Land of the Pharaohs

I have just returned from a remarkable journey through Egypt, a place that always leaves a mark on me. I visited four decades ago, and walked back in expecting the same country, only to find a place that has shifted, grown, and modernized in ways I never imagined.

There was far too much to take in at once, so I decided to divide my impressions into two pieces. This part is for January, centred on history and the places that shaped it. In February, I will turn to the infrastructure, which ranges from impressive to bewildering, depending on the day.

One of the reasons I waited so long to make my return, was the Grand Egyptian Museum. The GEM opened three days before I arrived, and stepping inside felt like entering a new chapter of Egypt’s story. The building is enormous, bright, and modern, set on the Giza plateau with the pyramids rising behind it. Construction began in 2008, but progress stalled more than once, thanks to political unrest, the Arab Spring, and the nearby war in Gaza. After spending a billion euros, the doors finally opened. The museum even closed for two weeks in October to move and install the full Tutankhamun collection, which is the clear highlight. A second building holds the reconstructed solar boat, discovered buried beside a pyramid.

To make sense of Egypt’s history, it helps to step back. The country’s story is divided into three great kingdoms: old, middle, and new. The Old Kingdom stretches back more than forty-five centuries, when the first pyramids rose on the edge of the desert. The Middle Kingdom followed with leaps in medicine, agriculture, and engineering, while the New Kingdom saw the arrival of Alexander the Great. After his death, his general Ptolemy took charge, beginning three centuries of Greek rule. By the time the Romans arrived, Cleopatra VII sat on the throne. She had a child with Caesar, and after his death, she turned to Marc Antony. When he lost a critical battle, he took his own life, and she soon followed. These stories are wrapped in legend, softened by time, and probably far from what actually happened, but they continue to shape how we imagine Egypt.

Everyone associates Egypt with pyramids, and new discoveries continue to change what we think we know. There are around one hundred and twenty-five pyramids in total, built over roughly six centuries. The oldest is the stepped pyramid at Saqqara. The largest are the three at Giza, about thirty minutes from Cairo. Unlike the Hollywood version, they were not built by slaves. Workers were hired and paid, and they even received medical care and pensions. Because the Nile flooded for three months each year, farmers were unable to work their fields, so many took jobs on the pyramid crews. Construction took about twenty years, with the first ten spent building canals and rerouting the river so boats could bring stone from nearby quarries.

It is important to remember that the Nile was much closer to the pyramids at the time. A branch of the river ran along the construction site, making transportation far easier. Workers marked the sandstone on open plains, carved channels around each block, tapped in wooden wedges, and soaked them with water until the swelling split the stone. Copper chisels finished the shaping. Ramps of sand were built as the pyramid grew. Blocks weighing as much as fifty tons were dragged up wooden sleds on water-soaked paths. It was all done with muscle, simple tools, and remarkable coordination.

Pyramids are tombs for pharaohs, and nearly all were robbed long ago. Tutankhamun’s was the exception. After twenty-two years of searching, Howard Carter made his discovery by accident. He saw a donkey relieving itself and noticed the liquid vanish into the sand. Curious, he scraped the ground and found the top of a staircase that eventually led to the most famous tomb in history. Tutankhamun was considered unimportant during his life, so his burial was placed beneath the tomb of Ramses II, the most powerful ruler Egypt ever had. The location kept it hidden.

The treasures inside are astonishing. Gold fills the rooms, including Tutankhamun’s death mask, weighing more than twelve kilograms and made of solid gold. During my fifteen days in Egypt, I explored nearly forty tombs and a dozen temples, each revealing something new about the culture, engineering, and imagination of this ancient land. Next month, I will shift to the other side of the experience and talk about daily life, modern challenges, and the more than one hundred million people who call Egypt home today.

If you have a chance, join me on January 12th at 3PM at the port Perry library for a presentation on Egypt.