Amazing Quest: Stories from Egypt | Somewhere on Earth: Egypt | Free Documentary

[Music] today a look towards the infinite off the beaten track in egypt most of this country is a desert with many different facets the people we'll be meeting have chosen to make their lives here in these vast spaces mansour is a child of the oasis at bahria this young veterinarian cares for all the animals of the small farmers he has become an important personality in the local community too ueil was a civil engineer he left his job as an architect to become a monk and joined one of the monasteries in the wadi natrun valley that for 16 centuries now have been maintaining the traditions of christianity and desert monks [Music] fanuya is a navigator of the sands for more than 30 years this frenchman has been exploring these vast spaces traveling the desert with him means setting out to discover magnificent sights i never get tired of these landscapes it's a strange feeling like going back to the beginning of the world like you're starting over i've never met anyone who wasn't moved by the sight of these shifting dunes [Music] sahara in the arabic language this word does not mean a region or a territory it simply means desert just as the word ocean doesn't designate a specific body of water [Music] from the banks of the nile to the shores of the atlantic this one desert under different names stretches over a large part of northern africa it covers two-thirds of egypt up to the libyan border here it's called the western desert formerly the libyan desert and it's one of the driest deserts in the world the ancient egyptians considered this desert an evil kingdom yet in the middle of this mineral ocean a verdant archipelago resists the onslaught of the waves of sand the five oases of the western desert are sheltered islands where the miracle of life has triumphed over the hostile climate [Music] living in an oasis means working the land here farming trade and prayer set the rhythm of life people leave for the fields every morning at the same time they cultivate the land the same way their ancestors did the path of life has already been traced for these men and women and they follow it not out of resignation but out of respect for tradition [Music] [Music] is she pregnant yes three months [Music] everyone knows dr mansoor he's from bahria himself and he's the only vet in town for the farmers raising a few animals here mansour is a godsend everybody likes the vet here because they know i'm always ready to help them in their animals animals are their livelihood and people worry as much about the health of their livestock as that of their children after i finished my studies in cairo i tried to work there but all i got were offers in pharmaceutical companies and that didn't interest me in the oasis everybody has livestock so there's much more work here oddly enough there are a lot more vets in the suburbs of cairo than in the oasis but there's a real human dimension here and it's not too crowded i'm the second vet who comes from the oasis i'm a child of the oasis [Music] herodotus called them islands of the blessed for more than eight 000 years these oases have been inhabited cultivated preserved long isolated the people of cy used to live in a town constructed of mud brick nicknamed the city of mud a series of torrential rainstorms in the heart of the desert brutally transformed the past into a heap of ruins [Music] in the space of four years from 1926 to 1930 the city of shali was totally devastated as they had no other place to go the people of the oasis built another city right next to it and life goes on more or less as always [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you need to give him a series of injections that's the best way to treat him you need to give him three doses spread out over several days i'll come back as soon as i can to examine them all like i did for sami's camels you really have to treat your sick animals every day for a month then you won't have to worry anymore [Music] [Music] he's an agronomic engineer and he's the best date palm specialist in the entire oasis okay good maybe god created the desert so that man could appreciate the date trees mused the author paulo cuello there are one million five hundred thousand date palms in bahrain dates are the leading product of the oasis here everyone believes that the date palm benefits from special divine grace and they all take very good care of this legendary tree the date palm is like a human being it's like a woman up until the age of about 45 she's fertile after 45 the female date palm no longer produces and even if there is fertilization the tree won't yield any fruit all the oasis in the western desert are situated in low basins of limestone plateaus between 100 and 130 meters below sea level and in this geological configuration the groundwater just gushes up at first this hot water that comes from deep within the earth flowed naturally and then as needs grew other methods were needed to ensure the supply of water an oasis is a natural environment structured by man with a whole system of technical and social management of the resources [Music] there are 86 machine duck wells and 243 natural wells until 1976 all the oasis had only natural wells but constant pumping caused water levels to drop and from that time on they started using machines to drill wells [Music] it's not your garden variety dandelion that can go out and live in the sahara said theodore mono a great connoisseur of the desert and yet in the oasis the work of man has made some inroads into the desert on the other hand they've had to dig deeper and deeper to reach new water levels some investors are even trying to drill 1 200 meters into the subsoil they dream of transforming these vast arid zones into fertile land dreams that often last only a few seasons the desert ground retains nothing it has no memory whereas for millennia the land has been intensively worked in the same way [Music] in all the north african oasis the fields are divided up in the same way from small plots to fruit and palm tree plantations everything is organized around the irrigation and the organization of the water sharing remains an intangible rule of life tafoya has to irrigate regularly twice a week in winter and every day in the heart of summer it's painstaking work that no machine can do and the tools they use haven't changed for centuries every plot of land is about three by three meters and i have quite a few plots i have about a hundred to irrigate on this side and about the same number on the other side of the road farming is a difficult job but it's our profession and it's been our family's profession for centuries we never stop working every day [Music] but every job has its drawbacks i'm used to it i've always done it and when you do your job well you can hope for good results the proverb goes every effort has its rewards meanwhile dr monsour continues working on the farms be it for treatment or artificial insemination he is always on call there is however one domestic animal that he treats less and less the donkey for thousands of years the donkey was the main means of transportation for man and goods in the oasis but today due to globalization chinese motorbikes have become serious competitors even in the heart of the desert life is changing in fits and starts progress is coming to the oasis but in these islands of the blessed there is still a pleasant tranquility [Music] for the people of the sand working the earth is still the basis of their lives they are strongly attached to the rhythm of work imposed by the sun to the earth that must be watered to life that must be protected the desert surrounding us is vast and it protects us a little bit there have been changes but there are still a lot of people who preserve their customs and traditions one day my father left for cairo and he couldn't stand the hustle and bustle when he came back he said something i liked a lot he told me if there's paradise on earth it's the oasis i couldn't live anywhere but in the oasis and here as the saying goes i'm like a fish in water and it's true i couldn't live anywhere else [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] in the land of the mazin the peel of church bells sets a different tone at four in the morning the monks assemble for prayers two hours of psalms chants and litanies the history of christianity is closely linked to the history of egypt according to the bible the holy family took refuge here after the birth of christ so the son of god spent the first years of his life on egyptian soil a few centuries later the early coptic christians cite the holy family's flight into egypt as proof that christianity was born here the fine points of doctrine aside one thing is certain over time thousands and thousands of monks have taken the vow to live here and consecrate their lives to meditation and prayer today monastic life is attracting more and more candidates and in light of their former lives these men do not make the decision to enter the monastery lightly father you eel is one of the abbey's 120 monks he's been here for 13 years after leading a rather interesting secular life before i was born in manchuria i grew up there and i studied there in a school of civil engineering and after i got my engineering diploma i worked for a few years in arganda and then i worked for several different architectural firms it's the best decision i ever made in my life one doesn't go to the desert to escape even if the spirit can find refuge here the christians of the orient settled here in order to pray in total peace islam didn't exist yet and monks were already retiring from the world in search of an ascetic life over more than 16 centuries their roots have taken hold here in the set day desert at first they were hermits and then they formed communities now there are still four active coptic monasteries in the valley of wadi natrun for these desert monks the isolation and living in caves like the early hermits belong to the distant past now they live in communities their cells are much more comfortable but no outsider is allowed to enter them they follow the rules of monastic life to the letter monastic life follows three rules poverty obedience and chastity poverty allows detachment from everything you have to leave all your decisions in the hands of the abbot obedience is without question the most difficult of the rules the daily life of the monks takes place behind these imposing walls walls meant to help in their spiritual quest but also to protect them from the outside world and yet their existence is not solely contemplative monasticism is based on two basic principles prayer and work life in these monasteries is organized so as to be self-sufficient [Applause] [Music] [Music] before becoming a monk candidates have to prove themselves over several years novices wear a blue or brown robe for the first two years and then a white one for a year or two it's a very strict hierarchy and it's only after they have taken their final vows that they let their hair and beard grow there are 120 monks in the convent of saint pishoi but there are at least 400 lay workers there as well some of them live here all year long others for a few months at a time we give him the work because if he gets the work here he gets money for his family to feed his family and he spent good time in desert in monastery life because we let them pray we let them confess we we let them share our life fields of cereal olive groves fruit trees beans the monks and their employees have managed to raise crops on the threshold of the desert self-sufficiency on a grand scale [Music] a monastery operates like a business with a variety of activities it's more than a community it's a world in itself with its own codes and organization there are no taxes but there's no individual gain either everything is for the collective good they've been in this spot for more than 16 centuries yet these monks have come a long way since the year 390 a.d they're not afraid of progress and their skills acquired before they enter the monastery are put to good use on new development projects the combination of techniques and ancestral skills has allowed them to earn a certain reputation the influence of the christians of egypt means an economic influence too and on this point the monks are actively involved [Applause] obviously we make use of technology cell phones and computers a lot of monks use the internet almost all the monks have had higher education today we can master technology and not let it master ross and it's essential to understand the difference even if coptic monks have not lived like hermits for a long time now the desert still figures strongly in their religious vocation they make regular retreats here alone for a few days or weeks to meditate and carry on this tradition in the desert the monk isolates himself and detaches himself from daily life he lives only for god our spiritual fathers taught us that contemplation in the desert frees us from all material attachment so that we can deepen our spiritual relationship with god obviously a person who can't adapt to the desert won't be the desert encourages personal growth [Music] the wadi natrune monks are a real success when the monastery opens its doors to the public it attracts an impressive crowd of faithful [Music] the monks are seen as the cement of this religious community their continuous presence down through the centuries and the resistance to persecution are seen as a symbol of immortality it's difficult to estimate the number of copts seven million according to the egyptian government but religious authorities put the figure at 12 million the figures are often a subject of controversy but egyptian christians are attached to their particularities and for them coming to these monasteries is like making a pilgrimage undoubtedly these christian chants bring on a sort of oriental blues but the monks don't ring their hands in prayer and they seem consistently cheerful amongst life is not one of competition but of encouragement there is no competition between us there is a collective spirit where everyone can develop his own spiritual life it is a life where you feel it one with yourself quite simply [Music] [Applause] [Music] even though it's arid and desolate the desert has many faces sometimes man is tolerated here on the condition that he's willing to show humility before the harsh elements an unavoidable expanse on the caravan route this western desert is a hostile place and yet it exerts an attraction a sort of magnetism it is a refuge for mystics and the contemplative in search of the pew this landscape is also the ideal setting for adventurers and quests of boundless horizons [Music] nobody knows this man's name but his nickname is well known fanuya is a desert lover with a particular fondness for the western desert for more than 30 years he has been crisscrossing the desert in a variety of ways at first he organized and ran rallies then his competitive spirit waned but he still has a real fascination for these landscapes for the ancient egyptians the great sea of sand began immediately after the last oasis this marked the end of the kingdom of the living and the beginning of the kingdom of the dead and between them there was a dangerous no-man's land called chaos where you could find yourself trapped and they were right to be wary because in certain directions it was uncrossable the desert is both life and death it reminds us of the fragility and the beauty of our humanity heading out into the desert is always an adventure you can't forget anything gas water food tools but above all you mustn't set out in just one vehicle a breakdown in the middle of the desert can quickly turn into a serious problem this is a well-known saharan ritual that gives the tire the same consistency as a camel's hook we deflate the tire it gets wider and there's more surface in contact with the ground we deflate it to 800 grams of pressure the desert is a sort of solid ocean and there are many similarities between the sea and the desert the chain of dunes is like a series of rollers on the sea and rather than driving you feel more like you are navigating as you set a course to make your way across the sea of sand you have to consider the dune as something fluid something that shifts that moves and that's why they give you a feeling of eternity you see a frozen storm here we're on gourd the father of impassable dunes abu means father but i prefer to say mother it's prettier it represents the mother maternity and mother ocean because it's vast like an ocean so i'm bending the rules but why not it stretches over 550 kilometers so it's the longest chain of dunes in egypt in the sahara and probably in the world i never get tired of it i like discovering it on foot by camel motorcycle or car different pleasures but equally profound being in the desert means choosing your route studying the difficulties and trying to evaluate them correctly hundreds of kilometers to the south a passage leads you through the waves of dunes to an amazing site when you cross the western desert with fanuya you discover areas that are as grandiose as they are mysterious and we come upon a phenomenon that no one could have imagined finding here [Music] here we're in the only limestone cave in the sahara you can see enormous stalactites the corresponding stalagmites have been buried under the sand for thousands of years and this proves that the sahara was once green [Music] this cave was a mandatory stopover for caravans for two reasons there was water in it that was important and because it's situated 15 kilometers from a passage where the camels can get through the dunes [Music] a german explorer rediscovered it in 1873 but it didn't interest him he didn't note its geographical location much later in 1991 another german rediscovered the cave but now the water's gone [Music] traveling the desert means confronting the unknown looking for landmarks in the middle of emptiness and knowing that the slightest undulation in the sand could turn out to be a trap it calls for a great deal of knowledge to be able to negotiate the desert safely one miscalculation and the car stopped short in the second vehicle karim the second driver rushdi the mechanic and saeed the cook are bogged down three times five times a day they have to help each other out of these sand traps okay let's go [Music] okay enough compliments when you're in the sand and the dunes you need two vehicles because anyone can get into trouble you can fool around when you're done but not before was certainly not predestined to become a desert specialist he had a degree in philosophy and became a journalist while working on a story in algeria he discovered the elegance and freedom of the shifting dunes that was almost 40 years ago and from that moment on his love for the desert grew stronger and stronger here you feel like you're at the beginning of the world there's something magical about these rocks and the soft sand if there wasn't any sand we'd be driving over the rocks but here you glide on the sand between the rocks that are getting closer and closer and forcing us a little off course but they're so beautiful you can't blame it when it hits the rocks the wind moves the dune in a different way it digs into it like when you're at sea you have to be careful near the reefs because of the whirlpools here too you can find dune whirlpools it sounds a little pretentious to say discovered it's simply that there was no logical reason for the nomads to pass this way and when you see a place with no cairns no stone markers that means no one's come through i came this way for the fun of it and when i found this place i called it the halong bay of the desert all these rocks changed the way the wind blows on the dunes the dunes separate and keep drifting showing how sand is fluid it passes between the eyelids like currents running between the rocks in halong bay the sand continues on its course this landscape is unique [Music] as soon as night falls so does the temperature and it's brutal you have to set up camp well before sunset make a fire and let syed get to work with the gas burner we talk about why we come here we say that we must be a little crazy in the old days someone could love the desert but it was also their livelihood i'm talking about the caravans that crossed it but if you want to abandon civilization and comfort in search of danger and thrills as well as the love of nature there's nothing rational about it it's a passion like for the ocean in the mountains you accept the hardships because it doesn't matter how you travel sooner or later the vast desert is always going to give you problems the western desert it's my favorite it's the largest expanse of sand there are legends about it but also stories of adventurers and explorers it's also the most diverse desert that i know the landscape often changes in egypt's western desert [Music] sometimes the wind and the sand give birth to strangely formed knolls to dunes with perfect curves or to beds of rocks sculpted like blades you need a vast amount of knowledge of the desert a dose of recklessness and that famous touch of madness to brave such wild terrain even though there's no proper marker this is the only way through this gully has a drop of more than 120 meters [Music] at the bottom when you see a dune with a very steep slope you have to watch out not to crash into the rocks i came here without a clue i survived learning little by little but when you cross the dunes you always have to be humble you have to understand think things out evaluate [Music] burning hot when the sun is at its zenith freezing cold in the middle of the night the desert is a land of extremes what artist could have conjured up such incredible settings where the light completely changes the perspective where pretentious little outcrops break the dunes flowing curve in the desert you're sure to find landscapes that are impressive moving or depressing depending on the traveler's mood [Music] a lot of beautiful things have been written about the desert because it's so inspiring but the story i like the most is by honeydew telling the story of his egyptian campaign to his grandchildren who keep interrupting him asking what was the desert like he looks for the right words and finally comes up with the desert is god before man and you don't have to be a believer to have a feeling for transcendence when you see the desert you see a virgin land before man's done anything either good or bad [Music] after five days of pure desert this sign of life looms up like a mirage this remote forgotten citadel is the vestige of a time when life really existed in this place that's so lifeless today what happened why did men construct this fortress and why here in the middle of nowhere see this is the biggest fortress built during the roman colonization around 2000 years ago the romans occupied egypt for 400 years and this fortress was used to protect the caravans there were major roman garrisons here the place it was abandoned 500 years ago because the wells dried up but then water reappeared in karga which is now the largest oasis in egypt and this place stayed abandoned it might have been the last place where cambise's army passed through i say might the scientists seem to agree the last traces of the army were found here in 525 bc cambisis the powerful king of persia after conquering most of egypt sent his army to the oasis of siwa to subjugate the oracle of ammon but then a unique occurrence in history that army of 50 000 men vanished for a long time people thought it was a legend but now historians know that cambis's army was composed of 50 000 men the largest army in the world at that time herodotus wrote that the army was buried in a terrible sandstorm the idea is interesting for a movie it was used in the english patients the more probable explanation is that the army made a navigational error and got lost that they died of thirst because they never came back and they never arrived and as no trace of them was found they must be buried under one of the enormous cathedral dunes in the great sea of sand for more than a century historians have been looking for traces of that army and in november 2009 italian archaeologists discovered vestiges of what might be part of cambissa's famous army 2 500 years later the enigma of that disappearance might be solved people have become interested in the desert fairly recently as long as only caravans crossed it nobody or almost nobody ventured off the camel roots it was not until the beginning of the 20th century that the first explorers began to venture in thanks to the automobile and those scientific expeditions were hunting for the lost oasis called the azura that paradise on earth contained a city sheltered in the heart of steep cliffs and the myth of the lost oasis still preserves all its mystery we're on one of history's first roads for cars built between 1925 and 1930 by the english and their hindu workers because the egyptians didn't want to go out into the desert to break rocks it was quickly abandoned because it was covered by sand with a new road circling the oasis this one's been forgotten when it was reopened in 1986 no one had been on it for more than 30 years and you felt like you were traveling towards a magical land a lost oasis where there were traces of civilization cairns but no cars everything had been erased this dune has three characteristics it's the fastest moving dune in the world it has a crescent shape and it's two tips advanced a barcan can move 5 to 12 meters a year that's 75 meters a century what's more it can give birth at the tip a little pile of sand appears that then becomes another crescent that grows this apparently hostile land seems to breathe as if the sahara were a place that gives life to the mineral world after days of traveling after making a big loop from east to west in a multi-form desert fanu finally arrives at what he considers the most beautiful sight of all the great sea of sand all of a sudden infinity is within reach i never get tired of these landscapes it's a strange feeling like going back to the beginning of the world like you're starting over i've never met anyone who wasn't moved by the sight of these shifting dunes but when i come to the desert i enjoy this total contrast when i'm in the civilized world i get the morning and evening papers and devour all the news when i go back to the desert i do without the news for a month i come back and i ask which old fools died but i'm not being heartless it's just that i get the feeling that the world hasn't changed much there's always just as much misery just as much happiness as much beauty and ugliness and i took advantage of the beauty and the peace of the desert cleansed myself [Music] this man has managed to find his way in a place where in fact paths do not exist [Music] the desert makes me think of a mystic tuareg song that ends with he who dies of immense love needs immense forgetfulness only passionate love or the desert could inspire a phrase like that [Music] you

Channel: Free Documentary

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Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full documentary, HD documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), somewhere on earth, amazing stories, amazing stories from egypt, amazing quest, egypt

Id: JKvctf8rlFY

Length: 52min 6sec (3126 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 21 2022