The name change – from Constantinople to Istanbul – didn’t happen until the 20th century. But the city itself has been inhabited since the 13-11th centuries BCE. Since then it has been Byzantium, Constantinople and Istanbul, which translate to The City. Today, the city – which is a megacity and an alpha world city as it is in both Europe and Asia – has a population of over 13 million and is larger than Moscow (the largest city solely in Europe).
Below are some of the pictures from Istanbul – one of the coolest things about the city is that the history is reflected so evidently in its cityscape and architecture. The styles range from Byzantine, Greek, Roman, Ottoman and even Genoese. The city is booming – the economy is spread across many industries including the traditional textiles but also manufacturing, agriculture and industrial and service sectors. There is a strong middle class entrepreneurial movement and just as strong arts vibe in the city. I pretty much want to move back there.
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One of the interesting things to see was that in a city as well groomed as Istanbul, that like Egypt, it is really hard to get the right permits to renovate buildings, so there are lots of decrepit buildings whose owners are just letting them fall apart because it is cheaper to rebuild from scratch rather than renovate.
One of the most incredible images I saw in Egypt was red-sailed boats on The Nile. Despite the extreme pollution and dust of Cairo, the sails seemed to filter sunlight. The Nile is still very much a source of life for Egypt- it is the country’s only perennial water source. Follow the Nile and you can see the settlement patterns of ancient Egypt, which in turn dictated the modern day transport routes. The Nile is still the life source of the country – Egypt only has less than three percent arable land, and all of this is in the Nile valley and delta. Yet, windblown sand and rapid population growth is over-burdening the river, and the amount of arable land is shrinking.
My last night in Cairo, I finally got to see the sunset on the Nile via a felucca – a traditional wide bottomed Egyptian sail boat – tour.
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Apparently, I’m not the only one to be enthralled with red sails. Nat King Cole sang about Red Sails in the Sunset (not a song I’m running to add to my iTunes), as did Louis Armstrong, David Bowie, Jack Jackson and Bing Crosby. The poet Bei Dao wrote The Boat With the Red Sail.
So the deed is done – Kate Middleton is now officially Catherine Mountbatten-Windsor aka Mrs. William Arthur Philip Louis, Duchess of Cambridge, Countess of Strathearn and Baroness of Carrickfergus (one of the oldest cities in NI.) The British Community Association Clubhouse in Maadi was all decked out for the event, with miniature Union Jack flags and napkins, hearts, flowers and UK expats all dressed up to watch the event on large screen TVs placed around the lawn. The Beeb gave most of the airtime to the nuptials, but kept its ticker running, alerting the crowd with updates on Syria (formerly ruled by French mandate as part of the Sykes Picot agreement) Libya (formerly known as Italian North Africa), Bahrain (a former UK protectorate) and Morocco (a former protectorate of France, through a treaty between Germany, Spain and France.) Ok, stepping off that soap box, sorry, it just keeps sneaking in.
Egypt itself was officially declared a republic in 1953, following the 1952 Revolution, which freed the country from its status a protectorate of the British Crown. But remnants of Egypt’s time spent in the Commonwealth can be found throughout Cairo, intermixed with the modernist style of the revolution’s resultant socialist republic. Near the Townhouse Gallery, a sign advertising a theatre and odeon hangs over a space now used for car repairs. In the warrens of the Khan el Khalili, relics of this former life – British porcelain (no Walking Ware or Susie Cooper so far, but the search continues), antique cameras (all the Brownies you could want) and antique radios – are for sale, jumbled along with spices, brightly colored textiles, jewelry, carpets and reproductions of ancient Egyptian artifacts.
In Maadi, you can find exquisite English antiques mixed in with those in a more traditional Egyptian style. Walk Road 15 and you will find two stores, almost immediately next to each other, which both specialize in design and antiques. The first, Yaman Gallery, specializes in mashrabiah (balconies) and doors – recycling the incredibly intricate arabesque doors for use in new homes or repurposed as tables – as well as reformation of masterpieces of special furniture. Its space is one big showroom, the outside wall of an apartment building and several storage spaces underneath the building. The proprietor, Mohamed Bakr, peels up an unassuming metal door, and inside each carrel is a mash-up of classic English furniture – mahogany, maple and marble abound – with the belle époque almost arts and crafts style favored by Egyptians (as described by my untrained eye.) Layers of dust and the smell of old books cover everything, making it all seem like priceless antiques from another era.
The book case holds titles like 5 Victorian Poets mixed in with Arabic books.An Egyptian Samovar and colorful boots rest on a classic English hutch
Down the street, Theodor’s presents antiques and collectibles through a crisp blue traditional UK/USA boutique storefront. There is a strong effort to merchandise the pottery, porcelain and antique clothing among the antique and beautiful furniture that supports its London esque prices. Sadly, the shop seems to have been closed since March (or there is just a coincidental holiday overlap) and the Western proprietor has not updated communications on it since February, according to Facebook.
According to the World Fact Book, Egyptians have the following religions affiliations – 90 percent Muslim, 9 percent Coptic Christian, 1 percent other Christian. This weekend was a long holiday weekend – recognizing the roots of Easter in some ancient fertility celebrations. Monday, in fact, was a bank holiday across Egypt, Sham el Nessim – whose name translates roughly to Smell or Breath in (Sham, with Shamo being Renewal of Life) the Spring Breeze (el Nessim – which is breeze or zephyr.) It is a holiday that has been traced back 4500 years, to roughly 2000 BCE and predates any religious celebrations. (Egypt is/was an early adapter to a lot of religions – remember that Christianity was started here, and the walls of St Paul’s monastery still stand.) All Egyptians celebrate, with picnics and feasts – we had a delicious vinegar battered fish and classic Egyptian rice. Read more about food and Sham el Nessim at The Egyptian Kitchen.
The breeze – by the way – is worth stopping to smell. Just walking down a street, you feel like you are smelling the most perfect cup of herbal tea, perfectlly brewed and steeped. It is better than any perfume. For Sham el Nessim, we went to a park along the Nile, and played. One of the nicest things about parks here is the beverage service – a very nice gentleman brought coffee in a samovar and poured it into a crisp white porcelain cup and saucer. Even the police celebrated – they’ve put away their winter black jumpers and wool pants and donned crisp white cotton uniforms, the likes of which Laurence of Arabia would appreciate (I can’t spend an hour in white without getting dirty, and even in a city as dusty and grimy as Cairo, these guys stay immaculate – I think it’s something they teach at the Police Academy.)
To celebrate Easter for the boys, we set up an Easter egg hunt, and tried to think of stories involving the Easter Bunny (which is hard.) Even harder was trying to get the man at the Supermarket to help me find Jelly Beans. I recognize that I am the ignorant Westerner hoping someone speaks English in a foreign land, but there was still strong comic element to the whole thing. I asked, and he originally thought I wanted jelly, replying yes, we have apricot, grape or strawberry. I said, no thank you though, but I am looking for Jelly Beans for children, as a treat. A sweet, even. He heard, sweet red kidney beans. This went on for a while, me trying to get treats for the boys without the boys hearing it, and the man offering me a litany of beans from around the world; none of them from Cadbury.
Eventually, we did find sweets and treats, but at a different store.
Here are photos of the egg hunt and park outing. One photo is Egypt Kitty, the cat adopted by Villa 41, hidden among the flowers – in case you hadn’t had enough hunts this last weekend.
Imagine walking into famous gardens, now neglected and so arid you expect a tumbleweed to cross your path. Now add to that a museum where mannequins dressed in various styles depict the agrarian history of a country, and where women are categorized and displayed as if they are a species, between the Zebra hide and the stuffed rhinoceros. At the Museum, a gentleman appears and starts opening walls to show you exhibits, and you suddenly realize that no one has been into the museum in while, a long long while, and not just because of its 3 hours open a day policy. Walk a little further and suddenly, you are in a replica pharonic garden, teaming with spring blooms, if somewhat overgrown. You picnic while its caretakers (who also may live in a bower in the garden) bring you flowers and berries. Finally, add indiscriminate gunfire from a shooting club nearby as background noise. That’s what visiting the Agricultural Museum is like.
azimuths compass 