CAN you believe our government can do nothing for us, and this thing that was built thousands of years ago is still helping me feed my family?" Ahmed Sayed Baghali, 49, said as he sat in a plastic chair selling postcards to tourists outside the Egypt
ian Museum in Cairo. "Who would buy my things if they were not about the pharaohs? People come here from very far to see the pyramids, not to see Cairo."
Deep below the Egyptian desert, archaeologists have found evidence of yet another pyramid, this one constructed 4,300 years ago to store the remains of a pharaoh's mother. That makes 138 pyramids discovered here so far, and officials say they expect to find more.
Tourists will, no doubt, care. Egyptians probably will not – unless they work in tourism.
The pyramids are proof of Egypt's endurance and what distinguishes it from modern confections such as Saudi Arabia, a nation founded 76 years ago, named after a family and built on oil wealth. But these monuments to Egypt's early ingenuity are also an ever-present symbol of faded glory. It is hard to escape comparisons between an Egypt that once led the world in almost everything and modern Egypt, where about 40% of the population lives on $2 a day.
The Cairo of the street seller Baghali is a city of about 18 million people that is layered with history stretching back to the birth of civilisation. The ubiquitous nature of antiquities – stick a shovel in the ground almost anywhere and it is difficult not to find something – has helped mould a collective consciousness, a national identity, that is uniquely Egyptian.
"A man without history is a man without humour," said Galal Amin, an economist and author who has written about Egypt's modern decline. "A man with history is more likely to have humour because he is more likely to see the irony in things, how things were and how they turned out to be. And patience."
Egyptians, as a group, are extremely patient, though given the growing pressure of daily life, a bit less than they used to be. Their it-is-what-it-is attitude is often attributed to a strong religious faith and a conviction that all events are God's will.
Yet growing up and living amid so much history has something to do with that view, too; the abundant antiquities in everyday life are a constant reminder of one's place in time.
People come and go, pharaohs come and go, even President Hosni Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt for 27 years, will go, too (though talk of that certainty is discouraged).
No need to worry. Or, as Egyptians like to say, "Maalesh," which, depending on the circumstances, means "Never mind" or "Oh, well."
"When other people talk about hoping to see something happen soon, they probably mean within the next few months," said Aly Salem, an Egyptian playwright. "For an Egyptian, it could mean in the next 50 or 60 years. An Egyptian has a particular pace. And a long history can do this."
These days, Egypt is rarely spoken of in a positive context. The education system is in crisis, and unemployment, traffic and pollution are all major problems. When the historic parliament building burned recently, firefighters bungled for hours. When a rockslide crushed a neighbourhood, the authorities responded slowly, infuriating rather than rescuing.
The most recent proof that Egypt's contemporary troubles amount to a blip in its long history, the 138th pyramid, was unearthed in a vacant patch of sand. The discovery was made not far from Sakkara, the step pyramid which, at 5,000 years old, is the oldest known pyramid in Egypt.
Peasant farmers from a nearby village slowly haul satchels of sand and rock on their backs out of the pit where the pyramid stands.
The men, mostly barefoot, said they were paid a bit more than $2, to haul the debris – and were glad to have the work. The pyramids, they could take them or leave them.
"We feel the might of this history when we get paid," said Sayyid Saber Shabaan, 21. "But if we don't get paid, we feel nothing. We are used to these things. We are always here."
The full article contains 720 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
