“Use your eyes. Use your ears. Use your brains…if you've got any.”
~ Agatha Christie, Death on the Nile (1937)
Joel Bowman with today’s Note From the End of the World: Aswan, Egypt…
The old taxi bumped along, wending down the rustic track known here as the “agricultural road.” Outside, the blazing heat fell on the backs of the field workers, covered from head to toe in soiled cloth and stooped over their crops.
Not yet midday, the temperature was still rising.
Save for the occasional, mechanized tiller or cultivator, the work was done mostly by hand and animal. Along the road, children no older than our daughter drove donkey carts, laden with the fresh cut harvest.
“Tomatoes for Germany,” our driver informed us, “And here, wheat and maize, for Saudi and the Emirates.”
We watched the fertile planes pass by the window, imagining the scene as it might have existed a thousand… two-thousand… five-thousand years ago. For these people, not much has changed.
Following the Nile south, the ride from Luxor to Aswan is about three and a half hours on the new highway… or twice that if you want to see the grand temples of Khnum, Edfu and Kom Ombo, over on the East Bank.
The temples are indeed impressive, impossibly vast monuments to dead kings… built on the backs of countless slaves. As Agatha Christie mused in her classic murder mystery, Death on the Nile:
“Take the Pyramids. Great blocks of useless masonry, put up to minister to the egoism of a despotic bloated king. Think of the sweated masses who toiled to build them and died doing it. It makes me sick to think of the suffering and torture they represent."
Mrs. Allerton said cheerfully: "You’d rather have no Pyramids, no Parthenon, no beautiful tombs or temples—just the solid satisfaction of knowing that people got three meals a day and died in their beds."
The young man directed his scowl in her direction. "I think human beings matter more than stones.”
But as confronting as past may be, the present day can be equally difficult to square. (See clip, above…)
After a eventful spell here in Egypt, we’ve got plenty to say about the place… and the region in general… most of which is probably best kept until we are safely returned to modern civilization. In the meantime…
And now for your Notes From the End of the Week…
Final Notes…
A special thanks to ALL our dear members! Your support makes each and every Note possible. Before you go, here’s what a few generous Notes Members have to say about their decision to support our humble scribbles…
If you find value in the work we do and would like to join our growing community of inquiring minds, cheerful skeptics and free thinkers, please take a moment to support us here. In advance, Cheers ~ JB
In the meantime, stay tuned for your next Note From the End of the World…
Cheers,
Joel Bowman
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