The Nile Valley II

　　The date palm is without a doubt the plant which ch aracterizes Egyptian agriculture more than anything els e. The peasants use it to make roofs, to construct furn iture, to weave baskets; but above all, the sweetest fr uit on earth grows on the palm: the date. On display ar e the souks. Red dates can be purchased here. They are dry and crunchy, less sweet than the others; the semi-s weet ones have all the shades of orange; the brown and the black ones are very soft, and their sugar seems to dissolve in your mouth.

　　If the Nile yields simple, raw materials, the inspi ration of its people gives rise to one of the most perf umed, flavorsome and colorful cuisines in North Africa. Food in Egypt is hot and spicy, drenched in sauces. The national dish is fouhl, a fragrant soup of beans which is sold on every street corner. Egyptians tend to wash down these libations with black tea. Non-Muslims also e njoy the fine local wines and beer, whose origins are a ctually Egyptian. Ever since the 3rd dynasty, drinking it while eating bread was considered a good omen.

　　What we are seeing is the village near Luxor, which is characterized by the typical houses built with mud a nd straw. Some of these houses have been painted with c olorful drawings, which are very curious. Aeroplanes, d epartures, ships and scenes from journeys. These painte d walls tell us about the Islamic custom of going on a pilgrimage to Mecca, a duty which should be carried out at least once in a lifetime, an event that is to be pas sed down to descendants with a vivid fresco.

　　The population on the Nile has grown at a dizzying rate, giving rise to a great metropolis of the size of Cairo, the second most populous city in the world. To s ee the swarming crowds in the capital it would seem tha t the lesson of Ramses II, whose colossal stature is lo cated near Cairo's Central Station, is still alive in E gypt. Ramses II had more than a hundred children and in Egypt today a baby is born every 20 seconds. The popula tion is very young and half of its 54 million inhabitan ts are under 20 years old. The crowds in Cairo, the hus tle and bustle of the typical souk, are an unmissable s pectacle for people arriving in Egypt, a brilliant cont rast to the mysterious charm of the monuments of the Ph araohs.

　　These solemn states are almost participants in mode rn life. You can almost find your ideas about the Nile reflected in their eyes.