Most people learn about Egypt through their history and geography classes, but very few have traveled through the countryside to see the way of life in rural Egypt. Recently I had the rare opportunity to tour the Nile River Delta as well as Cairo, Mausur and Alexandria, in the company of my good friend, Dr. Nasser Kotby, who took me through many miles of desert. Along the way we saw small groups of traveling Bedouins with their animals. These Bedouins have been scattered around the delta throughout the history of Egypt.

From a distance, we could hear prayers through the loud speakers from the mosques. Everyday the prayer calls go out five times: before dawn, at noon, in the afternoon, before dusk and one after dark. The deep sounds of the prayers lingered on long after the prayers were done. Every village had at least one mosque and some had many.

In the small village of Bassadinlah where I stayed, the ancient irrigation system of an intricate web of canals and ducts was still used to provide water for the land. Farmers till the land with tools fashioned by their forefathers. Egypt is a land of the black earth where Egyptians have been growing cotton, rice, potatoes, figs, nuts and many other vegetables and fruits for thousands of years. People still use old-fashioned earthen ovens to bake breads, which are dried and used for many days. The daily diet consists of beans, bread, cheeses, vegetables and fruits. Meats are rare.

With most of the vast land being the Sahara Desert, this ancient civilization existed and flourished mainly because of the mighty Nile River, the mother river of Egypt. To understand the Egyptian culture, we need to go back more than five thousand years when the Egyptian Kingdom flourished and the pyramids at Giza and Saquarra were built. The Old Kingdom ended around 2250 B.C., followed by the Middle Kingdom lasting over four centuries (2000-1570 B.C.), when Pharoahs conquered more land. In 1570 B.C, with the establishment of the New Kingdom, tombs and temples were built in Luxor. Between 1100 and 332 B.C., the Nubian, Libyan, Assyrian, Persian and Greek invasions took place, and the Ptolemic period ensued thereafter. The most notable figure of that time was Alexander the Great. The Arab Empire ruled during the Roman-Byzantine period between 30 B.C. and 1914, leaving their legacy in religion and language. Then came the Mameluke Dynasties and the Ottoman Turkish Period. The Egyptian Kingdom was back between the years 1914 and 1952 when the Republic was born.

The diverse cultural heritage was evident when we saw people drink English tea in the afternoon, enjoy Turkish coffee during breakfast, and smoke water pipes at outdoor cafes. We saw women shrouded from head to toe in black garb as well as those wearing the most fashionable designs from Paris and Milano.

I was awestruck by the beautiful sights and sounds of this mysterious civilization, from the magnificent Sphinx, the pyramids, the Temples of Luxor and the grand Nile, to the countless colorful scarves billowing in the wind. Time seems to be an eternal round of sunrise, sunset and prayers.

We drove through rough country roads from Cairo, through the towns of Banha, Tanta, Al-Mahallah al-Kurba, and Al-Mansurah before finally arriving in Bassandilah, a village with various small folk museums. The irrigation museum showed us how the water of the Nile was brought to the people for irrigation. The folk museum showed us how people lived, the tools they used, and the way of life on the farms.

The preservation of Egyptian culture is the life-long passion of my friend Dr. M. Nasser Kotby, an otolaryngologist who in 1974 established the first clinic in Egypt to provide speech, language, hearing and rehabilitation services for the communicatively disordered population. Not only is Dr. Kotby a physician with a vision, he is also a certified Egyptologist who spends his spare time studying the Egyptian culture, people and language. In addition to self-funding the many small museums in the town of Bassandilah, Dr. Kotby also preserved a small Mosque, which, built more than a hundred years ago by the British, sits in the middle of his family plot. Dr. Kotby's mission is truly a gift to humanity.

We drove into Alexandria in the sunset at the end of my journey. I had a most memorable time, learning Arabic, deciphering hieroglyphics, visiting the famous Italian Trianon pasiteris, the Coptic church, the Bibioleta Alexandriana, listening to the prayers of the mosque, savoring the lentil soup, and watching the sun set in the majestic Mediterranean sea.