Egypt, being one of the most ancient civilizations of the world has
captured the imaginations of many. The ancient wonder of the world – the Great
Pyramids of Giza, the world’s longest river Nile and the recent archaeological
findings of innumerable treasures of the Tut Ankh Amun’s Tomb has triggered the
interest of tourist across the globe. I and my family were no exception. We had
been dreaming for quiet some years of going to this mysterious land and this
summer, our dream became a reality. We went on a 10 day full scale trip of
Egypt. We cruised the Nile, railed the tracks and wheeled the roads, along the
Nile to cover the stretch of over 1800kms, right from the Southern tip, called
Abu Simbel (A UNESCO Heritage site) which is just 50kms away from the Sudan
border, upto the Northern tip, of
Alexandria, which is the coastline of the Mediterranean sea.
The journey helped us discover many new things about Egypt, which made
our trip even more interesting. In Egyptian language, ‘Nile’ means ‘River’ and
‘Sahara’ means desert, which stands as the meaning by itself, though we have
learnt to call it as Nile River and Sahara Desert. We got so engrossed in
understanding the Egyptian history which dates back to 4000BC. Great pyramids, hieroglyphs,
elaborately decorated underground burial chambers, mummies, sprawling temple
complexes, and statues combining human and animal forms are only a few of the
many remains that survive from ancient Egypt. These relics of an extinct world
raised numerous questions during the centuries after the civilization died out.
The discovery of the Rosetta Stone in the early 19th century, by a young French
scholar, Jean Champollion was a major milestone. It helped him to decipher the
hieroglyphs and reconstruct the ancient Egyptian language, which breathed a new
leash of life to the Egyptian History.
The Great Pyramid which has been built as early as 2500BC is
undoubtedly the world’s biggest marvel of human labour. The great pyramid of
Giza, has been built with 2.3 million, large blocks of granite stones, lime
stone, sand stone, weighing an average of 2.5MT each.
The work of quarrying, sculpting, transporting the
rocks through Nile and moving them on the land surface by forming long
stretches of sandy slopes to build the Great Pyramid which touches a height of
about 480ft, was accomplished by thousands of skilled and unskilled workers. It is estimated
that 1 lakh workers took 20 years to complete this herculean task. And there are 3 of such, close to each
other. Even to imagine of such a human feat is mind boggling. Though it is the
pyramids that is commonly known, there are other noteworthy spectaculars like
the Abu Simbel, Philae Temple, Karnak
Temple, Kom Omdo Temple and Luxor Temple, which are mighty works of the
Egyptians.
Egypt shares a lot of similarities with India. The ancient Egyptian
religion is very much similar to Hindu religion, where we have many Gods and
many mythological stories. They too believed in the concept of life after
death. The mummification process which is popular in Egypt is a result of this
belief. Egypt too has been invaded by many foreign rulers, like India. If we were to ask ourselves, what an invasion
can do, we as Indians, have some answers from our own experience. A visit to Egypt, could open up more shocking
realities. What was striking to me, more than the political invasion, was the
cultural invasion. An invasion can kill
a culture. It can kill a religion. The religion of the Ancient Egyptians is
dead and gone. There are no more spiritual practices in the Egyptian
temples. The culture of ancient Egypt
has been lost. With invaders from different nations, Egypt has lost its true
identity. Luckily, in India Hinduism is still a living religion. The invasions
have not uprooted our religion or our culture.
If not for these huge stone monuments, which serves as a testimony of
the age old Egyptian civilization that existed and if not for the discovery of
the Rosetta stone, which helped archeologist decipher the ancient Egyptian language,
Egypt would have lost all its glorious history.
This trip helped me realize, that taking a few steps backward in time,
can give us a better clarity and understanding of the human evolution.
Happy Reading,
D.Senthil Kannan
Article dated June 2010
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