Rain is rare in Egypt, because of its location in the Sahara desert. In my previous visits to Egypt, the “rain” I experienced was similar to what we might call “sprinkling” in my home in the U.S., and it lasted only a short time. The average rainfall in Cairo for April is 1/4 inch (7 mm) in the entire month.
So, imagine my surprise when we experienced two days of genuine thunderstorms with heavy rain on April 24 and 25, 2018 while I was in Cairo! And then, a week later, a miniature thunderstorm came to Luxor on May 1!
Egypt receives rain so rarely that a major rainfall is a big event. Here are some of the consequences that happened in Cairo’s 2-day storm:
There are no storm drains, so streets quickly became flooded.
Cars stalled when the flood waters overwhelmed them.
People didn’t know how to drive on the rain-slick roads.
Building roofs leaked, because they normally don’t need to be watertight. I was eating supper at Felfela restaurant with rain dripping on my head! But it was okay, because I was enjoying the sound of the storm.
Events were canceled due to rain leaking through roofs. For example, the Balloon Theater canceled a performance by the Kowmiyya dance company one evening due to rain.
Parts of Cairo’s Ring Road were shut down for several hours due to flooding. Many people needed to sleep in their cars.
The road closure caused traffic snarls throughout Cairo as people tried to find other ways to get home.
Some buildings and bridges collapsed.
Trains were delayed.
In Luxor, the “thunderstorm” consisted of one flash of lightning and one brief rumble of thunder, followed by some sprinkling. Therefore, we didn’t have the above problems that come from heavy rain. However, the locals were so worried about the storm that they insisted that the members of our group who intended to walk somewhere take a bus instead.
I live in a part of the U.S. that experiences frequent thunderstorms, with heavy rains. My dad used to call these storms “toadstranglers”. Therefore, I have always taken storm drains, culverts, and watertight roofs for granted. It never occurred to me that other places would forego such infrastructure. It makes sense, of course. Why would you need to build watertight roofs and storm drains in the Sahara desert? I can understand why it might be viewed as an unnecessary expense in a place that gets thunderstorms so rarely.
Cairo offers an opportunity for visitors to see Egypt’s remaining vestiges of an East African practice known as a zar ritual. It is no longer legal in Egypt to conduct zar rituals; however, it is still possible to see performances of the music used for them.
About the Zar Ritual
A zar is a spirit which is believed to inhabit people, especially women. When the woman’s life is in balance, she and the spirit can coexist in peace. However, sometimes the woman begins to suffer stress, become irritable, or fall ill. In those cases, in order for her to recover, it may be necessary to appease the zar spirit. The purpose of a zar ritual is to perform that appeasement.
In a traditional zar ritual in Egypt, a woman would surround herself with other women who are a meaningful part of her life: sisters, cousins, friends, etc. They would sacrifice a chicken, and engage a band of musicians capable of performing the specialty music required for the ritual.
According to tradition, there are many different zar spirits which can inhabit a person. Each such spirit responds to a different song and rhythm. The musicians would perform several different songs, aiming to find the music required to appease the particular spirit that has inhabited the woman. As the music progresses, the participants are drawn into a state of ecstatic dance.
The Mazaher Ensemble
The Mazaher ensemble are among the final zar practitioners in Egypt. Although the law no longer allows them to conduct full zar ceremonies, it is possible to hear them perform concerts of the music that accompanies the ceremonies. I have seen them perform several times at the Makan Theater in Cairo. It is a captivating show, and I always enjoy seeing it again whenever I return to Egypt.
The lead singer, standing in front, is Rayyisah Madiha, often known as Umm Sameh (“mother of Sameh”).
Show Format
The show has varied a bit from one time I’ve seen it to another. The primary segment consists of Cairo zar music, with vocals by Umm Sameh, accompanied by the other women on drums. Another segment I have seen every time is described as a Nubian zar, which features different music and instruments in order to reach the different regional spirits associated with southern Egypt and Sudan.
Other details of the show have varied from one year to the next. For example, when I saw the show in 2016, Sameh performed a solo of Sufi music, but other times when I’ve seen the show he did not do so.
Sameh of the Mazaher Ensemble sings and plays a frame drum. February 10, 2016.
Nubian Zar
Nubia is the region spanning southern Egypt and the Sudan. The Nubian zar uses different instruments from those used for the Cairo-based zar, and the spirits it targets are different.
This photo was taken February 11, 2015.
The tamboura, a type of lyre, is shown in the photo above. It is particularly typical of Nubian music; not only for Nubian zar rituals, but also for secular folk music.
I took this photo when watching the show at Makan Theater on February 10, 2016.
For the Nubian section of the show, one of the musicians picks up the tamboura to play it, as shown by the man seated in the back, wearing the white gallabiya. The belt that the two other men strap around their hips is known as a mangour.
I took this photo of one of the musicians wearing a mangour when watching the show at Makan Theater on February 10, 2016.
The mangour is a percussion instrument constructed from attaching many small goat hooves to a backing of fabric or leather. The men shake their hips in a rhythmic fashion, causing the goat hooves to strike each other, producing a rattling sound.
In the photo below, the men are not only shaking their hips to make noise with the mangour, they are also using handheld rattles.
I took this photo when watching the show at Makan Theater on February 10, 2016.
Posing with the Star
When I saw the show in 2016, Madiha graciously agreed to pose for a photo with me after it was over. It can be difficult to get a photo with her, because of how many people swarm her after the show seeking photos as I did!
This photo was taken February 10, 2016.
About the Makan Theater
The Makan Theater, which hosts the Mazaher Ensemble’s zar music shows, is at 1 Saad Zaghloul St. El Dawaween 11461 Cairo. Their telephone number is +202 2792 0878, and email address is [email protected]. In addition to presenting the Mazaher Ensemble shows, they have also offered other shows of traditional Egyptian music, including Sufi music, Nubian, and more.
To Learn More About Zar
There is a series of three music CD’s that I recommend if you’d like to listen to zar music in your home. Each of these CD’s comes with a different informative booklet with detailed information about zar traditions. If you search for them online, look for the artist name of Awlad Abou al-Gheit:
Zar: Trance Music for Women
Zar 2: Tumboura
Zar 3: Harim Masri
Also, I recommend the book Trance Dancing with the Jinn: The Ancient Art of Contacting Spirits Through Ecstatic Dance by Yasmin Henkesh. Yasmin is a meticulous researcher whom I respect highly.
About My Egypt Travels
For several of my trips to Egypt, I have traveled with Sahra Kent, through her Journey Through Egypt program. The Makan Theater is one of the places I have discovered through traveling with her. I highly recommend the Journey Through Egypt program to anyone who is interested in a cultural perspective of Egypt.
In 2016, I went with a group to El Dammah theater in Cairo to see a show featuring top Egyptian-Sudanese musicians playing Nubian music.
About El Dammah
El Dammah is a small black box theater with about 100 seats that features musicians playing authentic traditional music. The organization that operates it is El Mastaba Center for Egyptian Folk Music.
El Dammah presents a show every Thursday night. There are several different musical acts that it rotates through the lineup. So far in my trips to Egypt, I have seen 3 different bands there. One of them was Rango.
El Dammah is located at 30 A El Belaasa St, Abdeen, in downtown Cairo, Egypt. The phone number is +20 115 099 5354, and email address is [email protected].
Rango
The photo at the top of this post shows Hassan Bergamon playing a musical instrument called a rango, which resembles a xylophone. The small version that was played in this show could be called a kamba. It’s a very traditional instrument from the southern part of Sudan. It nearly died out in the 1970’s, but the art has been kept alive. According to our contact at El Dammah, today there are only 7-8 people left in Africa who still know how to play one.
This photo shows up closeup view of the rango:
The musicians also played additional traditional instruments from Egypt and the Sudan. Below, one of the men is holding a rattle in each hand, which is known as the shukh-shaykh.
Below, we can see Hassan Bergamon playing another instrument, the simsimiyya. It is a type of lyre, which resembles a larger, similar instrument known as the tamboura.
The angle of the photo above makes it difficult to see what a simsimiyya looks like. The photo below provides a clearer view. In it, a member of the El Dammah staff holds up two examples of a simsimiyya.
The drummers served a vital role in the show. They were excellent, and worked very well together with the others as an ensemble. It was truly a memorable performance.
The show opened with a performance of songs while everyone listened, then the musicians started recruiting audience members to get up and dance with them. By the end, the event felt more like a party than it did a music performance, but that was part of what made it such an entertaining evening. The quality of the music was definitely world class!
I’m already looking forward to my next visit to El Dammah, to enjoy whatever music they offer the next time I’m in Cairo!
About My Egypt Travels
For several of my trips to Egypt, I have traveled with Sahra Kent, through her Journey Through Egypt program. El Dammah Theater is one of the places I have discovered through traveling with her. I highly recommend the Journey Through Egypt program to anyone who is interested in a cultural perspective of Egypt.
A Nilometer (Nile-o-meter) is a structure in Egypt for measuring how high the annual flood of the river Nile rises each year. Before the 20th century, each year the Nile River would flood in the spring, spreading silt across the land it covered. This inundation brought life to the region, because the silt it deposited enhanced the fertility of the soil.
The government used the Nilometer readings to determine the taxes for that year. If the flood level was measured as low, then taxes that year would be low, due to reduced rich silt deposits and possible drought. If the flood level was medium, taxes that year would be high, because medium was the ideal level. If flood level was high, there would be no taxes because the flood was destructive and people needed to recover.
In my travels to Egypt, I’ve seen 3 different Nilometers. There are others that I have not (yet) had the opportunity to see, but perhaps I’ll get to see them on a future trip! I’ve seen reports that as of today there are fewer than 24 known Nilometers which have been found by archaeologists.
Cairo
The Nilometer in Cairo is on Rhoda Island, a short walk from the Oum Kalthoum Museum. If you visit Cairo, it’s worth a trip to the island to visit both.
Photo copyright 2018 by Jewel. All rights reserved.
This Nilometer is one of the oldest structures in Egypt built after the Arab conquest. The original building at this site was erected in 751 CE, though archaeologists believe there was probably an older Nilometer at this site in Pharaonic times. This initial structure was destroyed by a heavy flood in 861 CE, so the Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil commissioned the current building to replace it.
Although the subterranean portion of the ancient building still stands, its dome was destroyed in 1825 by a nearby explosion. A restoration was created, using a painting by Fredrik Ludvig Nordenas to provide guidance on what the original looked like.
This is the interior of the dome of the Nilometer in Cairo on Rhoda Island, next to the Oum Kalthoum museum. This section was destroyed in 1825 and reconstructed. Photo was taken from surface level looking up into the cupola on February 9, 2017.
The instrument for measuring the water’s height is an octagonal column divided into cubits located in the middle of the square stone-lined shaft. This photo shows the central shaft, as you look down from the street-level entrance:
Photo copyright 2018 by Jewel. All rights reserved.
Today, the tunnels leading from the Nilometer to the Nile are blocked off, and therefore water no longer comes in.
It is possible to descend a flight of stairs into the shaft. There are no handrails along the stairs, so it requires an adventurous spirit to do it! The interior is beautiful.
Photo copyright 2018 by Jewel. All rights reserved.
Kom Ombo
This Nilometer is located at the temple in Kom Ombo, Egypt, a town that lies between Luxor and Aswan. This is one of the temples that Nile cruises stop at, and it’s a very interesting one to tour because it’s dedicated to TWO gods, Horus the Elder and Sobek.
The Nilometer at Kom Ombo is a deep, cylindrical opening into the ground. At ground level, it doesn’t look like much, just a small circular wall.
Photo copyright 2018 by Jewel. All rights reserved.
It has a tunnel at the bottom that reaches outside the temple walls to allow the flood water to come in.
PHoto copyright 2018 by Jewel. All rights reserved.
Aswan
I have seen this Nilometer near Aswan from a boat on the river, as we floated past Elephantine Island where it resides. I haven’t yet set foot on the island to see its entrance from above. Archaeologists believe it is the oldest Nilometer in Egypt.
For most of ancient Egyptian history, Elephantine Island was the southern border of the Pharaonic kingdom. For that reason, the flood waters would reach this Nilometer first, before flowing downstream to the rest of the kingdom. It provided early insight into what growing conditions the country as a whole could expect.
Photo copyright 2018 by Jewel. All rights reserved.
This Nilometer at Elephantine Island was mentioned in the novel River God, by Wilbur Smith.
Ones I Haven’t Seen
Someday, I hope to see other Nilometers in Egypt. There’s one in the Nile delta at the ancient city Thmuis, which is near the modern city of El Mansoura. Archaeologists estimate it was build in the 3rd century BCE. I learned about this one from a National Geographic article about it.
The beautiful temple of Isis that resided on Philae Island had two Nilometers. However, in the 1960’s, because of Aswan Dam constructions, about 1/3 of the temple’s buildings became flooded year round. The Philae temple was dismantled and moved to Agilkia Island as part of the UNESCO effort to save temples threatened by the completion of the Aswan High Dam. I don’t know yet whether Philae’s surface-level Nilometer structures were moved and reconstructed when the temple was moved. I have toured Philae about 5 times on my various trips to Egypt, and the guides didn’t point out any Nilometer remnants. Even if they did, it would be only surface level, without the deep hole down into the ground. I’ll ask about it the next time I go.
Acknowledgements
I’d like to thank Wael Mohamed Ali for assisting me with my questions about the Nilometers in the Aswan area. I’ve appreciated Wael’s services on some of my visits to Upper Egypt as a tour guide and a translator. He’s very knowledgeable, and a pleasure to do business with!
