Five years on
Today marks the 5th anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution. How quickly time passes. On this day 5 years ago I was about to board a plane for Cairo to lead my first tour group (you can read my full story here and here). It goes without saying that this was a particularly memorable time for me, so it’s a privilege to be here again 5 years on. But this time, there are many differences. The streets are considerably quieter (apart from a pocket of demonstrators in Tahrir Square - pictured above and below). There aren’t any tanks (except for the usual gathering outside the Egyptian Museum), the police have upheld a presence, but from my observations, just a peripheral one and it’s cold and wet.
I also managed to maintain my distance much more this time! After assessing the situation from the balcony of one of my favourite shops (Oum el-Dounia), I walked the outskirts towards Sharia Mohamed Mahmoud where I met up with a friend before departing by taxi (the closest action I encountered all day can be seen above!). But, I’m not complaining. I was very pleased to see a sense of calm and hope this will mark the beginning of the gradual return of tourists to Egypt. Another world news piece that's likely to strike a similar chord is Nick Reeves’ hypothesis on the burial of Nefertiti. Imagine the wonders that could eventuate from this if he's right!
In other news, Essam and I are off to Luxor tomorrow. We have a busy few days ahead visiting one of the EES’s fieldwork projects (Angus Graham’s Theban harbours and waterscapes survey), as well as a string of meetings aligned with my research skills workshops. I also received my ‘tasreeh’ yesterday (an Egyptian permit which grants me free access to all the key monuments, museums and archaeological sites). I haven’t had one of these since I was working with the Macquarie University mission to Saqqara back in 2005, so it’s good to feel just a little bit important again! It’s just a shame it looks like I’m missing a few teeth in my photo!