Aswan High Dam

When we visited Aswan a few weeks ago, we stopped to see Lake Nasser and the two Aswan dams. The first dam was built in the early 20^th century and currently supplies 90% of Egypt's energy need! It's funny to think that the country with the worst pollution in the world is getting 100% of its electricity from a hydroelectric dam.

The second dam (or the High Dam) was built in 1970 with Soviet assistance and cost $1 billion. The material used to create this dam occupies 18 times the volume of the Great Pyramid! The length of the dam is almost 4 km and its base is close to 1000 m wide. With 12 generators inside the dam, it can generate 2.1 gigawatts/hour when operating at peak capacity. Currently, only a tiny fraction of this power is used, but the government is trying to start exporting the electricity to Europe or Turkey.

It is almost impossible to fully appreciate the size of the High Dam just by driving across the top of it. While we were standing on the top enjoying the view, the guards kept hovering around insisting "Don't zoom!" "Not allowed to zoom!" They were no doubt afraid that we were stealing the plans for the parts of the generators and power plant apparatus that were visible from where we were. It turns out that the dam is a very high risk target for terrorism. The dam as a whole could withstand a nuclear blast without breaking. A well placed bomb inside the dam, however, would release the 5.97 trillion cubic feet of water stored in Lake Nasser. The result would be an enormous tidal wave that would sweep down the valley to Cairo in less than 7 hours. Imagine trying to evacuate 17 million people from a capital city in less than 7 hours and you can understand their concern.
As a result of the construction of these two dams, 13 ancient Greek and Egyptian temples were drowned in the resulting lake. They have all been relocated with the assistance of a number of other countries. Unfortunately, many of them have significant water damage from being submerged for a long time. While the increased control of the Nile has greatly extended the growing season and made it possible to irrigate a much larger part of the country, overall fertility of the Nile valley has decreased. The annual Nile floods used to bring in a lot of nutrient rich silt which is now lost. The reduced flow out of the Nile delta is also allowing salt from the Mediterranean to seep back into the Delta reducing fertility further there.

You can go here to see more pictures from Egypt. I've also added a slideshow at the top of this page that will scroll through different pictures frrom over here.

We just got back from a trip to Mount Sinai and Dahab (a resort) so there will be some new posts soon.

Cairo - The City

The city of Cairo has a population of more than 17 million. Over 20% of the country lives in this area of the Nile delta. This leads to a very interesting traffic situation. There are lots of traffic lights and one way street signs scattered around the city. They are all purely decorative.
The real traffic control is done the old fashioned way by having underpaid policemen stand at the intersection. These guys are actually really useful when there is a traffic jam because they have the authority to make the cars take turns and play nice. The streets are shared by cars, taxis, trucks, delivery boys on motorcycles, and donkey carts.

No vehicle is intended to carry only one person - that would be a waste of resources. Motorcycles and even mopeds will often carry as many as 3 adult men, or as in this picture, a whole family.

The Nile which divides the city into Giza and Cairo runs in the middle of everything. Along its banks are large fancy western hotels and green parks. Throughout the city you can find a mixture of magnificent old mosques, shiny western high-rise, and dingy unfinished apartment buildings.

ATM's can be found in random walls of varied buildings. (But, they are usually empty.)

During the day, everything is dusty and polluted. Cairo holds the dubious distinction of being the most polluted city in the world. At night, however, everything looks better. The dust is hidden in a uniform blackness, and the profusion of lights makes the city look as well off as anywhere else.

Valentine’s Day Cruise

Since it took a while to get this blog started, there are pictures and stories from the past that will be appearing along with the events of the present. For now, here is a story of a recent present.

Almost every weekend, we get a chance to travel to different tourist attractions of Egypt. On the one hand, we get a nice break from studying while we play at being tourists. But, at the same time, it is just another distraction from all our studying and paper writing. Last weekend, our tourist activity was a Nile cruise. Now, fiction books are full of tales that should scare anyone away from wanting to cruise the Nile. (Think Death on the Nile, Anthony and Cleopatra, etc.) Well, if those stories aren't enough, here is ours.

We left Agouza late in the evening to take the night train down to Aswan to meet our cruise boat. On the train, everyone got plenty of studying and sleeping done, that way we didn't feel bad about not doing any work for the next three days of vacation. After eating lunch (the first of 9 meals on that boat) we went to the temple of Philae. So far so good. The next post will have picture of the temples. This post is intended to give you cruise willies…

Every meal was served as a buffet line that began with an assortment of 6-7 salads. Our interns warned against touching them, but a few hearty souls ate them anyway. The first casualties appeared late the second day of the cruise. 2 or 3 people started to complain of general malaise. By breakfast on Friday, several more were sick. While those of us who were feeling okay visited Karnak temple, everyone else lay on the boat and drank Sprite. After lunch a few more people opted to skip Hatchepsut's tomb and the Valley of the Kings in the afternoon because they were feeling queasy. I was feeling just fine up till 15 minutes before I threw up on the bus floor. While everyone else visited Tut's tomb, I relaxed on the cool marble floor in the museum and wandered through the tourist shops outside.

By dinner time, several more people were feeling iffy. In the morning, we all got up early and got off the boat as fast as possible. We were in the process of getting off the boat when Suzanne fainted on the sidewalk from dehydration and fever. In the midst of that commotion, some of the boat's crew snuck into one of our rooms and stole a bag of candy that our guide had given as a good bye gift. We finally got onto our train and everyone dosed up on Immodium and settled in for a 9 hour train ride. Instead of racing north at 100 km/h, our train proceeded to crawl along at 50 km/h and stop at every train station no matter how small. In the end, out trip took almost 12 hours. Fortunately, the medicine worked and no one was sick on the train. Just as our bus was delivering us and all our luggage back to Agouza, Jay spewed in the bus. A number of other exhausted students barely reeled back to their flats before collapsing.

All told, 24 out of the 28 members of our group were quite sick for at least a little while in the course of the cruise. Even our Egyptian guide who had been doing cruise tours for years got sick. It didn't matter that some people had been careful what they ate, even they got sick. Fortunately, everyone was sick on the boat where there were decent bathroom facilities instead of on the train where the bathroom was just a smelly hole that opened onto the track. Plus, we had Claire who found out from Diaa what medicine everyone needed, found a pharmacy, dosed everyone at the right times, and got us all Sprite and crackers to eat.

Did I mention that we were on this cruise on Valentine's day?

The program

Welcome to my blog. As you may already know or have figured out, I'm currently studying in Egypt. The Middle East Studies Program (MESP) is an opportunity to learn Arabic and study Middle East politics and religion. There are 28 students in the program.

Most of us only met for the first time at the airport. Spending 7 hours of layovers and 13 hours of plane time together is a great way to get to know a lot about someone else!

We live and study in Agouza, a decent neighborhood in Cairo (well, actually Giza). Our apartments (red dot) are quite close to the villa where we have our classes (blue dot). Even better, we are only five minutes away from the Nile. As they say here, 'Ishta' (cool).

Our flats are quite roomy with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room and a kitchen.

Our door has a paper on it with the Arabic words to say to inform someone on the phone that there is a fire/emergency and that we only speak English. Sure to come in useful soon…
Our program is directed by Dr David Holt. He met his wife a few semesters ago when she visited the program. They got married in December. Since for tax purposes he can't spend more than 30 days in the US each year, he flew back on the 16^th, married on the 17^th, and flew back to Egypt with her on the 19^th. He keeps fidgeting with his ring during class and the interns say that he is acting much nicer than he used to.

He is assisted by Dr. Diaa Nashed. Diaa is trained as a physician, but he got bored with that and now manages our programs finances, healthcare, travel plans, and any other arrangements that need to be made.

Oh, and he has a cute 1 year old named Grace.

Finally, we have two interns, Barret and Claire. They are both former students. We're still not sure, but it's beginning to look like they might know everything about Egypt. Anyway, they definitely know where to eat and how to get around.