Past week's photos

Third visit to the pyramids. I realized looking at the Sphinx that I didn't know which came first--the statue or the riddle. It appears that the statue came first (built around 2600 BCE), but it seems a little ambiguous since the oldest sphinx imagery was found in Turkey, dating back to 9500 BCE, so it could have made its way to Greece before Egypt. The history and explanation of sphinxes is surprisingly vague. In any case, this view never gets old:

Below are some pictures of Prince Mohammed Ali Tewfik's palace, built around 1900 on Rhoda island. The island is south of Zamalek in the Nile.

The Nile by Rhoda Island:

Inside of Mar Girgis Greek Orthodox church in Coptic Cairo:

Typical downtown Cairo balcony:

And my new favorite shop in Coptic Cairo. Adel sells every variety of old camera along with lighters, clocks, and other antiques. Not a single one of them works.

مصر بتفرح

The opening of the "new Suez Canal" has been the only thing worth talking about in Egypt for the past week. Lights were strung up, giant rubber bears were inflated, and everywhere you looked were Egyptian flags of all shapes, sizes, and designs-- some people mistakenly raising the flags of Syria and Yemen in a flurry of confused patriotism.

Yesterday was the ceremony for the official opening, attended by Francois Hollande, King Abdullah of Jordan, and dignitaries from North Korea, Russia, and a couple dozen other countries, but Sisi was the belle of the ball. He dressed up in different costumes and rode his royal yacht down the channel on the way to a party thrown in his honor. Along the way, he was charitable enough to share air time with a 'cancer-stricken child' whose one wish was to meet the president.

The celebrations yesterday cost $30 million. That is, of course, in addition to the $8.2 billion spent on completing the 'canal,' which is actually just a 35km extension of the waterway, and one that will not deliver what the government is promising. 

It's hard to believe that so many Egyptians would get this excited about an extension of a channel, but they really are losing their minds over it. The propaganda worked and a lot of Egyptians think that their troubles are over and that Sisi is their savior.

The propaganda was so pervasive that mosques around Egypt were required to deliver their Friday sermon on the importance of the Suez Canal and how it is "a model of hard work and perseverance." In fact, all Friday sermons are now unified, in a move to stifle any opposition to the current government and to silence 'extremism.'

Here are some good articles on the reality of the new Suez Canal expansion, and it's economic and environmental impact:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-04/egypt-shows-off-8-billion-suez-canal-gift-world-may-not-need

http://www.natureasia.com/en/nmiddleeast/article/10.1038/nmiddleeast.2015.133?WT.mc_id=FBK_NatureMEast

And finally some pictures from the celebrations in Talaat Harb Square and Tahrir Square, complete with fireworks, banners, party lights, and lots of armed guards and tanks that I cannot photograph.

That guy seems to think I'm purposefully photographing him. I wasn't, but the fact that there are five people on that motorcycle makes the picture much more interesting.
The celebrations come in the midst of a heat wave, with temperatures around 100-105 each day. The humidity makes the nights equally unbearable and renders the swamp coolers worthless. Here are some toasty Kestrels cooling off today under my neighbor's A/C:

Mummification vs. crappy taxidermy

**Lots of pictures of dead animals ahead, obviously**

Included on my long list of places to see in Cairo is the Agricultural Museum, with its notoriously awful taxidermied animals and...well, that's actually the only thing worth seeing there. Also on my list is the Galabaya Fish Park, a place that, like the name, makes no sense whatsoever. I decided to knock both off the list today, starting with the museum. 

According to the plaque on the front, the museum was built in 1930 and the poorly-maintained specimens inside are likely even older. Hundreds of African birds are displayed in the museum and they are all in dismal condition. To me, collecting (i.e. killing) birds for scientific study is objectionable, but seeing case after case of disheveled and dismembered specimens of everything from parrots and kingfishers to falcons and bee-eaters is truly enraging. What a waste. 

Below is the most orderly collection on display.

Of course, there were dozens of other, non-bird animals in the museum. They were displayed in such a way that made them seem like trophies from the ever-popular African hunting safaris. 

I still couldn't help finding some of the taxidermied animals hilarious. They're just so bad.

The whale skeleton was one of the most impressive pieces in the museum, but what I was really taken with were the posters. There were dozens like the camel skeleton one below, and many of them included all the Arabic bird names (something usually deemed unimportant in Middle Eastern bird guides).

The nearby Ancient History collection had slightly worse taxidermy than the first museum, but I guess that's to be expected when all the specimens on display are older than Jesus. The mummified animals ranged from 2500-5000 years old.

Below are mummified ibises. It is unclear how many of the animals were actually killed in order to act as sacrifices. Some animals were mummified because they were pets who needed to make it to the afterlife to eventually be with their owners again, while others were given a proper burial because they were sacred and represented various gods (as is the case with the ibis). 

There were also interesting papyrus cards on display (not ancient) that described the usefulness of local animals: "Hoopoe gets rid of Insects" and the geese and ducks "eat mosquito eggs and Bilharzia snails." Bilharzia is the disease you get from swimming in the Nile. In ancient times, before the illness was understood, men would see blood in their urine and believe themselves to be menstruating, leading them to consider it a rite of passage for young boys.

My next stop was Galabaya Fish Park in Zamalek.

I didn't know what to expect. A park? An aquarium? It was actually a series of incomplete excavations for various ponds. Only one had water in it. The rest of the park was nice, but mostly empty.

I thought I had seen everything the fish park had to offer, but then I came across a man-made grotto on the south side of the ponds. It was an empty cave, with fake stalactites and stalagmites. As soon as I went inside, I heard strange chirps above me. Once my eyes adjusted, I was able to see the dozens of balls of fur swinging slightly from the roof of the cave, clinging to the rock with their tiny feet. 

They were incredibly hard to photograph. Partially because it was so dark, but also because they're always moving, facing away from the light, and they are the exact color as the stone behind them.

Bats (khafafeesh) are the coolest. Egypt has a few species--including the Egyptian Tomb Bat--but these are Egyptian Fruit Bats. I don't know if they're supposed to be there, or if this place was made to attract them, but they seem to have a perfect home in the middle of Cairo. 

Eid al-Fitr

Today is the beginning of the end of Ramadan. This month has passed by at an excruciatingly slow pace. In fact, Ramadan seems to last for so long that for weeks afterwards I will still hesitate before drinking water in public, as if I've trained myself to believe that Arabs simply never eat or drink during the day.

The next few days will be packed with street parties to celebrate Eid. A lot of people, especially foreigners, leave the city to avoid the hassle. Trying to get anything done over this weekend is hopeless and even making one's way through the crowded streets is near impossible at times. I found, however, that at the right time, with the right atmosphere, it can be really exciting.

 This is especially true in Islamic Cairo after Iftar, when everything is lit up in brilliant colors, small concerts are playing on each corner, and children are setting off deafeningly loud fireworks. Everyone is drinking coffee, smoking shisha, and eating teen shawki (or spiky figs, which are really cactus fruit) that are carted down the streets in large green and yellow piles. In moments like those it's easy to see the charm in Ramadan, but that is only a glimpse into a month full of inconveniences and absurdities. As a non-Muslim westerner, do you want to grab a beer at your favorite bar? No such luck. How about watch a movie with some Muslim friends? You better make sure it doesn't have any sort of nudity or even the tamest of sex scenes. Do you want to order a hamburger at a major restaurant? Too bad, they inexplicably do not sell 100% halal hamburgers at any time during Ramadan. And, finally, after about 15 hours without food or water, in 100+ degree heat, the very first thing many Egyptian men do at sundown is light up a cigarette. 

Probably the strangest Ramadan experience this year was when I ventured to Coptic Cairo, figuring that I could explore the area and not worry about eating or drinking in public in this Christian neighborhood. It was true that others were eating and drinking freely, but as soon as I arrived I was told to leave--the churches, museums, and gardens were closing at 2pm for Ramadan. Instead, I wandered around the houses and some graves for a little while until I felt out-of-place enough to just head back home. 

The Greek Orthodox Church and Monastery of Saint George (Mar Girgis Church)

For many Muslims, Ramadan is a time to be with friends and family, socializing in large groups on an almost daily basis. For non-Muslim foreigners, it may be the exact opposite. Aside from the occasional Iftar, most time is spent alone or at work since there is nothing to do or to explore unless you reverse your schedule by sleeping at 5am and waking up in the early afternoon. For non-Muslims, Ramadan is definitely worth experiencing once, but not three years in a row. Maybe I'll have the foresight to leave the country next year. 

Some other pictures from the last month include street graffiti, a trip to al-Azhar Park, and my first somewhat official interview with the owner of L'Orientaliste book shop downtown.

 Mohamed Mahmoud street right before Iftar.