Rene's visit to Egypt

Sorry for my long absence...

Rene came to visit at the beginning of February. Unfortunately, things got off to a rough start because of an incompetent airline (United), who had continuous delays without any bad weather conditions and caused Rene to arrive in Cairo a day late, after being on the road (so to speak) for nearly two days. However, things improved from there.

I whisked the dazed traveler off on the next available flight to Aswan, where I had planned some work and some vacationing for us. We stayed in the a cheap but nice budget hotel called Keylany, from which we did not have a Nile view, but nice staff, a clean and quiet room, and a fun roof terrace. Besides, Rene doesn't need a Nile view to take dozens of photographs.

It is amazing what he can do for an old, fabric flower on the breakfast table or a hotel hallway with that camera .

Later that day, we headed out in search of the taftish (local SCA office), before doing a little sightseeing. More later...

Cairo Rain

It is the rainy season here in Cairo (if you can call a centimeter of rain in a month "rainy"). We had a particularly rainy day last week, and only now are the bigger puddles disappearing, since there is no street drainage installed.



Every other place I have lived, rain was a nuisance if you had to walk in it, but at least it would clean your car and perhaps the sidewalk a bit. However, this is certainly not the situation here. The rain actually makes things more dirty more dirty because it brings down part of the ominous brownish-black cloud of pollution that hangs over the city. Urban legends abound (at least among the expat community) about it running clothes and burning or stinging one's skin, and I was surprised and somewhat mortified to see men standing out on the sidewalks like they do any other day, as if nothing was different about the weather that evening. As for me, I ran to and from taxis and doors as fast as possible, with my scarf wrapped around my head. I survived, but evidence remained in the form of sooty, black spots from where the ran had managed to land on clothes or on my face (extra yucky).

New Apartment

OK, so I've been really bad about posting on my blog. I intent to change that now.

I moved into my new apartment less than a week ago and have settled in pretty well now. It's a nice, three-bedroom place in Zamalek, near 26th of July Street. Although it is a bit further from the grocery stores and such that I like to frequent, it is closer to some other things, such as the Netherlands-Flemish Institute, which has an Egyptological library. The apartment was recently renovated and looks new and fresh, with lots of light and some nice views.


Here are a few shots I took from my bedroom window early this morning.

I will include pictures of the inside of the apartment in a later post.

Visit to Saqqara

Above: Teti Pyramid (right) with the Step Pyramid

in the distance (left)

Since my professors were finishing up a season of excavation near the Teti Pyramid at Saqqara when I arrived in Cairo, a visit to the site was called for. After several days of troublesome communications, it was settled on that I would visit the site this past Monday. After a little bit of confusion about which entrance into Saqqara my driver and I should take, we found the local Taftish (SCA Office), and I was welcomed by the inspectors there and told I could move on to the site.

Left: Jean working on the photography while men work up on top of the wall in the background.

Below: Little A running down the hill/wall with the inspector's son.








With it being the day before the start of the Eid el-Adha, the small team was in a rush to complete their work. However, we got a chance to talk during their lunch break, after which Joe showed me around the site and explained what they had been doing. The most exciting part of the trip was getting to climb down a rope ladder into one of the shafts and crawl around through the ancient tunnels, following Joe as he gave me the full tour. I convinced Joe to take a couple of pictures of me underground with my camera.

The one of me next to the tunnel with a femur in it (below) is my favorite of the two. It wasn't as hot down there as I had feared it might be, but you can see that
I still broke a sweat


from all the crawling around and squeezing through holes.

After this, I got to climb back up via a different shaft and take a look around on the surface. I had not thought I would have a chance to slither around in the dirt while I was there, so I had dressed more appropriately for the city than an excavation. You can see the thick layer of dirt I accumulated. There was apparently some sort of soot on my cheek also, which I didn't know was there until I got home and looked in the mirror. Needless to say, I immediately threw my clothes in the washing machine and hopped in the shower upon arriving home.