Well since we seem to be going off-topic a bit these days , here’s another and if we have to use categories, lets call this one ‘books’, subcategory; ‘Egyptology’. Actually we don’t have books so it becomes ‘literature’.
I don’t want to make this a book review except to say that it all started when I recently read ‘Cleopatra’ by Stacy Schiff, a wonderful book recommended to all even if you think you’re not interested in history, Egypt or biographies. In a sentence, Cleopatra was fantastic, starting at age 18 she ruled the known world and dealt intimately with Mark Antony, Julius Caesar and the Roman empire, but that’s not what this is about. That book triggered another Cleopatra biography which I’m now reading, in it there was a one-line reference to the ‘SAITE CANAL’, ring any bells? Thought not, I’d never heard of it either. In ancient Egypt it ran from the Nile due east to the Red sea, [look at the map above to see what was involved] it predated the Suez canal by several thousand years! It was built in the Ptolomaic period to give the Egyptians sea access to India, they grew huge quantities of grain and they traded it with India; ’til the canal they’d used camels to ship it to the Red Sea and thence by ship.
Herodotus the 5th century BC Greek historian travelled the canal and writes about it, it’s not a secret, but I’ve been interested in Egypt all my life and I only just found out about it! I found out about it by googling that one reference, ‘Saite canal’, there’s not a huge amount there but there’s enough, there’s reports of archaeological research to locate where the canal was located and theories as to why mother nature redeemed it. I’m just amazed by this find, to me it’s as significant as the Pyramids at Cheops and no-one has heard about it, anybody here know more about it or are interested? Any other significant book finds to report?
Hi Goneforeign, as a fan of books, maps, Egyptology and biographies, your post certainly caught my eye. Must delve further into this canal business. Infamously, I haven’t read fiction for decades, but I’d recommend Mailer’s Ancient Evenings for well-researched entertainment.
At the moment I’m really enjoying reading Gore Vidal’s Palimpsest.
Where in Egypt did the canal start from, gf?
Wow, it must have been pretty long – I too would be interested to know where it started. I just googled and the first two references thrown up are… to this post! D’oh!
Funnily enough, in the process of de-cluttering, I recently came across one of my dad’s old books, “Egypt – painted and described by R. Talbot Kelly”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Talbot_Kelly
The book was published in 1902 and is essentially a kind of travelogue, but illustrated with beautiful water-colours. It’s quite “non- PC” by today’s standards but that aside, it’s really interesting. There is a whole chapter on the Nile which I’ve just skimmed through again in the light of your post. Although he mentions the various temples and historic sites there is no mention of an ancient canal although there is a mention of one that was extant at the time:
“”Returning to Luxor, you may ride along the banks of a small “khalig” or canal, full during high Nile but usually dry after December. This is well shaded by sycamore and tamarisk trees, and produces a great variety of water-plants, and in one grove is a beautiful “sakkia” or water-wheel… It is said that Alexander the Great had asses’ ears, a fact of which none but his barber was aware. Unable at length to maintain the horrible secret, the barber in order to relieve his soul went into the fields and whispered the fact to a sakkia, and ever since they continue to cry mournfully to each other, “Alexander has ears!” Alexander has ears!”"
Probably not relevant but interesting, anyway!
Interesting, the same sort of story was told in a Greek tale about King Midas, in this case the barber digs a hole over which some reeds later grown. the reeds whisper “King Midas has asses ears”.
I’ve found this document that seems rather scholarly and poentially helpful :
https://eric.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10036/90806/CooperRS4Canal%5B1%5D.pdf?sequence=1
I visited Egypt around 20 years ago and it still remains vivid in my head. We bumped into the Stone Roses in Heathrow on our way back and one of them asked if the visit had changed my life. I was tempted to say yes.
‘poentiation’ is a technical process, originally practised by Ramses III…..
Any significant book finds to report ?
Well I’ve just read ” Zeitoun” by Dave Eggers and it’s one of the most affecting books I’ve ever read. I shouldn’t be that surprised either about the content ( the story of an innocent Syrian builder who stayed behind in New Orleans after the flood to help people who needed it and was subsequently arrested and imprisoned for 3 weeks as a terrorist ) or the brilliance of the writing ( given that his previous non fiction work was the superb “What is the What ” ) but I am. This is another of those books that should be “taught” as contemporary history in every school in the US and the wider world. By the way all profits from the book go into several projects targeted at the rebuilding of New Orleans and the greater understanding of the Muslim religion in the US.
Chris et al: I found that link yesterday, John Cooper apparently at Exceter U, his paper is a summary of known info on the canal. Canal singular is not the right word since there’s been several since the projects began eons ago, he deals with most of them and has maps that show various routes. An interesting one is from Napoleon’s army, it’s labeled, in French, ‘Vestiges of the Suez canal’. There’s maps that show the start at Cairo and some interesting details are current street names there that relate to ‘canal’. According to Cooper the canal was not used year round, there was a lock at the Nile end that could be opened and closed, when the river was in it’s annual full flood the lock would be opened, when the level fell it could be closed. It was also used to irrigate the region from Cairo to Suez.
He estimates it to have been 180km and 60 meters wide, that would have required 25 million cubic meters of earth’s removal, 1 man can remove 3.5 cu. meters per day, basket loads, therefore it involved 890 million basket loads which would require 20, 000 workers 1 year.
The name Saito comes from the Saitic era of Egypts history and Pharoe Necho, 600 BC, is credited as the one who initially had the idea though there are mentions of a canal way back in earlier eras.
On the Egyptian theme I’d recommend Ismail Kadare’s novel The Pyramid, ostensibly about Cheops, but a thinly veiled satire aimed at dictator Hoxha. A brilliant discourse into some of the motivations and mechanics involved in the construction of these monuments. (Possibly also references the canal as a transport route for stone, but I can’t quite recall and I’ve given the book to a friend.)
And seeing as he’s just been on GU, I’ll also mention Georg Gerster’s photos of the shifting of the rock temples at Abu Simbel to make way for the Aswan dam.
http://www.international.icomos.org/monumentum/vol17/vol17_2.pdf
Some of his great aerial photos of archeological sites here, press “weiter” at lower right to see more photos.
http://www.geo.de/GEO/fotografie/portfolio-des-monats/2060.html?p=1
Significant books to report you say….
Webby, haven’t read any Mailer in years though I always liked him, I’ll keep an eye out for ‘Ancient Evenings’ and Fred, Eggers is a local lad, often on radio here; I’m sure you’re aware of McSweeney’s, the online publishing site he established plus 826 Valencia [a SF address] a writing and tutoring center he runs for kids. Google both for info. I’m on a waiting list to read his best friends posthumous publication, David Foster Wallace’s ‘The Pale King’.
Tinny posted a link many moons ago that I’ve found to be very good, it’s
http://kk.org/cooltools/the-best-magazi.php It’s an ever changing site of excellent magazine articles, DFW wrote many and I’ve read several of his there, highly recommended. Another that I’m on the waiting list for is ‘To end all wars : a story of loyalty and rebellion, 1914-1918′ by Adam Hochschild. It’s the untold story of those who resisted WW1, many were imprisoned, some were shot!
A book that I’d highly recommend to all Spillers is ‘At Home’ by Bill Bryson, supposedly about the rectory he bought in Norfolk but it’s about vastly more than that, I could say that it’s a history of society since about 1850 but that’s not totally true either, it’s a wonderful book, check it, you’ll like it.
What started this whole canal business was my reading ‘Cleopatra’ by Stacy Schiff, I enjoyed that book so much and learned so much about Cleo that I’m now reading another, ‘Cleopatra the Great : the woman behind the legend’ by Joann Fletcher.
this was where the Saito reference occurred.
Every now and then I get the urge to re-read a book I’ve already enjoyed. Currently I’m looking for a slot to re-read ‘White Teeth’ by Zadie Smith, when I read it several years ago I was spellbound, I literally couldn’t believe that an Anglo/Jamaican young woman of 20 could have written it, it was so filled with cultural references and in-jokes going back decades that I felt that she couldn’t possibly be aware of them; but she was! One for my ‘all time best’ list, highly recommended.
Nilp: thanks for that info, I’ll definitely look for the Kadare book, sounds right ‘up my street’, There are mentions of the canal being used to transport stone, sounds very logical when every piece weighed many tons!
@Gone foreign
Funny you should mention DFW as I read Consider the Lobster, a collection of his short stories, last year and liked them a lot. From what I have read of his life it seems bizarre that he should have taken his own life ! I will probably read Infinite Jest at some stage though its length is a bit daunting. Any other, relatively obscure, American novelists that you would recommend ?
Fred: I HATE huge books that take a lifetime to read, Infinite Jest is one such. I’ve opened it half a dozen times but never done more than scan a few pages, I will however one day take it on. The same may apply to Pale King, we’ll see. I enjoy his shorter works and there’s plenty on the internet, if you haven’t yet, read his commencement address to a graduation college class and also his travels on a cruise ship. Off hand I can’t summon any ‘relatively obscure, American novelists’ but if you check Mc Sweeneys and Valencia you might find help there.
I’m the opposite GF. I hate starting a book. Remembering the characters, the dates, the layout etc – there’s so much stuff thrown at me I can’t take it all in. Then once I get into it, I want it to last as long as possible so I don’t have to start another.
(You’d think I’d read slower, given that. I have a tendancy to race to finds out what happens next instead of savouring what I’m reading. I blame the digital age for that – we’re conditioned to scan now.)
Thanks GF will do.
Interesting Egyptology blog
http://www.eloquentpeasant.com/
Tatanka: What an amazing website that is, I could spend the rest of my life there. The BBC ‘trumpet’ story from ’39 was interesting as were the photos and stories of the recent events in the museums. thank you.
Tinny: I’m of the ‘savoring’ school, if I’m really enjoying a book I’ll sometimes ration my reading just to extend it and sometimes when I’m close to the end and don’t want it to finish I’ll really slow down and not touch it for a day or so. There’s some books where I’ve xeroxed pages just to tack on the wall as ‘works of art?’ I’d come back and re-read ‘em occasionally.