About dynasties and shitholes (I)

As long as this is my first post in English, and I'm not a native speaker, nor a habitual user of this language, I apologize in advance to those who appreciate -as I do- the appropriate use of grammar, spelling and punctuation.  Please feel free to write your comments and suggestions or send them by e-mail (alfatauro@gmail.com). Thanks for your patience and comprehension.

 

Typical Egyptian Market. It could be anywhere.

 It was about 20 years ago that Teresita (1) came back from a trip around some countries of Europe that also covered a visit to the Arab Republic of Egypt.  After her stories the curiosity to know one of the most representative works from the Egyptian civilization and also a sign of the technological advance of the 20th century, the temples of Abu-Simbel in Aswan, down to the southern end of the country, was born inside me.  She told me then that both of the temples built more than three thousand years ago under the kingdom of Ramses II to honor their gods -the big temple dedicated to Amon, Ra and Ptah, and the small one dedicated to goddess Hator- which have been sculpted out from the raw rocky mountain with the technology of those days were moved from their original location a couple of hundred meters to the north and sixty-something meters up to avoid them to be flood under lake Nasser, created due to the construction of a new dam in the Nile River.  What amazed me then was the capacity of the human mind that in the middle ninety-sixties was capable of breaking down the temples and move them as they were some kind of Lego kit.

In the year 2009 I had the chance to meet face-to-face not only this temples, but also a lot of the ancient treasures from the country.  A couple of weeks weren't enough to travel all around, but I could visit the top sites where the Egyptian civilization had its heyday.  And I mean it had, since knowing the present-day Egypt, the one with the informal markets, the chaos in the streets, the bureaucracy, the slovenliness and the shitty buses, it's hard to believe that millenniums ago the people from these lands were able to reach such cultural, scientific and technological development that turned them into one of the most important ancient empires.

Hatshetsup Temple in Deir El-Bahari (West Bank)

No matter that, for an average Latin-American citizen like me, to face cities like El Cairo (the biggest city in Africa) is not that bad. The offhandedness is not bigger than ours, and if You're used to travel as a backpacker that's one of the conditions to experience.
And, of course, people will ask... So I started to think about the most amazing fact of my trip around Egypt. After having in mind the Tutankhamun treasures, the temples of the west bank (valley of the Kings and valley of the Queens), the Hatshetsup temple, the irrigation system around Nile river, the climb for a great sunrise in the Mount Sinai and the Abu-Simbel site itself, from which I finally got its magnificence not for the fact that it was moved almost half century ago, but because it was a demonstration of the high engineering advances more than three millenniums in the past, I conclude that the contrast between the greatness of a nation that left an unforgettable footprint with these masterpieces and the current similarity with the developing nations like my country Colombia, will make wonder about something that could hardly be answered: How is it possible that a land with that kind of history and ancient development is now in the conditions it is?

Traffic jam in Al-Qairah (El Cairo). On the background the Egyptian Museum

That question will apply to practically all the third-world nations that once hosted in their territory ancient advanced cultures and nowadays just preserve a few remaining traces that the colonialism didn't erased.
My final thinking is, before start to wonder how to answer that question, around the fact of being a citizen of a very rich country that is still on the hard path to emerge from underdevelopment, and whom is resigned to keep enjoying neighbor´s grass while my wishes and budget allow me.

 

El-Tabia Mosque in Aswan  -  Ha-Sejeong & Nicolas, nice travel mates

 

Falluca. Typical Nile river Vessel. Aswan 

Versión en Español 

 

0. I had the fortune to make this trip thanks to the determination that lacked for a lot of years, and the sponsorship of my lovely aunt Rebeca Fajardo .

1. Teresita Bello de Fajardo is one of the responsible of my nomad vocation, whom I thanks for a lot of things, among others giving me the concern to travel and learn about ancient civilizations.

* To translate this text from spanish I used my limited knowledge of English and some help from the web site WordReference.com.