After 8 hours to Rome and another 4 to Cairo, a friendly brown-skinned man met us to take us to baggage claim, looked incredulous when we told him we didn’t need such a stop, led us through passport control, into a van, and to our hotel. Shortly after, the guide we’d spend the week with, an Egyptologist named Syed, was leading us through the night streets filled with 20 million Muslims breaking their day-long fasts. We ate what would be the best meal we had in Egypt; it…