We had a lecture from an Egyptologist, who was funny, because he was very keen on the ancient Egyptians at the explicit expense of the modern ones. The main thing we learned from his presentations was that he thinks ancient Egyptian women are sexy, via their artistic representations. Yeah.
Isn't is sort of interesting that the word "Egyptology" specifically and exclusively refers to ancient Egypt? That's the interesting thing about Egyptian identity that gives Egyptian nationalism its distinctive flavor: a modern, Islamic Arab state preoccupied with its pre-Islamic--and pre-Arab--past. (There are echoes of this same phenomena in Jordanian conceptualizations of Petra.) It's sort of intriguing to me that the territorial history gets incorporated into the identity of present inhabitants. If you didn't know, Egyptian nationalism is distinguished from other Arab nationalisms. This is a product of its evident and distinctive ancient past, and its more intense experience of colonialism.
We had a guide who was one of the aforementioned Egyptologist's students. He was hysterical. He spewed forth Egyptian history in a constant monologue that washed over our sleepy, bus-riding haze, and showed us the glories of ancient Egypt, explicating their near miraculous achievements with the husky intonation: "What power!"
Mere text cannot capture it.
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