Egypt Trip 2: Cairo
In my first article, I shared my thoughts on Alexandria. Now, let’s move on to Cairo. Although Cairo is larger and more crowded, it is more organized than Alexandria. Our group’s first stop was the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, a fascinating and must-see place, which I have described in detail below. Later, we went to the Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha, where we attended the Friday prayer. This mosque, built by Muhammad Ali Pasha of Kavala, follows the design of Ottoman imperial mosques and is an important example of Ottoman architecture’s revival in Egypt. Its decorations also showcase Western styles like Baroque and Rococo. Our next stop was the pyramids, which have captured our imaginations for years through countless images, movies, and books. Seeing the pyramids—one of the wonders of the world—up close is truly a moving experience. Now, please read on to learn more, see the photos, and watch the videos!
EGYPT TRIP FIRST STOP ALEXANDRIA:https://muratulker.com/en/egypt-trip-first-stop-alexandria/
Our flight from Alexandria to Cairo takes about 45 minutes. In Cairo, we checked into the Sofitel, one of the many world-famous hotels lining the Nile. As soon as we entered our room, we were greeted with uniquely themed fruit and dessert plates. Seeing a fez and one of the Egyptian gods together made me wonder if the hotel was trying to convey a message.
Standing in the lobby of our hotel was the statue of a Mevlevi dervish. Curious, I asked the doorman, “Who is this, and what is he doing?” He thought for a bit and then said, “I can’t quite place it, but he must be someone important.” 😊
We arrived at our hotel quite late, so we went to bed early to prepare for the next day. The next morning, we woke up to the stunning view of the Nile River.
Cairo’s city center is home to around 7.9 million people, with nearly 20 million residents when you include the suburbs. As the capital of Egypt, Cairo is home to the government, parliament, state offices, and diplomatic missions.
Most of Cairo is situated on the eastern bank of the Nile, just a bit downstream from where the river splits into the Rosetta and Damietta branches. By the way, our guide told us that in Egypt, most of the population lives in just 35% of the country, concentrated in the fertile and well-watered areas along the Nile’s banks.
Despite being larger and more populous than Alexandria, Cairo is comparatively more organized. The first stop for our group was the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization.
To properly contextualize what we saw in this museum, and what I’ll describe next in our tour, it’s important to have some background knowledge. Over the past 5500 years, numerous dynasties, kingdoms, and empires have thrived in these lands. Without a clear timeline in your mind, you can easily feel overwhelmed by what you see and hear, oscillating between mythology and the speculations of historians and archaeologists.
If you’re thinking about visiting Egypt, I believe this part of my writing could be helpful to you as a guide. I compiled the majority of the information from online sources, my notes from previous visits, and pamphlets and booklets I collected during the trip.
Humans are known to have inhabited Egypt since the Paleolithic era. During those times, Egyptian communities couldn’t establish central governance. The first development towards political unity was centered around Hierakonpolis in Upper Egypt’s north. During the last stage of the pre-dynastic period in this area, it’s believed that people started to use writing. This writing system later developed into a sophisticated hieroglyphic system used for inscribing the ancient Egyptian language. After all, our guide provided us with historical information based on the hieroglyphs we observed on the walls of the temples we toured.
It turns out that in hieroglyphs, the “sacred inscription,” each picture or glyph serves one of these three functions: (1) representing the image of an object or action, (2) representing a sound, or a sound of one to three syllables, or (3) determining the precise meaning of adjacent glyphs.
Writing in hieroglyphs apparently required a certain amount of artistic skill, limiting the number of scholars who chose to learn it. Only the privileged few, like pharaohs, nobles, and priests, who had comprehensive training, could read and write hieroglyphs; others used simpler versions more suitable for everyday handwriting.
I asked our guide a question: “Since there are no sound recordings from that era, let’s say Amon Ra… How do you pronounce it?” There was a brief silence. “Well, they teach us that in school. That’s how we know, but of course…” was the answer I got. Honestly, there are indeed many “symbols” in hieroglyphs, like “bird” for example. Leaving aside the question of whether the “symbol” and the “meaning” are the same, no one knows how they pronounced that sound back then, how they voiced it. That part seemed a bit odd to me.
I asked AI, and it said: “The decipherment of hieroglyphs was greatly helped by finding the Rosetta Stone. This stone had the same text in both Greek and hieroglyphs, so it made a big contribution to deciphering. Figuring out how to pronounce hieroglyphs is tough. Linguists and historians have tried various methods to understand it, but any study done without a definite pronunciation is speculative.”
As you see, even ChatGPT thinks like me 😊
Around 3500 BCE, due to climate change, the people of Hierakonpolis were forced to move to areas exposed to the floods of the Nile River. They initiated irrigation projects to manage floodwaters, essentially pioneering the field of irrigated agriculture. The establishment of cities ensued from this revelation, culminating in the merging of Upper and Lower Egypt by the late 3rd millennium BCE.
Throughout the Early Dynastic Period, Pharaohs took center stage, showcasing their increasing power and wealth in the meticulously constructed temples (Mastabas) they built. People say they tried to make these pharaohs into gods and keep their memory alive after they died. Once and again, I’ve already become quite sure that, in my opinion, a trip to Egypt means exploring temples scattered all over the country, which resemble movie sets (like Indiana Jones), and standing by hieroglyphs to listen to tales of pharaohs.
Now, if we talk about the museum… The foundation of the Museum of Egyptian Civilization was laid in 2002. It houses approximately 50,000 historical artifacts spanning different centuries of Ancient Egypt as I mentioned earlier. At the entrance of the museum, there’s a timeline depicting the stages of Egyptian history. I developed this timeline for you with a little help from the internet:
As a result, the timeline of Egyptian history came together.
Before Christ (BC)
Early Dynastic Period 3100-2686
Old Kingdom 2686-2181
First Intermediate Period 2181-2055
Middle Kingdom 2055-1650
Second Intermediate Period 1650-1550
New Kingdom 1550-1069
Third Intermediate Period 1069-664
Late Period 664-332
Argead Dynasty 332-310
Ptolemaic Dynasty 310-30
Roman and Byzantine Egypt 30-AD 641
After Christ (AD)
Sasanian Egypt 621-629
Rashidun Egypt 641-661
Umayyad Egypt 661-750
Abbasid Egypt 750-935
Tulunid Egypt 868-905
Ikhshidid Egypt 935-969
Fatimid Egypt 969-1171
Ayyubid Egypt 1171-1250
Mamluk Egypt 1250-1517
Ottoman Egypt 1517-1867
French Invasion 1798-1801
Khedivate of Egypt 1805-1882
Egyptian Hidiviate 1867-1914
British Occupation 1882-1922
Sultanate of Egypt 1914-1922
Kingdom of Egypt 1922-1953
Republic 1953-present
You shouldn’t part with this chronology while exploring both museums and temples. In the 3000-square-meter Museum of Egyptian Civilization, you can see artifacts from many periods in the chronology, focusing mainly on ancient Egypt.
While touring the museum, you sometimes come across familiar topics from history. For instance, you find items buried with pharaohs, or pottery production from that era…
While wandering through the museum, you also discover various new subjects, such as Egyptian women’s clothing or the early advancements in Egyptian medicine, evidenced by embossed hand remains.
We also discovered that in ancient Egypt, they developed agricultural tools, and gold jewellery was incredibly popular and essential at that time.
The museum also has numerous artifacts from the Ottoman period, one of which is a carpet used in mosques during the Ottoman period.
In the museum, two other outstanding artifacts were: one of the Kaaba covers gifted to Egypt by the Saudis, and another, the Mahmal carried on shoulders in the pilgrimage caravan, showcasing the power of the sending ruler even in its unmanned state.
The museum is a large one that takes a long time to explore. Our group spent 1.5 hours examining the artifacts on the upper floor before descending to the section dedicated exclusively to mummies. Here, there are a total of 22 mummies belonging to 18 kings and 4 queens. No photos allowed.
According to the website of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the mummification process is said to be a 70-day procedure. It begins with the removal of the deceased’s internal organs and cleaning of the body. During this process, the body is dried with sodium salts and finally wrapped in linen cloth. The organs inside the body are also mummified and kept in vessels resembling pottery, known as “Canopic jars.” Furthermore, it’s noted that magical charms are placed inside the wraps to protect the mummified bodies from decay.
So why did they embalm? Ancient Egyptians paid attention to the preservation of the bodies of deceased pharaohs and some so-called sacred animals, as they believed that they would be resurrected after death, in another life…
In the museum, there are a total of 22 mummies belonging to the 18th and 19th Pharaonic Dynasties, including famous pharaohs such as Seti I, Hatshepsut, and Ramses II. The mummies date back to the period of the Pharaonic Dynasties that ruled Egypt approximately between 1580 BC and 1085 BC. I’ll mention all these pharaohs while describing the temples outside Cairo…
By the way, I would also like to point out that I was quite fascinated by the Gebelein Man (Red Man) mummy claimed to be from 5,500 years ago while visiting the British Museum. This mummy has been on display at the British Museum for over 100 years. Why did it come there, and why is it still there? What were the British and French seeking in Egypt? Could what they were looking for then be similar to what “Black Hole” researchers are looking for today? These are different topics, of course; let’s leave them for another article for now. However, one can say that the studies conducted by British and French archaeologists in Egypt have been a major source of information about ancient Egyptian civilization.
Following our museum visit, we prayed the Friday prayer at the Muhammad Ali Mosque in Cairo, constructed according to the Ottoman sultanate mosque design by Kavalalı Muhammad (Mehmed) Ali Pasha. This mosque stands as a significant example, witnessing the revival of Ottoman architecture in this country through its layout, while its decorations reflect the preference for Western styles such as baroque and rococo.
The construction of the mosque located in Cairo Citadel (Kala al Cebel), overlooking Cairo, was initiated in 1246 (1830) by the order of Mehmed Ali Pasha. Only the rough construction of the mosque could be completed by the year 1849, when Mehmed Ali Pasha passed away. Later, under Hidiv I. Abbas Hilmi Pasha, marble coverings were added, intricate calligraphy adorned the domes, and a brass railing was commissioned to surround Mehmed Ali Pasha’s tomb.
In 1863, Hidiv Ismail Pasha commissioned the casting of copper doors, and during Sultan Abdulaziz’s visit to Egypt, a maqsurah (pulpit) was added to the left of the minbar. During the time of Hidiv Tevfik Pasha in 1879, the courtyard marble was renewed and the dome lead was replaced. From 1931 to 1939, the mosque’s domes and arches underwent repair work.
The Muhammad Ali Mosque is considered an important representative of classical Ottoman architecture in Egypt. The mosque features domes enclosed within radial frames adorned with hanging clusters in colorful and gold-gilded rococo style, embellished with acanthus leaves, fans, and floral patterns. Medallions on its surfaces bear inscriptions such as “bismillah, mashallah, tabarakallah,” and in the two pendentives beneath the half-dome in front of the mihrab, depictions of Allah and Muhammad can be found, while the larger pendentives display the names of the four caliphs.
The shadirvan in the center of the courtyard dates back to 1263 (1847). It rests on an eight-sided marble column supported by eight round arches, adorned internally with vegetal motif calligraphy on the wooden dome, and externally covered with lead. The wooden eaves also feature rich vegetal decorations.
The original minbar, the largest wooden specimen found in Egyptian mosques and distinguished by its gilded adornments, is situated in the western corner adjacent to the mihrab. It features Mehmed Ali Pasha’s dynastic emblem, the “sunbeam,” in its canopy. However, due to its distance from the mihrab, a new minbar was constructed during the reign of King Farouk in 1939. This new minbar, adorned with brass doors and gilt on white marble with red marble inlay, was placed closer to the right of the mihrab. The shadirvan in the center of the courtyard dates back to 1263 (1847). The southeastern colonnade of the courtyard also serves as the mosque’s last congregational area. Bands above the door and window openings feature verses from the Fath surah. Notably, the corners of the door arch display the crescent and star motif, with Sultan Abdulmecid’s name inscribed above, which is particularly intriguing (**).
Our next destination will be the pyramids, which we hear about more frequently than gardens, parks in our neighborhood, or monuments and buildings in our country. Naturally, it’s exciting… They’re not far from the city; in fact, we could say they’re within the city because glimpses of their edges can be seen all around the city.
Within half an hour, we arrived at the area with the pyramids. You can’t get too close; we parked the car and walked through the crowds to get close to the pyramids and take photos. Seeing the pyramids from a tangible distance, after years of imagining various images, constantly seeing them in movies, and reading numerous texts about them, creates an emotional interaction, I should mention.
It’s said that different prices are applied to tourists and Egyptians in Egypt, with tourists reportedly paying around 3-4 times more for entrance fees.
As of November 2008, the number of pyramids identified throughout Egypt is estimated to be between 118 and 138.
The Egyptian pyramids are thought to symbolize the primordial mound, regarded by the ancient Egyptians as the site of creation, and their form is also seen as representing the sun’s descending rays.
While pyramids are generally accepted as funerary monuments, ongoing discussions persist regarding the particular theological beliefs that may have influenced their construction. One hypothesis suggests they might have been designed as a kind of “resurrection machine.”
Constructing the pyramids required moving large quantities of stone, a feat that becomes evident when you witness it. In 2013, archaeologist Pierre Tallet discovered papyri containing the diary of Merer, an official tasked with transporting limestone along the Nile River in the Egyptian desert near the Red Sea. These documents shed light on the processes involved in constructing the Great Pyramid of Giza, the burial place of Pharaoh Khufu, located just outside modern Cairo.
Evidence from Merer’s Diary and the preserved remains of ancient canals and transport ships suggest that limestone blocks were transported along the Nile River rather than overland for the construction of the pyramid. It’s said that blocks quarried from the quarry were transported to the site using wooden sledges, with wetting the sand in front of the sledges to reduce friction being possible. Water droplets helped create bridges between the sand grains, allowing them to stick together.
(An illustration depicting the transportation of a colossal statue. Egyptian scientists have long dismissed it as a ritual, but it has now been confirmed to be feasible. Water poured onto the sled path helped increase the hardness of the sand, likely reducing the force needed to move the statue by 50%.)
The Giza Pyramids are known, in ascending order of size, as the Pyramid of Menkaure, the Pyramid of Khafre, and the Great Pyramid of Khufu. Most of the pyramids were built during the Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdom eras as monumental tombs for pharaohs and their queens.
According to calculations, the Great Pyramid, also known as the Pyramid of Khufu, was constructed from carved stone, with a mass of 5.9 million tons and a volume of 2,500,000 cubic meters. Some estimate that, based on these values and assuming 800 tons of stone could be placed daily, the construction took around 20 years.
Around the Great Pyramid, there are three smaller pyramids believed to contain the burials of some queens, including Khufu’s mother, Hetepheres. Additionally, the top section of the pyramid was once clad in gold, but it was stolen, reducing its original height from 147 meters to 139 meters. During the Abbasid Caliphate under Caliph al-Ma’mun, a tunnel was opened to access the King’s Chamber. The pyramid has been looted over time, and today, this tunnel is used to reach the chamber. However, we refrained from entering because some of our friends experience claustrophobia. The nearby Pyramid of Khafre, attributed to Khufu’s son, was likely built to a height of 136 meters as he did not want to surpass his father.
The third pyramid, which stands at a height of 61 meters, belongs to Menkaure. Menkaure, the son of Khafre and grandson of Khufu, continued the family tradition by commissioning a pyramid for himself, ensuring his place as a grandson, it seems! 😊
After our group closely observed the pyramids, we walked around them and passed by the famous Sphinx statue (*) to ascend to an observation point where we could see the three large and three small pyramids.
I recommend not skipping the opportunity to climb up to these observation points; you would miss out on a lot. There are also restaurants available for lunch, where our team enjoyed a mixed platter featuring diverse dishes from around the world to satisfy their hunger. What stood out the most was the creative presentation of the rice in the form of a pyramid. It was a truly imaginative detail.
When you arrive here, one of the most intriguing attractions is the camel and horse tours (*) organized around the pyramids. We didn’t participate, but I can say that many people were quite interested. The whole experience in Egypt already immerses you in a slightly “oriental vibe,” and the camels add an extra layer to this experience.
After our team finished exploring the pyramid area, we returned to the hotel. Later, we had a wonderful dinner at the St. Regis Hotel with our business partners and their spouses in Egypt.
Thus, we completed our tour of Cairo. We spent some time in the hotel’s seaside cafe at night. The sightseeing boats on the Nile were not much different from the noisy boats cruising the Bosphorus.
To conclude the article, let me add a photo from the market, as part of my goya. After all, what I saw made me very happy.
Tomorrow, we are flying to Luxor and will visit temples along the Nile by boat, exploring them one by one. So, the journey of watching and reading continues… By the way, in the next article, I also want to mention the excavations at Göbekli Tepe and Karahantepe, shedding light on humans and society from 10,000 years ago. After all, there’s a growing tourist rivalry between our country and Egypt…
This interview was originally published on June 18, 2024.
Note: This article, which is open sourced, can be cited by mentioning the author. Copyright not required.
