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Newsletter #18 - October 17-23, 1959 |
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Newsletter #18
October 16-23, 1959 Mailed from Cyprus Sabah el Kyeyr (good morning in Arabic), We are now at another important crossroads between East and West which occupies the northeastern corner of Africa. This crossroads is the city of Cairo,, Egypt. Both of us are fine and really loaded with sand. We've emptied our shoes several times during our tours to the many excavations. We have always had a dragoman (guide-interpreter) with us since we could never see half as much on our own. [October 18] Our first tour was to the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. Meredith and I both had the opportunity to go there on camelback and it's quite a long ride. My camel's name was Moses and I could easily see why as he moved so slowly most of the time that the attendant had to switch him several times to keep going. The Cheops Pyramid is the largest and next in size is the Chephren and the smaller one is called Menkaure. We laboriously climbed into the largest one and saw the tomb in about the center of the pyramid and then had to come down backwards. I can tell you it wasn't worth the effort just to see a large stone tomb. We next visited the Sphinx and its temple which is really a marvel of workmanship. In the afternoon we went to the Citadel of Saladin which was built in 1166. From here you get a very fine view of the city of Cairo and of the pyramids in the distant town of Giza. While at the Citadel we viewed the Mosque of Mohammed. This mosque has beautiful alabaster walls, exquisite mosaic work, an elaborate prayer niche and hundreds of lamps hung from the incredibly high ceilings. Our dragoman lighted some of the lamps for a few minutes for us. These lamps were originally lighted by oil. In the courtyard we saw some of the faithful Mohammedans making oblations before entering the interior as it was Friday - the Moslem day of worship. We only had to remove our shoes to enter and the floor was beautifully carpeted. Our next stop was in a crowded area where a small church houses the place where Joseph, Mary and Jesus lived during their flight into Egypt. From here we went to the Mouski which is the bazaar area. Here you can wander up and down the narrow little streets which are lined with shops, street stalls and just hundreds of salespeople. You really see entrancing things to buy and it is really hard to summon your sales resistance as the wares are very attractive but, of course, quite expensive. Our biggest problem is the cost of packing and mailing which practically doubles the price of each item. We did purchase a Turkish coffee set of brass and a few Egyptian-made items which we thought were unusual. |
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In Jerusalem, our monetary unit was dinar which has 1,000 fils to a dinar and here in Egypt the currency is Egyptian pounds. The Egyptian pound has 100 piasters to a pound on 1,000 milliemes to a pound. It takes almost $3.00 of our money to buy one Egyptian pound. [October 19] Another day we visited a beautiful museum called the Museum of Egyptian Antiquity. Here we saw a large display of the many items removed from the tomb of King Tutankhamen or, as I always say King Tut. His tomb was discovered in 1922 and was completely in tact as Egypt has so little rain to ruin these old tombs. From the contents found in the tomb, an almost complete life of this King and his surroundings and the equipment of that day has been drawn. The exquisite workmanship of the throne, the side chair, the King's game table, the gilded state chariot, the alabaster treasures, the mummy cases (he was in a series of cases) and all of this collection is an absolute marvel as things are in such a wonderful condition. The collection of jewelry buried with this king was worth the visit to the museum alone as it was superb. I have never seen such ornately carved materials and such handsomely painted work and mosaics of wood, ivory, mother-of-pearl and other stones and gold. [October 20] Later we drove twelve miles along the Nile River past lovely farms and dusty villages which were most interesting. We were on our way to Memphis which is a very old city in Egypt. Here we saw more tombs and a colossal statue of Ramses II and also an alabaster sphinx. We drove on from here to Sakkara to see the step pyramid, which is said to be the first stone building ever erected. It was built as a tomb for King Zoser and is older than the pyramids of Giza. We trudged through deep sand here and visited an incomplete excavation. Here we saw at least thirty chambers where the sarcophagus was placed and, of course, the sarcophagus itself. The high coloring of many of the paintings on the walls of the tombs are in an amazingly good state of preservation. This is partially due to the tombs having been hermetically sealed for thousands of years. The belief of the ancient Egyptian that his soul could continue his earthly existence after death is responsible for the custom of placing in his tomb full equipment for that afterlife -- equipment such as furniture, clothing, food, drinks, weapons, servants, jewelry, ships, etc. The walls showed reliefs and paintings of the dead man's daily existence. Work was begun on a king's tomb as soon as he was proclaimed king and was continued until his death. This accounts for these many elaborate tombs. We're back in Cairo once more with its gay Eastern atmosphere. We have been impressed with Cairo's fine modern buildings, its lovely suburbs, fine universities, old Arabic architecture and lovely old houses with their little balconies and concealed window spaces for the "ladies of the harem". A sorority sister of mine from Vienna, Austria wrote to me to visit her friend here in Cairo, whose husband was the former Consulate General for Austria. She is Betzy Stross and is a most charming person. Betzy came to our hotel on Saturday [October 18] to chat with us and make |
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detailed arrangements for entertaining us on Sunday. Sunday morning she took us to the Gezira Sporting Club. This club covers large areas of lovely grounds and has four lovely swimming pools, tennis courts, baseball diamonds, polo grounds and any type of sporting area you can name — plus several card rooms, reading rooms, dining rooms, etc. It was much like a country club in the U. S. except it had such large areas. Here we had lunch and about four o'clock had tea and cookies. It was a very ultra-ultra club. Betzy also had two Austrian and one Egyptian woman there to make us feel welcome. Later in the evening, Betzy had us for a lovely dinner in her beautiful home. She is very well educated and I am sure speaks at least five languages. We heard her speak four and she also speaks Italian which we did not hear her use to any person while we were in her presence. Betzy is a talented pianist and does much charity work in Egypt. We feel like we've known-her for years because of her great friendliness and kindness to us on such short notice. On our way home from Betzy's, we crossed the Nile once more and it's the first time we saw this might river at night with all the lights and silhouettes of palms, skyline, etc. As the Egyptians say: "The Nile is Egypt and Egypt is the Nile". If it were not for the life-giving waters of this mighty river, the fertile land of Egypt would be only a sandy wilderness. This powerful river is 4,l60 miles long from its source to its mouth and has no tributary river in the 960 miles which it flows through Egypt. In September, the Nile reaches its peak in Egypt. While we are here, it is very high and this causes mosquitoes to be very annoying -- at least, that's the reason the Egyptians give. Neglected to tell you that perhaps one-third to one-half of the people in Cairo still dress in their native costume. This consists of either long trousers and loose-fitting jackets similar to a pair of men's pajamas or a night shirt for men and the women wear usually a black draped costume, long in length and over the head and shoulders. Many women still keep their face covered while others cover their face from only the nose down. Many times their face veils are adorned with spangles, jewels or pieces of metal. Another thing which impressed us was the large use of the Mercedes Benz car in Cairo. In fact, I'd venture to say one-half of the taxis and busses in Cairo are Mercedes Benz and also many of the pleasure cars. [October 22] After a lengthy visit of five nights and six days, we are leaving Egypt to go to the island of Cypress. We are flying on Air Liban and must stop one night and day in Beirut again in order to make plane connections. Here we are in Beirut once more and are in a bit of hot water as our visa in Lebanon was only good for one entry. Now we must pay for another visa for only an overnight stay. Had a very interesting thing happen while we were in line for customs. An attractive woman with two cute little boys and one small girl was standing near me. So, as usual, I tried to make conversation. It turned out that they had visited in York recently none other than one of our York Suburban teachers - Mrs. Mercedes Mumper. The woman to whom I was |
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speaking was her sister-in-law and niece and nephews. Of course, I later met and spoke only briefly with her brother as their car was ready to take them to their home in Amman, Jordan. I do hope someone will be kind enough to tell Mrs. Mumper I spoke briefly with her brother and his family in the airport at Beirut. [October 23] Again, we flew out of Beirut, but this time we have landed on the lovely island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea. We flew here on an Air Liban plane and the last 15 minutes of the flight was beautiful. We were able to see all of this wonderful island, its mountains, beaches, beautifully indented coastline, pine forest and its broad and fertile plain area and Mount Olympus. We are staying at Nicosia, the capital city of Cyprus, which is an island but only sixteen miles from the lovely beaches at Kyrenia. We are staying here two nights at the Ledra Palace Hotel which is really a superb place. The older part of the city of Nicosia is still encircled by the walls and moat which were built by the Venetians many years ago. This makes the city most interesting. Aphrodite was born in Cyprus and Paul and Barnabas preached here. This island was the first place in the world to be governed by a Christian ruler. About 80% of the population of Cyprus is Greek Cypriot and 18% is Turkish Cypriot, leaving only 2% of other nationalities. Met some Pennsylvanians in Karachi, Pakistan and they were going to call mother from Haverford when they arrived home to tell her I'm fine. (It was their suggestion.) They are probably home by now, so expect a call from Mr. and Mrs. Henry Breyer who are the Breyer Ice Cream owners. They were lovely and Mr. Breyer's sister was also traveling with them. (Neglected to tell you this before.) Tomorrow [October 24] we fly out of Cyprus by Turkish Airlines to the city of Ankara in Turkey. Since this newsletter week is over, we will be telling you about Turkey and Greece next week. Hope you have pushed all your itinerary dates up at least 15 days although we always leave a forwarding address and will get your letters anyhow. Nights are beginning to be quite cool and I suppose we'll soon be wearing our heavier clothing. I'm sure you're having cooler nights also. We miss all of you. Masaa s' el Kheyr (good night in Arabic) Charlotte and Meredith |