Economics/Tourism

On our recent trip to Egypt our guides gave us a lot of information which I have not been able to substantiate on the internet. So, what I give you may only be second hand propaganda. Bear with me.

We landed in Cairo. We were told that Greater Cairo was the second largest city in the world next to Mexico city with 25 million people. The traffic and pollution would attest to that. Eighty percent of the country's population lives in Greater Cairo and ninety percent lives along the Nile River. The rest is the Sahara Desert. These statistics are not validated by my research.

We were told the three top sources of income were US aid (first), tourism (second), and agriculture. Tourism is evident. We have traveled a lot and I have never seen tourism like it was here. Yet, talking to people here, few have been to Egypt. Every burial ground, temple, pyramid, museum or other site we visited was a crush of people. In one of the temples we wanted to see a solar boat used by gods to travel to the other side It was located in a room in a temple the size of a small bedroom, about four steps up. There was a constant push of people so that it was difficult to move up the steps or push your way back down the steps. When we visited the National Museum in Cairo our guide told us we were lucky there were so few people. I can't imagine what a crowded day would look like. Guides were not allowed in the smaller rooms for reasons of space and people movement

When Egypt experienced terrorist attacks in the 90's, the industry naturally suffered so as you can imagine they work very hard at making it safe (a discussion of another Chapter). At that point, the tourist sites needed to be controlled more by monitoring access. However, the trinket and souvenir vendors suffered. So now, all visitors to these sites must "walk the gauntlet" of hawkers and it is oppressive. One must move quickly and continuously forward. never even glancing at the wares to keep the vendors from harassing you. In Peru, if you said no, they left you alone. Here, just a glance was an encouragement. You'd be touched, goods thrust at you, they'd follow you and hound you. And this was tolerated to promote the economy. I felt it a discouragement to visiting.

We had the luxury of boating down the Nile River from Luxor to Aswan on a three day cruise. As you cruised and looked back or forward there was a steady stream of cruise boats very much like the one we were on. Our boat held about 120 people. I would be generous to call the docking ports harbors. The river boats pulled up parallel to each other by shore. If your boat was on the outside, you walked through the others, then across a gangway, to the shore. I can only assume these boat companies had some agreement between them as to who could park next to whom.

As we cruised, the fertile Nile Valley was quite beautiful. The ancient Egyptians considered three seasons. One was the Inundation. This is when the river floods and nourishes the soil. Now there is the Aswan Dam which controls the floods and the land is irrigated. You will see pumping stations at regular intervals along the river.

The banks are well defined. You will see the green valley on either side for varying distances, surroundied by the sandstone hills. And the agriculture is lush. However, there is no evidence of farm machinery. It appears to be done by hand and animal. Donkeys are beasts of burden as well as transportation. Fruits, vegetables, wheat and cotton are all grown.

There appears to be a lot of poverty. I did not see, as with most large cities, areas of tremendous wealth in contrast. It may be there and just not visible

The visit to the pyramids in Cairo was similar in tourism problems. However, as you walked about the site, there were security guards on camels but also locals on camels who wanted to give you a ride. We were warned not to do this because once they got you up, you would not get off until you had handed over all your money. Frequently we saw guards chase them away. Also, we were advised not to shake their hands because they would not let go. Not sure why this is tolerated but being aware made it less of a problem. However, you did see people who either didn't know or didn't heed the warnings.

As I reread this, it sounds quite negative. I don't mean it to be. Yet the information is accurate from my experience. I believe the Egyptians need to work on managing crowds better. The visit was definitely an enlightening experience and I am glad we did it.