My visit to An Ancient World

Egypt, being one of the most ancient civilizations of the world has captured the imaginations of many. The ancient wonder of the world – the Great Pyramids of Giza, the world’s longest river Nile and the recent archaeological findings of innumerable treasures of the Tut Ankh Amun’s Tomb has triggered the interest of tourist across the globe. I and my family were no exception. We had been dreaming for quiet some years of going to this mysterious land and this summer, our dream became a reality. We went on a 10 day full scale trip of Egypt. We cruised the Nile, railed the tracks and wheeled the roads, along the Nile to cover the stretch of over 1800kms, right from the Southern tip, called Abu Simbel (A UNESCO Heritage site) which is just 50kms away from the Sudan border, upto the Northern tip, of  Alexandria, which is the coastline of the  Mediterranean sea.

The journey helped us discover many new things about Egypt, which made our trip even more interesting. In Egyptian language, ‘Nile’ means ‘River’ and ‘Sahara’ means desert, which stands as the meaning by itself, though we have learnt to call it as Nile River and Sahara Desert. We got so engrossed in understanding the Egyptian history which dates back to 4000BC. Great pyramids, hieroglyphs, elaborately decorated underground burial chambers, mummies, sprawling temple complexes, and statues combining human and animal forms are only a few of the many remains that survive from ancient Egypt. These relics of an extinct world raised numerous questions during the centuries after the civilization died out. The discovery of the Rosetta Stone in the early 19th century, by a young French scholar, Jean Champollion was a major milestone. It helped him to decipher the hieroglyphs and reconstruct the ancient Egyptian language, which breathed a new leash of life to the Egyptian History.

The Great Pyramid which has been built as early as 2500BC is undoubtedly the world’s biggest marvel of human labour. The great pyramid of Giza, has been built with 2.3 million, large blocks of granite stones, lime stone, sand stone, weighing an average of 2.5MT each.

The work of quarrying, sculpting, transporting the rocks through Nile and moving them on the land surface by forming long stretches of sandy slopes to build the Great Pyramid which touches a height of about 480ft, was accomplished by thousands of skilled and unskilled workers. It is estimated that 1 lakh workers took 20 years to complete this herculean task. And there are 3 of such, close to each other. Even to imagine of such a human feat is mind boggling. Though it is the pyramids that are commonly known, there are other noteworthy spectaculars like the Abu Simbel, Philae Temple, Karnak Temple, Kom Omdo Temple and Luxor Temple, which are mighty works of the Egyptians.

 

Egypt shares a lot of similarities with India. The ancient Egyptian religion is very much similar to Hindu religion, where we have many Gods and many mythological stories. They too believed in the concept of life after death. The mummification process which is popular in Egypt is a result of this belief. Egypt too has been invaded by many foreign rulers, like India.  If we were to ask ourselves, what an invasion can do, we as Indians, have some answers from our own experience.  A visit to Egypt could open up more shocking realities. What was striking to me, more than the political invasion, was the cultural invasion.  An invasion can kill a culture. It can kill a religion. The religion of the Ancient Egyptians is dead and gone. There are no more spiritual practices in the Egyptian temples.  The culture of ancient Egypt has been lost. With invaders from different nations, Egypt has lost its true identity.  

If not for these huge stone monuments, which serves as a testimony of the age old Egyptian civilization that existed and if not for the discovery of the Rosetta stone, which helped archeologist decipher the ancient Egyptian language, Egypt would have lost all its glorious history.

This trip helped me realize, that taking a few steps backward in time, can give us a better clarity and understanding of the human evolution.

 

   D. Senthil Kannan,

   Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

   Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

   Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com