5 bombs? I only heard one!

This week end was the anniversary of the 2011 revolution and we had been warned that today, Saturday the 25^th might spark protests and violence in town.

Well, they didn’t wait for Saturday; they started on Friday early morning, which is unusual, as troubles often come after the midday prayer. Living in the suburb and trusting that Friday morning would be fine, friends and I embarked on a taxi to go to see the Giza pyramids and celebrate a birthday, with some cakes and a candle.

The military/police presence was indeed reinforced across town and on our way to meet the Riddler. The usual entrance for the pyramids was closed and after driving to the main one, we were first waved away. However, once the “guards” realised that three foreign women were trying to get in, we were allowed in and finally got in three check points, one machine gun and several armed men later. On that day, only foreigners were allowed in the site, but no Egyptians; it all make sense, you wouldn’t want the pyramids to be a site of bombings, would you now? This is just about the only thing that attracts the 6 Asian tourists that we saw on the site besides us!

 

Once again, the site was ours; I had been there only once, and this time felt as overwhelming as the first one. You could see them several times and still be amazed in so many ways.

On our way to one of the tombs, we heard something. An eerie sound, almost like a big gong, with extra goose bumps; this was one of the bombs that went off on Friday. Now this is said with a huge pinch of salt, or rather let’s call it a handful of salt that it does suddenly take you back to reality. Cairo centre was going to be troubled and the semi green microcosm in which you live, that gated compound, is calling your name louder and louder, calling you home.

This week end, after reading through the Cosmos, by Carl Sagan, I discovered that the director of the Great library in Alexandria, third century BC, named Eratosthenes worked out that the Earth wasn’t flat and an approximate measure of our planet’s curve by simply using sticks and old papyruses. As an anti anachronism, I also read in today's news that some parts of the museum of Islamic art in Cairo was destroyed by a car bomb. The rise and fall... Years of history, heritage from all ages vanished in an instant, in the name of rebellion, religion, beliefs... Whatever the statement is.

Today, Cairo is back to its label: DANGEROUS Cairo and its people, dancing on the square, pushing some journalists over some news channel quarrels, rioting, shooting, bombing and a ballet of tanks back on the streets. Today, Cairo has fallen as low as it did in August.
There are three main types of people nowadays in Egypt: the obvious duality of the Morsi supporters and the pro military. The former are rioting on the Egyptian streets, claiming for their president back. The latter are spread across Tahrir Square and around Egypt, celebrating the revolution and hoping that Sisi will improve their lives. There is also a third category: they are neither for the Muslim Brotherhood, nor for the military.

But those who will reap the consequences of those deeds are right here too, and tourism was bad enough before this. Once the numbers go very low, people will grow more desperate and will have even less to lose...

 

 

The propaganda is everywhere, suggesting an answer. It appears 98% of people have supported the constitution, and want to see Sisi in power.

So does the sign right above the entrance of the pyramids, written in Arabic, English and French along the lines of: “VOTE Yes for the constitution and VOTE No and support terrorism!”.

Idealists will say that every country should have democracy and freedom, but when violence, lack of education and poverty have infested your country and consumed it like gangrene, someone needs to strongly remedy the situation, at least for a while... Sooner than later, Insh'allah, for the sake of Egypt and its people.

An important week for Egypt and the first desert trip

Today’s events, 14^th of January, will be history someday, as the Egyptian people have been asked to come and vote for the referendum on their new constitution.

Yesterday, the 13^th of January was the birthday date of the prophet Mohamed; it is also a bank holiday for the schools. 

So you leave your semi ordered and greenish microcosm to go and hit the town.

The traffic hasn’t changed, in case one hoped it might have; it is still insanely chaotic. Our own ride drove against the traffic on the motorway for 2 minutes and finally crossed three lanes so that we could go home without a detour.

The most impressive thing was the cacophony of the mosques. The prayer was longer, particularly the midday prayer; at that moment, all the different muezzins start singing and recite their call. If you hear one of them at a time, it is a beautiful experience, but this time, as they all sang together, at different speed, it reverberated in the desert as a haunting sound, as though the city was crying out.

The opportunity to share a barbecue in the desert presented itself and it was a wonderful trip.

As you approach the desert, near Saqqara, which we visited a month ago, you drive past a “canal” which looks like a trench, covered in litter and drive past the sporadic presence of a donkey or camel amongst the cars. Welcome back to Cairo. 

Yet, a few kilometres away lies one the most peaceful and breathtaking place on Earth: The Sahara. We say that pictures are worth a thousand words, so here they are, to work their magic! 

As we arrived, we saw horses, beautiful and strong Arabian stallions, being trained, running in the desert; they were healthy and well looked after, which contrasts with the ones we had seen at Giza. On this note, most people suspect that Giza is the one place where to see pyramids, but there is an entire alley of them across the desert. 

One after the other, you get blown away and for me, the highlight of a desert wasn’t one of the pyramids. To travel between each, the jeep option is the best (says the bump on my head), with a driver who beams with a wonderful endless smile and occasionally rests and regenerates himself through a homemade shisha; Hossam has the best wrinkles you can hope for, the smiling wrinkles. 

As we rode in the car (and he is a crazy driver), I looked at him and he lent me some of his happiness for a second. If you think about it, I don’t know his life history, but he must have his own problems and he doesn’t seem to have much materialistically speaking: his car starts with a button that you press, he made his own shisha pipe and yet he has the most contented smile I have seen in a long time! It is impossible to look at him and not to smile back, and that hasn’t happened to me in a long time in Europe. 

Also, the great thing about the desert is that the possibilities for getting from one point to the next is entirely up to you, you can follow the prints from your car or make your own journey.

However many pyramids they are, they never cease to amaze you, the same goes for the innumerable hieroglyphics. Even the sandy colour sometimes wraps itself in shades of gold. It is flabbergasting!

A collection of wonderful moments, from running, to jumping, sliding, wrestling, building castles, sharing, laughing, smiling, beeping and hugging in the biggest sandpit of the world, which once again, happened in inspiring and unreported Cairo!