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Al-Ahram Weekly 12 - 18 August 1999 Issue No. 442 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 12 - 18 August 1999 Issue No. 442
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Books Features Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters The twilight zone
By Tarek Atia and Fatemah Farag
It was bright and sunny until about 2:30pm yesterday, when the sky suddenly turned, in the words of one man, "yellow."
The eclipse was dubbed by one observer "a sort of light Khamasin."
The sky revealed the typical symptoms of a partial eclipse, but what was far from typical was the almost complete absence of people and cars from the streets.
The country's best view of the eclipse was the Helwan Observatory. The Observatory, which was decked out in red carpets, was also the vantage point for the millions watching the live feed on TV.
In Helwan, eye protection devices, a water truck and chairs were all ready to welcome some 350 people who took the Observatory up on its invitation to the public to come and view the eclipse from its grounds.
Senior Observatory officials stood in the hot sun awaiting Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Mufid Shehab, who arrived in a flurry of cars. As they waited, small pieces of smoked glass and strips of dark brown plastic were distributed to the public to protect their eyes from the sun. As one official pulled out a few strips from his pocket, he explained, "We prepared about 150 pieces of the glass and lots of the dark film and we are still processing extra pieces in case we get more people." As he handed the pieces over, he bent down and whispered, "If there aren't enough pieces, we can share, can't we?"
A few yards away, a small air-conditioned dome houses the telescope being used to reflect an image of the eclipse onto a white piece of cardboard. Inside, senior scientist Mohamed Soliman was explaining the importance of the event. The minister was shown a clear image of the fading sun.
Outside the dome, the zeal of the initially enthusiastic crowds was slowly waning. Sanaa Hassan, a nurse who came all the way from Hadayeq El-Qubba, was initially very excited. As she showed off glasses sent to her by relatives in Germany especially for the occasion, she explained, "This sort of thing only happens once in a lifetime. I have been arranging to come since last May when I heard about the event." Rania Mohamed, a teacher from Heliopolis, said she insisted on coming despite her parents' objections. She had even made her own glasses, using two strips of film negative and a piece of cardboard.
Most of those who showed up in the sweltering heat, which did not seem to decrease as the eclipse moved into its more developed stages, were young people. One young man with a newspaper over his head was very red in the face as he left. "They gave us things to protect our eyes but nothing for our heads," he panted.
Fathi, a representative of the older generation, left the courtyard and headed for the Observatory's mosque. "I think that prayer is a better way to spend my time," he explained as the mosque sheikh's voice over the loudspeaker announced: "We will pray that God have mercy upon us and save us."
photo: Mohamed Wassim
As people watched in Helwan, an earthquake that registered 3.6 on the Richter scale and shook the Gulf of Suez area heightened fears related to the eclipse. Minister Shehab was quick to point out that the scientists had assured him there was no connection between the two events.
Elsewhere around town, an eerie calm, much like the atmosphere prevailing right around Iftar during Ramadan, suddenly took hold. The sentiment at mosques around the country, which held an "eclipse prayer" immediately following the noon prayer, was that the eclipse was a reminder of the power of God. Because the eclipse prayer was quite long, lasting nearly an hour at Mustafa Mahmoud Mosque in Mohandessin, for instance, it was offered during the eclipse's peak, between 2:30 and 3:00pm. After the prayer, the sheikh spoke about the importance of the event, and about how the Prophet Mohamed offered a similar prayer when an eclipse occurred in his lifetime. "I took time off from work to attend this prayer. It's very important for me because it will probably be the only time in my life I'll get to perform it," said an engineer.
A normally festive place, the pool at the Cairo Sheraton in Doqqi was completely devoid of swimmers and sunbathers during the three hours of partial eclipse. The few remaining employees seemed to be hurrying out of the sun into the dim air-conditioned interior of the hotel.
At the Zoo, where one would have thought that the animals would be going about their nocturnal rituals, thinking it was going to be dark soon, everything was equally calm. Much to the dismay of a family of tourists from Damietta, many of the animals were locked up. "A lot of people took the day off," said 'Amm Ahmed, who is in charge of the ducks and pigeons. "I was scared, I didn't want to come in, but then who would feed the birds?" Asked if he was scared of looking into the sun, he answered, "Of course, our eyesight is our most precious possession."
At the Cairo Tower, only half the usual number of visitors had showed up. One man who bought a ticket said he was going up to take pictures of the eclipse from the top. Hala at the ticket desk said: "We told him it was dangerous but he didn't seem to care."
Matti and Niclas from Sweden were sitting in front of the Tower on the last day of their Egyptian vacation, wondering what to do. Niclas said he was more scared of heights than the eclipse, and looked at the sun without remorse. "Yeah, maybe we should be wearing special glasses," he said. "It's a natural thing, that's all."
The eclipse is called kusuf in Arabic, which means shyness. Maksuf is bashful and people were making jokes all afternoon long about the "sun being bashful of the moon because the moon is so much prettier."
"Is there such a thing as bashfulness these days?" demanded an employee at an empty coffeeshop on Ramses Street. Since people had opted to stay at home today, the normally packed coffeeshop was empty. "It's incredible how gullible people are, how quickly they emptied the streets."
