Walk like an Egyptian
February 20, 2005 | 12:00am
Egypt is a country so mystifying that so many ancient myths and half-truths cloud the minds of modern travelers.
For instance, is it true that the pyramids were built by aliens? Is it true that the curse of the pharaohs befell those who opened their tombs? More on the hot truths later. But meanwhile, one cool thing is certain: When in Egypt, you don’t have to walk like an Egyptian. Otherwise you will miss those breathtaking sights that are so unbelievably beautiful they look surreal.
And how do you walk like an Egyptian? If you listen to the Bangles’ famous song, it means walking sort of sideways like "all the old paintings on the tomb. They do the sand dance, don’cha know? If they move too quick, they’re falling down like a domino."
So when in Egypt, you have to move quickly. At the Egyptian Museum, for instance, if you linger too long to admire those treasures found in King Tut’s tomb, the guards may think you are plotting to rob these (like many admirers in the past have tried to). Truth is, you are robbing hundreds of other tourists in the long, long queues of the enjoyment of scrutinizing ancient Egyptian civilization.
A trip to Egypt brings you thousands of years back in time, about 3,200 B.C. That’s how far back we traveled when we joined the six-day cruise along the Nile River billed as "Famous 8" by Keren Pascual, the country’s unbeatable events organizer. Yes, he has created seven other Famous trips, from our very own Boracay to Hong Kong to Vietnam to Singapore to Thailand to Malaysia to China to Australia. But this trip to Egypt shows that Keren wants fellow travelers to fly higher and sail deeper, transcending fun events to probe into the history and culture of the most intriguing countries.
The Famous 8 trip to Egypt was sponsored by Adidas. But of course. Egypt is Adidas country. It’s sandals or Adidas in Egypt.
The logo of Adidas – which looks like a stylized pyramid – evokes power and strength. Rustan’s Essenses and Bench likewise came in to fortify it with passion and fashion.
Our Egyptian journey began in Luxor where we boarded the MS Liberty boat which would be our hotel for four days as we sailed from the East Bank to the West Bank.
Why a cruise? Well, Mark Twain did it. Rockefeller did it. American First Lady Barbara Bush and pop star Lionel Richie did it. So Keren declared, let’s do it – try this 233-foot-long all-suite vessel where Egyptian First Lady Suzan Mubarak once played host to Mrs. Bush.
And why the Nile River? "We live for, and by the Nile River," declared our two guides – Noha Fouad Sidky and Gihan Youssef Nady – both so erudite they are better called Egyptologists.
The Nile River has been the source of highs and lows in the life of Egyptians. While it has brought in annual floods, the Nile River provides sustenance to agriculture. Egypt is perceived in postcards as a desert-looking country, but farming is a major industry. Another body of water – the Suez Canal – provides major income for Egypt in terms of toll fees paid by vessels that pass through it. The second major industry is tourism. There are certainly more tourists than mummies and camels in this cradle of civilization where people were already writing on papyrus, mastering techniques in astronomy, surgery, and gynecology at a time when some parts of the world were probably still emerging from the proverbial boondocks.
Above all, the ancient Egyptians were obviously such skilled architects and artists. Truth is, our six-day tour of Egypt was highlighted by an endless series of temples and tombs – each with a gravely interesting story – giving us a comprehensive survey of Egypt’s funerary architecture.
Preparing for death – rather, life after death – was such a passion among ancient Egyptians who believed that the ka or universal spirit should be well-provided for eternity. No wonder temples and pyramids were planned magnificently, no matter if these took years and decades to finish. No wonder burial structures included everything the deceased would need in the afterlife – including furniture, jewelry, and even ships to get there. In the case of pyramids, mock corridors leading to the skies provided a direct route to heaven.
Even Alexander the Great, when he conquered Egypt, planned to build a mortuary pyramid for his father to match the size of the pyramids. Alas, the Brad Pitt-starrer showed no such success.
There was nothing depressing about our home-to-tomb cruise, for walls were always filled with hieroglyphics, the visual poetry of the ancient Egyptians which showed vignettes in their daily life.
Our first stop was the Luxor Temple, linked with another temple – the Karnak – by a long avenue of sphinxes with ram’s heads – later substituted with human heads by another dynasty. Finished by Ramses II, the entrance to Luxor is decorated with bas reliefs depicting his military conquests against the Hittites, with a matching "Poem of Pentaur" extolling his exploits.
We discovered that there used to stand two obelisks here, but only one remains. Where is the other one? It was carried away to France in 1833 and erected in the center of Place de la Concorde in Paris!
Karnak, the temple dedicated to Amon, is said to be the largest temple supported by columns (imagine 36 pillars built by Thutmosis II). It can easily contain the whole of Notre Dame de Paris.
The next day, we took the hilly and sandy road to the Valley of the Kings which houses the tombs of several pharoahs, the most famous of which is Tutankhamen. King Tut’s tomb with all its magnificent treasures was discovered by a team led by English archeologist Howard Carter under the sponsorship of the wealthy Lord Carnarvon.
Thieves as well as fanatics have made the Valley of the Kings their target for pillaging and plundering. We saw only three tombs, where hieroglyphics on walls leading to them were protected with glass partitions. What beautiful, intricate artworks and poetry even on ceilings, reminiscent of the grandeur of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel.
Next stop was Deir El-Bahari, an architectural masterpiece built by Queen Hatshepsut (for easier recall, said our guides, think Hot Chicken Soup). More of an art patron than a military commander, Hatshepsut had the aesthetic vision to build beautiful bas reliefs, an avenue lined with sphinxes and obelisks.
The following day, we rode horse-drawn carriages to Edfu, the best preserved temple in Egypt. Within it is a mammisi (the place of childbirth where Horus is symbolically reborn every day). Hence, it is a sacred must-go place for women who want to have children.
Then we sailed on to Kom Ombo where we visited the temple shared by the gods Sebek (the god of fertility) and Horus (the solar god of war). On its walls we saw how the ancient Egyptians devised their own techniques related to gynecology.
Passing by the town of Aswan, so rich in quarries, we walked on granite sidewalks! Too bad we weren’t able to visit the famous mausoleum of Aga Khan.
Our last stop was the temple of Philae, dedicated to the goddess Isis, another must for every Egyptian who held Philae island sacred because the miraculous and beneficial flooding of the Nile began here.
The temple was dismantled in the 1960s into 40,000 blocks of stone and rebuilt to the higher neighboring island Agilkia to save the temple from destruction by the overflowing waters.
For the highlight of our trip – the pyramids and the Sphinx – our group flew to Cairo where the Marriott Hotel, our next home, turned out to be another exquisite structure. Built in 1869, the hotel was originally the Gezira Palace meant to accommodate the Empress Eugenie of France (wife of Napoleon III), guest of honor during the opening of the Suez Canal.
Our guides explained that there are actually over a hundred pyramids in Egypt, and six can be found in Cairo. Here, we were told the truth about the pyramids: No, they weren’t built by aliens.
The Greek historian Herodotus wrote about how Cheops compelled slaves to drag blocks of stones from the quarries in the Arabian hills to the Nile. The work entailed thousands of men and 10 years to build the pyramids, originally 146 meters high. Up close, we see they consist of huge blocks of stones built in steps. From afar, they look perfect. Two other pyramids – those of Chepren and Micerinus – stand near the Cheops – all funerary ensembles, with three smaller pyramids near them.
About 350 meters from Cheops’ pyramid is the Great Sphinx, a 73-meter-long statue of a lion with a human head, supposed to be the likeness of Chepren, guarding his tomb. The Sphinx has often been covered by sand and defaced due to erosion by the wind. Too bad, it was also used for target practice in earlier days.
Camel rides and photo-ops by our Famous 8 group with the pyramids and the Sphinx in the background served as the climax of our Egyptian journey, with us comfortably clad in Famous 8 T-shirts (a trademark souvenir in every trip organized by Keren), as well as Super Bench shirts from Ben Chan, matched with headgear inspired by both foreign and Pinoy super heroes. No Famous trip is complete without theme nights. Our first dinner was an all-white party. The second was Adidas night. The third was an Egyptian party with costumes crafted by Rajo Laurel and Tippi Ocampo.
The next day, we toured the Egyptian Museum and went shopping (read: haggling and bargaining) at the Khan El Khalili bazaars.
Before ending our sojourn into Egyptian history, we were told the truth about the curse of the pharaohs.
Lord Carnarvon died in 1923, a year after the Tut excavations; following a mosquito bite that became infected, he developed pneumonia. His death was simply sensationalized and the cause highly exaggerated by newspapers.
Our guides demolished other myths: No, Cleopatra was not exactly a beautiful woman. It was Elizabeth Taylor who made her look lovely in the movie.
And no, Egyptians don’t walk sideways like they are depicted in ancient artworks. The nobility are always depicted with their side view or profile, a symbol of dignity. They always stand with the left foot forward, a symbol of life. Because – according to Leah Puyat’s research – if you stand with your feet together, that means absence of movement, tantamount to death.
On second thought then, it might be better to walk like an Egyptian.
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