Egypt and
        the Egyptians
        E gypt’s long and illustrious history seems to hold the
        modern world spellbound. The ancient Empire that flourished here from
        2500 b.c. until just before the dawn of Christianity was, arguably, the
        greatest civilization that the world has ever seen. Two hundred years
        ago, after Napoleon sent his army officers to explore the land and
        bring back the first hand-drawn impressions of half-buried statues and
        columns, the world couldn’t get enough. When Howard Carter peered
        through the dusty air of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922 and, in his own
        words, “wonderful things” met his eyes, he confirmed the immeasurable
        wealth of the Pharaohs, and when the backer of the dig, Lord Carnarvon,
        died suddenly only a few months later, vox populi blamed it on the
        curse of the Pharaohs mummy — and Hollywood was quick to feed our
        fantasies. Today, “pseudo-scientific” theories about the origin and
        purpose of the pyramids fill the stands of bookshops and the listings
        on documentary channels. Our interest and curiosity about Egypt is, it
        seems, insatiable.
        Due to this unprecedented attention, people travel to Egypt
        with preconceived ideas, in addition to a sense of excitement and
        anticipation. But when it comes to the reality of the archaeological
        sites, nothing prepares you for their beauty, scale, and magnificence.
        The colossal statues are overwhelming, the delicate grace of the tomb
        paintings breathtaking, the pyramids prodigious, and the huge temple
        complexes positively Herculean. One can see how archaeologists arrive
        for one season and never leave — the ruins and artifacts, like the
        enigmatic smile of the Sphinx, pose more questions than we have
        answers.
        There’s no doubt that the mysteries of the ancient are the
        lure that attracts most visitors, yet there is much to be said of
        modern Egypt — the archaeological sites do not sit in a geographical or
        cultural vacuum.Twenty-first century Egypt is a land of contrasts, but
        some things never change. Just as in ancient times, without the River
        Nile, Egypt could not exist. The longest river in the world brings
        abundant water from the heart of Africa to irrigate a narrow verdant
        valley snaking its way through the hundreds of thousands of square
        kilometers of parched desert that constitute the modern state. Its flow
        is constant — never suffocated by the all-pervading sand or evaporated
        by the oppressive heat of the sun. All along its length, small villages
        of modest mud-brick houses sit surrounded by verdant crops. You’ll see
        gaggles of geese and ducks waddling along the riverbanks, burdened
        donkeys treading steadfastly homeward, and oxen compliantly tilling the
        fields.
        The people of Egypt give thanks to the Nile, but they
        worship Allah, and the haunting intonations of the muezzin drift across
        city and farmland calling the faithful to prayer. It is, however, the
        most liberal Muslim state in the Middle East with a constitution and
        judiciary based on western democratic models, not shariah Muslim law.
        The country also has a small but well-integrated Christian community
        who worship the tenets of St. Mark. The Copts, as they are known, have
        brought forth many influential individuals, including Boutros Boutros
        Ghali, former Secretary General of the United Nations.
        These interesting amalgams help to make Egypt such a
        fascinating destination to visit. So many seemingly contrary and
        opposing factors combine to make it unique. Over 90 percent of its land
        is uninhabited, contrasting with great centers of population, including
        the capital, Cairo, which is the largest city in Africa — a dusty,
        noisy, sprawling, neon-lit, crowded metropolis of more than fourteen
        million people. The majority of its population is urban dwelling, yet
        it has family groups of Berber and Bedouin nomads who spend their
        entire lives in their barren desert homeland. Office workers function
        by the tick of the clock, watching the minutes pass, while farmers live
        by the season, marking time with the twice yearly harvests. Though most
        of its people claim descent from the ancient Egyptians, modern
        religious practices and social protocols are totally divorced from
        those of their ancestors. In a country where tradition plays an
        overriding part of everyday life, one-third of its energy comes from
        the ultra-modern source of hydroelectricity.
        It may be Egypt’s position at the meeting point of three
        cultures — Africa, Europe, and the Middle East — that accounts for its
        complexity. It has long been influenced by their differing traits, and
        has assimilated their various customs and practices. African gold
        brought wealth in ancient times, and the darker skinned Nubians became
        invaluable trading partners to the ancient Egyptians; living around
        Aswan in the south, they remain close to their roots and their strong
        musical traditions. When the Arabs took the country from the east they
        brought a new religion, art, and society that swept away much of what
        had come before. In the 18th and 19th centuries the Europeans
        arrived — one legacy of which is the English and French spoken by a
        good number of native Egyptians — and the khedives of Egypt stole their
        ideas on administration and organization to help them run the
        country.
        Cairo, not Thebes, is the focus of today’s Egypt. It was the
        pre-eminent city of the early Muslim era and the historic legacy of
        that time is a district of medieval Islamic architecture unrivaled
        anywhere in the world. The powerhouse of the modern economy, it is the
        city’s role as a venue for peace talks, a focus for the Arab countries
        of the near east, and home of the Arab Council that is invaluable in
        these diplomatically uncertain times.
        But tourism is the country’s modern lifeblood, and not just
        as a result of our insatiable thirst for history. The seas that lap
        Egypt’s arid shores hide pristine marine ecosystems that have lured
        scuba divers from the inception of the sport. Package tourists soon
        followed and today the coastline of Egypt is turning into a year-round
        playground. With daytime temperatures rarely dropping below the high
        sixties and almost continuous sunshine, it makes a welcome retreat from
        the drab northern European winters, and a scorching alternative to
        temperate summers. The authorities have been quick to respond, allowing
        hotels and other facilities to develop — though care must be taken not
        to blight the delicate environment in the rush to turn the resorts into
        “Euroland. ”
        Not everything in the garden is rosy of course. With
        poverty and unemployment rising along with foreign debt, and Islamic
        fundamentalists spurning negotiation and resorting to violence, Hosny
        Mubarak, the nation’s president since 1980, has enormous problems to
        solve. But with a foot in so many camps — past and present, east and
        west, religious and secular — Egypt should be well-placed to withstand
        the vagaries of modern life and grow in wealth and influence in the
        coming years. The kingdom of the Pharaohs has many more eras of history
        to add yet.