False doors of Egypt

False doors of Egypt: an excellent article on contemporary Egypt which gels with our own experiences. Also highly recommended: Devotion and division:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25082492-5013491,00.html

OPINION: Phillip Adams | February 14, 2009
Article from: The Australian

THE Colossi of Memnon are blowing bubbles.

One of the colossal colossi
For thousands of years the increasingly dilapidated giants have sat side by side in what the ancients called the “desh-ert” or “land of the dead”.
Now they’re behaving like children, filling the air with opalescent spheres that float in the growing light of an Egyptian dawn. Dozens in every possible colour drifting high over the dunes and ramparts, lit from within as the great goddess Nut gives birth to the sun.

A few minutes later, I’m in one. Not a soap bubble, but a hot air balloon. The vast membrane fills as the propane burner belches its dragon flame, the heat singeing what’s left of my hair, until the basket lifts an inch or two to bounce and drag on the rock-littered sand … and suddenly we’re soaring. Up there with the falcons, looking down on the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, the Tombs of the Nobles and the other attractions of Thebes, the first and greatest theme park. Even the mighty Walt Dynasty is dwarfed by the Ramses.

In the middle distance at Luxor is Karnak, the largest temple complex on Earth. Between us the silver sliver of the Nile that for millions of years has rolled out Egypt’s green carpet – flowing from deep in Africa to the delta where Alexander built Alexandria. One of the dozen cities of the same name he left in his wake. Which must have made it very difficult for the postman.

Now we’re looking down on the temple of Hatshepsut, the cross-dressing queen who ruled as pharaoh in the 15th century BC.

No terrorists, but who is that suspicious Australian?
Hewn from solid rock and painstakingly repaired by the Poles, Hatshepsut’s sanctum was the scene of a massacre 11 years ago to the day. Terrorists versus tourists – 62 herded into the temple and shot. Just as the high dam above the first cataracts put an end to the annual inundation that had nourished the farms of Egypt for 7000 years, the Hatshepsut horror ended the annual inundation of tourism that had provided up to 80 per cent of the economy for Luxor and Aswan. The locals remember the years of deprivation that followed, and fear more as the events in Gaza and the global financial crisis empty the hotels.

Since the terrorists attacked in Luxor and Cairo, illusory security arrangements have been Egypt’s busiest employer. The country crawls with guards toting ancient rifles and AK-47s, and major movements of tourists still occur in convoys. Thus we’ll gather in Aswan at 3.30 in the morning for the cross-desert trip to the rescued monuments of Abu Simbel, the scores of vehicles passing through endless checkpoints.

“Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair…”
Then there are the false doors. No respectable Egyptian tomb was without one. Massive thresholds between the lands of the living and the dead through which the spirit of the deceased could pass. The airport metal detector is about the same size and intended to protect the living from death – and Egypt must have a million of them. Tourists pass through them to enter every hotel, museum and public building. Twentieth-century technology provides the false doors for the pyramids of Giza and Saqqara and for every significant archeological site – false because few of them work. Nor do the X-ray machines, which cause long delays while bored guards pretend to search handbags.

Giza pyramids, and another suspicious Australian
This is, after all, Egypt. Where nothing works. Where buildings under construction become ruins as they rise, ageing more in months than the monuments in millennia. The only place where the metal detectors do operate is at the entrance of major hotels – and here they’re ignored in favour of racial profiling. If you’re foreign please come in and spend your money – though outside the four and five-stars there are sniffer dogs and men with mirrors checking vehicles for bombs. but mostly the security adds to feelings of insecurity. It’s the hollowest of theatrics and the soldiers and police who emerge from behind bullet-proof shields to check your ID from the Lower Nile to the Upper are the best performers.

The locust plague that Moses afflicted on the Pharaoh has been replaced by the chirruping plague of mobiles. Just as every hovel has a satellite dish, every Egyptian seems to have a Nokia. They beep on camels, donkeys and feluccas, allowing drivers to trade in tourists. Visitors complain of “hassling”, forgetting that their brief presence in the country provides, for many Egyptians, the only hope of feeding the family. But Egyptians remain cheerful and helpful; many are possessed of the gifts appropriate to stand-up comedy. A great people with great problems.

I meet old friends from visits going back 40 years. And next week I’ll tell you what they have to say about Mubarak, Bush, Obama and the Israelis.