FIELD TRIP TO EGYPT
February 2003
 

So much has already been said about the trip to Egypt led by Marie-Henriette Gates in February 2003. That those who attended this trip are still talking about it with so much excitement is proof enough of its success. Many readers will already have heard about those aspects of the trip, which have become inside jokes for almost all members of the Department of Archaeology, student and teacher alike. But these aspects will still make up much of this article, for the benefit of those readers who did not have the good fortune of hearing the “Egypt tales”. They are guaranteed to produce a fair amount of chuckles, but they are also well worth mentioning as part of the real Egyptian experience. However, that the trip is to be mentioned in print calls for a more serious approach to produce a written record of some sort for our doings along the Nile between February 1-12.

Day 1

It is best to omit the bus journey to Istanbul and the flight from there to Cairo for the sake of brevity.

Day 2
 

Egypt really began on the morning of February 2nd, when we found ourselves at the gates of the Cairo Museum. Most of us were already familiar with some of its treasures, so it was no wonder that we approached the glass case holding the Narmer Palette with knowing smiles or walked into the room where Rahotep and Nofret were seated with a feeling of meeting old friends. The visit to the Cairo Museum made Egypt discard its two-dimensionality of textbook photographs to become fascinating reality.

Inside the museum

The group toured the immense museum while devouring the sight of its displays, now and then remarking on past exam questions derived from them and admiring the great many they had not seen before.

After half a day spent among painted coffins, amulets and canopic jars, we left the museum for a tour of medieval Cairo, but not before we had our first taste of Egyptian food, whose merits changed constantly during the entire twelve days, depending on where we chanced to eat.

The medieval Cairo tour took us to the Citadel and the Mohammed Ali Mosque and the Sultan Hassan Mosque and Medrese. By the end of the day we found

The Sultan Hassan Mosque

ourselves in the delightful confusion of the Khan Khalili Bazaar. Little did we know that most of us would return here on our last day in Egypt, having mastered the art of bargaining, which, in Egypt, apparently meant aiming for at least a fifth of the original offer by the salesman.

Day 3

Our destination for the next day was Dashur, Sakkara and finally Giza. Crawling

The Red Pyramid

into the Red Pyramid at Dashur and standing by King Djoser’s stepped pyramid were certainly an awe-inspiring experience and resembled nothing to studying the internal structures of pyramids on paper or locating them on maps.

Nor could any prior knowledge have prepared us for the gaze of the Sphinx. While part of the group returned to the hotel after the closing of the site, the rest of us remained to see a light and sound show recounting the history of the pyramids of Giza through laser images projected on the faces of the pyramids.
 

Day 4

The next day, a bus from Cairo to Minya introduced us to the Nile landscape: palm trees, sugar cane, and canals--scenery that would accompany us for the next four days. In the late afternoon, we were in Tell Amarna, Akhenaton’s city.

Tell Amarna

Back in Minya we were given a compensatory tour of a modern Coptic church as time constraints would not allow visiting Abydos and some of the other designated sites.

Day 5

Early next morning we were back on the bus, on our way to Luxor. The bus journey took many “Egyptian hours” which we learnt equal at least two of the sixty-minute periods referred to as an hour back home.
 

Day 6

The following day was devoted to the Valley of the Kings and the great mortuary temples of Ramses II and Ramses III. Most of us indulged in taking photographs, and overwhelmed Marie-Henriette Gates with questions.

Marie-Henriette Gates with questions and explanations

Day 7

Some of us began the day of the Karnak Temple quite early to go on a balloon ride over the Nile and landed in the midst of the overwhelming papyrus columns of Karnak.

Although many of us still seem to be confused about the exact number of pylons we have seen in Karnak, we were all glad to have seen every single one. The day ended with a magical night tour of the Luxor Temple after a short visit to the small but impressive Luxor Museum, which stimulated excited discussions among the students as archaeologists-in-training.
 

A balloon ride over the Nile

The later part of the night was spent by most of the group sampling Egyptian water pipes.

Day 8

Punctuating the drive to Aswan were visits made to Edfu and Kom Ombo. Arriving in Aswan in late afternoon, the group hopped

‘hopped into boats to cross the Nile’

into boats to cross the Nile to see the Kitchener Botanical garden, and we sailed our way back after sunset, with our happy-go-lucky crew who never tired of offering us strong, minted Egyptian tea.

While some treated themselves to a luxurious dinner at the Old Cataract Hotel that night, others delved into the Aswan bazaar, where they were made numerous offers of camels as bride prices.

Day 9

The thrill of making our way to Abu Simbel through the desert eliminated all the dreaded aspects of a long bus journey. At its end we were greeted with a stunning view of the Nile at

 

The long road through the desert

sunset, seen from the hotel terrace enclosed by the rooms we would hardly visit that night. The group was engaged in more lively activities after dinner, when we all danced to Egyptian music, which, as all who were there that night will confirm, is truly impossible to resist.

Day 10

Before our return to Aswan for the night train to Cairo, we visited the Temple of Ramses II in Abu Simbel, where it certainly was very hard to stop gaping in awe. Back in Aswan, after the Philae Temple and the Aswan Dam, we concluded our formal touristic visit in front of the Unfinished Obelisk, which proved tricky to locate for some.
Although one cannot say that the train journey back to Cairo was uneventful, it was nothing one could not sleep through, as certain members
of the group demonstrated.

Day 11

Some of us went back to the Cairo Museum and to Giza while others spent most of the day making yet more purchases of Egyptian scarves at the Khan Khalili Bazaar. After an extraordinary dinner on a boat on the Nile, we would be returning to the hotel to pick up our bags and head to the airport.
 

Dancing in the bus to Abu Simbel

Day 12

Back in Istanbul and return home.

All in all we spent a full twelve days learning, bargaining, dancing—at
 

The group in Abu Simbel

times disbelieving—and ultimately loving it.

Yağmur Sarıoğlu
 

Abu Simbel, statue in the Horos temple of Ramses II

Photos: B. Claasz Coockson