On
our Survey of Egypt, we spent the first night out on the road in the
Delta, in Tanta. We
stayed in a nice three star hotel, where I am guessing I was
the only westerner in the hotel. Nevertheless, people there were
very nice to me and I felt completely at home. This is also where
our last permit caught up with us, along with our third team member,
Osama el-Gibaly, from the Egyptian press office. He would prove
invaluable to us on the long journey to come, as a facilitator in
tight situations, particularly where we wanted to
photograph
someplace that one is ordinarily not allowed to photograph.
The 27th of September would prove to be both an interesting and long day. It was also one where we ended up making a decision to vary from our original itinerary, but more on that later.
Photographers love mornings and evenings, when the light is often
warmer, not as harsh, and sometimes even the landscape is altered by
seemingly magical influences. So it was as we set out this day from
Tanta. Often, we
began our days very early, sometimes three or four in the morning,
and my team had a
bit
of a tendency to fall from the bed to the van in a dream state. But
when working, a photographer's eyes must always be open, alert for
that photo-op hidden in a moment's glance and missed in an instant.
Suddenly, as the sun rose, I turned to look out beyond the roadside
greenery and found a magical land of smoke and water, beautifully
still and mysterious. It was a photographer's dream and a moment I
will not soon forget.
I must have spent an hour along the road firing off shots out
into the countryside, but then it was time to move on. We moved
through villages and the small town of Sammamud, where we visited
the local market. I have to mention that even
here,
in the Delta, where there are very few tourists, security is tight.
Every few miles, it seems, we encountered a police checkpoint and
its seems they were always serious about their work. Often, as Osama
and Tamer explained why an American was running around taking
pictures all over the Delta, I would wander down to the banks of a
canal, where I would always find fishermen, or on the opposite bank,
a herd of goats or a busy farmer toiling at his day's labors. Then,
once the local authorities were sufficiently confused about the
nature of my work, we were off again.
Yalla
bena, lets all go.
We attempted to find Tell el-Rub'a, known by the Greeks as Mendes, but we could not. Finally, we moved on to El-Mansura, a city that really impressed me. Mansura is a very clean city, with fine gardens, wonderful views down the canal and a beautiful university campus. We were also made to feel very welcome here, actually by a professional police captain who escorted us through the city. One gets the feeling of el-Mansura as an upscale college town, with nice stores and a very modern population.
In
fact, El-Mansura has
an interesting history that sets it off from much of the rest of
Egypt. Here, the French settled for a while during the
Crusades, and this explains the often light-skinned, fair-haired
people one finds in the city. Indeed, the women of this city are
traditionally considered to be the most beautiful in Egypt.
Surrounding Mansura are cotton fields, a staple crop in Egypt
known for its quality throughout the world. Yet, there was a time
when cotton was king, particularly during the American Civil War
when Egypt's cotton was
like
gold on the world market. During this period, grand and elegant
villas were built along the Nile in
El-Mansura, and
today they add to the city's wonderful flavor.
While the city does not receive many tourists, there are a few
famous spots. One is Dar Ibn Lockman, the house where Louis IX, King
of France, was imprisoned after his defeat in 1250. Another is the
Shinnawi Palace, built by an Italian architect in 1928 and
considered the most magnificent of its type outside of Italy. I
could
have
stayed on for a while in
El-Mansura, and in fact, just as we were leaving, I spotted a
grand Ramada hotel that looked as nice as any hotel in Cairo. But it
was time to move on once more.
Our next stop was St. Dimyana, once again a historic Coptic
monastery with a very friendly local priest, who opened up the
monastery completely to us. St. Dimyana, sometimes with various
spelling such as St. Damyanah, is perhaps more interesting for its
history and its Moulid, one of the largest Christian pilgrimages in
Egypt, than for the actual antiquity of its buildings. It has four
churches
that date from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, though
elements within them are sometimes older. According to tradition,
St. Dimyana was the daughter of a Roman governor during the reign of
Diocletian. A marriage was arranged for her, but she refused and
instead convinced her father to build her a palace where she and
forty other virgins could retire in the worship of their lord, Jesus
Christ. Eventually, even her father was converted to Christianity,
which so enraged Diocletian that he had all of them executed. Here,
in one of the churches, can be found the tomb of Dimyana.
Like a number of others, the construction of the oldest shrine at St. Dimyana is ascribed to St. Helena, the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine.
From St. Dimyana, we moved on to the site of the Temple of
Behbeit el-Haggar, really more of a pile of large blocks than
anything else, but one that looks like it could someday be
reconstructed into a bit of grandeur. Just from the looks of it,
there is enough material here to
complete
a decent sized temple. Behbeit el-Haggar was built during the
30th Dynasty and
the beginning of the
Ptolemaic Period of the 4th century BC. It is believed to have
been dedicated to the goddess Isis.
At first, it would seem like there is little here of interest,
other than a few artifacts set aside in front of the workhouse.
However, moving to the rear of the mound of blocks, one finds many
inscriptions, some very clear and and well preserved. Doubtless, one
day this site will be of
greater
interest to tourists than it is today, and we will probably learn
much as this oversized jigsaw puzzle is placed back in order.
Our next stop, really not on our agenda, but interesting
nonetheless, was at Sakha where there is located the Church of the
Holy Virgin. Often, one of the most difficult obstacles in getting a
lot of work done in Egypt is the very hospitable nature of
Egyptians, and this was one of those instances. So very frequently,
I have a formidable agenda when I am in Egypt, but it is the nature
of Egyptians to slow me down a bit, so prior to exploring the
church, a soft drink and
some
conversation were necessary. I really do not mean to make this out
to be a handicap. Indeed, I am forced for a moment to remove the
single-minded blinds I wear when working and to enjoy the company of
strangers turned friends, and to understand more about the images I
seek.
So it was at Sakha. As I sat with the priest in his office near the doorway, sipping a Pepsi, outside the perish children played hide and seek with me making me smile and even giggle. Only I could see their antics, and for a while, I sat back and enjoyed the moment.
Here,
it is really not the church that is so famous, but a stone found
within a glass case inside the church. This area is known as Bikha
Isous, which means "the footprint of Jesus" and the stone is known
by the same name. Tradition holds that when the Holy Family arrived
in this area, they were thirsty but found no water. But then the
child Jesus touched a stone with his foot and water spouted forth,
leaving his foot imprinted in the rock.
This
stone was later discovered at Dayr al-Maghtis, which means
"monastery of the pool," so known because it was a place where
people went for baptisms. Even Saint Dimyana was said to have been
baptized at Dayr al-Maghtis. A monastery did exist here during the
13th century, but was destroyed, at which time one of the monks took
the stone and hid it under the front door of the monastery. After
the stone's discovery, it was sent to Pope Shenuda, who kept the
stone for some time. It is said that he prayed, and made three
liturgies over the stone, before proclaiming it as Bikha Isous as
mentioned in the tradition.
Today, at specific times, perfumed oil is poured over the footprint and collected. It is said to have a healing power and people come from all around to participate in its powers.
Many western theologians are not convinced Bikha Isous does
actually hold the footprint of the infant Christ, this only reveals
a basic and important difference between western beliefs and those
of the Coptic Orthodox tradition. Western scholars do not believe
until
they have something proved, while the Coptic faith starts by
believing and needs to have something disproved. As pointed out in
"Be Thou There, The Holy Family's Journey in Egypt":
"In this context, Western tradition attaches great value to scholarly evidence and makes Westerners skeptical about a certain belief if no convincing evidence can be provided. On the other hand, the Coptic Orthodox tradition attaches great value to faith and the statements or revelations of important church fathers, who would not make such statements if they were not supported by known facts and traditions. Thus the logic that 'it is true if we have evidence' stand diametrically opposed to the reasoning that 'it is true if it comes from a trusted source and it could be true.'"
Saying goodbye to the beautiful parish children, we next moved on
to
Buto, where we found Dr. Phil Urich Hartung, of the Deutches
Archaologisches Institut just returned from Germany. I was keenly
aware of Buto's importance. It was the Lower Egyptian counterpart to
Nekhn, Greek
Hierakonpolis, and perhaps the most important religious city in
the north. Buto
was
perhaps depicted in Narmer's Palette, but Dr. Hartung's team is
working on areas now that completely predate Egypt's pharaonic
period. Here, ruins range in date from
predynastic times
all the way through the
Roman
period, and over an extensive amount of ground.
Most of the site is not developed for tourism and would be of
little interest to visitors. However, there is an open air museum
that includes some wonderful pieces of sculpture, stela and other
structures. Here, a structure that looked much like a well had also
a staircase, submerged in ground water, that connected with the
well. We were unsure of its purpose, but my colleagues suggested
that it
might
be a nilometer. Perhaps one of our readers knows better.
This evening, our original itinerary called for us to stay in Damanhur, where we arrived not long before sunset. We photographed the very large masjed (mosque), and since it was Ramadan, and the hour of Fitar was upon us, we were invited to take breakfast with the poor and other travelers at a tent set up nearby the mosque. Damanhur was a friendly and enjoyable city. After eating, we sat for a while at a local coffee shop that faced the masjed, and which seems obviously to be the heart and soul of this city. Unfortunately, Damanhur lacks any real tourist hotels, so we decided to move on to Alexandria to spend the night and get an earlier start on exploring Alexander the Great's city the next day. Alexandria has grown as a tourist destination in recent years, and it seems that there is more and more to see here.
A view of Alexandria at night with Fort Qaytbey to
the far right
Notation: Tamer Ibrahim is a tour leader with Lady Egypt Tours, located in Cairo, Egypt.
See Also:
- Survey to Egypt: Part I: Safety in Egypt
- Survey of Egypt, Part II: Ramadan Kareem
- Survey of Egypt, Part III: Wadi el-Natrun to Tanta
- Survey of Egypt, Part V: Alexandria
- Survey of Egypt, Part VI: Alexandria Continued
- Survey of Egypt, Part VII: Alexandria to Port Said
- Survey of Egypt, Part VIII: Port Said to Cairo
- Survey of Egypt, Part IX: Cairo to El-Arish
- Survey of Egypt, Part X: El-Arish to Dahab
- Survey of Egypt, Part XI: The Southern Sinai Interior
- Survey of Egypt, Part XII: Mount Sinai and Sharm el-Sheikh
- Survey of Egypt, Part XIII: The Sinai West Coast
Write (or Read) a Comment on this Story
Last Updated: 10/17/2006