Extra Egypt Bits
Jun. 7th, 2007 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
deirdreWritten bits that didn't make it into a blog post from June 4-5 (Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt):
Small boats fishing along the Nile delta, dwarfed by the reeds (not papyrus) surrounding the boats.
Papyrus can only be grown with government permission.
Most stuff sold as papyrus is fake and is in fact banana leaf. Papyrus is woven in one direction; banana leaf is laid down in strips and will thus easily come apart.
I saw several intact Tut-period papyrii in the Cairo museum. Very amazing.
An amazing number of boomerangs were recovered from King Tut's tomb and are hanging on the wall. And yes, they were intended to return, just like the Australian ones.
Images of women in Egypt:
Almost no women on the street without some veil, though 98% did not have the really strict veil that covered nose and mouth.
One woman wore a red, black, and white short-sleeved minidress -- over a white long-sleeved blouse and stonewashed jeans. With a veil.
One woman wore camo pants, a thick black studded belt, a grey long-sleeved blouse, and an olive veil. I suspect she was also wearing Doc Martens, though I didn't check her feet. Hot Topic Egypt edition.
A woman standing across from the Library at Alexandria with her two children, in a denim long tunic, embroidered at the sleeves, with an indigo veil. She looked like she had a migraine (she kept holding a hand to one specific spot on one side of her head), so I said a little prayer that she'd find some comfort. A woman came up to her shortly after that and helped her.
And, of course, the woman swimming in the Mediterranean in full abaya.
Small boats fishing along the Nile delta, dwarfed by the reeds (not papyrus) surrounding the boats.
Papyrus can only be grown with government permission.
Most stuff sold as papyrus is fake and is in fact banana leaf. Papyrus is woven in one direction; banana leaf is laid down in strips and will thus easily come apart.
I saw several intact Tut-period papyrii in the Cairo museum. Very amazing.
An amazing number of boomerangs were recovered from King Tut's tomb and are hanging on the wall. And yes, they were intended to return, just like the Australian ones.
Images of women in Egypt:
Almost no women on the street without some veil, though 98% did not have the really strict veil that covered nose and mouth.
One woman wore a red, black, and white short-sleeved minidress -- over a white long-sleeved blouse and stonewashed jeans. With a veil.
One woman wore camo pants, a thick black studded belt, a grey long-sleeved blouse, and an olive veil. I suspect she was also wearing Doc Martens, though I didn't check her feet. Hot Topic Egypt edition.
A woman standing across from the Library at Alexandria with her two children, in a denim long tunic, embroidered at the sleeves, with an indigo veil. She looked like she had a migraine (she kept holding a hand to one specific spot on one side of her head), so I said a little prayer that she'd find some comfort. A woman came up to her shortly after that and helped her.
And, of course, the woman swimming in the Mediterranean in full abaya.