A memorable Egyptian experience

For some time, after Hosni Mubarak was removed from office in 2011, the security situation in Egypt became precarious. It was arguably not a country foreigners would feel free to visit, due to bombings and terrorist attacks. I personally was a bit worried when I had to board a plane to the northeastern part of Africa. I was not sure the country was safe until I arrived there to witness free movement of people and goods. There I met a group of 18 other journalists from different African countries who had had been invited for a training and a tour of the first country to get civilization. There are many things I didn’t know about the country. For example, did you know Egypt is a transnational state? Two of its 27 governorates forming the Sinai Peninsula, namely; North Sinai Governorate and South Sinai Governorate are geographically located in Asia. This means that approximately 1,400,000 Egyptians who live in that 60,000 km2 desert area between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea are counted as part of the Asian population. A fact I had never known. The Red Sea is not red! Once I knew my flight to Egypt was confirmed, as a Christian, the first thing that came on my mind was visiting the Red Sea that was, according to the Bible, successfully crossed by Israelites led by Moses, in their escape from the Egypt. Our guides found it a bit difficult to explain why the sea was named Red Sea whereas it isn’t red. One of them told me that it is just a name that has nothing to do with the label. “At first I thought the water was red, I have been disapproved. It is just normal water. It’s not red as you can see,” a colleague from Kenya said. Theories abound, but no one knows for sure why the Red Sea was given that name and by whom. Some Egyptologists say it could be from the red-hued “sea sawdust,” a type of bacteria that grows near the water’s surface. “In fact I was really surprised. I thought the water was red. I used to read about this sea in books, but now I am seeing it for myself, I am happy to learn about the history of Egypt,” said Moses Haufiku, a journalist at the Namibian Today newspaper. A theory favored by some modern scholars is that the name ‘red’ refers to “South”, just as the Black Sea’s name may refer to “North”. The basis of this theory is that some Asiatic languages used color words to refer to cardinal directions. Red Sea. Giza pyramids Giza is the third-largest city in Egypt. It is home to pyramids that served as Pharaoh’s tombs, each pyramid containing one Pharaoh. Construction works of those millennia-old monuments were executed during a time when Egypt was one of the richest civilizations in the world. The Pyramids of Giza consists of Cheop’s pyramid also known as Khufu that was constructed in 2561 to 2540 BC, the somewhat smaller Pyramid of his son Khafre (or Chephren) and the relatively modest-sized Pyramid of Menkaure (or Mykerinos) a few hundred meters further. We had learnt about them in high school. It was an enjoyable experience to visit those magnificent monuments. They are some of the largest structures ever built. They are 5 km southwest of central Cairo. The world’s biggest desert (Sahara) stretches up to the Atlantic Ocean. The Pyramid of Khufu is the largest Egyptian pyramid; 222 metres wide, 137.2 metres high. The body of the king is preserved in the underground part of the complex. It is the only one of the famed Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that still exists, according to Amr Atef, an Egyptologist working with the Egyptian Ministry of Information. The biggest part of the pyramid is underground and it is also where the body of the pharaoh was laid to rest. Khufu’s pyramid has three smaller pyramids for queens associated with it. “It was built by 150 thousand workers in 21 years with 2.3 million stones, each weighing up to 15 tons,” Amr Atef, who was serving as a tour guide, told us. “The pyramid was a king’s tomb to keep his body well preserved. That’s the main reason we had pyramids. All over Egypt we have 130 pyramids the most famous being the ones for Cheops, Chephren and Mykerinos,” Atef added. The Egyptologist told us that “all pyramids are on the west bank of the Nile because ancient Egyptians believed that the East side is the side of living, and the West side for death because the sun rises in the East and sets in the West.” “The pyramid of Cheops was built during the time of Kheops who died before finishing it and that’s why his son Chephren completed the pyramid for his father, and built for himself another pyramid 30 feet from his father’s. Mykerinos came and built the third pyramid,” he added. The Great Sphinx. Atef also took us on the east side of the complex which hosts the Great Sphinx, one of the world’s largest and oldest statues. The Sphinx has a lion’s body and a human head. It stands on the Giza Plateau and is commonly believed that its head is the one of Pharaoh Khafre during the reign from 2558–2532 BC. Suez Canal In high school I had learnt about the Suez Canal, a man-made canal that links the Mediteranean Sea and the Red Sea. We visited both the old canal whose construction works were executed in 10 years until 1969 when it was inaugurated, and the new canal built in 12 months from August 2014. The new Suez Canal allows for separated passing of ships in opposite directions. Creating a new canal, parallel to the existing one, according to Suez Canal Authority, was aimed at “maximizing benefits from the old canal and its by-passes, and doubling the longest possible parts of the waterway to facilitate traffic in the two directions and minimize the waiting time for transiting ships.” The new canal shortened the transit time from 18 hours to 11 for the south bound convoy, and minimize the waiting time for vessels to three hours at most instead of 11 hours. The Authority hopes the new Canal will increase the daily average of transiting vessels to 97 ships by 2023, up from 49 ships at present, which will also increase the Suez Canal revenues from the current $ 5.3 billion to $ 13.226 billion in 2023. The old 193-kilometre canal was only one shipping lane wide, with limited wider basins for passing. The new canal is 72 kilometres long. They both have 400 metres of width each, and 24 metres deep. Suez Canal Authority says the canals currently have 25 thousand employees, all Egyptians. It was built by local Egyptian companies. This maritime route is one of the world’s most heavily used shipping lanes. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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A memorable Egyptian experience