port.




















A couple of views leaving the harbor. As you can see the Sinai peninsula is a pretty desolate place. It was mostly empty except for some nomadic Bedouin tribes until the Israelis captured it during the 1967 war. Over the years they built up resort areas that the Egyptians took over after the Sinai was given back under the Camp David Accords. Even now the area mostly caters to foreigners with areas that are off limits to Egyptians unless they work there. The main resort town of Sharm el-Sheik is a couple of miles to the right of the harbor.





















The guys are getting ready for our first dive. It was several hours out of port and on the wreck of the S.S. Dunraven, a British cargo ship that sank in 1867. It was my first wreck dive and it was very interesting being able to swim through hull and see the old boilers. There wasn't really anything left to see cargo wise but it had some beautiful corals.





This is the second wreck we dove - the famous S.S. Thistlegorm. It was built in 1940 in England and used to haul supplies in support of the African campaign. It was sank in 1941 by a lone German bomber that was returning home after an unsuccessful hunt for the Queen Mary (the plane was caught in the blast when its bombs hit the ammunition magazines and crashed a few miles away). What makes it so special is that it sank quickly with a full load of cargo. Some of the items you can still see: two steam locomotives, tenders and rolling stock, rifles, munitions, aircraft parts, Wellington boots, trucks, motor bikes and tunics for the Eighth Army in North Africa. This picture is of Vinny, me, and Rich (L-R) getting ready to head back up. It can getting pretty crowed there but the first day we dove right before sunset, moved a little ways off to spend the night and then again first thing in the morning before the crowds showed up.


This picture is a little dark but if you enlarge you should be able to see the motorcycles and the cases of rifles off to the right. I was amazed at how well preserved some of the stuff was but you can see the effects of so many people being down there. There are big air pockets in all the rooms from SCUBA breathing and it is causes rapid rusting but as with so many things here when it comes to tourist dollars, regulations are almost nonexistent or ignored for a small price.
















This is pretty much what we did when we weren't diving. The weather was beautiful for the whole trip and the food was excellent (something about being outside always make food taste better). It was three days of eating, diving and sleeping. If it wasn't such a long drive I can see us doing this more often.

This was my bedroom - we all brought our blankets up from the rooms downstairs and slept on the deck.

These trips have been fun but a little surreal. A weekend diving at Sharm is about like someone coming to America and heli-skiing in Alaska - it's a lot of fun but you certainly can't say you have experienced the culture. It's more of an escape which at times is exactly what is needed. I hope you enjoyed my post and thank goodness for all involved Wendi is back in a couple of days :)