What’s In A Cemetery?

WHAT YOU FIND IN A CEMETERY !

…especially if it is the Muslim cemetery in the shadow of Gebel Ghibli.

Just a word about access first. It used to be that a non-resident or a relative of a local with a connection to a burial could just walk through with accompaniment to pay their respects. Huh not any more. Under the guise of security (plausible ok) there is now a police post to pluck anyone (chickens) seeking entry. There is still the narrow alley to walk along, but the police insist for any visitor + their local escort have to be in a tok-tok for the few yards to the inner entrance. The tok-tok also has to be paid of course. Good money (baksheesh) has to change hands (oh so covertly) but bloody obvious – to satisfy every open police hand – and even then they are skittish in case they are sussed! They would rather turn someone away than risk their racket being exposed openly – or if they think they can draw the person back for a higher price. They are just low greedy scum-bags! Just another note to say, when I returned the few times from the open plateau, I did leave via that walkway. It meant climbing over the side wall at the cemetery end. I managed to blag my way past the police by brushing them aside on the way out as if one of the Mark Lehner excavators on the nearby Wall of the Crow. The Police wanted to make more of my presence each time, but I had my prepped (lol) neck identity card ready to flash, (on a long neck) which worked every time….

Inside the cemetery it is as if someone flicked a switch. The tranquility is palatable. I made a B-line for Uncle’s spot (Fayad) to say a prayer of memory and respect… Notably in the cemetery are the abundant Sycamore trees :: https://egyptmythology.com/the-sacred-sycamore-a-tree-of…/ The Sacred Sycamore was seen as a portal connecting the human world with the divine. It was believed that the spirits of the deceased could enter the afterlife through the branches of the Sycamore, making it a significant symbol in funerary practices:::: The other main feature to check is the well. I was surprised this time as the water depth was lower. I also observed, there was no marked up-swelling or obvious flow of the water. I had been conducting a bit more research regarding the aquifer source. It seemed anomalous to me the water level in the well did not match the alleged water level in the harbour when the American operation had freshly scalped the sand down to harbour oversight… However the answer to this was flagged way back during all the BS false reporting of the official shaft dig down the interior wall of the rose-quartz harbour basin. The deeper they dug, the more they found the sand/water mix turn to slurry. It was evident that the sun action on the surface coupled with ground pressure enabled a capillary effect which drew moisture to the surface. This gave a false impression of a much higher water table. The well in the cemetery gave closer to a true level. The harbour gave a false level and higher up the plateau, the mystery remained of the much higher water level in the Osiris shaft. Then I was talking about this to a knowledgeable senior local. He didn’t hesitate.

He told me the aquifer occupied more than one level as it flowed along and down through the varying seams of strata. He just said as a matter of fact that the different levels represent the flowing levels down through and across the plateau…. I couldn’t help think of the mysterious mud tunnel at the bottom of the Osiris shaft. I had climbed up into that as far as I could go. It was wet and slimy with mud slip. I was plastered with mud even as I emerged later to the sunlight. However I wondered to myself…. Could it be that simple, where the ancients used relieving tunnels to help regulate the pressured water flow down through significant parts of the plateau? Hmmm!

Back in the cemetery I wandered about taking photographs. I couldn’t help reflect that where I showed the imposing sight of the overhanging Gebel Ghibli nose, it may become a record of what once was, as and when the obvious (even from the cemetery) undercut cliff gives way to create a huge collapse of Gebel down on to the cemetery.