A Visit to Egypt, 50 years ago

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I interrupt the usual narrative about our 2012 safari plans to talk about a brief visit to Egypt 50 years ago.

The Great Sphinx and Khafra's Pyramid at Giza - 1961

Current events in Egypt seem to have attracted some attention around the world.  I am not an expert in foreign affairs nor have I had any experience in having a domestic affair.  But I have lived and worked in several countries and have traveled to, or through many more, including Egypt.  Probably because of this I have an abiding interest in world affairs and events. The political shifts taking place in the Middle East now are remarkable.  Egypt is the largest and most populous country in the Middle East and what happens there will have significant consequences around the world.

We discuss American history across the span of a few centuries.  Egyptian history spans many millennia. Its recorded history goes back, some estimates say, to about 3150 BC – That’s over 5,000 years! 

When I was seventeen years old I had the good fortune to be able to pass through Egypt while traveling with my family.  We were living in South Africa at the time and my father was due to return to the United States on business.  He planned a sea voyage up the east coast of Africa, starting at Port Elizabeth, on the 17,382 ton HMS Durban Castle.  The ship was one of Her Majesty’s mail ships in the Union Castle Line which had won its initial contract in 1857 to carry mail from England to South Africa and on to Calcutta. When the Suez Canal opened in 1869 the Union Castle line predecessor (The Union Line) stopped using the Cape sea route for traffic to India but continued to grow in importance as a mail and freight service to and from South Africa and coastal ports around the entire African continent.  In 1956 Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal, precipitating the Suez Crisis, temporarily ending shipping through that vital and much more economical route.  By the time our voyage was to begin, in December 1961, the Union Castle Line had reopened the East Coast route. I recently learned that the famous “round Africa” service closed one year later and so my family was fortunate to have made this amazing voyage when we did.

My mother (right) with our tour guide in Tahrir Square.

Eventually the Union Castle Line made its final mail ship voyage in 1977, ending a 120 year history of operation.  Its demise was brought about by the introduction of faster and more economical jet airliners in the 1960s and 1970s.  For a fascinating look at this historic steamship service go to: http://www.oceanlinermuseum.co.uk/History%20of%20UnionCastle%20Line.htm

My account of our east African adventure will be the subject of a future story in this blog series in which I will try recollect and write about our stops in Durban, Lorenco Marques (now named Maputo) and Beira, Dar es Salaam, the island of Zanzibar, Tanga, Mombasa, Aden (in Yemen), and on through the Red Sea to Port Suez at the southern end of the canal.

We arrived in Port Suez two days after Christmas.  My father had planned to stay on the ship with my young brother David who was only six years old.  Early in the morning my mother, my twin brother John and I were taken ashore by lighter and boarded a tour bus for a road trip to Cairo.  For most of the drive, which took only an hour or so, all we could see was sand on either side of the road.  To the east, looking in the direction of the canal, we would see the funnels of ships passing through the seaway.  Only the moving funnels were visible as sand dunes blocked sight of anything else.  It looked, for all the world, like ships sailing across the desert.  

Approaching the sprawling city Cairo we passed through miles of poor suburbs, constructed of red mud covered bricks and seemingly all part of one massive contiguous structure, intersected with a myriad of narrow alleyways.  I knew that if I were dropped off anywhere in those streets I would never be able to find my way out again.  From recent photos I have seen of that city, much of the impoverished areas of Cairo look the same today.  Bicycles - thousands and thousands of bicycles, moved along the streets making driving a car or bus seem impossible.

In the center of the city we drove along the Nile River and crossed several bridges. Modern hotels and apartments lined the river in places.  We stopped at the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities and walked through the galleries for an hour or so.  The first museum was built in 1835 but was moved several times until 1902 when it built where it now stands on Tahrir Square.  Our guide, a young lady whose English-speaking skills were excellent took us into some of the more famous galleries.  Only after I had taken several photographs of Tutankhamun’s famous gold and bejeweled burial mask did I realize we were not permitted to take photos.  I left the museum feeling a little guilty but no one seemed to be following us as we left to move on to the pyramids.  King Tut’s mask is made of 24.5 lbs of solid gold and is thought to be a good likeness to the young king in real life.

The 3,000 year old gold mask of Tutankhamun

On the outskirts of Cairo we arrived at the Great Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza and I have attached a photo or two of the scene. The sphinx and the pyramids here were built about 4,500 years before and are, I believe, the largest pyramids in Egypt.  We were able to walk a short distance into the largest pyramid or Khafra’s Pyramid and we climbed a short way up one side.  The square blocks used at the base of the structure are huge, standing way above my head.  I learned that the 66 ft high (20M) Sphinx was largely covered by sand when archaeologists began to excavate it in the 1880s.  An extensive network of tombs and ceremonial avenues was revealed around it when the excavation was completed.  Of course the ubiquitous camels were everywhere.  I didn’t ride one and still, after 50 years I have no regrets about my decision.  

After a short rest stop and snack at a nearby hotel we boarded our bus and began the drive north to Port Said.  The drive took us through vast Nile River irrigation areas and revealed mile after mile of productive agricultural land, unlike the arid desert we had passed through near the Suez Canal earlier in the day.

Port Said is the northern most town of the Suez Canal and it lies on the Mediterranean Sea.  Our ship had passed through the canal and we would meet it there.  Our final stop in Egypt was a small restaurant near the harbor.  We had dinner, which no doubt included some Egyptian delicacies, but I don’t remember too much about the food.  I do remember a bevy of belly dancers on the dance floor to entertain us.  Well after dark we were transported to our ship by small boat and shortly after boarding we set sail into the Mediterranean Sea.  Our next destination was the Italian port city of Genoa.  Passing the Island of Sicily the hot lava spewing from Mount Etna was visible the following night.  We reached the busy harbor of Genoa the next afternoon. It was New Years Eve.

I am more certain of this date than any other date on our journey.  Our hotel was close to the harbor and at midnight on December 31, 1961 every fog horn on every ship erupted to welcome the New Year.