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. :)
3 comments:
WOW! The ruins, the history and then the escort! So cool! Maybe I'll ditch the fam and come visit. I think I would have peed my pants with the police escort though!
I'm glad you think of the escort as friendlies, I find them rather alarming. I think I'll not show Steve this entry.
I like the bathtub, probably didn't have running hot water?
Post a Comment