April 6th- Sheila's Version

Today we went to the Egypt museum. It was very crowded, especially in the morning. I was amazed by how many sarcophagus's there were. Many items were unprotected and showed the wear of many hands having touched over the years. It is very disappointing that Egypt does not seem to appreciate what they have and make more of an effort to preserve it. Many of Egypt's antiquities are housed in other countries but I feel they are better off there until Egypt can appreciate and honor them. I'm also bewildered at the seeming misuse of tourist dollars. If tourism is Egypt's main source of revenue, why don't they protect that source of income. It appears the philosophy is that it's been there for thousands of years, why start worrying about it now. Odd, don't you think, that not a single Egyptian has made an archeological discovery. I find it very ironic that the motivation of the ancient kings to protect themselves and their people in the afterlife has in such a bizarre twist of fate done just that. Meaning that what they did thousands of years ago is providing an income for the country all these years later even if they would be probably horrified that their remains would be on display. Other artifacts were destroyed for profit. Many mummies were destroyed because a doctor was grinding them up to be used for medicine.

Ancient Egyptians were among the first to use written language called hieroglyphics. Finding the Rosetta Stone enabled the hieroglyphics to be translated. Hieroglyphs could be written left to right, right to left or top to bottom. If an animal faced right you read from right to left. If it faced left you read from left to right. The cartouche was for royal names. Hieratic writing is simpler and easier to understand being used in everyday life. Simple strokes replaced the symbols. Ancient Egyptians also had a 365 day calendar that was remarkably accurate. They also invented the first clocks more that 4,000 years ago.
Ancient Egypt was ruled by kings who were believed to be the god, Horus, in human form. From about 1554B.C. the king was also called pharaoh , from the Egyptian words "per aa" meaning "great house". The position of king was inherited and passed to the eldest son of the king's chief wife. In an effort to keep the royal blood pure, the king often married a close relative, such as his sister or half-sister.
The goddess Maat, whose symbol was an ostrich feather, stood for world order, truth, and justice. To the pharaohs living by maat meant ruling justly; to the peasants it meant working honestly. The pharaoh personified maat, and his task was to establish maat instead of disorder. The pharaoh was to rule his people in the afterlife, he therefore needed to be buried with everything he would need like clothes, furniture and shabti.

Shabti figures were placed in the tombs of royals to become laborers in the afterlife. There are 401 in each tomb. One for every day of the year and then an additional 36 or an overseer for every 10 workers. The workers are depicted with the objects they would require for their labor. The overseers are depicted with a flail as a symbol of authority. The Ka or the person's spirit could only survive if it had food which was left daily.

Bodies were mummified because they believed they would need their bodies to pass to the afterlife. Upon death the person's organs were dried, wrapped in linen and placed in jars called canopic jars. The body was stuffed and covered with natron, a salty substance that dried out the body. After several weeks the natron was removed and then the body was rubbed with herbs and wrapped with many layers of bandages. The heart was left in the body because it was needed for judgment in the afterlife. Amulets (charms) like the ankh, symbol of life were put in the linen.

Bread was one of the basic foods in the Egyptian diet. The grain for the bread was ground into flour between two stones. Often pieces of grit blew into the flour. Some mummies have teeth worn down by chewing gritty bread.

Animals were also mummified either to be buried in with the humans or in their own cemeteries. The ancient Egyptians believed that animals such as cats and bulls and birds such as ibises were special to certain gods and goddesses. One chosen animal was kept in the temple where it was believed the spirit of the deity passed into it at certain times. The Egyptians worshipped this divine spirit that came to earth temporarily. Such animals were considered to be the deity's chosen vessel, and therefore treated with the utmost respect. During the late period, anyone who killed a cat was sentenced to death.

After our tour of the museum Seth hailed a taxi to return to the hotel. That morning the hotel had told us how much to expect the taxi to cost. Seth talked to a couple of drivers who wanted more so he just walked away. After he had walked away from one and was talking to another the first driver began honking and beckoned us to return at which time he agreed to Seth's price. Taxi rides like many services are negotiable. Seth has learned to agree upon a price before getting in and then get out before giving them the money. Unfortunately this driver was watching me in his rear view mirror and noticed when I cringed at the close calls and he might have been making the close calls just to see my reaction.

At dinner Seth ordered a Shesha water pipe and Jim and I even tried it. There are hot coals placed on top of the shesha and the lower portion contains water and you draw through the water. It doesn't have a strong smoke smell and the shesha comes in different flavors, like apple. Shesha bars are quite popular in Egypt. Many Egyptians also smoke cigarettes. Non smokers don't have the rights that we've come to enjoy in the last couple of years here in the states.

After making a run to the pharmacy to buy a bar of soap, Jim and Seth had made it successfully back across the street, but Kristal and I were having trouble finding a safe moment. A woman in full veil carrying her baby came up besides us and stepped out into traffic pointed to her baby and got traffic to stop then turned and motioned to us that it was safe to cross. I had reached a new low in my life when a baby is used to stop traffic on my behalf. Maybe we were just getting used to it by then but it seemed that traffic in Luxor and Aswan wasn't as bad.

Alexandria and Cairo are badly littered but it seemed that Luxor and Aswan were cleaner. Due to the fact that there are always cars parked along the streets, street sweeping has to be done by hand. Men with brooms or sometimes just a palm leaf and a wheeled trash can sweep the streets. They leave their piles of trash in big heaps on the sidewalks until men with shovels and a truck come along and shovel the trash into the truck. Of course these piles of trash don't smell very good and they make walking on the sidewalk impossible. I felt very guilty about all of the water bottles that we used while we were there. We needed to drink bottled water for our health but multiply the number of bottles that we used by the number of other tourists doing the same thing and I hate to think about the ecological impact that our visit had. I didn't see any sign of recycling anywhere on our trip.

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