Islamic fundamentalist elevator music.

My hotel elevator in Aswan plays somber Koranic chants when I get in. When I took a bus ride from Dahab to Luxor, the bus TV showed a full hour of slow pans of people on Hajj pilgrimage set to somber Koranic chants. When I watched TV in Wadi Musa, Jordan, a long series of music videos involving curvy women mixing belly dance moves with pop music was interrupted by a video showing prayers in a mosque, sword dances, jet fighters dropping bombs, and some political figure kissing babies, all set to....
...somber Koranic chants.

Originally Islam was a religion that emphasized a personal submission to God, and it rapidly rose in popularity among the masses because it wasn't mediated via a religious bureaucracy that protected the ruling class. That didn't last long. Apparently the division over Shi'ites and Sunnis is primarily over a 1300-year-old succession struggle that occurred shortly after Mohammed's death. That's more or less it... there are no substantive differences in belief. They've been killing each other over this for over a millennium.

[travel] Having the best Egyptian tombs to myself

The most impressive tomb I've seen so far is the Tomb Of Sennefer. Sennefer was the keeper of the Pharaoh's gardens. His tomb walls are filled with lush scenes of Egyptian gardens and feasts.  (Unfortunately the pictures in the link don't quite do it justice)  The tomb is up on a hillside; it's more or less unmarked, and there are no roads or even clear trails to it.* It's surrounded by a ramshackle village - the inhabitants are the keepers of the tombs. Because it's not easily accessible, it's not a good spot for tour groups., and tour groups make up literally 98% of the visitors. Besides, they all want to see Tut's tomb, which is small, not that interesting, and staggeringly expensive at over $30.

I was in Sennefer for over 20 minutes, and I was the only one there.

If you must go for a big royal tomb, go for Ramses VI or Tuthmosis III. Both of them have an interesting “control room” feel – the walls are meticulously laid out with diagrams and writing related to the afterlife and their system of gods and goddesses. It's very interesting seeing their precise approach to religion, a relic of a time when math, physics, meteorology, and other scientific disciplines were deeply intertwined with religion. This mix persisted up until fairly recent times – Newton, co-inventor of calculus, also wrote extensively and methodically on how the Holy Trinity was actually just one God as well as other topics. This was deeply heretical material, and he ended up keeping it unpublished. (You can learn more here: http://www.isaac-newton.org/ )

*(well, there were signs but someone painted over them. Coincidentally, someone offered to guide me there for a significant fee)

[travel] Immortality

The Pharaohs believed that the more times their name was written down (protected in a capsule-shaped cartouche), the more likely they were to achieve immortality. They weren't far off. Many early tombs were only identified with particular pharaohs because workers wrote things about them in the tombs.

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Based on what I've seen so far of numerous ancient empires, I now present Matt's guide on how to achieve immortality (or at least the closest thing to it) when you are the ruler of an ancient empire:

Have your minions carve monuments to you out of solid rock. Simply building the monument out of stone blocks, however large, won't do. (1) Preferably you should have several such monuments in various locations. Also, make sure that you find the driest climate possible for these monuments. (2) Cover these monuments with carved (not just painted) text describing the details of your life. Make sure there's something for everyone... laws, art, engineering, wars, politics, administration etc. Even though everyone knows your name, mention it lots of times. Also make lots of realistic statues. Now, even though your language is dominant, write (err... chisel) an identical summary of your life in several popular languages. (3) OK, here comes the weird part. Cover it all in plaster. (4) Also, don't bury a pile of treasures with you. (5) Everyone already knows how rich you are.

(1)Later civilizations often tore down the temples of prior civilizations because it's easier to quarry stone from some nearby heathen structure than a distant mountain. Earthquakes, invasive plants, and other problems have damaged stone block temples. Note the preservation of solid-rock Petra and Ellora.
(2)Stone in wet climates degrades much more quickly due to lichens, mosses, plants etc as well as erosion from sand and mud running over the stone.
(3)The Rosetta stone, which had the same proclamation in three languages, was the key to unlocking ancient hieroglyphics in the early 1800s.
(4)Many of the best-preserved ruins were well preserved because later empires covered the offending images in plaster.
(5)Almost every grave, however well hidden or booby-trapped, was eventually robbed.

Future empires will so surpass yours that they will view you as a curiosity rather than a threat. If you're interesting enough, they will be curious enough to study you.

What's that, you want true immortality, o great ruler?

( Primitive cryonics? )

[travel] Eastern Europe

I'm currently finalizing my travel plans for Eastern Europe.  I'm planning on hitting Hungary and the Czech Republic, but I'm also looking at the Ukraine, Belarus, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.  Any recommendations, good or bad?

[travel] The freakin' Rod of Moses

[travel] THE ROD OF MOSES The Grand Palace in Istanbul has an artifact called the “Rod of Moses”. It's very well protected and has a dedicated security guard. There's no blurb next to it – it just says “13th century BC.” Really? Did they take it out to the Red Sea and try it out, checking that it did in fact part it? Is there a “Serpent” button on the back? Seriously? This, from an otherwise credible museum. A bit further down, they had a bunch of objects that they claimed were Mohammed's personal effects. They had various ornate boxes and other such things. These were also very well protected and, unlike the Rod of Moses, actually plausible. While most major world religions were oppressed for hundreds of years before becoming dominant, Islam had to endure just a few years. The powers-that-be kicked Mohammed out of Mecca when he was becoming a bit too much trouble to the order of things, and he came back 12 years later with an army of 10,000 soldiers. Within 100 years, Islam had spread over most of the middle east. So it's entirely reasonable to assume that some very important people looked after his belongings after his death.

[travel] Octopus!

My second day snorkeling in Dahab was fairly mediocre – the sea was too rough to see eel garden, or to do much of anything for that matter. However, on the way back in, right near the diver entrance, I met a glorious large octopus. It had the ability to change both its color and texture, and interacting with it was fascinating. It would often attempt to hide by finding a rock, encircling it completely by flattening its tentacles, and then texturing and coloring its body to take on the appearance of the rock.

If you don't believe me, have a look at this well-known but still stunning video:

Its movements (via squirting propulsion) were also completely alien. Not to anthropomorphise too much, but its behavior and mystery lent it an air of great intelligence. Apparently large octopi are actually quite smart, and there are numerous tales of their feats of intelligence.

Tangentially, their tentacles are so complicated that they have their own minibrains, and the central brain issues them high-level commands like “grab the rock”.