HISTORY STREET

Anita Limaye went down several millennia of history by just walking down on street in Coptic Cairo, and admired the ingenuity and vision of the ancients...

   WE WERE drawn to Coptic or Old Cairo for as it is one of the oldest districts of this world, housing some of the ancient relics dating back to the beginning of the 2nd century. Known to the Egyptians as Masr al-Qadima, Coptic Cairo includes the Mar Girgis Street which is home to a Roman fortress, churches, mosques and synagogues — all down one single road!
   The Roman fortress called Babylon was built by Emperor Trajan in the 2nd century and was conquered by the Arabs on their arrival in Egypt in 640 AD. Some remnants of this fortress still stand, including The Hanging Church or “Al-Muallaqa” which is a beautiful structure built in the 7th century on top of one of the fort’s towers— hence the name.
   The passageway which leads to the staircase outside this church has huge mosaics all along the walls. The church’s interiors are even more captivating, with even the pulpit elevated by intricate ivory inlay work. A small door to the right of the pulpit leads to a room from where the gates of the ancient fortress can be seen.
   This room is adorned with amazing stained glass windows. We sat in the pews admiring the beauty and serenity all around us and I even lit a candle for the peace and happiness of our family... It was at this moment that I realised that happiness in our hearts surpasses the boundaries of religion and even though we were Hindus sitting inside a church, we could feel the same warmth around us as we would feel inside a temple.
   Another holy place of considerable importance on Mar Girgis street is the Church of St Sergius or Abu Serga. This church is tucked away down a flight of stairs and dates back to the 3rd or 4th century. It is said to be the place where the Holy Family took refuge while in Egypt. The sanctuary is separated from the main church by a curtain of wood inlaid with ivory and still showcases the crypt where Jesus, Mary and Joseph are believed to have hidden.
   Further along the same street stand a synagogue, a museum and two more churches. The Ben Ezra Synagogue built in 1892 is constructed at the site of an 11th century temple. It has two floors — the upper one for women and the lower for men. Around 200,000 Jewish documents on law and religion were discovered during its reconstruction and are now in Cambridge University.
   The Coptic Museum built in 1910 showcases pieces from convents and churches of ancient times including some from private collections. Here I found manuscripts, marble and stone pieces, jewellery and fabric materials.
   Atop another tower is the Greek-Orthodox Church of Saint George or Mari Girgis which gave this street its name. Another church on this road is St Barbara’s Church. Three of the world’s four most prominent religions were thus represented in Coptic Cairo, and underlined for us the fact that we were standing where centuries of history and religion evolved!
   Our next stop was at the Papyrus Institute. A demonstration of how paper was made from the papyrus plant took us through a journey down the ages. The papyrus plant — considered sacred in ancient Egypt — is similar to the bamboo. With a long triangular stalk, it’s found in abundance along the Nile.
   Its stalk is peeled and then cut into pieces depending upon the size of paper required. The pieces are then soaked in water for around six weeks, rolled out and hammered into strips. These strips are then placed in a criss-cross manner to form a grid and then pressed again for firmness under a heavy object for 12 days for a lighter tint of beige and 24 days for a darker colour. The starch and sugars of the papyrus give it the wonderful colour and texture.
   Given the concerns about deforestation as industries strive to keep up with our current paper needs I can’t help but think of how our ancient ancestors had found such an eco-friendly and easily renewable resource!
   Later, the same person who gave us the demonstration took us around to see the magnificent paintings on papyrus paper displayed all around us. There was everything here from enormous paintings and smaller ones to two-toned ones and multi-coloured works of art. We picked up some unique papyrus pieces like one with the face of Tutankhamun. Another papyrus painting has our names etched on it in Egyptian hieroglyphics, with a gold pen! It is said to bring good luck to our marriage. Hmm!
   After making our selections we were ready to go to our next venue. We then realised that our ‘guide’ was also doubling up as a salesman, a la India....He tried to persuade us to buy 2-3 more paintings for a “very low” price!
   Little did he realise that we Indian women are tough nuts to crack and I stuck to my guns with equal stubbornness! In the end he had to relent and we walked out of the institute with our heads held high after giving him a small token to remember us by!
   Our final stop for the day — the Egyptian Museum — was literally the icing on the cake! The pink and white building right in the middle of Liberation Square (Cairo’s epicentre) was built in 1902. Not very old, but definitely a treasure trove.
   The central foyer outside the museum has a lot of stone statues of the pharaohs and even a sphinx. But they are but the tip of the iceberg compared to the relics inside! There is also a central pond which has both the lotus and papyrus plants – symbols of Upper and Lower Egypt in ancient times. After going through security checks and reluctantly depositing our camera in a safety locker (not allowed inside the museum), we went in with bated breath.

MUMMIES’ BEST FRIEND!

   THE two-storeyed Egyptian Museum has over 120,000 pieces, dating back thousands of years, which stand testimony to the grandeur of Egypt’s history. There was a large crowd when we stepped in on a late and rather sultry afternoon. To our amazement the museum was not air-conditioned and the huge gathering only made the place even more suffocating.
   I would have thought that such a worldrenowned institution could have provided a more congenial atmosphere for the millions of awestruck tourists who flock there. We later learnt from our guide that only the room which has the personal belongings of King Tutankhamun was air-conditioned — and because of this it was even more crowded!
   The antiquities are kept in chronological order beginning with the oldest one, the “palette of Narmer” dating back, incredibly, to the 31st century BC. This stone plate depicts pictorially the unification of North and South Egypt in that era. There is also a replica of the Rosetta Plate at the entrance, which has carvings in three different languages. This stone was instrumental in decoding hieroglyphics, giving us an insight into the Egyptian way of life.
   The oldest statue of any pharaoh is that of Pharaoh Djoser who ruled during the 3rd Dynasty of the Old Kingdom and who was the only pharaoh who lived to see the completion of his own pyramid. Among the oldest pieces is another noteworthy statue of highly polished basalt stone of the Pharaoh Mycerinus from the 4th Dynasty, dating back to to 2600 BC.
   Sculptures of the Old Kingdom (27th – 23rd centuries BC) on the ground floor include a magnificent one of a “sitting scribe” carved in coloured limestone which has eyes inlaid with crystal! The expression in the eyes is outstanding and very lifelike. Another full sized statue with inlaid eyes is one of a priest carved from sycamore wood.
   A statue of the Pharaoh Cepheren carved from the second-hardest material in the world — diorite — is also breathtaking and it is difficult to fathom how the carving was done. We also saw the only existing statue of the Pharaoh Cheops, which was a small piece carved in ivory.
   Other rooms exhibit statues from the New Kingdom (around 15th century BC) which are also equally mesmerising. The most interesting pieces are the sculptures of the Pharaohs Thutmose III, Amenhotep II, Akhenaton and above all, the unfinished head of his wife Nefertiti.
   A major portion of the upper floor of the museum is devoted to the funerary items and other personal belongings of the charismatic yet mysterious Pharoah Tutankhamun. These were all discovered by the archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922 from his tomb in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor in southern Egypt.
   His funerary items include the incredibly beautiful “Canopic jars” (containing the four organs inside) made of ivory and which have the image of his head carved on top; the funerary chapels made of gilded wood; and the “Canopic chest” in which the jars were placed among other items. It was all wondrous and eerie at the same time, considering that we were looking at items connected to his death.
   Undoubtedly the “jewel in the crown” is the separate room which showcases King Tutankhamun’s Treasures. Apart from items of jewellery that he wore like rings, necklaces, pendants and bracelets,
this room includes his personal weapons and the rest of his treasures. The most beautiful piece is Tutankhamun’s mask made of 11 kg of pure gold! It is studded with precious and semi-precious stones and the carving on gold gives the clear expressions on his face. Encased in a glass case, it was like standing face to face with the pharaoh himself!
   There are also two innermost coffins out of three found from his tomb. One is made of gilded wood and the innermost coffin is made of 110 kg of pure gold again... Unbelievable! I kept lingering near the coffin goggle-eyed and simply did not have the heart to leave! I also felt sorry that I would not be able to take any photos of these beautiful pieces to share with friends and family back home. At least they are seared in my mind forever...
   Along the corridor outside are four huge vaults made of gilded wood which fit one inside the other perfectly. Within the innermost vault lay the Pharaoh’s sarcophagi. What is even more incredible is that there were three sarcophagi — again one inside the other — where the Pharaoh’s mummy was kept. It was the pure gold casketthat actually held King Tutankhamun’s mummy. It was awesome how the ancient Egyptians were able to achieve such precision!
   The upper floor also has the “Royal Mummies” room where one can see the mummified remains of great pharaohs — but for an additional entrance fee. Besides the wrapped remains of the great Ramses II and Amenhotep II, the most well-preserved one was that of the pharaoh Thutmose IV in which the hair, eyebrows and eyelashes too are preserved.
   We decided against entering the room of more mummies, as we didn’t want to add to the eerie feelings we had, gazing at basically the cadavers of emperors who died millennia ago. Besides, we weren’t sure of the impact the sights would have on our little son. The memories of King Tutankhamun’s Treasures were enough for us and we left the museum thoroughly satisfied.
   So that was another incredibly fulfilling day in timeless Cairo! As if sensing our joy, our guide decided to treat us to “falafel” – the traditional Arabic road-side snack made of pita bread and filled with delicious chick-pea kebabs and salad! There was another type of falafel filled with a type of flat legumes called fava beans. Both types left us asking for more — of Egyptian food and heritage!