The long trek to Cario, Egypt began on the afternoon of September 5th with a ride to John F. Kennedy International Airport. Exactly twelve hours later I was enjoying a cup of café latte in the Lufthansa Airlines lounge at the Frankfurt, Germany Airport. Frankfurt is a very well organized, clean, and modern airport. With each visit there I have been impressed with the cleanliness, efficiency, and security. It is very similar to Atlanta in that it acts as a major hub for travel to and from many parts of Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
The flight from Frankfurt to Cairo (often spelled Kairo in Europe) departed exactly on time and headed on a southeasterly course over Germany for the nearly 2,000 mile flight. We passed over Munich and south of Salzburg, Austria, along the northern coast of the Adriatic Sea toward Athens, Greece. At 39,000 feet and 540 mph, I could see the eastern European cities including Zagreb, Sarajevo, Dubrovnik, and Titograd pass by on the flat panel in-flight display. The displays help you appreciate what a really big place the world is. As we came across the Mediterranean Sea, we were moving at 580 mph. Bagdad was two hours to the east.
The purpose of the trip was to participate in the Egyptian International Economic Forum. Egypt has made serious efforts toward becoming a dynamic emerging economy on both macro and micro economic levels including making changes in its legal and regulatory framework. The goal of the country is to become a larger player in the international marketplace. Signs are encouraging as international players have reacted through capital inflows and hiring which have triggered growth in new areas for Egypt.
One international company that has done a lot to help the growth of Egypt is IBM. Fifty years ago, IBM started its operations in Egypt with a very small team that sold and provided maintenance for typewriters, punched card machines and tabulators. In the mid sixties, IBM sold one of the first scientific computers to the National Planning Institute and one of the first business computers at the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics for use in performing the first population count in Egypt.
Today, IBM is an involved and contributing part of the Egyptian economy. Hundreds of skilled employees provide IT solutions to a wide range of hundreds of customers in different industries and market segments, building their IT infrastructure and assisting their business success. In the Egyptian government sector, IBM is a strategic partner in most of the projects of national importance: National ID number, Social & Pension Insurance Organizations, People Assembly, Commercial Registry Authority, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Post Organization, and many others. IBM Egypt has also invested in a wide network of local business partners to enlarge the scope of services that it can provide to the Egyptian market.
The real triumph of IBM and Egypt’s collaboration has been to recognize that Egypt can excel in software development and be an exporter of software. In 1984, IBM created the Cairo Technology Development Center (Cairo TDC), the largest software development lab owned by a multinational in the region. The center is the base of Arabic Solutions and language support services for all the Arabic-speaking countries and IBM labs worldwide.
IBM has recently further increased its investment in software development in Egypt by acquiring Holosofx, a US software company with a development arm in Egypt. The Holosofx team produces Business Process Modeling software and is now part of Cairo TDC. For the longer term, BM and the Ministry of Communications & IT have been collaborating in the field of IT training since 2001. The Egypt Graduates Project aims to train 15,000 candidates in five years to assist Egypt to compete in the challenging worldwide software market.
IBM has also invested in Egyptian culture to recognize the unique Egyptian contribution to the world ‘s civilization. The "Eternal Egypt" project showcases Egypt’s treasures and cultural heritage through a state-of-the-art web site built with IBM technologies. Another project, IBM’s Digital Guide in the Egyptian museum, provides a handheld computing device that visitors can use to listen, view and read information on different objects during their tour at the museum. Visitors to Karnak Temple and Giza Plateau can get information on those locations through their cell phones.
Egypt’s International Economic Forum brought together a group of prominent Egyptian business people and government officials to focus on the Egyptian macro-economic policies and to
reinforce and enhance Egypt’s ability to become integrated with the global economy. At the opening of the last day of the Forum, I talked about "The Future of the Internet". I hope I was able to inspire a hopeful vision for the potential of the Internet to increase economic activity in the region. Egypt, as a developing country, has a much lower participation in the e-world than many countries. The vast majority of people in the country (population: 71 million) do not have telephone access, but access to the Internet is expanding rapidly as the government pushes for broadband and wireless connectivity.
In between my morning speech and a luncheon Q&A session with delegates and the press, I had three hours to make a trip to the Giza Plateau and see the pyramids. Words can hardly describe what I saw and I hope my pictures in the gallery help in sharing the incredible sights. In a way it is strange to even comment about this given the short amount of time that I had. The University of Chicago has been studying the area for quite a few years. The Giza Plateau Mapping Project has been doing research on the geology and topography of the Giza plateau, the construction and function of the Sphinx, the Great Pyramids, the associated tombs and temples, and the Old Kingdom town in the vicinity. The Giza Plateau is part of the necropolis of ancient Memphis. From a rocky ledge to the southeast of the pyramids, you can feel how the plateau lifts you up above the surrounding landscape.
In the flight to Cairo I read a book called "The Complete Pyramids — solving the ancient mysteries", by Mark Lehner. It enabled me to get a head start on what I was about to see. King Khufu, known as Cheops to the Greeks, is credited with ordering the building of the Great Pyramid at Giza, less than an hour from downtown Cairo. I could immediately see why some have called the Great Pyramid (one of more than 100 in Egypt) the mightiest of human achievements. Like millions of others who have been there, I stood in awe. Two million, three hundred thousand limestone blocks each weighing more than two tons were assembled perfectly aligned with north, east, south, and west. No one is sure how the pyramids were built or how many people it took. I heard estimates as high as 150,000 people to build the Great Pyramid. There are numerous theories about how it was done.
The Pyramid of Khufu ("Cheops") was built roughly 4,500 years ago. It is 450 feet in height. Unfortunately, due to erosion and vandalism, only some of its original smooth limestone veneer remains. Nearby I saw The Great Sphinx, with its monumental proportions — lion’s body, and human facial features. It provided quite a contrast to the geometric shape of the pyramids. The recumbent lion stretches 241 feet in length and reaches 65 feet. The Sphinx was carved out of a natural outcropping of rock around the time of the construction of the nearby pyramids.
In some ways more astounding than the pyramids was a reconstructed boat that had been buried with the king. The boat was 120 feet long and it sat in a "canal" that was slightly longer than that, perhaps twenty feet wide, and 20 feet deep. The top of the canal was covered with huge stones that weighed many tons each. How this was done thousands of years ago with no machinery is hard to envision. The ropes that tied the various parts of the boat together are preserved in the boat museum. I took a number of pictures of this amazing set of things. The last stop before heading back to the Forum was at a Papyrus Museum to see a demonstration of how papyrus was made. I purchased a few hand painted Egyptian art works that used the remarkable material.
The flight from Cairo to Frankfurt was more than three hours late and so I missed the connection to Los Angeles. The new flight required a further 3 hour wait in Frankfurt and then it was finally time for the eleven hour flight and then a two hour drive to La Jolla for the DemoMobile conference. I have to admit that this was the longest trip I have ever made. It was grueling, but to have given up the chance to see the great country of Egypt would have been unthinkable.

• patrickWeb photo gallery from Egypt