Egypt

This is Africa.

Everything looks organic and wild.

Every brown and gold shade of skin

passes in places, roads, and waterways

with no order or lines

like a flock of butterflies.

 

Smells of the oils of the ancient Egyptian gods’ perfume linger in places and on people. The recipe is written in the hieroglyphs in the tombs of the queens.

The eye of Horas protects and it stages at all the generations from thousands of year who come to look.

 

Real papyrus and fake papyrus are an obvious contrast if you know how to look . Made in China cat sculptures look upon the dogs lying in pieces of shade.

The very warm wind carries the sands of the desert creating an everlasting haze.

 

Hot air balloons rise with the sun and drift over the nile in Luxor which was known as Theebes.

The beautiful green around the eyes was ground up malachite used to reflect the sun like sunglasses.

 

Mummies are unveiled for all to see, but not just people animales alike. Cats dogs, sheep crocodiles.

The 3 pyramids mirror the 3 planets.

Every tomb has a false door- a door to heaven, to the after life.

 

In such an ancient society, women ruled on their own, independent and free, fair and just, efficiently, as their erections were practical, longer lasting and about quality not quantity.

 

Idealism and realism were in their art. God-like ideals of achievement make us human. 

Every religion has borrowed from their tales to build upon a story of creation, judgment, and after life.

 

Beneath the dust is the preserved dust of truth, of secrets past that tell the future of what kinds of humans we were. Only seeing the Earth and meeting its people can we answer the 3 questions of ethical philosophy

Who are we?

Why are we here? What are we supposed to do?

 

We are human We are supposed to embrace that and make things better.

There is beauty all around if you know where to look.

 

Camels cross the horizon slowly but surely. Horses pull carriages like chariots. Donkeys carry supplies on dirt roads and paved ones. Carriages only to Edfu Temple.

 

Egyptian Arabic and English. Muslim and Christianity. Greek and Roman. They wont the war with Israel. They send the Sudan illegal immigrants back. And miles and miles of supply trucks wait weeks for a permit to cross the border.

 

Sand, dust, dirt blows along the highway from Aswan to Abu Simbel. Flooded by man, then re-created to a higher location for all to enjoy,

The beautiful, larger than life statues as the entrance to the tombs of Ramse and Nefertari.

 

Sketching from life of the dead, the crossed arms meaning death and a foot forward meaning life, I bring something to the ruins instead of the photography which takes something away.

 

The deeper the carving the longer it would stay visible. High relieve and low relief, the cartoushes are visible, the universal circle of life and the name given that would never change, only be added titles to.

 

The propaganda needed for battles began here.

A felucca sail oar, a harbour, boats stacked upon boats as there are no docks.

The beautiful sound of the monotone praters echoing on speakers so those not in the mosques could hear.

 

Some women are fully covered. Some dance a belly dance. Spices and teas and nuts and dates and figs. Children wandering, singing holding to a boat wanting money. The boy rowing while his father throws tablecloths for sale up on boats of tourists.

 

Many people on the streets at night, in the middle of the night when the air is cool and forgiving. Midday tourists swear in Portuguese at the heat. The Egyptians sit and smoke without a care. Low tourist season-high heat.

 

The desert in the summer.

Deadly.

Bottle Water.

Kids in the Nile.

Plastic bottles in the Nile.

80% of Egypt’s drinking water. Fisherman in small blue boats. Tourists in large river boats. Felucca sailboats against the sorange sunset.

 

This country is not what you think of when you think of Africa as wa while. This county is influence by the Mediterranean, the Greeks, the Romans, the Christians, the Muslims, the Arabs, the Ancient Egyptians themselves. There’s nothing quite like it in the world.

 

The Nubian people seem simple and content. Even happy. The hottest part of Egypt they inhabit. Keeping crocodiles for pets. The ancient Egyptians once made them a god and fe them well in hopes they would not eat them.

 

 The Nile flows north from Ethipoia through Sudan to Egypt, coming to Lake Nassir, one of the largest man-made lakes, in Aswan, heading north past Kom Ombu, Edfu, Luxor, to Cairo and the Mediterranean sea.

 

The Nile carried the building blocks of the pyramids, the architects, the artists, papyrs, everything.

Today it carries trash, parasites, boats, tourists, and the secrets of civilizations past.

 

 

Ethereal erections erupt, each entering

Ground. Glyphs glow

Yellow.

Perfectly preserved papyrus paints

Tales told till time transcends.