A Cheerless Place

First impressions are very important. When a traveler encounters a foreign land, the very first thoughts that arise in him are on the strange differences that he sees in front of his eyes from what he was familiar at home. Here's an excerpt from Vivant Denon, the French artist, writer, diplomat, author and archeologist. He accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte to his expedition to Egypt in 1798 and made numerous sketches of the monuments of ancient art, sometimes under the very fire of the enemy. He notes down the profound dissimilarities between Egypt and his home country, France. The portrait of Egypt is as a cheerless place dominated by Islam. However, we must also keep in mind that these are the comments made by an invader just about to colonize a Middle-Eastern country. He describes Egypt as

"a land of deep silence. After landing at Alexandria, it seemed to the French that there was no conversation in the streets, no laughter, no scampering children or barking dogs. Egypt seemed profoundly melancholy, unwelcoming and inward-looking, and for many of the French soldiers this was the dominant image they would retain of North Africa - particularly of Islam. The first image that came into view was of a vast cemetery, covered by countless tombs of white marble against a white soil; a few skinny women, draped in long, torn clothing, were like ghosts as they wandered among these monuments; the silence was broken only by the screeching of kites as they circled over this sanctuary of death. It was a bleak image that, in the minds of the French, contrasted starkly with the colour and gaiety of the European cities they had left behind".

(Excerpts from 'Napoleon' by Alan Forrest)