Nasser's Funeral - Shots from One of the Most Amazing Days in Egypt

1st of October 1970, …one of the most fanciful days of Egypt's modern history. In the most amazing funeral held in the 20th century, millions of Egyptians went after the public burial of President Gamal Abd El-Nasser -who died on 28th September -in one of the biggest crowds in the world.

They went out in millions to show their sorrow, crying, racing, collapsed and fighted to get near the convoy, and disrupted the schemed liturgies. The leaders and Presidents who had flown to Cairo got no more than a few yards along the route before they had to give up their trials to lead the crowds.

Shortly before ten o'clock, a green helicopter flew over the city center bearing the body from Kubbeh Palace, where it had lain in state, to the headquarters of the Revolutionary Council on Gezira Island. The funeral began in the cool gardens of the headquarters. Here, in a stately edifice among the lawns and palm trees running down to the edge of the Nile, the young President and his "free officers" ruled the country early in the beginning of the revolution. Here they governed Egypt during the Suez crisis of 1956. Here superior mourners had assembled from 70 countries.
In the distance one could hear the vague murmur of countless thousands, women wailing, men chanting. Then the coffin of the late president descended from the sky and one saw how fragile the surface calm was.

The coffin was placed on a flower-smothered catafalque surrounded by mourners. King Hussein stood in tears next to Emperor Haile Selassie. It was transferred to a gun carriage for the procession. A soldier on the roof of the Revolutionary Council building broke into wild shouts, "Farewell, Gamal, farewell, Gamal", and hurled his grief at the dignitaries below. From then on decency was thrown to the wind. It seemed that a million Egyptians were weeping at once. A deep sadness was imprinted on the faces of the soldiers lining the route.

To see some shots from that great funeral...I've chosen for you a video which have been showed at the seventies on the Egyptian television, and I'm sure you will get impressed of these scenes.