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Cairo and Giza

— Through the frenetic, dusty Egyptian capital to the great pyramids.”

As our guide Abdul informed us, the City of Cairo now includes Giza, which some sources foolishly describe as a town.

Giza was fashionable per se with colonials way back when in the days of the stiff upper lip, but today most foreign visitors are heading for the First Wonder of the Ancient World in the background.

The self same feat of astrogeometry that launched a generation of paperweights.

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Cairo and Giza

Last one standing of the Seven Wonders, the pyramids shadow the sprawling capital of Egypt.

Pyramids and the Sphinx

“Man fears Time, but Time fears the Pyramids” goes an old Arab proverb. Approaching Khufu’s final resting place, which is over 4,500 years old, you can’t help but agree. Khufu, incidentally, was known to the Greeks and my primary school teachers as Cheops courtesy of the great historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus.

The Great Sphinx is around 1,000 years younger and attempts to restore it have been going on for two thirds of its lifespan so far. Until 1925, the statue was only a human head, its lion body buried in centuries of sand.

Anwar El Sadat

President Anwar El Sadat was assassinated after 11 years in office. As successor in 1971 to the controversial Gamal Abdel Nasser, he regained the Sinai peninsula from Israel during the October War of 1973.

This action proved that Sadat was no puppet to Nasser and that Egypt should be considered a serious force in the region. Having succeeded against Israel, he approached the latter and encouraged a dialogue for lasting peace.

If these developments were unexpected by other Arab states, so too was Sadat’s reversion to a nationalism the like of which had been more typical of his predecessor. As Sadat engaged in international diplomacy and opened up the Egyptian economy, his popularity began rapidly to diminish.

In October 1981, during a victory parade in honour of past successes, Sadat was murdered by Islamists. His vice president Hosni Mubarak took power and has remained as premier ever since.

There had been a ceremony held in his memory just the day before we passed the spot, at the large arch that marks the location of the fateful incident.