Don't Mess With Egyptian Women

I generally post my photos from Cairo/Giza, but today is very special for all of us in Egypt and when I saw this photo I knew it was the perfect photo for Egypt today.

The Bone of Contention

I'd seen this building coming up next to the highway and admired its lines, but I had no idea what it was. Then the riot police took up residence on the edge of the highway and the pieces fell into place. This church was ordered to stop building because of an incorrect permit, (Since when do people actually pay attention to building permits in Egypt?) and the congregation were seriously ticked off. Since it is a common practice in the countryside to build a small mosque and then attach a house to it to get past the rule against residential buildings, there's some room for discussion here, to say the least. Yesterday afternoon, the guys on the highway looked more bored than anything else, but there was some serious rumbling in other areas.

Tea Break at Dahshur

Some of the tourist police and their camels take a break in the afternoon in the shadow of the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur. This pyramid is interesting for its sort of squashed shape (the builders used too steep an angle initially and then had to lower it) and for the fact that it is one of the only pyramids that still has its facing stones.

Waiting With His Buddy

One of the tourist police and his camel wait patiently at the edge of the parking lot near the Great Pyramid. The parking lot overlooks the Mena House Hotel and golf course.

Just Keepin' The Peace

Visitors to Egypt are surprised by the vast numbers of armed police and army everywhere. It isn't nearly as alarming as they appear. Every young man in Egypt unless he is supporting his family or is an only son or his mother is a foreigner must put in two years compulsory military duty that may be fulfilled with either the police or the army. Most of these young men stand about directing traffic and the local wisdom is never to ask directions from any of them since they probably have no idea where they are. Most of the guns have no bullets, by the way.

Leading By Example

Crawling along in traffic, it really warms one's heart to be passed by one of Cairo's finest giving a friend a ride on his motorcycle while smoking a cigarette with the one helmet on the bike hanging off the handlebars. Sigh.

Holding Down The Fort

Guarding blocks of stone that are thousands of years old must be a daunting task. The enormity of their age would give the guardian pause to wonder at his job most definitely. In fact, the police are more there to see that visitors don't harm themselves than to protect the pyramids, which are, after all, almost synonymous with eternity.

Car 54, Where Are You?

Police are a constant in city life. Every city has them, but there are variations around the world. Egypt has compulsory military service for all young men who are not the only sons in the family, and some of the young men opt to work in the police rather than the standard military. With a respectable population, there are a lot of police officers standing around Cairo, most of them doing just that...standing around. I don't know if there are any special requirements for the police in the camel squad, but I'd imagine that at least they have to have an affinity for camels. They don't patrol downtown anywhere. You are most likely to see hagana (the Arabic name for camel police) in the antiquities areas and around the pyramids of Giza, which is where this shot was taken.