The Real Experience

Reis is happy to be in Egypt

(Reis) We finally we arrived in “the real Egypt” when we landed in Luxor from Sharm El-Sheikh in the Sinai. I was so excited! The wait was over, after four years of longing and wanting to go to Egypt, it was finally over. The whole idea started when I was in first grade doing an Egypt project with my buddies in school. We made a presentation. It really only had the basics: Tutankhamen’s tomb, the Sphinx, the Great Pyramids of Giza. As I aged, I began to find fascination with the subject, and I started looking up a few things. In third grade, I did research on the history. By fourth, I started reading up on my Egyptian mythology; I was then enthralled with the history, culture, myths and people. Now I was here, in Egypt, in the land of the Pyramids; of Tutankhamen; of Osiris, Anubis and Isis; of falafel and pita; of bazaars and alabaster; of busy Cairo; of the nomadic Bedouins. I was completely intrigued by everything. And boy, was I overjoyed!

One week later:

The temples of Ancient Egypt are extremely fascinating. Well, at least to me. Temples like Kom Ombo, Edfu and Philae. It’s really cool for me to actually see these famous sites in person, not just in pictures in an Egypt book. Actually going to the temple has a whole different meaning. Unlike seeing pictures in 2D, I was there, experiencing in 3D things like hieroglyphs and architecture. Andrew and I developed a game to find and photograph all the major gods and goddesses. This game allowed us to go beyond the regular tourist’s point of view of lines in rocks, and actually see the stories and their meanings. We were intrigued, constantly asking “which god is that?” or “is that so & so?” It’s like going behind the scenes. I also like all of the rituals of the temples: shaving off all body hair; making offerings of food, drinks, crops and jewelry to the golden statue of the god(s) to whom the temple is dedicated; or even having a certain number of priests allowed in a room with the number decreasing to one as you go toward the center — the Holy of the Holies. These tiny details make the temples my favorite in the Ancient Land of Egypt.