katie in cairo, egypt

Yesterday I decided to resume my role as a tourist in Egypt. It's funny how even when I know I'm being a tourist I don't like to walk around probing my camera's lens into every alley way and corner, pointing at the locals, as if to capture their expressions like I had never seen a human being before. I don't like taking pictures of people, well, at least people who I don't know. I feel like it is making them a novelty of some sort. What's actually very silly about these feelings, however, is that wherever I go, Egyptians are always taking pictures of ME. Not with their big flashy digital cameras, but with their mobile phones that all have little cameras on them. And when it's obvious when I'm trying to capture a pose with my camera, they can be very sneaky about it because it's justs a mobile and it's very small. I would hardly be aware that they were doing this at all aside from the fact that when my other girlfriends and I are with men, the men we are with can point out that people are always taking pictures of us girls. So, why should I feel guilty about taking my own pictures? First of all, I will look like a tourist whether I have a camera with me or not. I will never be able to pass as a local. And secondly, people are always interested in other people--what they look like, how they behave, dress, act, etc. But I suppose I just don't like seeing people as a such a novelty.

--Coptic Cairo--

Coptic Cairo is one of the oldest dating parts of town, going back to maybe even the 6th century BC. Around the 2nd century AD, the Romans built their own fortress here, known as Babylon-in-Egypt. In this area of "Babylon," large Christian communities were established and continue to flourish even today. Christians now make up the largest minority in Egypt, at about 10% of the population. Traveling here, it felt like I had stepped back in time, even from the old dirty streets of Cairo. Hidden in its own little square-like venue, tucked away behind the newer buildings and shops and streets of today's Cairo, Coptic Cairo is quiet, small, and peaceful. The small dirt streets are woven in between ancient churches and even a synogogue (one of the few in Egypt). I was able to go inside the Church of St. George, which is a beautiful and wildly ornate Greek Orthodox Church. It's cleanliness is simply evidence of its youth, having been constructed in 1909. We walked around the corner, however, and immediately were placed back another 16 centuries or so as we went into the Churches of St. Sergius and St. Barbara. The pillars in St. Barbara must have been standing strong since the 9th century. Along the way I stepped into the Ben Ezra Synagogue, which is Egypt's oldest synagogue. Though supposedly it dates around the 9th century, it was built upon the remains of a 4th century Christian church. After walking around inside I went around to the back where I found a well and an iron grate, which when I looked inside I could see the Nile flowing stead fastly under our feet. Supposedly this "spring" was where, according to my guidebook, "the pharoah's daughter found Moses in the reeds, and where Mary drew water to wash Jesus."

Perhaps the most interesting thing for me to see in Coptic Cairo, however, was the Roman Towers, which were ebuilt in AD 98 by Emperor Trajan. Though the Nile today is a good walk from their stone bases, one day it was lapping at their sides. The rest of the "city" is slowly being built overtop of structures like these. It appears, rather, though that they are sinking into the ground. We could see construction going on around the towers to "dig them out," and most of the dirt has been cleared away, uncovering their original stone bases. Evan and I couldn't help but marvel at what the Romans had accomplished here in Egypt, or anywhere for that matter. What a civilization! To not only take people's lands and conquer them for the sake of conquering them, but then to develop them and let them flourish. And here they still stand strong today. Two thousand years later.

posted by Katie Warren @ 11:32 AM 0 comments