Super short post.
We live in Cairo.
We are used to the heat
We go to Rome.
We go to Coliseum.
I get heat stroke, get dizzy, puke in the Coliseum, and collapse.
WTF?!? I live in Egypt and the heat in *ROME* knocks me on my ass?
All is fine now. More about (other, more pleasant aspects of our trip) later.
No, not “the kissing disease”.
I suffer from mono-culturalism. (is that a word?).
i live in a mono-culture within a mono-culture.
Egypt is the larger mono-culture.
And then my social life is a smaller mono-culture within the larger context.
It is also rather homogeneous, though I suspect several people would object strenuously to that generalisation. (Too bad. Get your own blog!)
The one place that the faculty has great diversity is in their travel. The people here have traveled quite a bit and have seen more of the world than most people. Talking to them about that is fascinating.
So what is the cure for Mono? Rest. Drink lots of fluids.
Well, 1 out of 2 ain’t bad.
One of the things that one learns to do here, is eat seasonally. Grab what is fresh and enjoy, for it may be gone tomorrow.
It is May here in Cairo. (It is probably May elsewhere, as well)
The days are almost hot, the nights are very comfortable and tomatoes
are ripe and beautiful. And the garlic is coming in, in force.
Driving on the ring road through agricultural areas is a treat for
the eyes and nose.
Large trucks full of the reddest, firmest tomatoes imaginable.
Trucks full of garlic.
Trucks full of onions and leeks.
On a good day, the smell of garlic and onions on the ring road is
enough to overpower the smell of burning garbage.
(It is an unfortunate juxtaposition of farming land and garbage dumps)
I was riding out to Giza the other day and was watching the trucks of
tomatoes etc go by and thought
“Hmm, I would love some of that mexican soup…”
So I dug out the
“Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home”
cookbook and flipped to the
Mexican Tomato Lime Soup
recipe.
see http://wetleather.com/recipes/show-858 for details.
A yummy soup, hot or cold.
Great with a rose or white Rioja.
[digression]
Yes, yes I know: “a rose? ick”.
We used to think the same thing. Then we attended a wine tasting
at The Spanish Table in Seattle (http://www.spanishtable.com).
They were pouring a rose.
We turned up our noses, but the nice woman doing the tasting
insisted we try it. It was only a small taste, and we weren’t paying for
it. She assured us she would not be offended if we tasted and dumped
it in the bucket.
It was quite nice. A perfect summer afternoon or evening wine, lightly
chilled.
If only we had some here in Egypt 🙁
Alas.
[/digression]
Anyway, I know that the tomatoes probably are not in season yet where you are, nor is it likely to be warm enough for a cold soup, but tuck this one away for future reference.
There is an article on the Discovery channel website about sea shells embedded in the stones of the Sphinx, pyramids and other monuments in Egypt
I mentioned this in one of my recent posts when we were scrambling around the Sphinx.
There is an hypothesis that the stones that built the pyramids (among other large monuments) were cast in place like cement. It is not a highly regarded hypothesis.
Zahi Hawass (Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities) vehemently denies the possibility that the blocks were cast. He views it as an insult to ancient Egyptian in that it insinuates that they were incapable of building the pyramids by moving the blocks. I don’t necessarily share that opinion. It would seem to give the ancient Egyptians some great credit for figuring out cement all those years ago. [shrug]
And if Zahi Hawass is unhappy with you, you will never get another permit to dig or explore in Egypt while he draws breath.
And if Zahi Hawass were to say something like “write an article that refutes this nonsense about cement casting the stones of the Pyramids” to another archaeologist or geologist, it happens.
[I recently attended a lecture at the SCA that was “requested” by Zahi Hawass to “clarify” some statements made on a BBC documentary about the town of Armana. Someone had dared to say that the people that built the city of Armana worked hard and suffered hardships. Preposterous! All Egyptians have always been healthy and happy and whistled while they worked. This misinformation had to be stopped!]
This article seems at least partially aimed at refuting the casting hypothesis. Perhaps by request?
For the last few weeks I have been spending some time doing some basic computer networking/repair/upgrade/de-virus-ing at the offices of one of the archaeological groups here in Cairo.
The group is responsible for the Giza Plateau Mapping Project(opens in new window). The director of the project is Mark Lehner.
The work isn’t particularly challenging, but it is great to have some non-AUC social contact. They are a very bright, hard working group of people. And they are interesting to talk with and listen to. An interesting mix of nationalities and disciplines.
One of the big benefits (to me) of working for them, is that I get invited on tours of the sites that they give to new arrivals to the project.
Mark Lehner has been in town the last few weeks and has given a couple of tours. One was a Sphinx tour.
I was a horrible host and deserted our house guests to go to this. I felt rather guilty for going. But I got over that once we started our tour. [A big thanks to Kaddee, who convinced me to go].
One of the interesting things that Mark talks about is the geology. He ran into a geologist, Tom Agner (now head of geology at Tubington) at Giza some 30 years ago. Mark tells the story something like this:
I saw this guy with a geologist’s pickaxe being frog-walked out of the area by a whole bunch of policemen. He had been picking at the ground and the walls of the sphinx enclosure with his pickaxe and examining what he pulled out. The police wasted no time in arresting him.
I told him I would try to get him out of trouble if he came to work for me. I did and he did.
Mark goes on to talk about what he learned from this geologist. No one had ever before really looked at the Sphinx or the rest of Giza geologically
.
The entire area was on the ocean bottom 50 million years ago or so. You can see in one of my photos the coral reef exposed near the base of the Sphinx. Oyster shells, tube worm holes and other shells are easily visible in the rock here if you just look.
The head of the Sphinx is a different composition than the shoulders and the lower body. Many people think that the head was attached to the body, but it is one big hunk of rock. The sea ebbing and flowing left mixed layers of soft and hard deposits. This is perfect for quarrying, you can cut the soft layer and pick off a large hunk of hard layer rock.
It seems that there was a huge lagoon/harbor that stopped a few meters from the base of the Sphinx. This is based on long ramps that have been found (and are now reburied) that go down about 20 meters from current ground level, to heavy, thick effluvial mud flats.
After our mini-geology lecture, we moved to the Temple of Amenhotep II and then on to the Stela between the paws of the Sphinx.
The Stela tells the story of Tutmoses’ dream. At the time of Tutmoses, the sphinx was buried in sand up to its head. Tutmoses fell asleep under the head and dreamed. The sphinx came to him in the dream and told him to “free my body from the sands and I will make you king”.
Tutmoses did as he was told and became king. There is some speculation that there was an older brother that was slated to be king. This brother disappears from the record and Tutmoses became king. Perhaps Tutmoses used this story to legitimize his reign. Who knows.
What is visible now of the sphinx’ body is covered with cement to keep it all together and prevent further weathering.
We looked at the elevation documents that the project has compiled over the years and walked around the entire sphinx.
There were many stories that Mark told. He would be a great guy to have a beer with, I would imagine.
About a month ago, we had the great privilege to attend a tour of Sakarra and Memphis with Dr Alain Zivie.
Dr Zivie has been digging in Sakarra for a very long time. He has made many notable discoveries including a mummified lion and the tomb of the wetnurse to Tutankhamen and is featured in a short movie they show at the Imhotep museum in the Sakarra complex.
He took us on a tour of the necropolis of Sakarra. We visited the tomb of Horemheb.
Much of that tomb’s original art now lives in museums in Paris, Belgium and London. Most of what is on the site now are replicas. They are still quite amazing.
All of this sits a few minutes walk from the main tourist attractions. And is practically unknown.
Dr Zivie then took us to Memphis. Not much remains of the once royal city of Egypt. Some statues mostly, and vague impressions on the ground of where walls once stood.
I managed to snap a few photos, as always.
We recently had 2 couples staying with us, at the same time.
They arrived about 3 hours apart.
It was enough time to get the first couple home, and unpacked. We went through “the bounty”.
They brought pork products. A whole Smithfield ham, and 10 pounds of chourico.
The chourico, I knew about, because I ordered it and had it sent to their house.
The ham was a STUNNING surprise. I hugged it to my chest and went to my happy place for a few minutes. I got misty.
Then the 2nd couple arrived.
They brought a digital picture frame. Full of photos. From various parties that we have missed over the last 2 years. Including the “re-wedding” of our friends, the other couple that arrived earlier.
I was speechless and moved to tears.
When those 2 sets of guests left, a 3rd set arrived.
They brought seemingly simple stuff that was so appreciated.
Silly, inconsequential stuff that had us giggling like children on christmas morning.
I am amazed, and so grateful, for everyone’s thoughtfulness.
Thank you all.
About a month ago, we were lucky enough to score tickets to a concert.
The concert was by the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra. Who knew the Smithsonian even had a jazz ochestra?
It was a pleasant 2 hours spent sitting in front of the Sphinx. They played some classics. Everyone, both the audience and the performers, really seemed to enjoy themselves.
It was a slightly bizarre juxtaposition. The Smithsonian was playing “old” music, stuff as much as 60 and 70 years old! In front of a 4500 year old monument.
I took a handful of photos.
We just had 2 couples staying with us.
Before that was another set of friends.
Before that was some family.
Tomorrow another set of good friends arrive.
4 sets of visitors in just over a month.
It was lots of fun but it got me to thinking.
And I say:
“It is now your responsibility to move somewhere interesting so we can come visit. Work on that.”
So all those that have experienced the hospitality of Chez Jack & Kaddee, get cracking.
We will be home in a little over a year, insha’allah. And will be ready to travel in a year or so after that.
That gives you about 2 years.
Get busy.
We hit this temple just after sunset. It is fairly well lit.
I have a couple of photos I like here.