Fun in the Killer Sun

Hello again from Cairo. Seeing as how the Muslim weekend is Friday and Saturday (as opposed to the Christian Saturday Sunday) I have just finished my first weekend here in Cairo. I thought I’d start my narrative of this weekend on Thursday to give a good impression of what I am up to at the museum. I have given each day a title which I think described my day in a manner that best exemplifies my “dry wit.” So without further ado, I present the first weekend of Patrick Salland in Cairo.

PS. Sorry this took so long to post, I wrote it on Saturday but the internet in the museum has been down, I had to go to a coffee shop with free internet access.

A Small Brass Disk: Or how the register sometimes fails to strike my imagination

Thursday was my first actual full day at the museum (due to a rather bad time with jet lag). I rose at seven, showered, got dressed and took my breakfast on the rooftop restaurant. I then walked the fifteen minutes to the museum. I discovered that at this time of day the street is rather quite, which was a welcome change from my normal afternoon commute. I arrived at the museum right as it opened and went in the side door and found a spot at the table they’ve set up for us. I will try to explain in greater detail exactly what the area we are working in is like. The main hall of the museum is a two stories tall open area lined with classical style columns. At the front of this room a series of privacy screens are set up between columns, cordoning off a small area against the wall. All the artifacts of value have been moved out of the area, but from where I sit I look out on a thirty foot tall statue of King Amenhotep III (the pharaoh whose reign I have chosen to specialize in) and his wife Ti. There is a small corridor going off to one side that is filled with artifacts that are not “worthy” to sit on the main floor of the museum. These are propped up against the wall among extra antique display cases and dollies. It should be noted that this “corridor” runs parallel to the main hall and is separated from the main hall by a short wall (like two feet tall) and the columns, so these “unworthy” artifacts, which are coated in a thick layer of dust, are visible to anyone who were to enter the main hall. Off of our little area is the registers’ office. Here a number of young Egyptian women sit entering objects into the database, they are not actually working on the same project I am but are instead doing the normal everyday activities of a museum. These women are employees of the museum. Next to their office is the only elevator in the museum which means that every couple of minutes a disabled or elderly tourist stops by wanting to use the elevator and we have to rush off to find a guard to operate it for them as it’s not a real elevator but a service elevator.
I have been given a book of 126 year old French hand writing, which gives a description of the item, its number, its dimensions and its material as well as the date of its acquisition and occasionally the method by which it was obtained and from where it was obtained. I put all this into a fancy new digital database. Occasionally there is a drawing. Many of the objects are very simple, the entry stating “July 1881, brass, disk, 6cm diameter.” In the case of this particular example there was a drawing, still it was a rather boring example. Many of the items are neat, though, and I have a fun time putting them into the database. I can often think of similar examples I’ve seen. I also have to translate any glyphs that are in the description. As I said these are all in French which I have to translate into English.
The other volunteers are nice and I’ve spent some time with them. The project manager is a young man named Andrew from Canada, who is very friendly and helpful. The other volunteers are from the States, France, Finland, and Belgium. One of the young women who runs the registers office is from Evergreen Colorado, but she’s lived here in Egypt for three years and recently married an Egyptian man. We talk at great length about all things Egyptological. As a volunteer I can take as many breaks whenever I want, so often when I’m struggling over a particular entry I will get up and walk around the museum. We joke that it is not actually a museum but a warehouse, as there are actually statues on display which are sitting on shipping palettes. I turn a corner and there is a statue or object which I have read about on countless occasions, with nothing but a simple label in English and Arabic saying the name of the statue. Often objects don’t even have this information. On more than one occasion I’ve had to read the hieroglyphs in order to determine what king a statue represents.
After work I headed to the Nile Hilton for dinner. There is a rather affordable Italian restaurant there, where I had dinner, before returning to my hotel for a good night’s sleep.

One, Two, Three…Three Royal Fourth Dynasty Tombs: Or how I learned not to fall into tourist pitfalls

The next morning I headed back to the Hilton as I figured it’d be my best way of finding a taxi to take me out to Giza to see the pyramids. The streets were deserted, seeing as how it was the Muslim holy day. I had a nice breakfast in the café of the Hilton and then went out front were I hired a taxi driver to drop me at the pyramids, wait for me for several hours while I saw the sites and then drive me back to the hotel. It only cost me two hundred Egyptian pounds, or $40. Giza was packed with tourists. As soon as I left the taxi at the base of the great pyramid I was approached by a man who somehow talked me onto a camel and walked me out in front of the pyramid where he and his friends took my picture and then demanded 200 pounds. I, of course, refused and ended paying them 75 pounds total, which I was far more comfortable with. Every where I went Egyptians approached me saying. “Hello, where are you from? American? Welcome welcome. You want to ride camel? No? Later?” or “Post cards, Egyptian coins, I have change,” or “come here my friend I have a free gift for you.” I began to get forceful telling them to “scram” in Arabic. After a couple of seconds of “no” most will leave you alone. Some will say “why you say ‘scram’ to me I only said hello?”
My feelings about Giza are, once you’ve seen the pyramids, you never need to see them again. While impressive they are rather boring. I paid 100 pounds to get into the great pyramid and 50 to see the huge wooden boat that was buried next to the great pyramid where it was discovered in 1954. Besides that there’s not much of interest. I spent some time looking at the Queens' pyramids next to the other pyramids as well as the temples that were originally attached to the pyramids for the worship of the deceased king.
Probably over a hundred mastabas (large rectangular above ground private tombs) were in neat rows around the pyramids. Several of these were open to the public but were in horrible shape with almost none of the original inscriptions or scenes. I then walked down to the sphinx, looked at it and then walked over to a KFC across the street from the sphinx where I met the taxi driver and went back to the Hilton where I had a chicken Caesar salad and then walked back to my hotel where I played SimCity and relaxed.

We are Experiencing Technical Difficulties: or a stupid $20 mistake

On Saturday morning I returned to the Hilton to get a taxi to Saqqara, the main necropolis for the capital city of Memphis. There are far more pyramids and tombs at Saqqara than at Giza. The site was used as a burial place from around 3000 BCE until around 550 CE (that’s BC and AD respectively for those of you still using the old terminology). The site contains probably a dozen pyramids, many in complete disrepair. These pyramids are nothing but piles of rubble. Perhaps the most important site at Saqqara is the pyramid of Djoser, the first pyramid built in Egypt and the oldest stone building in the world. Before I went there I stopped at the new Imhotep Museum, which presents a history of the necropolis and contains a number of impressive artifacts. The driver then took me up to the pyramid. From here I visited several very well preserved tombs. About ten minutes after arriving the battery on the digital camera died and I kicked myself for not bringing the replacement. I had to buy a disposable camera from a man for $20. In several of the tombs I saw scenes on which I have written papers. I was amazed to find I knew the scene incredibly well from books. I saw three pyramids while I was there and four excellent tombs. Saqqara was far less crowded than Giza and there were far fewer peddlers. Needless to say Saqqara was far more interesting but it took almost twice as long to get there as it did to Giza. Truly, I’ve had a wonderful time so far.