A Thrill Packed Day In Cairo...Part II

Let's start with er...uh...her...him...it...you know what I mean...the SPHINX...

Not to be confused with the MINX...but that is another story...she wasn't made of stone...

she created that effect...

Where was I...Oh yeah...

According to Hadidi, and after spending two days with this man, I have no doubts that,

"Khafre had this monument made to guard his pyramid situated behind it"...kinda like this...

With a likeness of the Pharaohs' face, a Lions body a Sacred Serpent about its head...the magnificent creature stood guard over Khafre's Pyramid...

Please excuse my uncharacteristic 'facetime' on this blog...but, then again...these sets were expensive to rent here in North Hollywood, and I wanted to make the most of them...(those extras in the background make more in a day than I ever earned singing on "Hello Dolly")











Leaving the Sphinx we visited a Carpet School in Saqqara...it was amazing watching the dexterity exhibited by these young children...take a look...

The School is in the basement of the store and the children attend and learn to weave for about 10 years...it is an ancient art that thrives today...the quality of their product is noteworthy...they make rugs from three sources...Slik, Wool and Cotton...

Their finest product is made entirely of silk...Then there is silk and wool, wool and wool...wool and cotton and finally cotton and cotton...

After leaving El Sultan, the carpet school, we ventured to the Egyptian Museum...






Hadidi loved taking this picture...

Here I am crowned by the grand architecture of the museum...











The museum is vast and at the end of the day, all I wanted to see were the mummies and King Tut's exhibit...(these amazing pieces have never left the museum)

No pictures, because they almost strip search you for camera's...

I wouldn't have minded though...maybe it was the lovely woman guard...

Interesting fact I have found in Egypt...there are metal detecters

at the hotels, museums and many public places...

The Egyptians harbor some of the nicest smiles I have seen...

friendly eyes...there is strength and kindness in them...


We then ventured downtown to the upscale shopping district...

and here I found what I had been looking for...

Bahler Street!


Named for a cousin who made quite a name for himself in Cairo...

It was thrilling to see...

And spelled in a variety of ways...all on the same street!

Almost as many spellings

as I see in America!

Bahlar at the north end and Behler at the south end...!

(and none of them 'mit umlaut'...

that would be Bähler...:)

But I must admit...THIS was my favorite...

A women's couture shop...

"MISS BAEHLER"

(this is the french spelling...:)




It was thrilling to see...the entire day was thrilling...I was like a kid...

OK...I heard someone say, "You're always like a kid"...and to that I say...

SHUKRAN!

Love to you all...stay tuned...tomorrow we drive to Sais and Alexandria...

And here is ÆSOP's Fable of the Week:

The Hare and the Tortoise 


  A HARE one day ridiculed the short feet and slow pace of the

Tortoise, who replied, laughing:  "Though you be swift as the

wind, I will beat you in a race."  The Hare, believing her

assertion to be simply impossible, assented to the proposal; 

and they agreed that the Fox should choose the course 

and fix the goal.  

On the day appointed for the race the two started together.  

The Tortoise never for a moment stopped, 

but went on with a slow but steady pace straight to the end of the course.

 
The Hare, lying down by the wayside, fell fast asleep.  

At last waking up, and moving as fast as he could, 

he saw the Tortoise had reached the goal, 

and was comfortably dozing after her fatigue. 

Love and 'Good Day' from Cairo,

A Grateful Thomas 

Cairo...Wow...

Well blogger buddies, I am on the last leg of my research trip and it has taken me to Cairo...Egypt, not Missouri...there is no need to confuse the two because Cairo MO, at last count (the U.S. census of 2000) has a Pop. of 293 and a total area of 0.3 square miles...the OTHER Cairo, the one here in Egypt...has a Pop. of 22,000,000 and a total area of 100 square miles...give or take a meter...

So, with confusion cleared, I offer you my observations of Cairo, beginning with last night when I had dinner downstairs at my hotel, conveniently situated on the Nile...

I thought I was looking at a painting as I gazed up from my menu and saw this sight...

Dinner was good too...










This morning, I was greeted by Hididi, who is to be my guide for the next four days as I study this great and ancient land in my quest to bring you an interesting take on it in 600 B.C....

and this...was certainly here in 600 B.C...in fact it was old in 600B.C. almost 2000 years old...

It was the burial place of...

Khufu..."God Bless You", you said?

No my dear...Khufu...the Pharoah








It was about a 35 minute drive from the hotel to the Great Pyramids and Hididi filled me with interesting facts about the history of this magnificent country...I love when someone imparts their knowledge and is so filled with love for it that it instantly climbs inside of your knowledge base and makes itself at home...

Had to do this...

From this angle...it looked like the road to heaven...


Khufu...gesuntheit!

Thank you...

Here is a pic of Hididi, my new found fountain of Egyptian knowledge...showing me more interesting features...









Then we turned the corner to see the smooth upper section of Khafre's Pyramid...

And what is that, that looks so out of place between the two pyramids?

No not me silly...the white building that looks like a garage...

It is a garage you say, Hadidi?

"Well, yes, of sorts, it houses the Solar Ship that they discovered in 1954..."

"A Ship!" Those of you who know me also know that I love boats...so off we went...

This "Solar Barge" was found adjacent Khufu's...("gesu..."Stop it") pyramid, 143 fet long...laid into a pit dug out for it...and it was placed in perfect form, however, unassembled...maybe his subjects figured he could use his 'mummy wraps' to lash the cedar planks together when the time came...:)

This was interesting...the boat's planks were lashed together by Halfah Grass...(no...you do not smoke it in a hookah)...a brilliant concept...and the boat was made of cedar planks? "But there is no cedar in Egypt!" you say...yes...but there was in Lebanon...(let's you in on a little bit of trading knowledge)

Pretty cool...how beautifully these pieces fit together...

"And how did they fashion these cedar planks?" you ask...

Take a look on your right...the good news is they didn't need a tool belt...

A flint knife and a rock...

"The Flintstones"...only different...

A beautiful 1/10 scale model of the Pharaohs' 'getaway' boat...





and then...

The actual 143 ft cedar Solar Boat!...the original, now assembled...

(Word has it that Khufu...(don't you dare...) has yet to set foot upon its deck...

or anywhere else for that matter...

So, how do we follow that?

With this...:)








More Soon...

Love to all1

Thomas

What a Day In Sardis...

Staying at the Lidya Sardes Hotel and Spa was a pleasure...

the Turkish people are friendly &  helpful in a way that you 

feel that they are enjoying serving you...

As promised by Vedat Ordu, the front desk manager, I was met at 10:00 by: 

Mustafa Uçar 

and 

Beyazit Tan...

Mustafa has written a book entitled "Sardes", for which he spent ten years researching...

(Thank you Mustafa...my books are the fortunate recipients of your knowledge)

I was told that Mustafa did not speak much English , so it seemed a good idea to have a 

translator along...that would be Beyazit...I know girls...simmer down now...

The funny thing was that mustafa understood everything I said, and I think having 

Beyazit along as a safety net, removed any reticence that Mustafa had about speaking, 

so it turned out to be three guys out to review and discover the history of Sardis...

Arriving at the gate 

to the ruins...

we encountered a sight 

that has been a part of this 

landscape since 

time immemorial...

The sheep were shorn by this time...and they were everywhere we looked...

you'll see them in the background of many of the pictures to follow...

and 'twas thus in the time of the Hittites who proceded Gyges, (Grandfather)
Alyattes, (Father) and Crœsus...

Mustafa explained that Crœsus' palace had been built almost 500 years before he occupied it, high at the top of Mount Hyde (pronounced 'heethay')

...that is the mountain in the background of the picture just to the left here...in the foreground we see  Roman ruins...the large blocks of stone in the front are from Crœsus' time and are sandstone...behind them the columns are made of marble  taken from Mount Tmolus...

That is Mount Tmolus behind the

smiling faces of Mustafa and Beyazit...

I think they're smiling because we had

made the decision not to climb 

Mount Tmolus today...:)

According to Mustafa, Crœsus' grandfather, Gydes, was the first to create a coin...Alyattes, Crœsus'

father, built upon them and Crœsus, who is most important in my books, was the king who really put them to use and is referred to by many as the father of the coin...

This is how the coins looked in Crœsus' time...

The Lion, the Eagle and the Bull

were all symbols of Lydia

And it is said that the sunburst 

around the lion's head is 

Crœsus' personal symbol...

The coins were fashioned out of electrum, a natural amalgam found on the shores 

of the nearby Pactolus river...

What looks like a small muddy stream today was once a navigable river... smaller boats were either rowed or pulled by animals along the shore...

The larger ships were moored about 6 kilometers downstream where the Pactolus meets the Hermos River, which flows into the Aegean Sea

My characters sailed from Samos, up the Aegean to Smyrna (Izmir today)

then up the Hermos (against the flow of the river) and moored at the junction of the Pactolus River...Here is a video that explains it better...

Once their ships were moored, they were taken by smaller boats up the Pactolus into Sardis...they were either rowed or towed by mules or oxen, walking on the shoreline, pulling the boats along by ropes tied to their yokes...

Having arrived...they would venture up mount Hyde to Crœsus' palace...



Here are some interesting pics as well as writer's theories as well as facts about Crœsus and his Lydia...

Crœsus is credited with creating 'Legal Tender'...the coins of his father and grandfathers reigns were made of electrum...a naturally occurring substance that consists of bout 50+% gold, 40+% silver and the rest copper...these were used for coins first by the Lydians...

Crœsus created a mint, where the electrum was melted in three processes that yielded pure gold, pire silver and pure copper...

He used these pure substances to create coins of varied denominations

Here are some examples of those coins below...

As mentioned previously, Lydia 's Symbols were the Lion, the Eagle and the Bull...you will recognize these in the examples here...

Artists in the 16th Century painted scenes from the legend of Crœsus...here are a few

Solon and Croesus 1624

Gerrit Van Honthorst

Claude Vignon - 1593-1670

Croesus and Solon

about 1610, Hendrick van 

Steenwyck the Younger

The Delphic Oracle, 1899, 


John William Godward




Here's a legend of Crœsus and the lady on our left...

Croesus and the Delphi Oracle

The Delphi Oracle was renowned both for the ambiguity and the occasional plain accuracy of its answers. Croeus, king of Lydia [560-520BC], wanted to test the most highly regarded Greek oracles. He sent messengers to each one of them with instructions to ask, after exactly 100 days had passed, the following question: “What is the king of Lydia doing today?” Five of the oracles were wrong. A sixth was close. The oracle at Delphi replied as follows:

Lo, in my sense there striketh the smell of a shell-covered tortoise,

Boiling now in a fire, with the flesh of a lamb in a cauldron.

Brass is the vessel below, and brass the cover above.

As it happened, Croesus was, at that very moment, cooking a lamb-and-tortoise stew in a brass pot. Convinced of the oracle’s accuracy, he questioned it about the weightier question on his mind, namely the Persian Wars. The answer was that a great army would be defeated. Taking this for a good omen, Croesus sent his army into battle against Cyrus the Great. Again the oracle hit the mark, but it was Croesus’ army that was defeated.

And so the legend continues that Cyrus' having destroyed Crœsus's kingdom did what victorious kings do to the vanquished...he placed him on a funeral pyre and lit it...

But, Crœsus prayed to Apollo and a thunder storm occurred and the rains extinguished the fire...

Cyrus interpreted  this as an omen and took Crœsus as his advisor...

It is said that Crœsus lived out his life in peace...

What a man! That's who I want Æsop representing...

And that is just what he does...(you'll enjoy this more when you read the book...:)

So now, having followed Quincy Jones mantra..."If You DOn't Go, You Don't Know',

I now have vivid memories of Sardis that will color my stories from henceforth...

Walking this land and seeing the mountains that my characters saw has a great influence

on what I see when I am writing...

For me, the stories I write come in on a consistent basis...and form the basis of the greater work...

it appears almost as a skeleton...complete from head to toe...then the flesh, muscles,

tendons and bones as well as the lungs, heart and breath come from what I experienced

by visiting places such as Sardis and breathing the air of his great land...

Thank you Sardis, Thank you Lidya Sardes Hotel and especially Mustafa and Beyazit

We are now Facebook friends and staying in touch!

And here is the Fable of the Week...

The Lioness 

        A CONTROVERSY prevailed among the beasts of the field as to which

of the animals deserved the most credit for producing the

greatest number of whelps at a birth.  They rushed clamorously

into the presence of the Lioness and demanded of her the

settlement of the dispute.  "And you," they said, "how many sons

have you at a birth?'  The Lioness laughed at them, and said:

"Why! I have only one; but he is a Lion." 

Thank you and a Happy New Year to all!

A grateful Thomas...:)

     

On to Sardis...

Tumi and I drove to Sardis from Kusadasi on Sunday December 5...(I drove:)

The drive was beautiful...first to Izmir, which is a LARGE city...

a population of about 3.5 million people...

We drove through on our way to Sardis, and it was impossible not to notice

how dense the brick and mortar...

Still, it is surrounded by

beautiful mountains...







The drive was interesting in regard to the difference between

the city and the country...in and around the smaller villages we encountered on the way,

it seemed that agriculture reigns...

In those rural areas, I saw something new...to me anyway...

I saw speeding cars, trudging tractors, lollagaging sheep herders and pedestrians

all sharing the two lane highways...sometimes the car's speeds exceeded 140kmph or

around 80+ MPH...while of the above was happening...

It was some sort of beautiful ballet...no stress...just flowing movement...

Soon...(an hour or so...) we arrived at our hotel in Salihli, which is adjacent to Sardis...

The hotel was impressive...

and reasonable rates

Perhaps it is because it is off season...

Checking in, I explained the mission at

hand...to see ancient Sardis...did they have a guide

Who might help me to focus on 600 BC? Vedat Ordu, the desk manager suddenly showed

a smile of great pleasure...he turned and reached for a small book and brought it forth...

The title: "Sardes" (One of the many spellings of Sardis)...as I glanced through it, although

it was written in Turkish, I could see that it covered most, if not all of the areas I have studied 

about this place for many years...the author, Mustafa Ucar, would be our guide the next day...

When we went up to the room...this is what I saw outside the window...

The mountain on the right is Hyde (pronounced 'heethay')

at the top of which Crœsus' palace resided...










I couldn't wait...I left Tumi to rest in the room and headed 

for the destination I have had pictured in my mind for so long...

Sardis...Sardes...Sart...

I guess if begins with SAR...whatever...

Then I saw it up close...

Oh my...in the foreground 

are Roman ruins...(latecomers...)

Then...180º across was the 'Little Tmolus', where Æsop was to have jumped to his death...well, that's what Crœsus thought...

To see these mountains in person was overwhelming...my heart hadn't beat so fast 

since Mynet Marks 'doubles' skated with me at the Culver City Rollerdrome...

This is where it happened...

my arm around her waist..

my hands trembling...

We looked good though...oops

this isn't us...what did I do 

with that Picture?

No...that's not it....that's the book I was reading...

(under the covers with a flashlight)

How did my dream get in this blog?

Where DID I put that picture?

Oh here it is!

Where was I? 

Oh yeah! Crœsus...Sardis...Well, as I said...just seeing where Crœsus lived and reigned...

I decided to go back to the hotel and wait for the morrow when I would have a proper guide...

When I arrived back in the room...there was Tumi looking out at Mount Hyde (Heethay)...

I guess the sights sort of got to her too...

Tomorrow...Mustafa fills my senses with the information I have sought...

Meanwhile,

I am happy to declare that ÆSOP approved the adding of one of his fables to this blog:

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Fable of the Week

A STAG overpowered by heat came to a spring to drink.  

Seeing his own shadow reflected in the water, 

he greatly admired the size and variety of his horns, 

but felt angry with himself for having such slender and weak feet.  

While he was thus contemplating himself, 

a Lion appeared at the pool and crouched to spring upon him. 

The Stag immediately took to flight, and exerting his utmost speed, 

as long as the plain was smooth and open kept himself easily at a safe distance from the Lion.  

But entering a wood he became entangled by his horns, 

and the Lion quickly came up to him and caught him.  

When too late, he thus reproached himself:  

"Woe is me! How I have deceived myself! 

These feet which would have saved me I despised, 

and I gloried in these antlers which have proved my destruction."