Vignette 2: Cairo

Two—Cairo



Transition from a modern to an ancient culture stretches endlessly into oblivion in the imagination and presents a physical impossibility. Yet, a five-mile ride from Cairo across the Nile ends in the ancient city of Giza, sprawling on its east bank. From the center of the city, an open streetcar careens and bumps along uneven rails, through broad, paved avenues, past imposing, white-pillared residences surrounded by green lawns, to come to an abrupt halt at the very edge of Egyptian antiquity.

The paved avenue disappears into the desert sands from which rise the Great Pyramid of Cheops with its streets of mastaba tombs, Khafre’s Second Pyramid guarded by the Sphinx, and the Third Pyramid of Mycerinus with those of his Queens reaching for the sun whose rays they emulate in structure.

Standing at the base of Cheops, ancient even to Cleopatra, the observer feels the overpowering mystery of the Nile and centuries of forgotten magic formulas. The hugeness, purpose, and magnificence of Cheops emphasize the ineffectiveness of the beholder. Majestic, haughty, and foreboding, it overlooks the Nile with whom it has a bond, to keep mute the solution to the countless enigmas of ancient Egypt.