A Chaotic Ballet

Your first impression on entering Cairo in any type of vehicle (taxi, bus, bicycle, donkey cart) is, “How does anyone survive to adulthood??”  There are no discernible traffic laws, thousands of cars weaving around each other, and flocks of pedestrians wading through the quagmire for good measure.  Lane markers may as well not exist, as drivers will happily squeeze between a slower car and oncoming traffic…even on a narrow, two-lane road.

After a few days, though, you realize that you’re witnessing an elaborate dance with its own special rhythm that everybody is attuned to.  The chaos requires heightened awareness by everybody and constant communication between drivers, riders, and pedestrians.  Drivers speak a special language using their car horns, a constant chatter that lets everybody know where they are and what they’re doing.  In our time wandering the twisting streets of this grand city, we didn’t witness a single mishap or accident or even a single act of road rage.  Sure, the drivers would yell at each other if one broke the unspoken (and seemingly incomprehensible) code of conduct, but any such explosion was greeted with a wave and a nod and maybe even chuckle.  Never hard feelings.

As we wait in the airport seven hours early for the start of the next leg of our adventure, I got to thinking that the chaotic ballet performed in the streets of Egypt’s cities and towns is a fitting allegory for the country as a whole, at least the tiny bit that we were able to experience in our limited time here.  This is a country of devastating poverty and run-down infrastructure, but one that also boasts some of the most magnificent works of art and engineering that humankind has ever produced.  The people are passionate and excitable and may baqsheesh you into distraction, but will always greet you with a warm smile and a genuine, “Welcome!”  They are very much, Egyptian.  And they gave us a fabulous week.  Thanks, Egypt!

Our next stop is Lamu, but that’s two more flights and one more border away, so it still seems unimaginably distant.  Our last two days were spent mainly in Luxor (we flew back into Cairo early this morning).  The highlight of Luxor was our trip to the Valley of the Kings—a jagged, dry valley in the mountains to the west of the city.  The pharaohs of the New Kingdom realized that decorating their tombs with huge pyramids was a good way to draw unwanted attention and, ultimately, grave robbers, leading to plundered treasure.  The Valley of the Kings hid their tombs from plain sight in a valley below an appropriately pyramid-shaped mountain…although that didn’t ultimately work either.  The only tomb that’s been found with anything left inside (besides the mummies themselves) was that of King Tutankhamen—an otherwise forgettable king, famous only because the entrance to his tomb was hidden by rubble from the building of another (Ramses VII) and its contents were still present when Howard Carter stumbled into it in 1922.  Seeing the amazing array of items that were found in King Tut’s tomb on display in the Egyptian Museum leads you to imagine what a truly great king’s tomb might have looked like.