Egypt was full of charming surprises. Situations that, at first, seemed sketchy and perhaps a little dangerous, kept turning out to be quite the opposite, as you will see.
It started as soon as we entered the Cairo International Airport. Our flight arrived late due to a delayed departure from Morocco and we were definitely not going to make our connecting flight to Luxor, which was scheduled to leave in about ten minutes and we still had to get our visas. Fortunately, we passed an information desk with some harassed-looking attendants -- apparently we were not the only ones with missed connections. However, a young man listened to our story, told us how to get our visas (which was a bit convoluted: pay at one desk then take your receipt to another desk to get the visa), and assured us that he would get us on a later flight to Luxor, hopefully in about an hour. He told us where to wait for him and he would keep us informed. Given the apparent confusion and general uproar of people shouting instructions and making urgent calls, we were not all that hopeful. But, we got our visas, then mustered our patience to wait and see. Contrary to our very low expectations, he returned in about half an hour to let us know that we had two seats on a flight coming from Spain going on to Luxor that evening. He made sure that we had our visas properly pasted into our passports and told us he would be back when the plane landed. We were concerned about our luggage being transferred to the same plane but he assured us that that too would be looked after. Again, we were not too hopeful, but we had emergency supplies with us just in case. A little later, our guardian angel returned and took us to a special security line that was very short and we were rushed through and straight to the waiting plane. Whew! We didn’t have to spend a night in the airport after all!
Luxor
Upon arrival at the Luxor airport, we were surprised and amazed to find that our luggage had indeed arrived with us. We also found our driver, Mohammed (the name turned out to be as popular in Egypt as it had been in Morocco), waiting to take us to our lodging. However, when we saw his vehicle, we again had some misgivings. It looked like a 1965 Peugeot station wagon that had been driven on dusty, pot-holed roads its entire life, which is probably exactly what it was. No seat belts, no a/c, but it got us to our place of rest. However, when we got to our place of rest, we again had some misgivings (are you starting to get the idea?). He drove into a dirt driveway and showed us to our room up an outside stairway. There was a threadbare, or barely there, welcome mat at the bottom of the steps, a rickety banister that wobbled when I grabbed it, and everything felt dusty. Oh dear, what had I gotten us into?
I had purposely booked a place that was “family-run” and sounded local and charming in the reviews. Well, it was late and we would see how things looked in the morning. We were just grateful that the a/c worked and the bed was comfortable and thoroughly protected by a mosquito net.
Over the next few days, despite our initial misgivings, we grew to love our slightly dilapidated guesthouse on the West Bank of the Nile near the entrance to the Valley of the Kings. It was not only family-run, it was a family compound and a village center in many ways that we were gradually allowed to see as they got used to us. Our driver, Mohammed, was part of the family and was available to transport us most of the time. Our hosts also arranged for a local guide to show us the ancient tombs and local sights, yet another Mohammed! With his expert guidance, we made the most of our limited time and learned a great deal. He helped us choose some of the well-known tombs to go into and took us to lesser known sites that were perhaps even more interesting.
Our first morning was spent in the Valley of the Kings.
Mohammed bought us tickets that would give us admission to three different tombs. He also made sure we purchased a seperate ticket that would allow us to take photos inside the tombs. The guides are not allowed to go in the tombs with the tourists, so Mohammed gave us a little history lesson at the entrance to each one and told us some points of interest to look for while inside. Leaving the guides outside contributes to an atmosphere of hushed awe inside, which we appreciated. The three tombs we visited were the Sons of Ramses II, Ramses IV, and Rameses IX. (Ramses was a very common name for pharaohs). I am not going to go into a lot of detail on the history of these ancient Egyptian rulers as you can find it all online. But, I do hope that these photos help to give you a sense of the awe inspiring grandeur and beauty that these people created thousands of years ago -- way before Machu Picchu or the buddhas of Thailand or the headstones on Rapa Nui.
The Sons of Ramses II slideshow (click arrow on the right side of photo to advance)
Ramses IV slideshow (click arrow on right side of photo to advance)
Ramses II slideshow (click arrow on the right side of the photo to advance)
That afternoon, we visited the Valley of the Queens and the magnificent Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. With a backdrop of imposing cliffs behind it, the temple looks out over the plains to the Nile and beyond.
It was built with both architectural precision and astronomical alignment. In the past, it was surrounded by beautiful gardens with exotic plants but now the hills are dry and bare. Still, it has a stark beauty.
We returned to our lodgings in time to relax on our balcony/porch in the late afternoon before dinner.
Dinner was quite the feast -- delicious stewed duck with many trimmings. There was much more than we could eat but we tried hard.
The next morning, the Mohammeds took us to the Deir el-Medina, the site of an ancient village where the artisans who worked on the pharaohs’ tombs lived. It is within walking distance, but not within sight, of the Valley of the Kings.
The foundations of some sixty houses show how the town was laid out.
An interesting fact: This is probably the first place in history where there was a labor strike for better working conditions. In about 1170 BCE, the workers walked off the job to protest lack of food supplies to the village.
Our guide was able to show us the town’s temple and explain the imagery and some of the hieroglyphs.
The overseers of the workmen, who were quite wealthy, hired the best of the artisans to decorate their own modest tombs that were dug into the hills above the town. Unfortunately, we were not able to take photos inside these well preserved tombs. They depicted many detailed scenes of everyday life at the time, which we found to be more interesting, if less grand, than the tombs of the royalty that repeatedly depicted the Egyptian gods and scenes from their mythology. If you go to Luxor, we definitely recommend a trip to this site. Not only was it fascinating, we had it all to ourselves.
That afternoon, Mohammed (our guide), had arranged to take us on a boat ride up the Nile to Banana Island. We had no idea what to expect but, when it was offered to us, it sounded like a refreshing change from the dry, sandy hills and hot, stuffy tombs. We boarded a colorful little sailboat but there wasn’t enough wind to push us against the current, so our captain hitched a ride from a motorized ferry boat with a long tow rope. Soon another sailboat hitched on, then another, and another. Eventually, we had a ‘train’ of five sailboats being towed up the river. It seemed to be a common occurrence as all the boatmen were quite adept at the procedure.
On the “island”, which is probably not an island, we walked through a banana plantation and Mohammed peeled back the petals of the alien looking purple banana flower to show us the baby bananas developing in layers underneath.
Goats roamed among the banana trees.
We also saw an interesting old water wheel that must have been used for irrigation at one time.
That was the extent of the interesting part of the visit. The rest was rather sad. There was a sort of “zoo” with monkeys, some birds, and two crocodiles in small, filthy enclosures. It was too depressing to even take pictures. I have since learned that there used to be a lovely, eccentric place called Banana Island on the east bank that was a great place to visit but somehow, this place took over the name. Don’t bother visiting.
We had some refreshing fruit in the cafe that helped get rid of the bitter taste of seeing those poor animals before returning to our guesthouse.
That night, we tried the duck dinner again to make sure it was as good as we remembered.
In the morning, Mohammed (our driver), took us across the river to the main city of Luxor to visit an ATM and find a pharmacy. What a dusty, busy, chaotic place. We were glad to return to our slightly dilapidated, peaceful, friendly guesthouse on the west bank.
It was still early, so we decided to walk down the street to take a look at the Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project.
To get there, we first walked through an area that appeared to be a mud brick factory, probably to create bricks for the restoration using the traditional methods.
The project itself was surrounded by a protective wall that was low enough we could still get a view of the site over top of it. We got some pictures from a distance, but then a guard came over and offered to take some close ups for us. Of course, he expected a good tip for his services.
When the restoration is complete, this will be a spectacular site and I hope that we can return some day to see it. You can learn more about it from this report written by the head conservators on the project.
At this point, there was quite a sandstorm blowing up so we decided to return to our lodgings. These sandstorms blow frequently and are why everything always feels dusty here all the time.
Returning to the guest house, we noticed clay discs with bread dough rising on them.
Of course, we expressed interest and the elderly gentleman we had been greeting whenever we passed him as he sat in the garden, offered to show us where the bread was baked. He took us down a short path to where a woman was tending some loaves in a beehive type of oven. The inside was large and could hold many loaves at once. Given the size and location, we assumed that it was a community oven similar to what we had seen in Morocco. Notice the little pocket for matches to the right of the opening and the holes near the top that can be plugged with rocks or opened for ventilation.
This is the fresh bread we had with every meal that came from that oven.
After we got a good whiff of the bread baking in the oven, the elderly gentleman pointed around the corner to show us where a group of children were seated on the floor of a large room being instructed by a teacher -- the village school. However, we didn’t take photos as it seemed inappropriate. We had also noticed on several occasions that a number of men gathered to perform their prayers in the garden of the guesthouse and that the elderly gentleman seemed to be their leader. This is when we realized that the place we were staying served as a village center in many ways. Our guest house was called Nour el Gourna: nour meaning light or illumination and Gourna being the name of the village.
Just across the road from our guest house there were a number of abandoned houses on the hill behind a retaining wall. We learned that they used to be part of the village of Gourna (or Qurna or Kurna or several other spellings) but the residents were relocated to new housing to prevent them looting the tombs buried in the hill beneath them and to allow for future excavation of the tombs.
That evening, we couldn’t resist one more duck feast -- it was that good.
In the morning we said goodbye to the shaded garden of Nour el Gourna and headed off for six days on the Nile. Look closely and you will see someone in the doorway waving goodbye to us.
We were picked up in a van and driven to Esna, about 30 miles from Luxor where we would board our dahabiya for our trip up the Nile to Aswan.
Traveling Up the Nile
Confession time: Another mystery series is responsible for this part of the trip. (If you have read the other blog posts, you’ll know about some of the other books that played a part in our trip planning.) This time, it was the Elizabeth Peters series about Amelia Peabody and Radcliffe Emerson, fictional Egyptologists who excavate tombs and solve mysteries in the desert in the early part of the 20th century. I particularly loved the description of traveling up the Nile on a dahabiya, a traditional riverboat with sails. It sounded so romantic and exotic.
Here is an old photo of a dahabiya.
There are dozens of motorized cruise ships that will take you from Luxor to Aswan on the Nile but only one outfit that I found that actually uses dahabiyas -- Nour el Nil. They reintroduced the dahabiya to the river by building new ones. We traveled in a convoy of four boats. Our boat was their first and smallest of the fleet and carried sixteen passengers.
We were taken on board and shown to our cozy cabin with an ensuite bathroom. There was a refreshing fruit drink waiting for us.
There was a spacious upper deck where we could hang out and watch the scenery and where we would eat our meals family style.
However, before setting sail, we were taken for a walk through town to visit the Temple of Khnum, the ram-headed creator god who fashioned humankind on his potter’s wheel. It was built about a century BCE, then abandoned during the Roman period, gradually covered by the desert sand and debris and eventually by the town of Esna. It is now almost thirty feet below street level so we approached it from above.
Inside, restoration work was ongoing but we were able to get a good look at some massive columns covered in hieroglyphs.
Through a screened window at the back of the temple we could watch a crew of men excavating and passing sacks of dirt up the hill by hand like a fire brigade.
Back on the dahabiya, we watched as the boat was towed away from shore and we began the journey to Aswan. As we got out into the wind, the dahabiyas started to unfurl their sails.
In the afternoon, we stopped and took a walk around an agricultural area with green fields and an interesting irrigation system.
Eventually, we walked through a little cluster of houses and were welcomed into the courtyard of one of the homes where we saw another large outdoor oven and played with ducklings. The family had a little reception ready for us with refreshments and proudly let us peek into their house, which was apparently built by an archeologist years before -- it was quite European in style.
That evening, we had the first of many delicious meals on board as we got to know our shipmates.
While we ate breakfast the next morning, the crew moved the boat upriver to a new location and we again disembarked for a walk, this time to see the temple of Nekhbet, the white vulture goddess and protector of upper Egypt. To get there, we walked past a massive mud brick wall, built in the 4th century BC, that is thought to have protected the city of El Kab, once the capital of Upper Egypt, from destruction by the floodwaters of the Nile. Amazing that so much of the wall is still intact.
Across the modern railway tracks and the highway to Cairo, in the hills above the ancient town, is the necropolis of Nekhbet.
Here we met Ahmed, an Egyptian scholar who would be our guide for several days as we explored the historical sites along the Nile. He interpreted the images and symbols for us in a very understandable manner.
Looking back from the necropolis, we could see the protective wall extending in both directions and the river beyond.
Back on board, we enjoyed a delicious lunch as the boat sailed on. In the afternoon, Ahmed met us again at Edfu, waving to us from shore as the boat docked. Here we were going to visit a Greco-Roman temple dedicated to the god Horus.
Ahmed and the crew organized all of us from the four boats into horse-drawn carriages for a ride through the city to the temple. With more than thirty carriages milling around, you can imagine it was a bit confusing. But, they were obviously experienced at sorting out such chaos and soon had us loaded and on our way.
It was a charming way to see the town on the way.
Even after all the tombs and temples we had seen, this one was truly impressive. The walls are massive and the images are well preserved,
Ahmed told us stories about how the priests used rituals (and sometimes tricks) to impress the common folk and extract food and gifts from them, which were intended for the gods, of course.
In the courtyard, before the front gates, the people would gather for ceremonial occasions. The massive gates are 36 m, or almost 100 ft tall. The giant slots in the walls on either side held flags on tall standards. Inside the walls are stairs and small rooms with slots looking out over the courtyard. It was easy to imagine the impression that such grandeur and pomp would have on the crowd.
Trot, trot, trot back to the boat and move on down the river.
The next day, the wind had died so the sails did us no good and we were towed by a tug boat. There were no temples or ruins this day so we watched the scenery drift by.
In the afternoon, we stopped at a grassy bank where we could get out for a short walk.
There was also a flock of rather tame ducks that one of the crew went out to feed.
Mysteriously, we had duck for dinner that night below the floodlit temple of Gibel Silsileh.
After dinner, as we were all getting drowsy and thinking about bed, we heard drumming and tambourines coming up from below. The crew arrived with jingling scarves for us to don and got everyone up shaking our hips to the delightful music. I am not sure why the video starts out sideways but it does straighten out.
After that excitement and a good sleep, we again met Ahmed in the morning to explore the shrines and quarries on the bank. Gebel Silsileh is at the point where the Nile is at its narrowest and the sandstone cliffs crowd it on either bank. Here are the sandstone quarries where ancient workmen carved out huge blocks for many of the major tombs and loaded them on barges for transportation up or down the river. Ahmed showed us how they would make cavities in the rock and insert wooden pegs, which would then be soaked with water. When the water froze in the cold nights, the wood would expand and split the rock. Hard to imagine the persistence it must have taken. The quarry itself was like a shrine to the ingenuity and hard work of those long ago laborers with the raw beauty of the hewn rock glowing in the desert sun.
There was a small shrine at the site, which we were able to enter through a narrow fissure created by a past earthquake that split the wall in the middle of a seated statue.