Dracula- Fact and Fiction

We took a visit to Transylvania, a province in Romania, to see Dracula's castle and have a look at his blood-thirsty ways. We now have the absolute truth on the whole vampire thing, so here goes:

True or False- Dracula was real and was a blood-thirsty vampire....

The answer is no. Dracula is a purely fictional creation. But the writer of Dracula, English writer Bram Stoker, named his infamous character after a real person who happened to 'impale' his foes back in the 15th century. His name was Vlad III from the House of Draculesti and nicknamed Vlad the Impaler. History records that he liked to get rid of his enemies by implying them on poles (true). Here's a picture of how it's done with a replica of the wood pole in the foreground:

True or False- Dracula's character lived in Bran Castle in Transylvania...

The answer is no. Vlad the Impaler 'visited' the place, but it was the result of him being imprisoned when the opposing side took control of the area. That said, Bran Castle is the only castle in all of Transylvania that actually fits Stoker’s description of his castle and so it 'became' Dracula’s Castle.  

True or False- there were blood-thirsty vampires in Transylvania

The answer is not really. But there was one crazy lady from Hungary, Elizabeth Bathory, who was frightened of turning old. She was a turn-of-the-17th century aristocrat who believed that bathing in the blood of virgins would maintain her youthful looks. Apparently, some 600 young women came to a premature end in order to keep her macabre fountain of youth flowing. They say that the writer Stoker thought about using her for his Dracula adventures but that the audience would prefer a guy, hence Dracula.

Yuk!

Bucharest Parliament Palace

This Palace is really ostentatious (definition- vulgar or pretentious display; designed to impress or attract notice). During his Iron Curtain reign, one of Ceausescu's most extravagant displays of power was in the building of the Palace of Parliament, starting in 1984 and ending in 1989 when he was shot by a firing squad. 

It is the second largest building in the world, smaller only to the US Pentagon, and represents one of the most extravagant and expensive building projects in the history of mankind. 

Ceausescu even built his own Champs Elysees of Bucharest and deliberately designed to be 1 metre wider on each side and 6 metres longer than Paris' thoroughfare. 

He did all of this even though Romania was a relatively small country with a population of about 22 million people. To do this, Ceausescu had to take on enormous foreign debt and when he had to repay, he systematically starved the Romanian people, exporting all of the country's agricultural and industrial production. Food-rationing, gas electric and heating blackouts became everyday norms; people lived in squalor and poverty as the Ceausescu's themselves exhibited outrageous extravagance.

The specifics of this building are staggering:

- the building is 365,000 sq metres in floor space

- there are 1 million cubic metres of marble

- 700 architects were dedicated to this construction over the 5 years

- 20,000 workers were on the construction 24 hours per day from 1984 to 1989 

- the main chandelier weighs 5 tons, one of the biggest in the world. There are about 2,000 chandeliers of varying sizes throughout the structure

Of the 1,100 rooms built, only 400 rooms and two meeting rooms are finished and used. To this day, there is no appetite by the people to finish any more rooms or complete the construction. On a positive spin, it is being used by the Senate and the Lower House of Parliament, it houses three museums and is used as an international conference centre. Most recently, it's been used for movie settings.

Bucharest, Romania

We decided to head up to Europe to visit Bucharest, Romania. When I was a kid I was fascinated by the 'Iron Curtain' and with Bucharest as the example, wanted to spend some time understanding how it has changed since the 'curtain' came down.

Romania became part of what was called the Iron Curtain after World War II. There was an imaginary boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas- West and East- and efforts by the Soviet Union via the Warsaw Pact to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West: 

   

   The Iron Curtain is depicted as a black line in the above map. The Warsaw Pact countries on one side of the Iron Curtain appear shaded red; NATO members on the other shaded blue.

Romania wasn't prosperous during this time at all. Most monies were funneled back into the Soviet coffers. And under Dictator Ceausescu's rule from the 1960s, the population's living standard dropped to just bearable limits.  Ceausescu was a megalomaniac and made every effort to control his country's isolation from the rest of Europe and even from the "sister" communist countries. When the Iron Curtain fell in 1989 and he tried to flee his country, he was found and executed on Christmas Day, 1989.

In the relatively short time since the fall, Bucharest, the capital, has adopted a very open and lively European flair, just like any other of the EU countries. 

              

  It has been described as 'little Paris' or 'Paris of the East'. The city is relatively small with only 2 million, so you don't feel  the density and crowds you see in Paris. Still, you can't help but notice the patisserie shops and coffee shops on the major streets and the wide boulevards and walkways.

We arrived with spring in full bloom and it was absolutely delightful to see budding flowers and the smell of spring. 

             

 Being in desert weather for the past month, it was a wonderful change.

Pyramids of Cairo

This may sound like the weirdest thing you have ever heard in your entire life, but did you know that the Great Pyramid of Egypt is actually a tomb constructed for Pharaoh Khufu and built in 2450 BC? This was a huge surprise for me:

In size, St. Peter's Cathedral could fit inside it. It's one of the oldest structures in the world (almost 5,000 years old) and the tallest structure until the Eiffel Tower was erected in 1889.

The second largest pyramid was built by Khufu's son Krafra as his tomb:

The white cap is actually the remains of the plaster that encased the pyramid. All the pyramids were covered completely in plaster and painted but only this one has it and it is only partially in tact at the top.

There were 3 pyramids built of significance during this time with the smaller one for Menkaure, the son of Khafra and the grandson of Khufu.

If you take a look at it from this angle, the second pyramid with the plastered top (middle one) looks higher, right? The reason is that King Krafa couldn't physically build a higher pyramid than his fathers' tomb. But he designed it on a higher ridge to intentionally make it look bigger. (History records that he wasn't all that great a king- just imagine his ego in trying to outdo his father).

For the Great Pyramid (really all of them), what intrigued me was how the Egyptians were able to build a structure of 3 million slabs of stone, each weighing well over a ton, in a 20 year timeframe. Mathematically, this would involve installing about 500 tonnes of stone every day and an average of about 20 of the blocks into place each hour, day and night for 20 years straight. One theory is that it was built by 100,000 men. I'm not saying it's impossible, but just imagine trying to manage that project...

The protector of the pyramids, the Great Sphinx of Giza, was built in the same timeframe. This statue was to protect the Kings for all time. Note that the body, paws and tail are a lion's form, representing strength:

Here's a picture of the Sphinx up close:

The site overall is absolutely breath-taking and you are in awe when walking the site in trying to comprehend how man could have built such magnificence. And how it has stood the test of time.

Continuing Down the Nile

Our tour included several stops that showcased the major temples that were built in Egypt. We stopped in Edfu, one of the best preserved shrines:

This temple, built between 237 and 57 BC, is dedicated to the falcon god of friendship Horus during the Greek/ Roman rule. The architecture style is considerably different with a huge fortress-style temple and walls that that have engravings both inside and out:

Believe it or not, when all these temples were built (Cairo, Edfu, Kom Ombo, Aswan), the walls and columns were all painted in very rich colors. When we were in Morocco, we visited a film studio and they showed us a 'stage' they built as a replica for part of Edfu. Here's the actual hall inside Edfu:

And here's the studio built version with the colors as it was painted back in 57 BC:

The reason the color is gone is due to age and weather (most were found buried completely in sand).

I want to highlight something else that happened to these temples after Christianity became popular. The Christians started 'erasing' the gods adorning the temples by chiseling off their faces and bodies. Here's just one example where the god Horus is chiseled out:

With all the temples we visited, we saw hundreds of the the god figures have been chiseled out.

A bit further down the Nile is an extremely impressive double temple in the town of Kom Ombo:

It was built around the same time as Edfu for two favored gods- to Sobek the god of power, and Horus the god of kingship and protector of Egypt. The layout combines two temples in one with each side having its own gateways and chapels (two entrances side by side).

Our last stop touring the ancient temples (before we head back up to Cairo) was in Aswan called Philae:

What makes this temple so interesting is that it was completely moved from the location it was originally built back in 200 BC because the new Aswan dam of 1976 submerged it in water. UNESCO and several countries funded the move; there were over 37,000 pieces cut and then transferred over 4 years to its' new location above the dam waters on another island near the original site. This No. 118 below is one of the 37,000 pieces physically moved to the new island site:

I was trying to make sense of why Egyptians worshipped about 500 gods as we've been raised with only one God. Our tour guide explained it this way. Back in ancient times, the people believed that the sun, the moon, fertility, joy, harvests, children- for all of what is given to humans, we could not 'make'. So gods were identified like Hathor, the goddess of fertility and joy; Sobek, the God of power; ISIS (no relation whatsoever to the the current thugs in Syria) was the queen of all gods. And when Christianity came about with only one God, there was a major transformation that took years. 

Of course there is another whole other story of how Mohamed came about and we now have more than a billion Muslims currently on the planet.

Next- Cairo, where it all started.

Cruising 'Down' the Nile

It's interesting to note that although you're going 'down' the Nile from Luxor to Aswan, in reality you're going against the water flow of the Nile. The cruise ships are relatively small with only 50- 70 rooms:

The actual Nile River starts in the south of Africa at Victoria Falls at the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. The water travels 'up' through to Egypt and eventually into the Mediterranean. The Nile is 6,853 km long and flows through 11 countries. This river is the primary water source of Egypt. Because of the fresh water, there are a variety of crops that grow along the sides including wheat, barley, all types of vegetables, figs, melons, pomegranates and vines for Cathy's wine.

I was surprised that the river is not very wide, from 1- 3 Km on our cruise. Here are views of the East and West side as we go 'down' from Luxor to Aswan.

 At Esna, about 35 km from Luxor, the boat passes through a lock system. 

The water level in the lock is low here since we are on the lower side of the river. After the gates close, water is pumped into the lock to raise the water level and continue our journey down to Aswan. 

I've tried, for obvious reasons, not to talk politics while I'm here. But it is very evident that the tourist industry has been devastated by the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. Before then, there were 12- 14 million tourists yearly. This year, the country will be lucky to get 1/2 to a million. For Nile cruises, the impact to the economies of Luxor, Esna and Aswan has been especially devastating as this is their biggest industry. Before the revolution, 300 cruise ships sailed the Nile. Today, there are only 5 cruise ships working and our ship was not full. 

To say that Egypt is needing their tourists back is an understatement. 

Our Egypt Tour

We had decided to be extra, extra cautious with our visit to Egypt so we arranged for guides and drivers during our stay. We arrived safe and sound in Cairo and then to Luxor where we boarded a cruise down the Nile. Our fist stop was to Karnack Temple, 65 acres of ancient ruins. The construction of the temple started during the 16th century B.C. About 30 pharaohs gave a contribution to the buildings, which enabled it to reach a diversity, complexity, and size that is not seen anywhere else in the world.

There are inlaid carvings galore. The figure to the left of this next picture is the God of Fertility.

He is depicted having only one arm and one leg. This is because- so the story goes- during some big wars, while the other gods were off fighting, they left him in charge of the tombs and the temples and he made every woman left behind pregnant. They cut off his arm to punish him.

They went to war again and he remained behind to repeat his offense. This time they cut off his leg. They didn't cut off his penis (perhaps the obvious choice to stop his philandering!) because, well, he was the god of fertility!

There are other statues, King Tut-

And nearby in Luxor Temple, the Ramses II statue:

This king was quite a leader and ruled for 67 years until his death at 96 years of age. During this time, he had 200 wives and sired 96 boys and 102 girls. He was also a great warrior, bringing peace during his dynasty. Busy, busy guy for sure.