10 PLACES VISITED: 1) Sudan-Egypt Border north of Wadi Halfa, 2) Lake Nasser, 3) Abu Simbel (Temples), 4) Aswan, 5) Kom Ombo, 6) Edfu, 7) Esna, 8) Luxor, 9) Valley of the Kings (Luxor), 10) Valley of the Queens (Luxor).
8 OVERNIGHTS: 1) Room at the “Hotel Escale (Nubian House), Abu Simbel (Elev 203m), 2) Room at the “Orchida St George Hotel”, Aswan (Elev 99m), 3-5) Cabin on the “M/S Nile Dolphin”, Aswan, Edfu, Luxor (Elev 103-73m), 6-8) Room at the “Nile Valley Hotel”, West Bank, Luxor (Elev 73m).
3 RUNS: Aswan (2), Luxor.
1 SWIM: Nile River (Luxor).
1 EXTREME: Balloon Flight over Luxor.
18 ANTIQUITIES VISITED: 1) Great Temple of Ramses II (Abu Simbel), 2) Temple of Hathor (Abu Simbel), 3) The Unfinished Obelisk (Aswan), 4) The Philae Temple (Aswan), 5) Temple of Kom Ombo (Kom Ombo), 6) Temple of Horus (Edfu), 7) The Temple Complex of Karnak, Temple of Amun Ra (Luxor), 8) The Temple of Luxor (Luxor), 9) Valley of the Kings (Luxor): 5 tombs visited: “KV62 Tut Ankh Amun or Tutankhamun”, “KV9 - Rameses V and Rameses VI”, “KV57 - Horemhab”, “KV8 - Merenptah”, “KV2 - Ramses IV”, 10) Memorial Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, 11) Temple of Tutmoses III, 12) Temple of Monto Hotep III, 13) Colossi of Memnon, 14) Tombs of the Nobles: 5 tombs visited: “TT100 - Rekhmire”, “TT99 - Sennhoffer”, “TT55 - Ramose”, “TT56 - Userhat”, “TT57 - Khaemhet”, 15) Workmen’s Village & Tombs of Deir El-Medina: village and 2 tombs: Inherkha and Sennutem, 16) The Valley of the Queens: 3 tombs visited: “QV44 - Prince Kha Em Waset”, “QV52 - Queen Titi”, “QV55 - Amen Khopshef”, 17) The Medinat Sabu or Memorial Temple of Ramses III. (PHOTO ABOVE LEFT: John “Mummy” Golfin holding the cross-like “Ankh” which is the “symbol of life”! PHOTO ABOVE RIGHT: the best preserved 3000yr old plus mummy to date: Ramses I in the Luxor Museum, PHOTO BELOW: Magical temples of Abu Simbel at the bottom of EGYPT).
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“Several Winds which blow on high, lift me now so that I can fly… Oh mighty Isis!” This is the opening line of an old American TV show called “The Secrets of Isis” that told the story of an American female school teacher who could draw on the powers of the Goddess Isis to fight crime in the USA. It made a big impression on me as a child and I always remember it when I see anything Egyptian - it bears the name of this post as it covers my adventures in EGYPT on my way to Cairo. The next and final post will cover my adventure in Cairo and day trips from Cairo until the last day in Africa. In this post, Ungowa also turns 9 calendar months old in Africa - unbelievable! The time it takes to make a human baby! In this post I complete my mission of visiting and running in 30 African countries with EGYPT being my 90th country in the world and my 85th running country in the world (Not including Australia). Just 15 short of my original goal set 10yrs ago to run 100 countries by the time I am 50!
I would have reached it if I went to Central America in 2015 but work prevented this from happening. My Egyptian adventure starts when I cross the border from Wadi Halfa in SUDAN to Lake Nasser and Abu Simbel in EGYPT. It is in this town that I laid eye on my first antiquities inside EGYPT and what a sight it was - two temples hewn out of solid rock by the Pharaoh Ramses II in 1250BC. The first and biggest temple is dedicated to the gods of the area and in honour of Ramses II himself since in life he (like all Pharaohs) were considered demigods until they died and became immortal gods. The second and smaller temple is dedicated to his favourite wife Nefertari, not to be confused with Nefertiti, the mother of Tutankhamun.
Ramses had 34 wives and 177 children. It is one thing to gaze upon and touch an artefact that is thousands of years old but it is quite another to understand how these two huge temples were moved from what us now Lake Nasser to higher ground because of the Aswan Dam in the sixties. It took 4 years and USD36million to move these temples by cutting them into 1,047 pieces, each averaging 15 metric tons and then reassembling them and gluing them together with a special resin that dissolved in the sandstone and did not leave lines. Brilliant! My next site was Aswan itself, site of the “High Dam” and several temples. Aswan (Pop 500,000) is a tourist mecca with a long line of high-rise apartments lining the line, opposite a long line of floating hotel cruising boats. Despite the heat it is laid out well and easy and cheap to get around by taxi or horse-drawn carriage. I rode both. The temp still manages to reach and exceed 40C here but there is no pollution. I visited the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral of St Michael’s, The Nubian Museum and The Nile Museum, all very worth while.
The Nile Museum is brand new and only opened in January 2016 - it is aimed at kids with lots of interactive multimedia and animal characters. It is also good for grown ups and details everything and anything to do with the Nile and its history and development. The Nubian Museum is strictly for adults and covers the history of this fascinating culture that pre-dates the Ancient Egyptians! “Nubia” is actually a term that describes the area of land just south of Khartoum in SUDAN all the way to Aswan in EGYPT. The people themselves existed over several Kingdoms, the greatest of which was the “Kush Kingdom”.
Aswan also has a great market place that is best visited in the cool of the night and is much more “colourful” under lights. The market is the ONLY place to eat local food - plenty of veggies and meat with lots of spices - very reminiscent of MOROCCO. I also visited the Old Aswan Dam (built by the English in 1902 to generate electricity) and High Aswan Dam built 1960-1971 to enable all year round irrigation and expand farmland in the country. It is a very controversial dam even to this day since it flooded many temples, villages and tombs of the Nubians despite protests from UNESCO.
They did their best to recover artefacts before the flooding. From Aswan I spent 4 days and 3 nights aboard the “M/S Nile Dolphin”, 5 star floating hotel with pool, bar and restaurant. My cabin was fully equipped with huge glass views of the Nile below. I cruised on Solo 17 to see temples at the towns of "Kom Ombo” and “Edfu”. Both were well preserved and the later is the second largest temple in EGYPT after Karnak and the best preserved. The cruise is a “must do” here and was not expensive given the terrific food, private guide and all inclusive entries to most antiquities in Aswan and Luxor.
All for USD228. Riza was also on the cruise and the best part was sipping wine with cheese and olives at sunset over the Nile from my cabin window. Magic. The truck group would spend this time on a felucca - which has no cabins or aircon - just a large deck with mattresses. I would be bored out of my mind doing this for 3 days. The cruise was a real highlight because it combined a very restful time on the boat watching the Nile go by, good food and some intense touring of Aswan and Luxor. The cruise was only 4 days and 3 nights but let like it was more than a week. We arrived in Luxor only 250km downstream from Aswan in the late evening on Sunday and woke up on Monday morning to the views of the grand Temple of Luxor right outside the boat. We had docked in marvellous location. We had another private guide to take us around the major sites of Luxor from 5:30am on the today morning so that we could avoid all the crowds and take photos with no tourists in them.
It worked. We saw the Temple Complex of Karnak followed by the Temple of Luxor without a single tourist in sight - we were the only ones there and it was cool to boot. These two temples really define the whole concept of ancient Egypt. They are so huge and decorated in statue and column and hieroglyph that you really do feel that you are in another world. Just how they managed to be still standing after 3000yrs is simply amazing. Please read the detail blog for Day 277 to find out all about ancient Luxor (also called Thebes) and especially The Valley of the Kings which was easily the highlight. I gazed upon the unwrapped face of Tutankhamun in his original burial chamber! I also saw 3 other mummies. (PHOTO BELOW: The Valley of the Kings).
Also read Day 278 when I travelled alone to The Valley of the Queens. Luxor city is well spread out and very nice to visit. It is hot but there is low pollution. You can see the mountains that form the Valleys of Kings and Queens from the city so everything is close by. People are friendly but tend to this way to try and get money from you - tourism is very bad at the moment and slowly recovering after the Arab Spring. People will point out something or show you where something is whether you want to or not and then put out their hand for “a tip”. It got to me after a while and all you can really do is just say “I have no money”. Despite this, Luxor is EGYPT. You have not seen EGYPT if you have not seen Luxor.
I loved it and the cruise into this place made it even more special. We cruised with a ship called the “Nile Dolphin” - it is excellent with huge windows and a great interior. Our hotel “Nile Valley Hotel” was also excellent and in the best location next to the Ferry Terminal of the West Bank. Leaving Luxor was sad but I was looking forward to Cairo and the end of the trip. By now it was over nine months and almost Day 280 and I was buggered, especially given the heat and the amount of solo travel we did in the heat. I was now looking forward to a break on the Red Sea before my triumphant entry into Cairo on the truck - something I have been dreaming about ever since we left Gibraltar, all that time ago… (PHOTO BELOW: my third favourite photo of the whole trip showing the body and sarcophagus of Tutankhamun in one shot - the whole burial chamber!).
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DAY 272 of 287, Wed 10AUG16, 75km, Room at the “Mustafa Plaza Hotel”, Wadi Halfa (Elev 211m) SUDAN to Room at the “Hotel Escale (Nubian House), Abu Simbel (Elev 203m) EGYPT. I reckon the aircon may have given me a slight cold. No sheets on the bed. I was up at 7am to get ready for an 8am pickup to the border. The good news was that I had found a terrific cruise option from Aswan to Luxor for 4days/3nights that includes a tour of the main sites of Aswan and the Valley of the Kings in Luxor with an Egyptologist guide. The tour also includes an afternoon Felucca ride! I would discuss it with Riza and book it tonight. Our driver turned up on time and we headed into the stark white of the desert headed north for the border with EGYPT. On arrival at the border the truck was easy to find. The SUDAN-EGYPT border is always the longest one but we made it across both and got driving again by 1:30pm - 5hrs in total.
Oasis shouted us lunch the border cafe on the EGYPT side which played loud “belly dancing” style music and looking around at the mix of olive and black Arab faces, you just knew you were in EGYPT. From the border it was another 30min to get to the ferry where we waited almost an hour for it arrival across Lake Nasser formed by the Nile. The place was stark with isolated grey ridges and beige sandy desert. It must have been 38C outside - maybe more. The clear blue of the lake contested starkly with the monotones of the desert. By 3:30pm we were on the ferry and sailing across to Abu Simbel. It was a hot but serene crossing. The ferry carried a shit-load of transport - large coaches and other semi-trailers bound for the Cairo markets. The waters of Lake Nasser were far less brown and very calm. By 5pm we disembarked into a very neat and colourful little town - far different from the roughness of Wadi Halfa in SUDAN.
The buildings were immediately different - reminded us of MOROCCO with the use of domes and round edges - definite Arabic and European influences rolled together. Our camp site and hotel was excellent. The rooms were like those in South Africa - very stylish. We had comeback to civilisation at last! Riza and I upgraded to aircon rooms. Sadly, the internet was not strong enough so after welcoming shower I convinced the young receptionist to lend us his mobile hot spot. It worked a treat and I was able to upload Post 33 in a jiffy. I also booked my Aswan to Luxor cruise and my Pyramids day tour and Alexandria day visit in Cairo. Great work. Dinner intervened. All I had left was to book a day trip to the Suez Canal and the Giza Light & Sound Show and I was done. At what a nice intervention dinner was - crumbed fish with a spicy until and chickpea warm salad. Unreal. What was better was the red wine I sipped after 8 dry nights! It actually hit me a bit in the head!!! After dinner it was straight to bed since we would leave sunrise at 5:30am to see the marvellous temples of Ramses just minutes away!
DAY 273 of 287, Thu 11AUG16, 280km, Room at the “Hotel Escale (Nubian House), Abu Simbel (Elev 203m) to Room at the “Orchida St George Hotel”, Aswan (Elev 99m) EGYPT. What a fabulous night of cool cool sleep - the aircon was unreal. Woke up with a lot of get-up-and-go. I was also excited to be visiting my first ever Ancient Egyptian Antiquities. A small minivan took us to our destination only 10min away at 5:30am. When we arrived the whole complex was isolated and ALL OURS!!! Bliss. The sun had just come up and its pale gold light lit up the two temples carved into a orange man-made rocky mountain.
Both overlooked the serene Lake Nasser, the largest artificial lake in the world created by the Aswan High Dam some 280km by road to the north (our destination later today). Our guide “Sayed” sat us down on a stone fence above the lake and in front of the first temple and told us its story. The “Great Temple of Ramses II” was built by the Pharaoh of the same name in 1250BC to honour the gods of the local area. Its original location was below us and under the waters of Lake Nassar before the dam existed. In 1960 an amazing engineering project sponsored by UNESCO and the USA, hired a host of French, Dutch, German, Swiss and Swedish engineers to move both temples to higher ground before the completion of the Aswan Dam. The project took 4yrs and USD36million to complete. The two temples were cut into 1,047 pieces averaging 15 metric tones a piece, numbered, moved and re-assembled against a man-made mountain of rock with a concrete dome-shaped interior to support the pieces. These included the many relies and hieroglyphs painted in the original temples.
These were shaved off and glued onto the man made hollow using special resins. The “Great Temple of Ramses II” has 3 intact, 20m high seated statues of Ramses II and one that has his legs only. The total facade is 33m, just like the original which was rowen out of solid rock. Inside is a grand hall lined by six more Ramses on either side for the people to worship in. At the end is a small altar with four gods: Ra-Harakhty, Amun, Ptah and Ramses. There are rooms off to the sides of the great hall used for private worship of the Pharaoh’s entourage and tootle the story of the godson that area. Judging from the number of statues, Ramses must have had an ego bigger than this site! He lived in this area because it had a lot of gold back then and he was in charge of mining it. Ramses had 34 wives and 177 children. His favourite wife was Nefertari, not to be confused with Nefertiti, the mother of Tutankhamun. He built the second temple for her and the 12 children he had with her but still managed to adorn it with four giant 15m statues of himself. The “Temple of Hathor” is named after a local god of the same name and is much smaller outside and inside with only a single chamber.
Both temples have been constructed to allow the rays of the rising Equinox sun to pass inside and light up the gods in the altar at the back. This happens on 22FEB and 22OCT every year, one day later than in the original temple because of their new locations. We spent 2hrs visiting these marvels and at first they did not seem real. Hard to believe that they were thousands of years old and even harder to believe that they were moved - you cannot see any join lines! We returned to the hotel at 7:45am and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast which came with our room. I managed to book the rest of my Cairo tours except the Giza Light & Sound show which needs minimum of two people - Riza had not yet made up her mind and there were no other strangers going yet… At 9:30am we set off for Aswan, travelling there in a “convoy” of other tourist coaches and haulage trucks, travelling with armed police cars since this stretch of road has had extremists who have targeted tourists in the past. The day heated to 41C and the views from the truck were consistent with those over the border - beige gold sand and rocky mounds as far as the eye could see - no green whatsoever. So far the locals in Abu Simbel and at the hotel were very warm and welcoming. Our first impressions of EGYPT were very good ones! Riza and I were excited about our cruise tomorrow - air-conditioned rooms sipping wine along the Nile and whilst visiting more antiquities including the Valley of the Kings & Queens - they say that seeing these from the Nile is unforgettable.
The heat and desert continued for hours as I blogged and did some book work. At least it was a dry heat very much like the Australian outback. The humidity was reducing as we headed towards and past the Tropic of Cancer (No signage). Aswan (Pop 500,000) emerged like a desert oasis. Green shrubs and palms extending back from the Nile with buildings lined up on the side. It reminded my of Thessaloniki Harbour and countless other European lakeside armaments with high rise apartments, the road and then the river. Multi-deck cruise boats stood between the road and the river. You could stay on them whilst moored or cruise on them or both (I would do both). Our hotel was opposite KFC and a little further back was Maccas.
You could already see the grin on the faces of some of the group. We checked into our air-conditioned rooms at 2pm and by 3pm I was off to see the sites. Our Aswan tour guide gave me a lift to the “Nubian Museum” after her dropped off Tim at the number one hotel in town “The Old Cataract” which was once the palace and home of King Farouk of EGYPT until the 1952 revolution. The museum was closed for siesta and re-opening in 30min at 4pm so I decided to walk dow to the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral which was 5min away. It is a grand building - stark white with minaret-like bell towers. A bunch of caretakers were lunching and offered to show me inside - I graciously accepted. What an interior. Cavernous and full of light. It was in the shape of a boat with central dome and an icon screen similar to the Greeks and Russians. The icons were not Byzantine - they were the same as the Ethiopian Orthodox - caricature type figures with large oval eyes. A bunch of school kids were playing in the courtyard - the building next door looked like a school run by the Cathedral. The Nubian Museum is set upon its own hill and beautifully designed from sandstone quarried from the city. It opened in 1997 and it is huge inside with 28 show cases and 2,076 items on display. It was partly funded by UNESCO. It also has lecture theatres, a VIP lounge and even a lab for cleaning and dating artefacts. The first main exhibit hall is called “Nubia Underwater” and contains photographs with Arabic/English captions on all the Nubian temples, pyramids and tombs that were emptied prior to their flooding as a result of the opening of the “Aswan High Dam” in 1971.
UNESCO, The Egyptian Antiquities Ministry and The School of Egyptology in former Czechoslovakia ran a huge project from 1960 to 1965 to do this work. There were over 50 structures involved and only 18 of them were moved to higher ground due to funding limits. They salvaged artefacts from 43 sites, removed 243 rock inscriptions and 954 rock drawings, some of which were on display. “Nubia” is a term that refers to the area around the Nile between south of Khartoum SUDAN to Aswan EGYPT in the north and the peoples or Kingdoms that lived here from around 3,800BC to the 4th Century. There are many people in SUDAN and EGYPT that are descendants of these people and still carry on their recent traditions. The greatest of the Nubian Kingdoms was the “Kush Kingdom” centred in Kerma. They became powerful from gold trading and constantly fought off the ancient Egyptians. Other Kingdoms of mote were the Meroe, Napata and Ballana. In 540AD Justinian The Great, Emperor of Byzantine Constantinople brought Christianity to Nubia and they accepted it. Many of the Nubian Temples had “altars” installed and crosses engraved for Christian worship including “The Philae” in Aswan which I would see tomorrow.
The Nubians also honoured St John Chrysostom who wrote the order of The Liturgy (or Mass) for the Greek Orthodox Church still in use today. The man exhibition hall in the Nubian Museum outlined watch of the Nubian Kingdoms starting with prehistoric Nubia as far back as 8000BC and ending with the adoption of Islam by the Nubians by the 16th Century when the Turkish Ottomans sacked Constantinople and raided EGYPT. The third main exhibition is modern Nubian life - replicas of their colourful homes that you see on the banks of the Nile at Aswan, how they plough, irrigate and their dress, food and dancing. This museum was great. It was 6pm when i finished so I headed back to the hotel to have drinks with Riza and Vicky because it was Vicky's last day on the trip - she was joining Roberto on the overland truck tour of Central Asia. After a quick shower, I joined the girls from some drinks and emailing downstairs.
At 7:30p we walked to the markets to have dinner. Lucky for us Vicky had met some of the stall owners earlier that day and one of them walked us to a restaurant that was brilliant. We enjoyed a large number of local dishes including beef, chicken and kafta (minced beef) kebabs, two styles of eggplant, tabouli, tahini, humous, mixed stewed veggies and potato. Brilliant. Sadly no booze as it was a Muslim owner so we had some red wine when we get back to the hotel. I was buggered that day and retired at 10pm since Vicky had to pack and I wanted to wake up at 5am to complete my running mission of my 30th African country and 85th in the world.
DAY 274 of 287, Fri 12AUG16, 0km, Solo 17, NINE CALENDAR MONTHS AWAY FROM HOME! Room at the “Orchida St George Hotel”, Aswan (Elev 99m, Run1) to Cabin on the “M/S Nile Dolphin”, Aswan (Elev 103-73m) EGYPT. I was only slightly nervous. I started my run at 5:30am since our cruise guide was coming at 8am. Today marked the start of Solo 17 and the completion of my running mission. It went without a hitch and at record speed. What pushed me was the importance of this run and the fantastic Nile that was right beside me and down below. The roads were empty. The weather was not hot and not cold - like the inside of a room with a slight breeze. All good. I got a lot of thumbs up from early morning commuters and was jumping up and down when I got back - it was one of the most satisfying achievements of not just this trip but a milestone in a long line of running. I would celebrate tonight. Omar was early! He turned up at 7:45am and introduced himself and would come back at 8:30am to give Riza and I a chance to have brekkie with the group before touring Aswan.
After brekkie we farewelled the group (again) and dumped our stuff in the back of a new Mitsubishi Lancer. Inside it was beautifully air-conditioned and we raced off to see the “Unfinished Obelisk”, very close to the Nubian Museum and only 10min drive from our hotel. “Obelisks” where used by the Ancient Egyptians as a “calling card” or “status symbol”. The more important you were, the taller and heavier the obelisk and the more ornate - much like the Stelae of ETHIOPIA. This one was being prepared for Ramses II way back in the 24th Century when it developed cracks to the extent that it could not be separated from the bedrock without destroying it so it was left alone. It would have been 44m high and weigh 1,200 tons. There is a huge deposit of pink granite in Aswan from which these obelisks are made. They are hewn out of the mountainside in a single piece then separated by drilling holes and inserting a special wood that when wet, swells and cracks the obelisk away from the bedrock. Clever. This place is now used to export pink granite to the world especially the Chinese. 52 other obelisks have been completed here and shipped all over the world as monuments including the one at “Place De La Concorde” in Paris! The boat to take us to the “Philae Temple”, on Aglikia Island was only a few minutes away.
We had a whole 20 seater to ourselves. We could see the Old Dam and the colourful Nubian Houses along the way. The Philae Temple was built by several Ptolemy Kings (Greeks who occupied this area for a period at the invitation of the Nubians to learn about Architecture and Medicine) during the period 332-212BC to honour the Goddess “Isis” who possessed the power of flight, wore two horns and a sun-disk on her head. Honour was also given to her husband “Osiris” and son “Horis” which adorn many of the chambers inside. When the Nubians embraced Christianity they converted one of the inner rooms to a church, complete with altar stone and carvings of crosses on the pillars above the hieroglyphs. The temple is very well preserved and was moved from its original location as a result of the High Dam. It was cut into 27,000 pieces and with the help of UNSECO part-funding was moved between 1972-1980. It is very well preserved. I also learned some hieroglyphs here and that if an image of a person had both their legs together then they are dead - legs apart and they are alive! After the boat ride back we drove across the Old Dam, completed by the British in 1902 for the purpose of generating electricity. The dam is 2,900m long, 20m high and has only one turbine generating a peak output of 157MW.
The “High Dam” on the other hand is much much bigger. It was built between 1960 and 1971 and spans 3,830m long making it still the world’s LONGEST DAM. Maximum height is at 111m. If you were to dissect the dam perpendicular to its length you would find a triangular or pyramid shaped fill with very low sloping sides (base measures 980m and top 40m) with enough rock and sand to fill 17 Giza Pyramids!!! There has been much debate since its inception on whether it was the right thing to do. Proponents against say that it killed 451 workers, flooded countless Nubian villages, cemeteries, tombs, temples and pyramids and robbed upstream farmland of the natural fertilising action of the “silt” which is now trapped in Lake Nasser.
Those supporting the dam say that it has significantly increased farmland from arid desert and allows irrigation all year round. There is also extra fish in Nasser and heaps of electricity from 12 turbines with peak output of 2100MW. Our last visit for the day was completely different. We visited a factory and showroom that makes fragrant extracts from flowers and plants for scent and medicinal purposes. Along with Papyrus production, Alabaster Ancient Egyptian Statues, Gold & Silver Jewellery and Fishing, they comprise the key exports of Aswan. A very well dressed and spoken guy took us through a list of extracts that are pure oils - no alcohol or chemicals are added as in perfumes which have these extracts as an essential ingredient, 20% by volume. We spelled quite a fund they reminded us of commercially available perfumes but much stronger. They even had “myrrh”, the aroma given to Baby Jesus by the Wise Man from ETHIOPIA, whose tomb I visited. Christ was also anointed in myrrh at the time of his burial.
A very nice smelling aroma. It was now 1pm and we checked into our 5 level cruise boat, the “M/S Nile Dolphin”. Fabulous interior with white marble, chandeliers and a room to die for. Not big but with huge floor to wall windows, great bathroom, fridge, TV and super duper cold air-conditioner. Perfect. To top it off a nice table with two armchairs right in front of the window looking out to the Nile below. Evening drinks here would be sublime. After settling into my cabin I joined Riza for lunch downstairs. Terrific buffet of fish and chicken with many salads, soup and desert. The dining area was also very meticulous - what linen, sliver service - all top notch. There were not many passengers but the remaining gusts were all Chinese and they ate like there was no tomorrow. Back and forth with mountains of food! And the chomping could be heard in Cairo!!! After lunch I liked the room so much that I decided to relax and watch a bit of TV and stare outside - a recipe for falling asleep and sleep I did - until 4pm! I then met Riza and we walked to a local neighbourhood to buy olives, cheese and water for the cruise. By 6pm we were enjoying the spoils of our afternoon shopping spree along with plenty of wine that I had smuggled aboard. It was divine. Just after sunset we went to dinner, a fashionably 30min late to allow all the Chinese to go first. We waltzed in like royalty and with no food queue! Excellent fish and beef washed down by local beer. We met again in my room for some more drinks and gossip. Our rooms were simply divine.
DAY 275 of 287, Sat 13AUG16, 130km, Solo 17, Cabin on the “M/S Nile Dolphin”, Aswan to Edfu (Elev 103-93m, Run2) EGYPT. Slept in to 6am this time - I was coughing all night and had to switch the aircon off. I had cough a cold sleeping in the aircon room without blanket in Wadui Haifa two nights ago. My chest was now very flemmey and I had to get rid of this before Cairo. Warming the room up helped and it surprising how stable a temperature the room could keep at night. Today’s run was my second in EGYPT but much slower given my coughing and the extra wine I drank the night before to celebrate my 85th country run. Brekkie was great - a chef made a fresh omelette in front of you! Riza and I then caught a taxi to the new “Nile Museum” next to the entry to the Old Dam. We had seen passed it yesterday and it looked like a children’s theme park with its multicolours and animal statues in the back. It was also set on its own hill and opened in January of 2016.
One of the guards showed us around. This museum is dedicated to the Nile River including all the 11 African countries that it touches and their involvement or contribution to the river. It has many exhibits over two floors that talk about the following in connection with the Nile River: people, flair, fauna, dams, barrages (or lochs), boats, antiquities, agriculture, exports, irrigation, pollution and islands. There is also a section on the “Nubian Rescue Campaign” which was also featured at the Nubian Museum covering the Egypt-UNESCO-Czech project to save as many artefacts from 1960-1965 before the flooding of the Nile by the High Dam. You can see that the museum has been designed especially with children in mind with two animal mascots (crocodile and hippo) and lots of interactive media. And this is only the beginning. A huge multi-complex hotel, shopping mall, cinemas and learning centre are on the drawing board to be added to this huge hill that it sits on. It will be like the “Orlando Disney World” of the Nile! Our taxi driver then took Riza to the Nubian Museum and myself back to the boat. I blogged until I met Riza for lunch at 12:30pm.
Another delicious spread and then off to our rooms to get ready for CRUISING - finally! We set off one hour late at 2:30pm and travelled along the river where I had run. Passed a big bridge and only observed palm trees and desert for the next 1-2hrs. I continued blogging and processing photos - it was ideal - I could work and yet see everything on the Nile from my bed! Occasionally I would get up and open the window and snap a good scene. At approx 5:30pm we docked at “Kom Ombo (Pop 450,000)”, home to an important temple of the same name dedicated to two gods: “Sobek” the crocodile god and “Horas” the god of healing and medicine. Once again it was built by a succession of Ptolemaic Kings from 180BC-47AD. Our guide did not turn up so we disembarked and entered the complex by ourselves. Unfortunately many people from our boat and 4 other boats had gone ahead and the place was swarming with tourists. I did my best to photograph and film the place without getting anyone in the photos.
The structure was like two palaces in one - two entries, two hallways, two identical sides as if a giant invisible mirror was in the middle. The hieroglyphs contained images of scalpels, surgical tables, bandages etc - this palace doubled as a hospital! We saw sunset at this temple - very nice but too many bloody tourists!!! We got back to the boat at 6:30pm and set sail for Edfu soon after. Our guide “Hammat” turned up at my room whilst we were sipping wine and apologised profusely for missing us. He claims he was in reception before we disembarked but why he did not hold up a sign with our names on it is besides me - simple solution - when I suggested it to him he just smiled. At least we had now met for our tour in Edfu tomorrow morning. We would arrive there in 4hrs. Riza and I enjoyed apre-sunset wine, cheese and olives until dinner at 8pm. Tonight we celebrated with our first bottle of Egyptian Dry White. A little soft but reasonably dry. We gossiped quite and bit and discussed our plans for Cairo. I was completely ready having booked 3 separate day tours and an evening light/sound show and dinner at Giza. It would be a great finish to a great journey...
DAY 276 of 287, Sun 14AUG16, 120km, Solo 17, Cabin on the “M/S Nile Dolphin”, Edfu to Luxor (Elev 93-73m) EGYPT. Up at 5:45am to the views of ragged Edfu outside - it looked like an ancient town, ravaged by time and weather. There were a thousand horse drawn carriages waiting for all the tourists. Five boats had moored here overnight so when we met Hammat in the lobby of the ship we told him to take us to the gates early so that we could run in ahead of the crowd and shoot the palace without thousand tourists all over the place! He agreed. We rode our horse and carriage through the streets of Edfu (Pop 250,000) for 10min before arriving at the palace complex. At precisely 7am we ran in first. I sprinted to the “Temple of Horus” and completed by shooting session in time before the hoards swarmed all over it. A sensational place - the best preserved temple in all of EGYPT and the second largest after Karnak Temple in Luxor (we would see this tomorrow).
This place is simply full of hieroglyphs and reliefs in very good condition. The temple is dedicated to the falcon god “Horus” and was also built by a succession of Ptolemaic Kings from 237-57BC. This temple is the best example of how all temples in EGYPT were designed and laid out - five main sections - its floor plan is completely intact! The main feature of this temple is the intact “rooms” surrounding the ventral sanctuary in which offering were stored. Each room held a different type of offering and the hieroglyphs on the walls explained what was kept there. One room was reserved for oils and extracts from flowers and plants - exactly like the one we had seen yesterday. We were shown a recipe on the wall on how to make a particular extract from a particular flower - all in hieroglyphs! The sanctuary contained a tall granite shrine that used to contain a 28kg solid gold statue of Horas which was subsequently sacked shortly after its discovery by a French archaeologist in 1864.
There is also the replica of an original boat that was used in the marriage ceremony of Horas and his wife Hathor. This was a good visit to a a very intact temple. Along the way back to the boat EVERYONE tried to extract tips from us, even for a “good morning” or “the boat is over there” - da! We can see it! The situation is dire for EGYPT because the internal political bickering and attacks have reduced tourism significantly and this is the number one industry in EGYPT. It is only now starting to show signs of recovery but is a long way off from returning to its former glory. We got back to the boat just in time for brekkie and set sail for “Esna” where we would ride a lock to a lower level of water. After this Luxor. There were no more antiquities to see today so we went to our cabins. I got up to date on this post for text and photos whilst enjoying the views outside. Lots of islands this time in the Nile.
At around noon we passed through a lock at Esna. Our boat and another in front of us were lowered 13m from one part of the Nile to the other. After Esna the famous pink-brown ridges of the Valley of the Kings and Queens appeared in the distance, becoming more vivid in colour as we approached. Luxor (Pop 500,000) then emerged little by little, a grand city, spread out over two banks. The East is the “living” bank modelled on the rising sun = life and thus contains the Karnak and Luxor Temples, all museums and the bulk of hotels, restaurants and cruise boat docks. The West is the “dead” bank or “necropolis” and contains all the major tombs of the Valleys of Kings and Queens and Nobles. The city scape is spread out and there is a large feeling of space. You can see a group of mountains that stand out of the flat desert that forms the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens and there is an immense strip of green farmland between it and the river. Our boat docked right outside the Luxor Temple on the East Bank at around 4pm.
I immediately disembarked to go for my proper 1.5km swim along the Nile. I found a 200m strip of bank between two docks and would do laps. I checked with the locals and they were not expecting any boats to dock here. In I went. At about the 300m mark a giant blue cruiser docks! With it comes a rubber dinghy with police in it. They forced me out of the water and began to tell me that it was not safe to swim here and that if anything happened to me they would get into trouble with the mayor. Nice try but what could I do. They walked me back to my boat and I would now plan a second attempt with tomorrow’s felucca cruise. Once I have a mission I never give it up! The upside of this incident was more drinking time with Riza. I invited her to my well-stocked can and we began a log session of conversation at around 6pm. Watched the setting sun and talked about how quickly the end of our trip was approaching. The time on the boat was excellent and very necessary given the heat and constant touring - we were buggered. Dinner was another sumptuous affair with two major dishes and we celebrated with a bottle of local white wine. All good. We asked our guide to start our Luxor tour at 5:30am tomorrow so we could be alone at Karnak and Luxor temples - this meant an early night!
DAY 277 of 287, Mon 15AUG16, 0km, NINE CALENDAR MONTHS WITH THE TRUCK! Cabin on the “M/S Nile Dolphin”, Luxor (Elev 73m) to Room at the “Nile Valley Hotel”, West Bank, Luxor (Elev 73m, Swim1) EGYPT. Our guide “Ashraf” was a very friendly, smiley guy with a good command of English. He was spot-on-time and turned up in a new Kia sedan, with driver “Ahmed”, already cool from the aircon. We literally drove across the road to get to "The Temple Complex of Karnak”. This is a large collection of many sanctuaries, pillars and obelisks covering 2 square kilometres. The main “Temple of Amun” and the “Great Hippostyle Hall” are the main features the former comprising 3 separate gates and the later a facade of 134 lotus shaped pillars. The place was built by successive kings over a 1500yr period ending in 200AD. At that time the city of Luxor was also known as “Thebes”, a name given by the Greek Ptolemic Kings who lived here - this place reminded them of the Thebes in Greece, near Delphi. The pillars in this complex are huge and contain hieroglyphs in their original colours. An interesting feature is the scratching out by Pharaoh Tutmosis III of all images in the temple of his half-mother Queen Hutchepsut so that she cannot cross over to paradise because she made herself Queen ahead of him.
“The Temple of Luxor” is also dedicated to the sun god “Amun Ra” but this temple is dedicated to the marriage of the sun good with his wife “Nut” and the city would celebrate their wedding anniversary by holding a service and huge banquet in the temple grounds. The two temples, Karnak and Luxor are actually connected by an ancient road lined with hundreds of Sphinxes but most of them have yet to excavated - the government has actually deleted all modern buildings between the two temples and waiting in funding from UNESCO to unearth and re-assemble the sphinxes!
There is just an empty space that looks like a canal between them now. Luxor unlike Karna was built by two pharaohs: Ramses II and Amenhotep III between 1405 and 1290BC. Luxor is nowhere near as grand as Karnak but is high up on the scale of well preserved temples. Luxor was the capital of ancient EGYPT twice from 2100-1800BC and 1550-1070BC. Ramses II is considered the greatest of all pharaohs and kings and ruled 1290-1224BC. Even Alexander The Great is painted on the wall here and is considered the son of Amun Ra, a very high honour indeed for someone who did not even set foot here. Luxor is probably the nerve centre of ancient EGYPT - there are hundreds of tombs here of Kings and Queens and their “noble” entourages but the irony is that all mummies, except for Tutankhamun, is in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The next major site was none other than “The Valley of the Kings”.
There is only one bridge across the Nile at Luxor so the drive here takes 40min from Luxor Temple because you have to drive upstream, cross, then back downstream - the valley is directly opposite the city and visible from it. The valley was exactly as I expected. Bleak, dry and very hot. Looked like something out of the set of Star Wars! This valley contains 64 tombs with the latest one discovered only in 2014. They are still expecting to find more… This place is reserved only for Kings or Male Pharaohs. Wives or Queens or children are all buried in the Valley of the Queens nearby. The only mummy to be found in the Valley of the Kings is that of Tutankhamun, who died at 19yrs old and is the most famous because of his iconic gold death mask. More on his body later. Ticket entry to the Kings is only 100 local (AUD14) and gets you inside 3 tombs. You have to pay 50 local extra to see Tutankhamun. Sadly, because so many idiots who do not know how to use their cameras have taken damaging flash photography inside the tombs, all photography both inside and outside is now banned. BUT for the right bribe, the guards will turn a blind eye. Some will even encourage you to take photos only to hit you with the palm of their hand as you exit the tomb. Always negotiate first!
The valley is home to 3 Royal Families spanning the 18th, 19th and 20th Dynasties of Ancient Egypt between 1550-1070BC making the youngest tomb here over 3,000 years old! Amazing! 44 of the 64 tombs gave up mummies to the Egyptian Museum. 19 were missing and only 1 remains - Tutankhamun! Only 10 of the 64 tombs are available to visit - I went to 5. Why are these Kings not buried in pyramids I hear you ask - well they kind of are! The valley of the Kings is one giant mountain that has a pyramidal shaped top - this automatically endowed it with the spiritual powers provided by a man-made pyramid.
The high priest approved its use for oral burial. I started with “KV62 Tut Ankh Amun or Tutankhamun”. It was fantastic and worth every cent. This tomb is only 50m deep. Tutankhamun was King at age 9 and ruled until his death of Malaria at age 18. He was interred here in 1132BC making his on-display body 3,348 years old. He is in a very simple glass case with plain wooden frame some 20m away from his sarcophagus in one long room. All you can see is his head and two feet. All 10 toes are visible and intact. The head has not melted completely and if you look carefully you will see eyebrows and upper lip. The flesh is very dark, almost black like it was covered in soot. A white linen cloth covers his body which has some definition - not completely melted.
The actual body on display was placed inside 4 concentric cases including a huge pink granite outer casing. The 11kg solid gold death mask is the most famous feature of this burial and made this boy King famous throughout all the world. The mask is in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The sarcophagus is in a cavity and surrounded by very intact colourful hieroglyphs depicting the you king aboard the ceremonial boat on his way to the next life. This is the only full intact tomb in the valley that was never looted - its contents were found as placed in 1132BC by Howard Carter in 1922. The tomb took 5yrs to find and 10yrs to excavate and analyse. It is intact because no one expected it to be so close to the surface. Most of the pharaohs are buried deep. I bribed this guard 40 local (AUD6) but had to wait 30min for two pairs of people to leave. When it was time I had my fill of photos and film including the fabulous panorama in this post - my 3rd favourite photo to date! The guard got the shits at the extensive range of shooting and wanted more.
My guide had given me firm guidelines. Every guard from now on would want something. Palms out. It gets a bit much. “Greeting friend”, “Where are you from”, etc all code for “Gimme money you foreign dog!!”. Especially now that tourism is down due to the political trouble in the country. I kept telling them. “I am not here to solve your problems - I am here to visit your country”! It is a sad situation but you cannot have it both ways - if you kill each other in the streets then the tourists will not come. Its like shooting yourself in the foot. The next tomb was “KV9 - Rameses V and Rameses VI”. The only tomb that has two sarcophagi for two brothers! It is also the most colourful. It is 115m deep and the burials took place in the late 1300’s BC. Number V ruled for 2yrs and number VI for 6yrs. This tomb cost a whole 100 local extra (AUD14) to visit - same as the entry for the standard 3 because it is so beautiful inside. Again I bribed the guard t take film and photo. “KV57 - Horemhab” was next who ruled for 28yrs and buried in 1320BC.
This tomb is 130m deep and discover in 1908. A plain tomb but with a giant outer pink granite sarcophagus. “KV8 - Merenptah” was the son of the mighty Ramses II and had big boots to fill. He ruled for 10yrs and died in 1222BC. His tomb is the deepest at 165m down. What makes him famous is that Carter claimed he was the “Exodus Pharaoh” who adopted the Jewish Moses as his own son. When Carter found the tomb in 1904, his tomb had hieroglyphs that mentioned the “tribes of Israel”. Fascinating if this is the one! The 5th and final “Kings Valley” or “KV” tomb was “KV2 - Ramses IV”, ruler of Ancient Egypt for 9yrs and buried in 1150BC at a depth of 66m. This tomb is famous because Christians later converted it to a church to pray in secret from the Ottomans. Bizarre! The Valley of the Kings was my favourite place because it embodies the mysticism, magic, oldness and dustiness of what I have always associated with ancient Egypt. It is a world away from the world. Add the extreme heat and you have an experience that is beyond this world. This is also the place of awesome hieroglyphs - death has always been a great subject to write and paint about - hieroglyphs are no different. The colour, size, expressions are all “to die for” - pardon the pun!!! It was hard to top this place. Let me also eliminate another fable of ancient Egypt - Pharaohs burying alive their staff with them. No.
(PHOTOS BELOW: The bodies of Tutenkhamun and John Mummy Golfin…)
Only one Pharaoh called “Den” in the first Dynasty killed his entire staff of 330 and buried them with him. Ever since that time, the High Priests have approved the creation of statues to represent helpers and important staff that the Pharaoh may require in the afterlife - these statues are buried with the King and will animate when he arrives in the next world. I also asked my guide if he watched the “Mummy” series of Hollywood movies and he said he did and laughed - the history is all wrong and the names are all made up! Our next site was around on the other side of the Valley of the Kings facing Luxor.
It is actually three temples but two have disintegrated into a pile of stones and foundation. The one that is intact and mostly restored by a team of German archeologists is the “Memorial Temple of Queen Hatshepsut” which looks more like a three storey museum. It is actually carved into a limestone mountain that backs up to the Valley of the Kings. It was built between 1490-1475BC. Queen Hatshepsut, also called “hot chicken soup” by my guide to remember her name, was a very significant female Pharaoh. She ruled for 22yrs and brought significant reform to the ancient way of life, specifically concerning the rights of women. The other two temples next to hers was that of her insanely jealous step-son “Tutmoses III” and “Monto Hotep III” founder of the Ancient Egyptian Middle Kingdom.
Our last stop on this day of ancient Egyptian antiquity was the “Colossi of Memnon” - these are two giants statues of a total of six (two more are in the background) that guard the now dissolved 3 gates of the “Temple of Memnon” that was built by Amenhotep III in 1220BC and destroyed by an earthquake in 1200BC. Since then a team of archaeologists have been putting the guards back together again and standing them up in their original positions.
Each statues is made of red quartzite and is 20m high and weighs 850 tons. It was now 1:30pm and we had been on the road in 40C heat for 6hrs and were near collapse. The hotel was a site for sore eyes and a hot head, ready to explode! We farewelled a magnificent guide and hit a cold shower!!! Then it was off to bed for a snooze before another 3hrs on a felucca in the Nile! Non-stop. No prisoners. No rest for the wicked and first of EGYPT! The snooze was great but very disorientating. I though it was tomorrow morning but it was till TODAY! A private guide turned up at our hotel at 4pm to take us to the felucca. Why did we need a guide? It was just a sail on the Nile for sunset! No history. No tombs. No temples. Just water! Anyway it was all included. No worries. We met our two young sailors and off we went.
The felucca is a versatile boat made entirely of wood. It has a huge triangular sail and a very big rudder. It even has an adjustable keel to stop it from toppling over. It was a cloudless clear arvo but shit hot. Once we got going the instant Nile breeze kept us cool in the shape of the giant sail. Dozens of ropes criss-crossed the deck and the boys kept taking in out of the breeze to keep us going. We went upstream towards Aswan and found an island to moor on so that I could dump myself overboard and GO FOR A HUGE OPEN WATER SWIM IN THE NILE. I swam in a channel between the island and the West Bank of Luxor. Unreal. Downstream first then upstream - that was a battle but I made it back then decided to go downstream agin to make up my distance. The felucca assailed downstream and picked me up as I instructed them.
The rest of the journey was simply divine. Once you are wet ad the sun is down, to is very comfortable aboard this ancient vessel. Despite this there is NO WAY I would have survived for 3 days and 2 nights aboard this craft with nothing to do but roast in the sun - the cruise was A VERY VERY GOOD CALL!!! At least Riza and I back-tracked about and experienced this thing, even if it was just for 3hrs. The good news was that the 7pm drop-off was at a wharf right outside our hotel - it is right next to the public and private wharf going across to the East Bank - this would come in handy when visiting the museums. Bliss. Riza and I went straight to our hotel dinner with the group and enjoyed fart-prodcing broad beans, kofta, tahini, humus and plenty of cold local beer! After this it was straight to bed given our 3:45am rise to go BALLOONING the next day over Luxor…
DAY 278 of 287, Tue 16AUG16, 0km, Room at the “Nile Valley Hotel”, West Bank, Luxor (Elev 73m) EGYPT. I forgot to turn my alarm on. Riza knocked on my door at 4:13am and the Balloon pickup was at 4:15am. Panic stations! I managed to get downstairs at 4:20am and climbed into the minivan immediately. It was dark outside so I went to sleep on the back seat. Not sure how long the drive took to the balloons but they are not far from our hotel - just close by to the Valley of the Nobles. I knew we had arrived because I could here the loud “whoosh” of the flames blowing up the ma balloons on the ground. What a sight.
Six balloons, side by side on the ground at various stages of inflation with bright glows inside them like a million candles lighting up the night sky. I noticed that there was only 8 of us in the van - four couples and that other balloons had many more people each. Our guide in the van introduced us to Captain Khaled and Engineer Hossam. They spoke to us about safety and what we needed to do on landing - the trickiest part of the trip. I then spoke to Hossam about the balloon. “Why all the questions", he asked me - I told him I was an aero graduate - “so am I” he responded with excitement. He took me by the shoulder and showed me the balloon. Our company “Sindbad” using balloons made of a special nylon called “hyperlast”. It feels like a very thick raincoat and the seems are all overlapped with multiple rows of stitching. The balloon as a tungsten steel bottom ring with multiple hooks that attach to a tungsten steel ring at the top of the basket. I could not believe it. The "basket” is actually made of very thick basket material - like a huge picnic container.
There are eight compartments in it. The centre holds the captain and first mate and the four couples (passengers) occupied the outer four compartments. There are another two compartments on either side of the crew that hold two huge cylinders each of butane gas that heats the balloon and nitrogen gas that forms the propellant to “force” the butane out at great pressure - much like the propellent in a spray can to force out the contents. The balloon stand 45m in height from he top to the bottom of the basket and 25m across at its widest point. Empty it weighs 850kg with fuel. Once 8 passengers and 2 crew get on board the total weight is around 1600kg which is the weight of most small cars. Not bad.
We were the last to take off because we had the smallest numbers. The bigger payloads go first and believe me there were baseless of Chinese in them that looked like sardines. We were lucky. Even the captain told us that 8 was the minimum number and the best for manoeuvring and taking photos. Unreal. At precisely 5am we climbed inside the basket and with a few pulls of the butane the basket started to slide and scrape and then slowly ascend. The flame above us was very hot.
Great for drying clothes or making kebabs! The ascent was very smooth. The captain explained that we were now at the mercy of the wind in terms of WHERE we would go. Today the winds was very calm but moving from the takeoff site back to Luxor so we would not be able to see the top of the Valley of the Kings. Instead we saw the Valley of the Queens, The Tombs of the Nobles, The Workers Village of Deir El-Medina, The Memorial Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, The Colossi of Memnon and all the fields between these sites and the Nile at Luxor. We got excellent vies of Luxor city and the Nile.
Sunrise was especially a treat - a flaming red rising sun. No clouds. As a matter of fact I had not seen clouds since Khartoum, two weeks ago. The sky over north SUDAN and all of EGYPT is cloudless for most of their summer. It had not rained since March here! The balloon ride was a satisfying 40min long and we put down in a field of sugar cane to cushion the contact with the earth (as the basket has no wheels) and came to rest on a local farming road. On landing you sit down in the basket facing the opposite direction of travel and hold on to a rope. This is to prevent the basket from tipping over and if it does you lay on your back instead of toppling out! We had a whole entourage of people to help us out and deflate the balloon. It makes minutes to get it back to a pile of nylon that looks like a spent parachute. The basket and deflated balloon are then placed on a flat backed open truck to ride to the company hangers.
There are now only 20 balloons in all in this area run by 5 companies. There was an accident 5yrs ago and the rules are now very strict. Each balloon must take-off and land separately and not exceed its own unique flight level. We reached 500m in height! Our van came to pick us up at the landing site ad by 6:30am we were back at the hotel with the whole day ahead of us. This terrific experience only cost 530 local (AUD76). Riza and I went straight to brekkie desperate for a coffee after waking up so early. At 7:30am the same driver as Monday, Ahmed came to the hotel to take me to the rest of the antiquities in Luxor. Our first destination out of a total of five today was the “Tombs of the Nobles”. This is a huge hill right around the corner from The Memorial Temple of Queen Hatshepsut and just before the Valley of the Queens. This hill is the burial site for very special people who worked for the pharaoh or held positions of power in the government or army. They were afforded the full rights of mummification and a colourful tomb hewn into the hill of limestone by the same works who dug out the tombs of the Kings and Queens. There are 465 noble tombs here but only 17 can be visited. I visited five. The first tomb was that of a Governor of Thebes from 1479-1401BC called “TT100 - Rekhmire”. (PHOTO BELOW: The Tombs of the Nobles).
It is a shallow tomb compared to the rest with smaller chambers but decorated nevertheless in coloured hieroglyphs and probably the best preserved of the tombs I saw. “TT99 - Sennhoffer” was just next door and this one was the most colourful of all five that I visited. Sennhofer was the overseer of the garden of Amun who lived in the 13th Century BC. “TT55 - Ramose” is in a different area, much lower down than the first two and was also a governor of Thebes but from 1390-1334BC.
His tomb was unfinished because he probably died prematurely. “TT56 - Userhat” was a Royal Scribe and Counter of Bread from 1427-1400BC. “Bread” was the closest thing to money at the time and was handed out to all the workers of the King - this makes this guy an ancient “bean counter’!!! I noticed from this tomb that all the chambers that held the sarcophagus were decorated with the same hieroglyphs of Anubis protecting the mummy. Isis overseeing the weighing of the heart to decide heaven or hell and the boat journey to the final destination. The mummy is always there with feet together and with this wife behind him if married. This tomb was especialy clear on all these points. The last tomb “TT57 - Khaemhet” was also that of a royal scribe and overseer of the granaries from 1390-1352BC. This guy had 8 large sitting statues and many portraits of himself and his wife which looked like black Africans - dark skin and tight curly black hair. I think this guy was a sculptor given the number of statues in his tomb.
Very close by is the famous “Workmen’s Village & Tombs of Deir El-Medina”. This is where all the workers lived that dug out all of the tombs in the area - hundreds of them over many hundreds of years. They were not slaves and were not paid but their houses and food and drink were provided by the King. You can see only the foundations of all the highly knit homes that once formed this village of about 85 families. The homes are all identical with four main rooms: living, sleeping, eating and cooking averaging 70 square meters. I also visited two tombs: Inherkha, the chief of workers and his successor Sennutem. These tombs were much smaller and plainer than the nobles but still decorated with hieroglyphs. The Valley of the Queens is just a little further down and it is the resting place of all the wives and non-succession children of the Pharaohs. There are 72 tombs here (more than the 64 of the Kings) but only 3 can be visited. The tomb of the famous “Neferteri”, wife of Ramses II is being restored and rumour has it that it will cost 1,000 local (AUD143) to visit it! (PHOTO BELOW: The Workmen’s Village & Tombs of Deir El-Medina).
They say it is the most striking and beautiful of all tombs in EGYPT. The landscape here is the same as the Valley of the Kings - dry, dusty, rocky, remote and very hot. The tombs are arranged and signposted in much the same way as the Kings. First off the rank was “QV44 - Prince Kha Em Waset”, the son of Ramses III who died young. He is depicted a s a small boy in the tomb but there is no info on exactly how old he was when he died and the cause of his death. (PHOTO BELOW: Valley of the Queens).
He must have been a beloved so of his pharaoh dad because his chamber is bigger than his mother’s and sister’s. The second tomb I visited was “QV52 - Queen Titi”, the wife of Ramses III. This tomb is also quite colourful and worth visiting and has several chambers for maybe other children. “QV55 - Amen Khopshef” was another son of Ramses III who died young.
In this tomb he is also depicted with his brother and mother and buried alone. Strange. Basically I had seen only the favourites of Ramses III - all the others are not open to tourists. “The Medinat Sabu” or “Memorial Temple of Ramses III” has the best carved and relief hieroglyphs of any place in Luxor - so deeply cut into the walls and pillars that you cane see them from outer space! only joking. They are so deep that you can put your compact camera or other small object in the cavities (as one of my photos show!!!). It is a big place with huge columns and ceilings all very well preserved and decorated. One wall is very interesting. It shows the army of Ramses III cutting the hands of his killed enemies to establish a body count. When the pharaoh found out that his men were cutting both hands and therefore doubled the real number he ordered that instead of hands that the “willies” of the fallen be cut for a more accurate measure - there is a big pile of willies in the same relief - sadly it was not clear enough for a photo but a strange story indeed.
From here it was back to the hotel for a well-deserved shower and kip. I spent the rest of the afternoon crating this titanic post of antiquities! Dinner was a simple affair and because I did not get any chicken I had to go out and buy some afterwards. Sad. I made the best of an incomplete meal by watching a James Bond film and really enjoyed it. Back to the good old days of Roberto...
DAY 279 of 287, Wed 17AUG16, 0km, Room at the “Nile Valley Hotel”, West Bank, Luxor (Elev 73m, Run3) EGYPT. It was a tough run this morning because of all the flame I was coughing up. Legs were fine. The route was nice too. The Valley of the Kings in the distance on the left and the Nile farmland on the right. Passed through many small farming communities.
After my return and a shower I was off to visit the only two museums worth seeing in town: The Luxor Museum and The Mummification Museum. Lucky for me our hotel is right next door to the public ferry which courses the Nile to the East Bank were the museums are located every 15min and for a princely sum of AUD0.15. I got to the museum right on opening time at 9am. It is set out like an art gallery. Very spiffy with statues, coins, jewellery, pots from most of the Luxor temples and even two mummies in glass cases! Most pieces are from the 14th Century BC and the oldest carving is from 2100BC. The mummies I saw were even better preserved than Tutankhamun. The first was Ahmose, the son of Tutmosis III (the most successful famous warrior pharaoh) and the second was the Pharaoh Ramses I.
Both incredible and over 3,000yrs old! The second museum of Mummification is a gimmick. Not really worth it. One room with the basics of mummification and one mummy on display - “Maseharti” a high priest and army general to Ramses III. He looked the most preserved but I could not take a photo since there was a bloody guard right next to him - but he actually had ears, nose and even hair in tact and still over 3,000yrs old. The whole mummification process typically takes 70 days. The body is washed, belly slit and all organs removed except the heart. The brain is removed from the nostrils using a wire implement and actually discarded because it is too watery to dry out and preserve. The remaining organs are placed in four clay jars with faces on them: baboon gets the lungs, jackal gets the stomach, falcon gets the intestines and the human face gets the liver. A dead “scarab” or dung beetle is then placed next to the heart because it represents goodness and life. You see these scarabs in the hieroglyphs.
The body is then filled with saw dust and dirt and wrapped in linen strips soaked in tree resin which then hardens and seals. Depending on the nobility the mummy with death mask attached to the face may be placed in up to four consecutive chambers or coffins, each one decorated. Anubis is the god of mummification and overseas the process and protects the body before the heart is weighed against a feather in fort of Osiris - the female god of the underworld. If lighter the souls sails to paradise - if heavier it sails to hell. Isis is also a protector of the souls against evil spirits. All this is depicted in the chamber containing the sarcophagus. The museum also had many mummified animals: ram, baboon, ibis, crocodile, duck, goose, fish and cat. Both museums were only a short walk from the ferry and it took less than 30min to walk and ferry back to the hotel. I arrived at near noon and continued with this post all afternoon. By 5pm I was buggered and ready for wine, olives and cheese which took me to dinner’s doorstep. Tonight’s dinner saw us farewell “the Icelanders” who caught the overnight train to Cairo later that evening. Cairo was getting so much closer and not soon enough. I was ready to farewell Africa but not before discovering the antiquities of Cairo...
PS: A LITTLE ABOUT EGYPT:
EGYPT (Pop 90m) is Africa’s second most populated country behind NIGERIA. Ancient Egypt comprised three key Kingdoms or periods: Old, Middle and New. The Old (2670-2150BC) is responsible for most of the Pyramids. The capital was “Memphis” and the key architect was “Imothep” originally commissioned by Pharaoh Zoser. The Middle (2056-1650BC) had its capital at Luxor or Thebes as it was known back then. The New (1550-1076BC) was the richest in culture and development and saw the rise of Ramses. After 1184BC the New Kingdom broke apart into much smaller non-communicative pieces. Alexander The Great actually brought them together again in the 4th Century. Alexander and descendants of his General Ptolemy ruled until the Romans came in 31BC. In 640AD, the Arabs bought the Muslim Faith and Cairo was founded in 969AD. The country grew prosperous during this time until the Ottoman Turks invaded in the 16th Century. The French then took over under Napolean in the 19th Century and finally the English has their turn during WWI. A revolution took place in 1952 and Gamal Abdel Nasser became Egypt’s first President in 1956. Anwar Sadat was the next President from 1970 until his assassination in 1981.
Hosni Mubarak then took over of the next 30yrs until his forced resignation in 2011. During this time there was a lot of violence against tourists and the economy suffered. 90% of the population is Muslim. The rest are Coptic Orthodox. EGYPT is almost entirely desert save for the Nile and its delta and the coast along the Red Sea. Cairo smog has now reached epidemic proportions. Egyptian food is a mix of Arab and European and centres around minced beef, lamb and goat, broad beans, tabouli, chick peas and lentils.
PPS: INTERESTING FACT ON AFRICA:
The Nile River has a total of 1,048 islands in its flow but only 301 of these are inhabited.
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