the mystery of Egypt

By one life, live it
I remember climbing several times to the top of the Great Pyramid. To the West is the vastness of the Sahara Desert. To the East is the Nile Valley, dominated by the huge city of Cairo. All around are the ruins of the Giza Plateau and the Sphinx. Up there on the summit, many blocks bear the carvings of past climbers. There are the names of Napoleon’s soldiers, perhaps written after their victory at the Battle of the Pyramids. Young General Napoleon said to his men, “Soldiers of France, forty centuries look down upon you.” Then, the Mamluks, the Turkish military caste which ruled Egypt at the time, charged on their horses, gorgeous in their brocades, with scimitars flashing. However, snappy fashions didn’t do much good against massed French musketry.

The French fleet didn’t do so well against the British, and with his supply line cut Napoleon left his army in Egypt and slipped back to France to become Emperor after a few years. Later on, he repeated this abandoning stunt in Russia.

I remember horseback riding through the desert. Cairo can be hot, crowded and noisy. The high desert is stll and empty. A wind is always blowing to cool the air. There upon my horse, I felt peace and had time to devote to thoughts about life and its meaning.

I remember exploring the teeming bazaars of Cairo and its lovely medieval mosques and palaces seldom visited by tourists, practicing my still rudimentary Arabic.

T Cadogan

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