It's a boat Jim...

..but not as we know it.

Think of a boat.. any boat you've ever been on that's made of wood. And take away the nails.
What have you got left? Hmmm.. not a lot..

Keel bolts, clinch nails, trenails and iron spikes. Simple, but extremely effective for holding things together - which is what makes the Cheops boat so special (apart from being four and a half thousand years old). It's held together by string...

All lashed together. Frames, stem post, planking, keel - everything. Quite extraordinary.. It's actually a technique used in arab boatbuilding until quite recently but it is still impressive to see the ingenuity and skill it took to build something this big.

I saw the Dover Boat when it was first discovered - a well preserved bronze age plank boat that is built with similar techniques - but Cheops is twice as large and a thousand years older.

Amazing...

The sands of time

It is hard in the minds eye to take away today... the tourist busses, the straggling crowds of onlookers and the persistent hawkers - and the city sprawl only a few hundred yards away -untidy streets and poverty.

But take a step back and see how these majestic structures dwarf us as we stand impotent at their feet. Four and a half thousand years old and still they draw crowds that wonder at the skill, inventiveness and resource of their creators. At least I did.

The pyramids are the only remaining structures left from the ancients seven wonders of the world.. and were ancient when that list was created. But without a doubt they are wonderful... Just a quick read about them shows what amazing structures these are. What a privilege to stand on the desert sand and look up at a structure that for over three thousand years was the tallest building in the world.

But.. while I am bowled over by the pyramids, and think the Sphinx was wonderful there is one other must see if you are ever there.

The Cheops boat...

Metropolis

The world is big... and has a lot of people. You know that of course - but it's hard to understand just what that means. Now, looking out the window from the plane as it descends you start to understand.

Cairo stretches as far as the eye can see... a dry patchwork of apartment buildings jostled together crawling slowly out into the desert. Eighteen million people in one city.. twice the population of Sweden compressed into just one town. We will stay in the part that looks like any other city... an international hotel, with marble foyer, fountains and pool in a well-to-do district. But this is not Cairo.

Cairo starts beyond the barrriers, the bollards and the security guard, out on the street. Follow the raod and soon it's busy, dusty and full of people.. cars heading all ways, a jostling mass packing the roads, filling the air with the sounds of motor horns. Old Ladas and nearly new Mitsubishis... Vans loaded high with hay, or cauliflowers, a pickup with two camels.. a lorry load of cows, standing tethered, looking balefuly over the side. A mini-bus, with people hanging out the door, pushing for space in the the throng. Inquisitive faces staring up at the tourists looking back.

Cairo is the forest of satellite dishes atop the crush of crude apartment blocks.. where the dark unpaved alleys lead off between. Emaciated donkeys pulling a tired old cart.. Stately mosques overshadowed by the modern sprawl.. and the megaphonic call to prayer.

But maybe this is also Cairo.. where the night skyline is broken by the neon graffitti - Hyatt, Marriott and the rest declaring - this is my turf now..