A Cockney's Journey (30 page)

    “That’s understandable. The locals do like selling their tat to anyone who passes within feet of them,” Azziz said, blowing out a cloud of smoke. “Why are you in Saudi, Eddie?”
    “I work for Sheik Mohammad, or should I say his company Arincon,” I informed him. “I’m on a two year contract, until Sheik Fahed’s palace is built,” I explained.
    “Oh, so you’re in construction then, Eddie?” he asked.
    “Yeah, sort of.”
    “Banana and cinnamon shake for you, effendi” said the stallholder. I jumped up and retrieved my drink from the stall. After paying, I sat back down with Azziz.
    “Do you fancy a drink, or something?” I asked him.
    “Yes please. I’ll have a coffee, thanks. You should try the coffee, Eddie. Its aroma and taste is totally different to western coffee.”
    Taking Azziz’s advice, I ordered two coffees and left my banana and cinnamon shake untouched on the table. We sat puffing Marlboro fags, whilst drinking seriously strong-smelling Arabic coffee. Our conversation ranged from football, cricket, to Azziz’s native country, Egypt. I must admit it sounded absolutely fascinating. The Nile and the Valley of the Kings intrigued me immensely. The thought of seeing the Great Pyramid in Giza with its guardian, the Sphinx, filled me with excitement. Azziz continued telling me about his country’s history.
    “Ever since Greek and Roman times, the land of the Nile has enjoyed an awesome reputation for holding the key to lost secrets. The compelling glamour of ancient Egypt comes from the immense antiquity of its civilization, the splendour of its temples and monuments, its tombs with their sinister mummies, the strange animal-headed gods, the mysterious hieroglyphs or sacred writing, and the divine aura of the Egyptian Pharaohs, who were believed to be gods on Earth,” Azziz paused looking at me, smiling. “Interesting, isn’t it, Eddie?”
    “Yeah not many. Please carry on, Azziz. I’m enthralled.” I lit yet another cigarette while he continued.
    “The Great Pyramid is one of the most remarkable constructions ever erected. Unfortunately, the tip of the pyramid is now missing. The Pyramid actually stood more than a hundred feet higher in its original form, higher than St Paul’s Cathedral in London. It contains well over two million blocks of limestone, weighing on average two and a half tons each and fitted together so tightly that you could hardly slip a cigarette paper between them.
    “Even more impressive than the size of the Great Pyramid is its geometrical perfection. All the pyramids were designed so that the base was as close as possible to a perfect square and the sides aligned to the cardinal points. Nobody builds a colossal monument like the Great Pyramid or other pyramids without a reason, however no Egyptian documents have survived, which I find amazing. The Egyptians preserved mummies and other artefacts to be found thousands of years later but couldn’t preserve documentation on how and why they built the pyramids. Maybe they weren’t permitted to leave such information for the rest of humanity. Inscriptions in temples at Denderah and Edfu, for example, show that the line of the walls was marked out after observation of the stars in Ursa Major, but the builders were not told why. The Egyptians built their astronomical and mathematical knowledge into their pyramids and temples, not once did they record on tablets or parchment their achievements, keeping everything secret amongst the priests and ruling classes.” Azziz paused and lit another Marlboro. “What do you think, Eddie?” he asked.
    “Well, I’m a great believer in ‘there’s no smoke without fire’. It’s quite possible that the Egyptians had help building their pyramids or at the very least they were shown. I’ve always believed we live in a parallel universe between the mortal world and the spirit realm. The spirit world could have manifested itself to help the Egyptians. Consequently, the Egyptians deemed them all to be gods. That’s why the secret was never known. Let’s take, for example, the human fascination with aliens or beings from another planet. It’s exactly the same principle; for some unknown reason, most humans refuse to believe in the afterlife, yet believe in little green men from Mars. Pathetic! If there is a higher, intelligent being out there in space, wouldn’t you think they would have shown themselves by now? I believe in Karma and the universal law. Angels or spirits could quite easily manifest into any shape or form and, just as the Egyptians saw them as gods, we see them as aliens.”
    Azziz looked at me smiling.
    “Interesting, Eddie, your theories are definitely interesting. You could be right. You and I actually think along the same lines. It’s quite refreshing to meet someone on the same wavelength,” he said flashing his two gold teeth as he smiled.
    I stood up and ordered two more coffees and, whilst standing at the stall, Al and James entered the souk, laden down with numerous bags of goods.
    “Get two more of those, Ed. We’re gasping,” James bellowed across the square. I informed the stallholder that I wanted four cups instead of two and sat down.
    “You’ve been busy. What you bought, Al?” I asked curiously, trying to guess what was in the bags.
    “Couple pairs of jeans and some shirts and this baby,” he said, pulling out a radio cassette player. “What do ya think, Ed. Not bad, eh? Only ten quid in English money,” he said in a chirpy voice. “Mind you, Ed, took some serious haggling,” he added.
    “Lads, this is Azziz,” I said gesturing in his direction. “Azziz, meet Al and James. They’re a couple of mates of mine,” I said introducing them both.
    “Pleased to meet you,” Al and James said, offering their hands in friendship.
    “Likewise,” Azziz said smiling. He leant over the table and individually shook their hands. After a short time, Azziz informed me that he had to get back to his brother’s house in Medina. Saying his farewells, we shook hands and planned to meet up next Friday at 1 p.m. for coffee. I must admit I found Azziz good company and looked forward to our next interesting meeting.
    The rest of the guys started to turn up in dribs and drabs and it wasn’t long before we headed back to the site. Arriving at the site, I noticed how overcast and cloudy it suddenly became and then without warning the heavens opened up and flooded the site in torrential, thunderous rain. I’ve never witnessed rain like it; it never let up for hours. The site ground was so sun-baked and rock hard that the rain couldn’t penetrate immediately, thus causing horrendous flooding everywhere. Even the billets ended up in twelve inches of rainwater. After about five or six hours, the rain eventually stopped and the sun came out. The site and surrounding area was at least two-feet under water and it actually took till the next morning for the ground to absorb the surface water. All that evening, we spent mopping out our billets and drying clothes that were placed on the bottom of every individual’s closets. Quite a few personal belongings got ruined and were chucked out into the site’s rubbish skips or bins.
    The following morning, I was summoned to Sheik Mohammad’s office. After squelching my way across the site to his office, he motioned for me to come in and sit down.
    “Morning, Eddie, I’ve got two points I’d like to discuss with you. Firstly, the site will shut down next Monday for one week. All employees have to take one week’s holiday leave. You can either go home for a week or tour the Middle East. I would personally like you and the players to stay here for your holidays. I can arrange for you to visit Egypt and Cairo and possibly Khartoum in the Sudan. I have strong contacts in Egypt; my brother Saheed has shares in two tour operators in Aswan, so getting you fixed up won’t be a problem. Secondly, I’ve entered the team in the Inter Emirates Cup in Qatar. The three day tournament starts the week after you are all back from holiday.”
    “Great. I’ll look forward to that and the offer of a tour to Egypt sounds absolutely tempting. In fact, if I can get some of the guys to go, I would definitely stay and have my break in this neck of the woods,” I said smiling, thinking about my conversations with Azziz.
    “That’s pleasing. Let me know the outcome and how many would like to stay so I can arrange everything with Saheed,” he said, holding out his hand. I shook his hand and left the office. During the afternoon and evening I persuaded eight guys to stay, including Al and James. I must admit the thought of doing two long hauls in a week put me off going back to Blighty, and visiting Cairo and seeing the Great Pyramids in Egypt along with the Valley of the Kings was a temptation I had to give in to. After informing Sheik Mohammad that eight of us were prepared to stay in the Middle East for our break, he started organising our trip through his brother, Saheed. The next few days flew by and my meeting with Azziz took place as arranged. He seemed well excited that we were going to his country for a week’s holiday. He agreed to meet up with us in Luxor and show us around all the major sights in Egypt and Cairo. He gave me his phone number and told me to ring him from our hotel upon arrival in Luxor. After receiving our documentation from Sheik Mohammad, he informed us that his brother had arranged for us to fly from Jeddah Airport to Marsa Alam, where we would board a coach and then a Nile boat to Luxor. The next day, we left Jeddah for Marsa Alam and then onto Luxor. We arrived at the hotel at about eight-thirty in the evening and I immediately phoned Azziz. We arranged an early start for the following morning. It was too late in the day to go sightseeing, so we just hung around the hotel having a few beers. I sat on the balcony staring across the sacred lake, my eyes transfixed on the temple of Amen-Ra in Karnak. There’s definitely something mystical and spiritual about Egypt.
Why build such colossal monuments and what are their true purposes?
I asked myself, feeling mesmerised by the whole experience. Me, Al and James sat there for another hour or so, and then decided to call it a day, seeing as we had an early start in the morning. Jumping into bed, feeling very excited and slightly inebriated, I fell sound asleep.
    The following morning, after a long drive, we arrived in Giza. We climbed to the top of the Great Pyramid of Egypt soon after dawn. Gasping in amazement at the sight my eyes were trying to take in, I took a deep breath. To our west, the monument’s shadow stretched out far into the desert, sharply defined as though the rod of a giant sundial had cast it. At the base of the pyramid to our east, I could see quite a few empty, diamond-shaped trenches carved out of bedrock. According to Azziz, they were ‘boat pits’, or ‘boat graves’, which long ago had contained ceremonial timber boats. On one side of the pyramid’s base was what I can only describe as an ‘eye sore’. There stood this modern structure known as the ‘boat museum’, which lunged up towards us. Lying inside the museum was a completely intact boat, which was found beside the pyramid. Aziz pointed towards the south of the temple and, hemmed in by two archaic megalithic temples, crouched the Great Sphinx, its front feet extended towards the horizon; the emblem of enigmatic antiquity. We all stood, gazing in wonderment across the desert.
    “My God, how beautiful this place is, I feel so privileged and honoured to be standing here,” I said to Al quietly. He looked at me, nodding his head in agreement. We could feel a cool breeze blowing steadily towards us from across the desert. We looked up and saw the crystal clear blue sky, dotted with early morning clouds curving above us like a kaleidoscope. Beneath our feet, the man-made pyramid tapered jaggedly upwards while the earth stretched away in all directions from its large base.
    “Absolutely fantastic, Azziz,” I said with a large smile, thinking that I would never forget this day for as long as I lived.
    “Tomorrow, we’ll go to the Valley of the Kings outside Luxor, then visit the temple of Amen-Ra at Karnak on the east bank of the sacred river Nile,” Azziz informed us, while we made our way down to the base. “But before that, we’re going into the pyramid to view the King and Queen’s burial chambers and the grand gallery.”
    As we entered the grand gallery, our Egyptian guide started to fill us in on its ancient history.
    “There can be no dispute that the equipped spirit was thought to master the land of the Duat with what he knew. But what exactly was this knowledge? The suggestion in the texts that it was used to ‘go down to any sky’ hints very strongly that astronomy might have been involved.” He paused, looking at his audience with a smile before carrying on. “Scholars from around the globe have, as yet, failed to consider the possibility that the pyramids and perhaps even the Sphinx of Giza could have been built as three-dimensional models of the “inner world” of the Duat, or Neverworld; places of preparation in which initiates may have been selected to immerse themselves, perhaps in total darkness, and perhaps even for days, in order to gain foreknowledge of the afterlife realm.”
    
Bloody hell,
I thought.
This is totally fascinating stuff.
I actually believe that the ancient Egyptians and the North American Indians had the afterlife sussed out yonks ago.
    “We already know that the ancient Egyptians’
Book of the Dead
provides textual explanations and visual images of the Duat, with the explicit purpose of preparing the deceased for the afterlife journey.” The guide stopped talking as we walked out of the grand gallery, towards the King’s chambers. As we stood in the chambers, our tour guide continued his lecture.
    “All the pyramids in Egypt are believed to have been royal tombs of the time. This is certainly borne out by the inscriptions found in some of the later ones, which include prayers and magic spells to give the dead king immortal life. The ancient Egyptians thought it essential to preserve the physical body from decay if the soul was to live on after death. To achieve this, they mummified the corpses of kings and other important and wealthy citizens. The process was far too expensive for ordinary Egyptians. The hot, porous sands of the desert naturally disinfect and preserve corpses buried in them, which may have provided the impetus to the invention of more elaborate and efficient techniques. This amazing Great Pyramid was built for King Cheops in the 26th century BC, however, the king was never buried in this chamber. The odd thing is that no bodies have ever been found in any of the pyramids. Sarcophagi, or limestone coffins, have been found, apparently intended for the dead kings, but always empty.” The guide paused, taking a long deep breath.