Author: Graham Howe
Copyright: Graham Howe/Howerite
 

Dr Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, is a man who doesn’t like to be kept waiting. Unavoidably delayed by the crazy Cairo traffic where donkey-carts, bicycle vendors, taxis and mini-buses weave wildly across the freeway, we miss our appointment and have to join the back of the queue.

A jade cat in the lobby is the only antiquity in sight. Archaeologists from all over the world patiently wait in the inner sanctum of the arcane bureaucracy for an audience with the man known as the Indiana Jones of Egypt, the celebrity archaeologist who has made countless television appearances, written many books and made many discoveries.

If you want a permit to delve into Egypt's treasure trove of antiquities, you have to get in line. Waiting my turn, I eavesdrop on conversation about the going rate to open a tomb or do a dig. My escort informs me that tour groups are prepared to pay up to US$10 000 for permission to visit one of the hundreds of pyramids and tombs closed to the public - the funds raised go towards the multi-million dollar costs of heritage restoration projects.

Eventually, we are ushered into the august office of the secretary-general of antiquities. Casually attired in blue denim, the plenipotentiary of the pyramids inquires fiercely, "What do you want?" "We would like to ask your permission to see the 'dream stele' (stone) of the Sphinx," declares Cecelia Amory, a specialist tour operator who has visited Egypt over 45 times over the last decade - and dreams of seeing the Sphinx up-close.

With a flourish of his pen, Dr Hawass scribbles a permit on an official letter-head, waiving any fee. He also grants me a brief interview. I'm fascinated with the successes of the Department of Returning Stolen Artifacts, a project which has led to the recovery of over 500 rare pieces from museums and collectors all over the world. Over the centuries, raiders of the tombs have looted priceless treasures from Egypt. This master sleuth is working with the FBI, Interpol and Unesco to stop the illegal trade in antiquities.

Dr Hawass warms to his favourite subject. "When I was young I wanted to be a detective. Now I do detective work with my spies out there. Recently I took two mummies from Cairo back to Luxor after we recovered the sarcophagus of Ramses I from Atlanta, Georgia - and returned it to the Valley of the Kings. We've caught many smugglers and put many in jail."

The rosetta stone, busts of Ramses II and Queen Nefertiti and statues of Hatshepsut held by museums in Berlin, London, New York and Paris are among the top ten most wanted relics Dr Hawass would like returned to Egypt. He says, "We can put legal pressure on antiquity traders and collectors to return relics to the tombs. If they don't return the artifacts we will not assist these countries with permits for research projects. We've also stopped illegal excavations - modern cities like Cairo are built upon ancient cities."

A determined Dr Hawass says the task of conserving Egypt's 110 pyramids and countless tombs is enormous. He comments, "I have to close a pyramid for conservation every year otherwise they'd all crumble over the next century. Tourists pose a great danger to our monuments. My main mission is to recover stolen artifacts, conserve our monuments, modernise our museums, redevelop tourist centres and educate the Egyptian public." To raise conservation funds, they are substantially raising all entry charges for heritage sites in 2005 in line with international tourist destinations. (see: www.guardians.net/hawass)

Egypt takes you time travelling. Cairo is built upon layers of history, the new upon the modern, the modern upon the old, the old upon the ancient. They say that wherever you stick a spade, you're bound to find something. You can't just dig a new cellar. You need a permit. On the hilly terrain, new housing and road developments begun by builders inevitably lead to archaeological excavations. Everything on top lies unfinished.

A city tour takes you through a spiritual labyrinth of Islamic, Jewish and Coptic Cairo. We visit the Mosque of Mohammed Ali in the Citadel built by Saladin to hold back the crusaders; the Church of St Sergius where the Holy Family rested during their flight to Egypt; and the Synagogue of Ben Ezra where Moses was found in the reeds. The walls and towers of the Fortress of Babylon still stand in Old Cairo - along with the studded gateways in the alleyways that bear the marks of battering rams used by invading armies.

We take the elevated ring road past Roman aqueducts and French colonial villas to the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, one of the world's greatest museums which houses artifacts from 6000 years of history. I meet my first Egyptologist, one of many tour guides who will guide us through the destinations and dynasties of Egypt.

Hesham el Sayad, a young doctoral student at the University of Cairo, greets us in that warm, old-fashioned Egyptian way. "Welcome to Egypt. It is my pleasure to be your freelance Egyptologist over the next few days." On a brief guided tour of some of the most famous of the 120 000 artifacts in the museum, he explains, "Everything is original except for the replica of the Rosetta stone (stele). It is now in the British Museum though we've claimed it back many times." A case for Inspector Zahi Hawass, no doubt.

Special exhibits showcase the Tutenkhamun treasures, including his legendary gold mask and gilded sarcophagi, and the royal mummy room. The amphoras found in Tut's tomb are annotated with notes on the source and quality of the red wine, the vintage and "the chief of the vineyard." My guidebook says the ancient Egyptian word for wine was "irp," an onomatopoeic reference to the burp made by wine drinkers all those years ago!

I am also intrigued by the animal mummy room, with its embalmed remains of royal pets and animal cult votives - monkeys, baboons, dogs, gazelles, crocodiles, falcons, jackals, rams and a whole cupboard of mummified cats. Aficionados of the macabre may want to adopt an animal mummy via an unusual website called www.animalmummies.com, a project to raise funds for a new humidity-controlled exhibition at the Egyptian Museum.

You could spend a week in these funerary vaults. Curiously, among all the relics, only one artifact remains of the builder of the great pyramid of Giza in 2650 BC - a thumb-high ivory statue of King Cheops. With growing anticipation, we take the road to Giza, past date palm plantations to the sprawling outskirts of a city of 17 million inhabitants. Rising out of the suburbs like a mirage, the pyramids are a spectacular sight - the sole survivor of the seven wonders of the ancient world and a global cultural icon of mankind.

A ring of camel cops guards the Giza pyramids. I ask one if I can photograph him. "Welcome to Egypt," he smiles, "Where you from?" When I tell him, he says, "Bafana Bafana! They played the Pharaohs! (Egypt's national soccer team)." On climbing the steps to the main chamber to the great pyramid, the officious gatekeeper declares with finality, "We're closed for lunch," tapping his watch and clicking the padlock shut.

No matter. It is a case of Open Sesame at the Great Sphinx. Handed our precious permit, Inspector General Galeb opens the gate to the enclosure. Crowds of tourists confined to a walkway around the perimeter stare down enviously at our party.

Now I feel like Indiana Jones. Vanishing between the giant paws of the Sphinx, the largest stone sculpture in the world, we walk up to the dream stele. I fall into a trance only partially invoked by the simmering 35° heat of late summer. The Sphinx casts a mystical spell, an awe-inspiring colossus of man and lion whose name, "Setepet" means "the sacred place of the first time." Twice yearly, this solar deity looks directly east to the sunrise - and the rest of the year at Pizza Hut on the Giza plateau.

Our freelance Egyptologist explains that a stele is an engraved slab found at the entrance to many temples and tombs. Standing beneath the dream stele of the Sphinx, a giant granite stone engraved with hieroglyphics, he interprets the stele of Tuthmose IV who excavated the Sphinx in 1400 BC. The Sphinx appeared in his dreams while he was on a hunt in the Valley of Gazelles, pleading with him to save it from suffocating in the sands.

The Great Pyramid towers over the golf-course at Mena House Oberoi, an old royal hunting-lodge that is now a luxury hotel in Giza. Staying here in 1929, Evelyn Waugh wrote, "The Pyramids were a quarter of a mile away; it felt quite odd to be living at such close quarters with anything quite so famous. One kept pretending not to notice, while all the time glancing furtively to see if they were still there."

After taking a few practice swings at the hole number one, the clubhouse manager informs me that Happy Mahlangu, the South African ambassador, is due to tee off at 2pm. Unable to wait, I buy a collectible golf ball bearing a pyramid logo, before heading off to the nearby House of Papyrus, where they demonstrate the ancient art of making paper - and sell me a cartouche inscribed with my name in hieroglyphics.

Leon Basson, a member of our party gets into a misunderstanding at the House of Papyrus. After paying for a papyrus inscribed with the name of his game lodge in the Karoo, he is rather disgruntled when the artist presents him with a scroll bearing the legend "Orange River Lodge." "Man I don't want it written in English! I want the name of my lodge written in hieroglyphics!" he complained. The Egyptian symbols cost extra. In exchange for a small fee, he obtains the only sign in the Karoo written in hieroglyphics.

The next day I buy a galabiyya (kaftan), a hookah and exotic fruit and molasses tobacco at Khan El-Khalili Bazaar, the largest market in the Middle East. A crossroads for provisioning caravans in the 12th century, the vast souk is a labyrinth of narrow alleyways and stalls selling perfumes, essences, spices, gold, jewellery, precious stones, inlaid boxes, glassware, sculptures, textiles, Coptic crosses, ornate sheesha (hookahs) and tourist ornaments. Heaven for bargain-hunters who love to barter - there's no fixed price.

Finally, it is Friday. The whole of Cairo comes to a pious stop at midday. Every shop closes and the pavements are filled with men prostrate on carpets and green felt as all the muezzins call the faithful to prayer. Piles of shoes spill onto the roads and intersections close as the city falls silent at last. Thousands of worshippers fill the Sultan Hassan Mosque, built in the 14th century with stones taken from one of the pyramids of Giza.

After prayers are over, the bicycle vendors resume hawking piles of pita breads, olives, mangoes, fresh red dates and savoury black olives. As dusk falls, Cairo is at its most overwhelming, drowning your senses in a swirl of scents and sounds as intoxicating as a whirling Dervish. Back at the courtyard of my hotel in Zamalek, an oasis of affluence on Gezira island, I inhale the heady aromas of sheesha smoke in the courtyard, spices from the kebab grills, fragrant incense and freshly baked breads from wood-fired ovens.

On a visit to Cairo in 1898, Henry Adams writes, "I know of no place where everything changes as much as it does here, and nothing is ever changed." I wonder how things have changed since Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, stayed at my very hotel in 1869 - at the Gezira Palace (now the Cairo Marriott) specially built by Khedive Ismail Pasha for his guest of honour who opened the Suez Canal. They say he laid a red carpet to Giza for her - but did he show her the dream stele, the secret stone of the Great Sphinx?

I stroll along the banks, watching the garish tourist boats motor past the fountain of the Nile; blessed by a thousand welcomes showered on me since arriving in Cairo. "Maa salaama (Goodbye). I'll be back some day," I tell the sheesha man who carries charcoal from table to table in an ornate brazier. "In sha'Allah," (God Willing) he replies. Weeks later, the Great Sphinx of Cairo seems like a dream as I write down my own stele of sorts.

Fact File (275W)

1. The author was a guest of Egypt Air, the Egyptian Tourist Authority and Egypt & Beyond.
2. For more information, contact Cecelia Amory at Egypt & Beyond, Johannesburg.
   Tel: 011 678 6165, fax: 011 678 5141
   Email: cecelia@championtours.co.za
   Her gourmet palace tour of Egypt features stays at several palaces which are now luxury boutique hotels.
3. Obtain a tourist visa to Egypt via your travel agent (at a variable cost of R235) or obtain free of charge directly from the Egyptian Embassy in 270 Bourke St, Muckleneuk, Pretoria, Tel: 012 343 1590
4. Cost: From R12 999 for a 7-day tour, including air-flights Jhb-Cairo and Cairo-Luxor and all transfers, taxes, accommodation, tours, entry charges and a fully inclusive three night/four day Nile cruise.
5. Health: Inoculations for cholera, hepatitis A, tetanus and typhoid are recommended. Avoid all ice and fresh water, unless in a sealed bottle. Carry tissues - as many museum and tourist toilets do not have toilet paper or sell it to you by the sheet!
6. Currency: Take US$ travellers cheques or currency. One Egyptian pound = R1.
7. Best months to visit: Oct/Nov and Mar/May.
8. Tipping: Baksheesh is widespread at all tourist destinations. Be generous -giving money to beggars and service providers is regarded as a form of noblesse oblige. Keep small denominations on you for all occasions - even a posed photograph.
9. Security: Egypt maintains tight security at all tourist and transport points, including the entrance to many hotels. Visitors to all temples, tombs and museums must pass through metal detectors. The tourist and antiquity police keep a high profile.