Looking out over Cairo

I was sitting atop the Cairo Tower - 610 ft up. I paid ₤8 to get the lift to the top (which is extortionate for Egypt) so that I could at least have seen the pyramids during my stay.

My trip lasted 5 days and was for the sole purpose of handing in my paperwork for an MA at the American University, Cairo. This took me 4 of my 5 days to organize so on the 5th day I did some site-seeing, taking in the Egyptian museum and scaling the Cairo Tower so I could glimpse the pyramids in the distance. And glimpse them I did. Just. Through the yellowy-brown haze that stretches up from the clusters of grey lego buildings into what eventually becomes blue sky. The silhouettes of the two larger pyramids are just about visible in the distance – dirty clouds around their base.

I could see the Nile, wide and flat, break into two and flow around the island of Gezira in the middle of Cairo on which the Tower, and I, stood. I wondered how far the city stretched in the days of the Pharoahs, I probably could have seen its limits from there, and the surrounding villages. The Pyramids and the Nile are all that are left behind of that great civilization. I wonder what will be let of ours in 3,000 years? Our skyscrapers? Our cathedrals? It seems we have always reached for the heavens, wondering how high we could go and whether it would make a difference.

Our culture prides riches above all. Why else would Tutankhamun be the most famous of all the Pharoahs? He ruled for an extremely short time but his tomb was found almost completely intact with all the beautiful priceless treasures still adorning his body and his place of rest.

The Egyptian Museum has sarcophagi after sarcophagi, beautiful jewellery and statuettes but nothing is said of how the man on the street was buried. Will it only be our rich and powerful leaders who are wondered at behind glass cabinets, nothing said of the people they served?

Having said that, I felt a sadness at the museum – that these pieces of people were not where they would wish them to be. I'm guessing the citizens of Ancient Egypt continue to rest in peace. Unlike their great leaders.