In the ‘original plan’, today was jet lag recovery day, but instead, we decided to join in on a bus tour arranged by our tour company to visit the Coptic area of Cairo as well as the pyramids at Dahshour. We had breakfast at the hotel restaurant — the tour company pushed us to eat at the hotel entirely for the non-cruise portion of our trip, which is a little disappointing to me, as hotel food is usually high quality but not particularly adventurous. I have to say, though, that the breakfast at Four Seasons was really quite exceptional and not without an Egyptian flair.
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| Some of my breakfast at the Four Seasons Nile Cairo |
There were many Western selections, but I tried to stick to fresh fruit and Egyptian standards. Ful Medames is a stew made from fava beans, covered in tahini, olive oil, spices like cumin and sumac, parsley, tomatoes, etc., and a typical Egyptian breakfast staple. It is typically served with Aish Baladi, a puffy pita-style bread (that I sadly didn’t get a picture of.) Notably delicious were the little Egyptian sausages which I think might be called sodk) made from lamb and sautéed in onions.
Our tour didn’t start until 10am, so we spent some time wandering around the hotel, which we didn’t get the opportunity to do the day before. We met up with Rob, one of the four other suspects in our ersatz 1920s-era murder mystery-to-be alongside Sean and myself, and hopped on a bus where our tour guide Wael told us a bit about our itinerary for the day: a short drive to the Coptic neighborhood of Cairo and then an hour drive out of town to the south to the Dahshour area, where we would go see a pyramid complex comprised of three rather unusual pyramids.
Back into the Cairo traffic maze, we headed to Coptic Cairo. The Coptic religion is a sect of Christianity that believes that Christ was a divine being, not just in Heaven, but also on Earth, as opposed to the more traditional Roman Catholic view that Christ was human on Earth but a divine being when he ascended to Heaven. They also believe that the ‘holy family’ of Joseph, the Virgin Mary, and the baby Jesus, when they went to Egypt, traveled fairly extensively and visited many sites that are now considered holy.
Cairo during the day was interesting. I’ll get more into what we saw on the road after the Coptic section, but there is a huge amount of construction and demolition in the city. I would not call the city, as a whole, a pretty place, but it is a living place.
The first stop in Coptic Cairo was the entrance to the neighborhood itself, a solid and intimidating little door that walls the little neighborhood/church complex/tourism area off from the rest of the city. It is of medieval construction and looks like it could hold off a small army, which I suspect it has had occasion to do.
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| The Medieval door leading to Coptic Cairo |
The first stop in our tour of the complex was, somewhat ironically, not a Coptic church at all, but a Synagogue, the recently reopened and renovated Ben Ezra Synagogue. We were not permitted to take pictures inside, but it was very nicely made up. The site was allegedly either the place Moses was picked out of the river by the Pharaoh’s daughter, or it’s where Moses prayed in the city…or maybe both.
We also saw the Coptic church of St. Sergius and Baccus (no, not that one), built on the spot where the holy family was presumed to have rested in a cavern at the end of their journey to Egypt. It is the oldest Coptic Church in Cairo, consecrated in the 4th century AD, though it’s been mostly rebuilt a few times throughout history.
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| Interior of St. Sergius and Bacchus Church, Coptic Cairo |
The last of the major sites in Coptic Cairo was the “Hanging Church”, which, while impressive, does not evoke the epic visual I was hoping for with the name. The Church is built of wood at the top of a gatehouse at the edge of the Roman Fortress of Babylon next to it, hence the name. The Fortress itself is mostly buried, but the church would have been fifty-odd feet above the ground level at its creation. It is the most famous Coptic church in the area and was built in honor of the Virgin Mary.
Even the Christian churches tended to feature a lot of Islamic decorative styles simply because the artisans who built the mosques were likely also the ones who built the churches.
Upon leaving Coptic Cairo, we drove out from the east side of the Nile River to the West, out of Cairo, and into the city of Giza, where we drove for nearly an hour alongside the river to the area known as Dahshour. Along the way, we got to catch a glimpse of suburban Cairo, a mix of pretty extreme poverty, farming, the occasional richly appointed villa, and a lot of trash. I need to talk a paragraph to talk a little bit about the condition of Cairo.
I mentioned in my previous post that roughly 60% of the Egyptian citizenry is considered below the poverty line. There is plenty to be seen on display around town, but a good example is the state of the river near the villages along the West Bank. Trash lines and oftentimes fills parts because, according to our tour guide, the taxes paid for rubbish clean-up are not properly managed, and rubbish is generally left uncollected and piles up. This leads to burning and often dumping simply to get rid of the stuff. It’s hard to blame people for this. The trash has to go somewhere. Regardless, and I am trying not to play any sort of “happy natives” card here, the people manage, and indeed, the kids we saw along the way smiled and waved like any other kids would at a tour bus; people are generally the same everywhere. Everyone’s just trying to get on.
Along the way, Wael gave us some history about the Dashour site, where some of the oldest pyramids, some dating back to 2600 BC, have been unearthed — the famous “bent pyramid” or white pyramid, the red pyramid, and the black pyramid.
The “bent pyramid,” also known as the white pyramid, was built by King Snefru around 2600 BC. It was the second pyramid we visited at the site, but I will talk about the first one. They started building the white pyramid (called so because it still has most of its original limestone casing) was originally built at an angle of 53 degrees, but halfway through, the builders realized that the angle was too steep to sustain the building, so they stopped midway and changed the angle to the more traditional 44 degrees, hence the very odd shape. The King saw the final product…and hated it. He then demanded they make him a new pyramid, even larger than the first, at the normal angle.
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| “Bent” Pyramid of Snefru at Dashour |
That’s Rob there, for scale.
The black pyramid is the newest of the three, built in the Middle Kingdom period, around 1600 BCE. It was made of mud brick, as the Middle Pharaohs were apparently cheapskates, and has since fallen into almost complete ruin. We didn’t actually get to visit that one.
The red pyramid was the highlight of the tour. It’s a beautiful example of Early Egyptian building prowess, both inside and out. How do I know this? Because we got to go inside! Content warning for the claustrophobic.
The red pyramid has a walkway that leads 180 feet up the side of the monument, leading to a small entrance about four feet wide by five feet tall. There are three rooms inside, and in order to reach them, you have to climb down a sloping hallway with a low ceiling. Because of the angle, it’s easier to descend backward. My dearest Sean, not particularly keen on narrow spaces, opted out of this little adventure. Rob and I descended into the darkness, down the seemingly endless slope, backward, for what felt like forever but was probably more like five minutes. Arriving in the main area, we were greeted by a few other adventurers on their way out of a twenty-foot by ten-foot step pyramid-shaped vestibule.
Leading to another smaller room with a similar design. A short staircase led to what would be the actual burial chamber, which was essentially gutted. The only writing of any kind was some graffiti from the 1860s in the first room. The rooms were warm. At least 20 degrees warmer than outside. I cannot imagine doing this in the Summer.
I won’t say the rooms were astounding, aside from the brilliance of the construction, of course. But the experience certainly was! The climb back up the slope to escape the Pyramid was…hard. I am not in great physical shape; it was hot, and I couldn’t see how far the exit was. I kept hitting my back against the ceiling. I am not claustrophobic, but after several minutes of exhausting climbing, constantly hitting my back and head against the ceiling. When I finally breached the surface, it was a great relief. We spent the next few minutes basking in the afterglow of the experience and getting our breaths back.
After Dahshour, we returned to Cairo through the same route, our bus vying for space on the road with camels carrying palm fronds, donkeys hauling carts, tuk-tuks overloaded with goods, and so, so many dogs.
Let’s spend a paragraph talking about the dogs of Cairo. Most are street dogs, called Baladi, and are semi-feral. They aren’t a particular breed but share similar sharp faces and curled tails. These dogs seem very friendly and laid back, but they also avoid people. They are real survivors, but it's tough to witness with our Western sensibilities.
We returned to the hotel and, after a short rest, went to the hotel bar to finally meet with most of the rest of our group - Steph and Carrie. The drinks were so-so, but dinner at the nearby Lebanese Restaurant, Byblos, was really terrific. Big plates of mezze with labneh, baba ganoush, creamy Lebanese hummus, olives, kibbeh, Egyptian bread, and filo stuffed with cheese. I had a super tender lamb shank afterward that was exquisite. It was all so great I forgot to take pictures!
Tomorrow, we tour around Cairo to some of the museums and mosques, then the next day, it's on to Luxor, and our cruise down the Nile begins!
