December 8, 2008

In Search of Cool Triangular Shapes

The pilgrimage is off to an interesting start. Currently I am posting on our final evening in Giza, looking out the window toward the place where the Great Pyramid watches the traffic go by. We have spent two days in and around the Cairo area, taking in the city as we adjust to the new time zone and the preponderance of antiquity to be seen nearly everywhere one looks.

Last year the group started a long-running joke about the Pyramids based on the odd English wording on a bag of Doritos brand chips someone purchased during a break. The bag stated that one of the reasons to enjoy the snack was because of its "cool triangular shape." As the bus was driving up to the Giza Plateau about the time that this slogan was discovered, the name stuck -- and a quest to find "cool triangular shapes" began.

You'd be surprised how many triangles appear when you least expect them. Yesterday the obvious ones appeared on the plateau in the form of the pyramids of Khufu, Khaefra and Menkaura. This morning, Menekh found some lurking in the inside of the courtyard washbasins of the Muhammad Ali mosque at the Citadel. Tek and Imti had fun picking them out on Giza's street signs, painted on buildings and trucks for no apparent reason, and even worked into the iron work of gates and fences. Cool triangular shapes make up bus stops, packaging, even items of food and the "free pyramids" thrown in when Kai-Imakhu Sedjemes purchased some clothing at a shop near the hotel.

...And to think some people think that modern Egypt retains no memory or pride for its pharaonic past. Clearly, they aren't noticing the cool triangular shapes lurking all around.

Tomorrow morning we're off to the other end of the country. I'll check in from Abu Simbel if there is internet that far south. If not, you'll hear from me next in the beautiful city of Aswan in a couple of days. Senebty!

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