Up The Nile

I took the day train from Cairo to Luxor, so that I could see the farmfields and smaller towns of the Nile River Valley. It was a long ride (10 hours, as long as my flight from SF to London) and I was the only non-Egyptian on the train. Looking out the window at times was like looking back three thousand years--palm trees, farmers working their fields, donkeys and camels carrying crops, the desert visible in the distance. All the women wore burqas. It was definitely interesting passing through towns my guidebook describes as hotbeds of Islamic resistance in the 1980s and 1990s.

But what struck me most was the visible presence of Coptic Christianity. Each town and city had many mosques, but most if not all had at least one prominent church with crosses sticking up into the sky. Additionally, an Egyptian lady sitting close to me on the train had a large cross hanging from her bracelet--a very obvio0us display of her faith in this Muslim country. I saw many copts worshipping on a Friday in Cairo in Greek-looking churchs as the call to prayer blared in the background. I don't want to speculate on the state of religious freedom in Egypt, but it appears at least Christianity is widely accepted.