Grey Wool Knickers They breathe

January 15, 2008

Nile Cruise—رحلة النيل

Filed under: Masr —مصر,Nile—النيل — Tags: , , , , , , — admin @ 11:34 pm

[singlepic=777,320,240,,center]

Embarrassing as this fact is, this was my second cruise on the Nile in only a couple months. It’s shockingly easy to live a posh middle-class lifestyle in this country with the right connections and a modest (by US standards) income. But this is not what I wanted to talk about (hopefully I’ll get up the gumption to be that reflexive about my place in this country in a later post). This cruise was part of the class on the Nile River that I and Adrienne are in. I’ve written extensively about the Nile cruise previously, here, here and here, with pictures from the trip in four previous posts (1, 2, 3, 4) so I’ll be keeping this somewhat short and condensing the four-day trip into one entry. (more…)

January 9, 2008

The Nilometer and Egyptian Museum—المنيل و المتحف المصري

Filed under: Masr —مصر,Nile—النيل — Tags: , , , , , — admin @ 11:00 pm

[singlepic=682,320,240,,center]

Our trip to the Nilometer and the Egyptian Museum was quite different than the one the previous day to the Egyptian Agricultural Museum. The Egyptian Museum is a stop on pretty much every tourist’s itinerary and is hence tended to by the government with all due care. I had been told that the Egyptian Museum was underwhelming and aged and dirty, but this was not my impression, perhaps because of my experience the previous day. The Egyptian museum lacked the smell of mothballs, the signs were legible, many of the displays were vacuum sealed (a rather more effective form of preservation than mothballs, I’d suspect) and we were blessed with Chahinda Karim as a tour guide. (more…)

January 8, 2008

Egyptian Agricultural Museum—متحف الزراعي المصري

Filed under: Masr —مصر,Nile—النيل — Tags: , , , , — admin @ 7:19 pm

[singlepic=675,320,240,,center]

Museums are interesting creatures in general, but they seem to become even more so with a constrained budget. The lack of polish tends to bring the building blocks and construction methods—material and ideological—into relief. It’s difficult to focus on the other world into which one is being transported when the vehicle is backfiring and the transmission sounds like it’s about to drop. (more…)

January 6, 2008

The barrages at al-Qanatir—السدود في القناطر

Filed under: Masr —مصر,Nile—النيل — Tags: , , , , , — admin @ 11:37 pm

[singlepic=641,320,240,,center]

On Sunday, I went on a field-trip with the small AUC class devoted to the study of the River Nile. The destination was al-Qanatir (القناطر), the place where the Nile splits off into the Damietta and Rosetta (or Rashid) branches, marking the beginning of the Nile Delta. (more…)

First bike wreck in Cairo—الحادث الأول بالعجلة في مصر

Filed under: Masr —مصر — Tags: , — admin @ 11:06 pm

Well, I had my first real bike wreck in Cairo today. I don’t count a previous incident which involved just me, my bike, the pavement and some poorly executed fancy maneuvers to fix a loose cog on the fly. In terms actual injuries, however, this is rather less severe than the latter. (more…)

A Christmas stroll through Islamic Cairo—ماشي عيد ميلاد في القاهرة الإسلامية

Filed under: Masr —مصر — Tags: , , , — admin @ 2:19 am

[singlepic=621,320,240,,]

On December 25th, Adrienne and I decided to go for a stroll through Cairo. It didn’t have anything to do with it being Christmas, really. We just wanted to get out. (more…)

January 5, 2008

The River Nile—نهر النيل

Filed under: Masr —مصر,Nile—النيل — Tags: , — admin @ 10:24 pm

[singlepic=631,320,240,,]

AUC has a long winter break, from mid-December until the beginning of February, and a short intermediate session between the semesters, so I decided to take one of the classes being offered, not having much opportunity to travel anyway. That class is a course through the Middle East Studies department on the River Nile. It is an interdisciplinary class, weaving together perspectives from anthropology, political science, Egyptology, history, geology, development studies and even a bit of engineering. One of the requirements of the course is keeping a daily journal related to the class and the various field trips we go on. I’ll be keeping that journal on this blog. I hope you all will indulge me. (more…)

Xmas in Cairo—عيد ميلاد في مصر

Filed under: Masr —مصر — Tags: , — admin @ 3:16 pm

[singlepic=614,320,240,,]

To answer many people’s questions from back in the States, yes, Cairenes do celebrate Christmas. (more…)

December 2, 2007

Antiquity as a natural resource—آثار كموارد

Filed under: Masr —مصر — Tags: , , — admin @ 1:20 am

[singlepic=356,320,240,,]

In the early 19th Century, Muhammed Ali, often credited with bringing Egypt into the modern age, effected that modernizing project in no small part through the use of antiquities, either a) as more-or-less direct payment for the services of foreign experts, b) as bribes or c) to curry favor with Western notables easily charmed by shiny old things (sort of like “The Pilgrims” trading beads with “The Indians” for food and clothing, but in reverse). (more…)

November 30, 2007

Veni, Vidi, Vici—أتيتُ، ريتُ، فتحتُ

Filed under: Masr —مصر — Tags: , , — admin @ 12:29 pm

[singlepic=526,240,320,,]Imperial nostalgia through the lens of a camera

(more…)

Conveying the tourist—نقل السياح

Filed under: Masr —مصر — Tags: , , — admin @ 2:13 am

[singlepic=300,320,240,,]

A conventional industry, whether based in manufacturing or agriculture, involves organzing people to produce. Mass production relies upon all the well-known methods of recruiting and disciplining a workforce, organizing their use of time, their movement, and their arrangement in physical space, and developing systems of instruction, supervision, and management. Mass tourism, by contrast, involves organizing people to consume. It relies upon similar methods of managing flows and timetables, arranging physical space, and instructing and supervising, to maximize the process of consumption. (Timothy Mitchell, Rule of Experts, p.199) (more…)

November 29, 2007

Pictures from Aswan and Abu Simble—صوّر من أسوان و أبو سمبل

Filed under: Masr —مصر — Tags: , , , , — admin @ 8:54 am

[singlepic=552,240,320,,]

Ths is the last batch of pictures (at the jump). This includes the pre-dawn bus-ride from Aswan to Abu Simble, the temple at Abu Simble, Lake Nasser, the High (Diggety) Dam, Philae Temple and Elephantine Island. Once again, some commentary is included in the photo captions, but more will follow within the week. Enjoy! (more…)

November 28, 2007

Edfu to Aswan—إدفو إلى أسوان

Filed under: Masr —مصر — Tags: , — admin @ 7:47 pm

[singlepic=520,320,240,,]

Here we go with yet more pictures (after the jump) from the AUC-organized Nile Cruise.  Featured here are the Temple of Horus at Edfu, some more Nile River shots, the Temple of Kom Ombo and a few more shots on-board the cruise ship.  In case the reader is browsing here out of order, I just want to clarify that I intend to turn a much more deliberately critical eye to the material here in subsequent posts about Egypt’s tourism industry. In the meantime, enjoy these pictures, with commentary in the captions. (more…)

Nile Cruise—رحلة النيل

Filed under: Masr —مصر — Tags: , , , — admin @ 6:49 pm

[singlepic=488,320,240,,]

Here are some more pictures (gallery after the jump), this time from the second day of the ALI trip along the Nile, starting with a tour of the Karnak Temple in Luxor and ending at the docks at Esna. Some commentary can be found in the photo captions, but be assured that I won’t let a lot of the sickness and madness evident in this sort of tourism slide by without challenge. More to follow within the week. (more…)

Some Pics from Luxor—بعض صوّر من الأُقصر

Filed under: Masr —مصر — Tags: , , — admin @ 12:04 am

[singlepic=417,240,320,,]

The pictures (after the jump) were taken at various places on the first day of a Nile cruise organized by ALI in the area of Luxor. Ancient Egyptian sites included Queen Hatshepsut’s Temple, The Valley of the Kings, and the temple at Luxor. There are also pictures of lots and lots of tourists. More pictures from the rest of the tour will follow shortly and commentary on the tourism industry in Egypt (above and beyond the photo captions) will follow within the week. (more…)

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress