Today is our last day together as a group. We’ll return to Cairo by bus and have a final dinner together at our hotel in Heliopolis, a well-heeled part of Cairo closer to the airport. Three will leave tonight; two in the wee hours of the morning. And I’ll see the rest off tomorrow after 7 a.m. We’ve had a pleasant finish to the tour at our hotel in Alexandria’s Montazah Park overlooking the Mediterranean.
The Mediterranean from our Alexandria Hotel
After checking out, we make a stop at the palace within the park. It was the summer home of King Farouk, the last king of Egypt, deposed by Nasser in 1952. Occasionally used for ceremonial functions, the palace mostly sits fully furnished and unused behind locked gates.
Montazah Palace, Alexandria
In some ways, it seems a fitting image for Egypt today. Who’s in charge and where are things headed? Since the January 25th revolution, there’s been a caretaker government. Parliamentary elections take place at the end of this month, and that parliament will draft the country’s constitution. Presidential elections will follow.
In reality, over the past 5000 years, Egypt has never been a true republic or representative democracy. Instead, there has been an unbroken line of pharaohs, kings, emperors, occupiers, khedives, and military strongmen – punctuated by assassinations, invasions, occupations, abdications, and revolutions. What will be different this time?
Many forces compete to shape Egypt’s future: tradition and modernity; internationalism and Islamism…
Prayer Time in Nubia along the Nile
…religion and secularity; poverty and privilege. It seems impossible to predict which will win or how these forces will reconcile themselves to the entire country’s best interest.
Cairo Market
We just have to keep our fingers crossed for our new-found friends.
The Nile, Downtown Cairo
