Letter from Egypt - Part II

Having recouped from jet lag on the Left Bank of Paris and at the lovely Cairo home of Holly's honorary Egyptian daughter, Dina (how could I not like a woman who said on the phone in her refined British tones, "The ladies are having nappy time today," in explanation for our non-appearance and pajama attire), we moved into Cairo's Semiramis Intercontinental Hotel overlooking the Nile.  There, friendly German shepherds sniffed all around the car before we were waved up the drive, and half a half-dozen guards checked us at the hotel entrance before admitting us.

And so we started the formal trip organized by Journeys of the Mind and the Biblical Archaeology Society, an "insiders'" journey - 16 days with 12 travelers, going overland through regions closed to foreigners for many years and filled with sites, many newly restored, usually seen only by scholars. Among the rarest was the recently excavated Tel el Amarna, the city created by the pharaoh Akhenaton and his queen Nefertiti; he was bent on throwing over the old religious establishment and introducing monotheism. The footprint of Nefertiti's palace - queens had their own digs - adjacent to the Nile wasn't much bigger than any stately, rectangular Dallas home, and we could see the location of Nefertiti's throne room.  One could just imagine the scenes that occurred there.

Nearby at Beni Hassan, we climbed miles (literally - a fellow traveler with a pedometer clocked our climb up and down at 5.5 miles) of stone steps to desert tombs carved into mountainsides and spectacularly decorated with scenes of courtly and family life. These interiors later sheltered Coptic Christians hiding from Roman persecution, and they left behind little altars cut into the walls and soot from their hearths. Like them, we looked out over spectacular desert views, empty but for soldiers - only these were not Roman pursuers, but our own Egyptian guards.

With the exception of Luxor, we had the ancient sites to ourselves. I learned later that the usual tourist route is to fly into Cairo, fly or cruise the Nile to Luxor and Aswan (all secure areas), fight the crowds, and depart. To see the places we visited - even major temples such as Abydos and Dendera, only a half-day north of Luxor - tourists must join a 50-bus security convoy, which would be a mob scene of approximately 2,500 people.

In contrast, accompanying us was Mohammed, our handsome young internal police officer, who was proud to have been part of Obama's security detail in Cairo.  Mohammed coordinated our police protection in each governorate we entered, the uniformed and plainclothes officers, and our military convoys. The usual contingent was Mohammed on board with an uzi, plus a jeep fore and aft, each containing a half dozen soldiers carrying rifles; the biggest military detail was 16 soldiers. The intricacy of the arrangements, the sealing off of routes, the undercover people and the shooters on high ground rivaled the protection I'd seen for VIPs when working in the diplomatic world.

There have been no incidents involving tourists in Egypt for more than a decade, and the government wants to keep it that way. Tourism, along with petroleum, cotton and fees from the Suez Canal, is key for prosperity.  Unrest has been linked to the sevenfold growth in population over 40 years. While that rate has been stabilized, the infrastructure is stressed, and there is high unemployment among 20 and 30 somethings. Still, Egypt's strong social safety net provides all basic needs, and one does not see the desperation that exists in the West: In a scene out of Les Misérables, ragged old people now beg at the doors to Paris's great churches, stretch out their hands and murmur, "Par pitié, Monsieur, par pitié, Madame."

Also accompanying us was our guide, Dr. Chahinda Khan, a professor of art history and archaeology in Cairo.  At the end of the trip, she served us a dinner of Egyptian specialties in her home, designed by her father, the "Frank Lloyd Wright of Egypt." The vice provost of the American University, an American who has spent some 40 years in the country, briefed us on modern Egypt from Nasser to Mubarak. These expert briefings were one of my favorite things about the trip, along with riding a camel with the Bedouin in the Eastern Desert!

We passed through ancient villages and exotic landscapes all down the Nile, then east from Luxor to the Red Sea, north along the Gulf of Suez to Cairo and east again to Alexandria.  While provincial accommodations could be comical - as in having to flip a fuse outside the door to turn on the light in a room that had no heat, this in the freezing desert night - we had five-star hotels the rest of the time.  My favorite was the exquisite Oberoi Sahl Hasheesh Red Sea, built according to the ideals of Islamic architecture, which are meant to give the inhabitants a taste of Paradise, and this hotel certainly did!

Holly and I both were bowled over by the life-sized black-stone statue of an Apis Bull in the crypt of Alexandria's Serapaeum temple.  More than an inspired work of art, the bull actually radiated a numinous presence that Chahinda also appreciated. Coincidentally, when we returned to Dallas and attended SMU professor Melissa Barden Dowling's lecture on the goddess Isis, the Serapaeum was the first site she discussed.

Dedicated to Isis, the temple's Apis Bull represented the goddess' husband, Osiris, the Divine Masculine.  The Sacred Cow who mated with the bull, and gave birth to the bulls, was Isis in her Hathor cow form.  So the temple was actually a Sacred Marriage site celebrating the union of the Divine Feminine and Masculine, which together represent the Oneness of the Creator God.

It also was interesting to learn that Alexandria's grand old Metropole Hotel overlooking the harbor was on the site of a temple Cleopatra had had built in honor of Marc Anthony. Isn't that a nice gesture for one's lover!

At trip's end, we had a few more days on our own in Cairo to shop in the souk (forget NorthPark and the Galleria - the souk is more fun!) and see friends. After that, we flew to Paris for one night, then home. The first few days back, I awoke each day around 5, confused about my whereabouts and wondering why I didn't hear the Muslim call to prayer...

Rosalind de Rolon has private French and writing students and lectures on Primordial Wisdom & the Divine Feminine. She is the author of Prophecy of the Rose: The Feminine Face of God in Christianity & The Earth as a Sacred Realm. rosalindderolon@mac.com

Dr. Holly Hill's new book is Salaam. Peace: An Anthology of Middle Eastern-American Drama.Holly is enjoying her retirement in Dallas after 40 years as a theater critic and drama and speech professor in Manhattan.

Copyright ©2010 Rosalind de Rolon