Egypt trip journal
My plans for a trip to Egypt were finally realized in 2012.
Back in 2010, I selected Turkey over Egypt because an earthquake would destroy
Istanbul soon, or so said some TV show. Bad choice – the Egyptian revolution
happened, and it wasn’t until 2012 that I felt that things had settled down.
My main concern was political stability, some protests
somewhere could force me to change my itinerary and skip some sites.
As it turned out, it wasn’t such a bad decision. As is
almost always the case, the western media blows bad news completely out of
proportion. As a result, tourism in Egypt is way down. We had the place to
ourselves practically! No waiting in long disneyesque queues, unlimited time
inside the sites, a chance to visit some closed tombs, and upgrades in most
hotels.
I used a past contact and Tripadvisor reviews to select a
local tour agency. This agency arranged the complete custom itinerary inside
Egypt. From the arrivals gate at Cairo airport until our departure, we were at
all times accompanied and taken care of by the agency’s personnel. At our
request, our guides even joined us for meals. I am reading Taleb’s Antifragile
and I realize that this style of coddled-cocoon travel is the very opposite of
what he advocates, but this was our first exploratory trip to see the most in a
short time – the next trip or trips will be more targeted and independent.
Travelling with a guide is very useful. Tourism is a
significant part of Egypt’s economy, and it has matured into an organized
structured institution. The tourist industry has ensconced itself as an
indispensable middleman - most locals do not speak English, nor is it easy to
get around on your own as an outsider. Consider that the best museum of
Egyptian antiquities is so poorly organized that unless you go with a guide or
spend hours doing your homework, you may as well stay home!
The culture too is different enough to be a bit
intimidating. Add to that, the foreigner will be constantly and aggressively
hustled by vendors and scam artists at all the popular tourist sites. If you
are not careful and firm, you will waste a lot of time at best, and at worst,
get mugged.
To prepare for our trip I read a few guide books, and more
detailed books on Cairo, Thebes, and Egyptian history. I also studied a large
coffee-table book on the Egyptian museum. I spent some time researching Nile
cruise boats since they seemed to vary widely in quality. We needed no special
preparation for our health since we would be visiting in winter when the
climate is moderate.
As our trip date drew near, I watched the political
situation more closely. We had a few anxious moments when protesters breached
the walls of the US embassy after 9/11. For whatever politic reasons, Morsi
did not react quickly and firmly, but the US State Dept. yelled at him publicly
and things cooled down without the State department issuing any travel
advisories.
A couple of weeks before our trip, Morsi did a power grab,
the young and the reformers reacted, and there were some violent and noisy
protests. Our travel agency moved us from the downtown Shepheard hotel to Le
Meridien in Giza. Our agent told us that the Egyptian museum would be iffy, as
it is located right off of Tahrir square.
We arrived in Cairo after a long uneventful trip via
Munich. Munich airport operates with typical Teutonic efficiency though it is
in Bavaria, and is not as busy as Frankfurt.
As we approached Cairo, we passed over a section of the city
filled with luxury villas with huge private pools. Middle eastern architecture
is big on ornate arches and domed roofs. The domes have a reason – they are
better at keeping the interior cool. The villas were surrounded by barren
sandy ground and at first it seemed odd to see large blue swimming
pools – can these people really afford to waste precious water like this? But
over time I realized that all of Egypt is centered on the Nile. The strip of
land a few miles wide around the river holds most of Egypt’s population,
civilization, and except for oil and some tourism, most of its economy.
Traffic around Cairo is horrible. They drive worse than in
India. We took the ring road around Cairo to Giza. Lane markers are always
ignored, cars and vans weave through the traffic stream, big vehicles tailgate
the smaller ones mercilessly, and crossing intersections is a game of chicken.
Security at tourist sites is laughable. Every site had a
metal detector that clamoured loudly when I passed through, and nobody ever
batted an eyelid. The only place they took it seriously was at the luxury
hotels where they insisted on scanning my backpack every single time. And they
had a dog, handsome German Shepherd, check our van for explosives.
Pyramids
As in tropical zones, it gets dark pretty fast, in less than
30 minutes, and it was dark by the time we checked into our hotel. Early next
morning, we drew the curtains of our hotel window…. nothing had prepared me for
the sight that greeted us.
I have seen photos of the pyramids, I have seen tall
and huge buildings and man-made structures, but this was much bigger and
incomprehensible than what I had imagined - these huge triangles dominating the
view!. It is hard to imagine a man building something so massive today, it is
even more humbling that these were built 4600 years ago, from a time of which
we barely understand how they engineered this – it’s enough to make one believe
von Däniken. According to Napoleon’s
geeks, the three pyramids together contain enough stone to build a 30cm x 3m
wall around all of France!
After that, the visit to pyramids was almost anticlimactic.
As you get close, the sheer size is overwhelming, but up close, the size and
volume is obscured by the close perspective. All three pyramids have lost
their dressed limestone facing, and up close they look like a stacked jumble of
blocks but the top of the Khafre pyramid still retains its facing, and studying
it closely, try to imagine the pyramids with smooth white faces gleaming in the
sun, standing alone on the barren plateau. Add to it the electrum plated pyramidion
at the tip! It would be seen for miles up and down the Nile with nothing to detract
from their perfect geometry! (on smog free days). And Cairo and Giza have a
lot of smog pollution from traffic, like any big city in India.
Even though it was high tourist season, we could visit the
burial chamber of the Khufu pyramid. There is a short rising shaft where you
have to walk in a stoop, followed by a long passageway with corbeilled walls
and a very high ceiling and which leads to the burial chamber containing an
empty granite sarcophagus. At other times, I can imagine a long line of
tourists waiting to get in, a few at a time.
After Khufu, we visited the Solar Boat museum. This museum
is built in place over one of the pits in which the boats were buried. The
boats were discovered disassembled and buried in the pits. One was restored
and is now on display fully assembled. It is amazing to see the wood and
ropes, 4000 years old, still surviving in such a good condition. Popular
theory has it that the boats were never used.
The pyramid of Khafre, the son of Khufu, is slightly
shorter, but stands on higher ground and hence easily appears to be the bigger
of the two; according to our guide, a clever trick only Egyptians are capable
of. We also made a short stop at the Menkaure pyramid. This pyramid is much
shorter but differs in that it was intended to be faced in granite. Only a few
courses of undressed granite blocks were completed, before they gave up;
probably because the pharaoh died.
The Sphinx when it was discovered in modern times was buried
up to its neck in sand. The area around it is now excavated but visitors are
not allowed up to the edge of the pit; the sphinx and the ‘Dream stelae’ of
Thutmose IV between its paws are out of bounds.
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| pyramid of Amenmehath III |
The funerary temple of Djoser is surrounded by many
interesting tombs and some small pyramids. We visited several tombs down the
Causeway of Unas. Photography is not allowed in the tombs to minimize flash
damage. The ban is also necessary to maintain the livelihood of purveyors of
picture postcards, colourful expensive books, of the guides and the employees
of the Antiquities department who guard the tombs. The place being deserted,
we were allowed access to a couple of closed tombs, and take photos to our
heart’s content. All my photos are taken without flash, so I didn’t feel bad
about helping the local economy in exchange for some excellent photo-op.
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| tomb of Irukaptah |
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| tomb of Ni-ankh- Khnum -Hotep |
On another day, we visited Dahshur. The Bent and the Red pyramids are visible from Saqqara on a clear day. Most of the
important pyramids are located at Giza, Saqqara, Dahshur, and Abusir. So we
did get to see most of the pyramids. The Bent pyramid, is, well, bent.
Halfway up, its angle slants inward by about 11 degrees. It is a monument to
man’s willingness to swallow one’s pride and accept a blunder. Halfway up,
apparently, they realized that the pyramid would be too tall to be stable, and
changes course, so to speak. The pyramid retains most of its white limestone
extremely smooth facing.
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| Red pyramid |
Recently I learned that a pyramidion is displayed to the
east side of the Red pyramid, sadly though we were not aware of it when we
visited.
Getting back to our first day in Egypt, we rounded out the
day by visiting an atelier selling papyri, and a visit to the open air museum in Memphis. Merchants in Egypt are expert hagglers though their defenses
crumble a fair bit when confronted by Indians. Still, the salesman in the
store managed to skillfully separate me from the protective clutches of the
spouse, and me from a sizeable chunk of my wallet.
Memphis boasts a colossal statue of Ramses II. Colossal is
redundant when talking of Ramses II, all his statues are
colossal, starting with Abu Simbel. The pharaoh’s names are etched in several
places on the statue – talk of insecurity! In the garden behind the museum,
are exhibited several interesting artefacts.
Cairo
The second day in Egypt was spent visiting the sites of
Cairo. On the last day we spent half the day visiting the rest of the sights
we had missed on the first day. We also spent one and half day at the Egyptian
museum.
Now, Cairo is a modern densely populated megalopolis, and as
such it is hard to imagine that it has a rich and varied past, or if it does,
you don’t expect to see much of it. You would be wrong. Cairo and its
environs go a long way back.
Though Cairo itself did not exist as a city during the
dynastic periods, nearby Memphis and Heliopolis were significant pharaonic
cities.
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| Fustat |
It has been renovated several times and no longer retains any of the original structure, but it was worth listening to our guide's stories about the period.
Coptic Cairo’s history goes back to the Greek times, and its
story is the story of the origins of Christianity, the persecution of its
adherents under the Romans, and its firm establishment under Constantine.
Egypt has almost as much a rich Christian heritage as Palestine. Christian
architecture in Egypt had a not insignificant influence on mosque architecture.
According to our guide, the mihrab was designed by Coptic Christian priests and
is based on the church niche.
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| Hanging Church |
The Coptic quarter is a maze of narrow alleys. In one small
area are a Coptic church, a Greek orthodox church, an old mosque, a synagogue.
In the same area is the Babylon fortress which has been excavated and appears
to be in a very good condition. It was built by the Persians when they
occupied Egypt, improved by the Romans when they ruled until it finally fell to
ibn Al A’s in the 7th century.
The Coptic museum has a large collection of Coptic Christian
artefacts. The highlight here was one of the original Nag Hammadi codices.
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| Citadel |
We visited the citadel, but did not make the time to explore
it to any extent. In fact, we only visited the Alabaster mosque in the Citadel
grounds. We missed out on all the bulwarks and other fortifications in the
fort. The grounds also host the Egyptian military museum, which besides
historic artefacts, also displays a MiG-21. Oh well… next time.
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| Alabaster mosque |
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| tomb of Shah of Iran |
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| ibn Tulun |
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| el Azhar |
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| el Hakim |
The former has been renovated several times and does not retain much of its original work. Its courtyard has a beautiful polished tiled floor.
The el Aqmar is more of a working mosque. It has an
interesting tympanum over the entrance. The lintel is constructed of
interlocking blocks. This latter feature, though, is by no means unique to
this mosque. The name of Ali appears prominently almost alongside that of the
Prophet Mohammed, something that even our guide found mildly ridiculous (?),
objectionable(?) ; hard to tell, but she did get animated when she commented on
it, even though she was quite liberal in her view on other matters.
The Mamluks ruled Cairo until power was ceded to the
Ottomans. They were responsible for stopping the advance of the Mongols,
defeating Hulegu Khan at Ain Ghalut (Ain Jalut) in Gallilee. Ain Ghalut (eye
of Goliath) is where at another time David, the future king of the Isra’elis took
out Goliath’s eye with a simple catapult. David was a simple shepherd boy
accompanying the army of Sa’ul and Goliath was a giant Philistine soldier -
talk of a ten rupee Jezail… Ain Ghalut is also close to Tel Megiddo where
Thutmose III defeated the Canaanites about three millennia before (see The
Source, by James Michener).
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| el Ghouri wekalet |
Of these, the Mu’ayyad Shaykh mosque is very fascinating.
It is built against the Bab Zuwayla gate which guards the southern entrance to
old Cairo. The intricately decorated minarets of the mosque are built on top
of the gate towers. As was common, the ground level of the mosque is given
over to shops and businesses, whose rent helped to maintain the mosque; the
mosque itself is situated above it. The doors of the main entrance are ‘taken’
from the Sultan Hassan mosque. The doors are particularly beautiful, being
covered with intricately worked bronze. Inside, there is a beautiful wooden
door with ivory and ebony inlay. Some of the ceilings in the halls surrounding
the courtyard have intricate carving, ivory inlay and gold leaf work. We also
saw a more presence of turquoise in the ceramic decorations. The roof
balustrade is surprisingly reminiscent of the fleur-de-lis, surprising because
the mamluks can hardly be considered friends with the crusaders –copyright laws
did not perhaps, exist back then. |
| minaret on Bab Zuwayla |
The ibn Qalawun mosque has a minaret with intricate designs
on it marble facing. Through poor planning and a misunderstanding, we did
not visit the interior – it is, according to our guide, not to be missed. We
walked past the Khanqah of el Ghuri. They hold daily dervish shows here which
we missed; this is the third time in our travels that we have missed the
opportunity to watch genuine dervish action as opposed to the entertainment-oriented
variants that are common in dinner shows on the Nile cruise boats.
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| a sabil |
We spent a morning at the Egyptian museum with our guide and
a full day on our own in the museum. The museum has one of the best
collections of Egyptian antiquities in the world. It is the best because it is
huge, and has some real jewels, but the Rosetta stone is not here.
Unfortunately, for such a magnificent collection, the museum exhibits are
labelled inconsistently, and very often, not at all. Many exhibits are
displayed in poor light, some inaccessibly high up on the wall. For the most
part though, the exhibits are organized thematically. The place is more
suitable for ‘connected’ researchers than the casual and amateur student of
Egypt. There is a small book-stall in the museum with a miserable collection
of souvenir-grade books – no guide book, no audio-guided tour, no nothing.
Guides abound, and one can see how they benefit from this state of affairs. Two
collections are very well displayed – Tutankhamun’s funerary collection and the
jewelry excavated at Tanis. This is where most of the tourists flock, there is
not enough time to see anything else in a typical guided tour.
Except for the royal mummies exhibit, we made it a point to
visit all the halls in the museum. It was obvious to us early on that we could
only hope to do a general survey of the exhibits, spotting notable items if we
got lucky. The sheer size of the museum precludes spending too much time
loitering in any one hall. There are few good comprehensive books to help you
prepare for a more targeted programme. Zahi Hawass has an excellent coffee
table book which highlights, maybe, the top 2% of the collection, and we did
spend some time on those. These include the palette of Narmer, the statue of
Khafre, the funerary face mask, coffins, and throne of Tutankhamun, and the
replica of the Rosetta stone.
Photography is not permitted in the museum, as with all
museums. This is good and bad, good because you focus on actually studying the
exhibits instead of trying to record every item, bad because you can’t go back
and pore over the ones that caught your fancy.
The museum has a couple of halls devoted to prehistoric
artefacts from the Naqada, Badarian, and earlier cultures. A few halls are devoted to a
remarkable collection of well-preserved papyri. I was also amazed by the
collection of models. These are models and dioramas of humans, boats, animals
depicting everyday life in the past – except that these are contemporary models
in remarkably good condition. The museum has a collection of colossal statues
in the central hall, many middle and old kingdom sphinxes. There are many
sarcophagi, and a few pyramidions. The silver coffin of Psusennes and the
jewelry excavated at Tanis is also notable.
Towards the end of the day, the last of the persevering,
strong-of-leg visitors started leaving, and the place became dark and
depressingly empty under dim fluorescent lamps. The keepers started herding us
out an hour before closing time, citing the protests in Tahrir square as an
excuse.
I think the only way to visit this museum is to come fully
prepared on a second visit. This means reading a lot of Egyptian history,
deciding to focus on a specific period or aspect of its history, and then, for
efficiency, hiring a guide who fully understands your area of interest and can
lead you to the appropriate exhibits.
The Egyptians
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| el Mu'izz street |
Interestingly, Egyptians, or the ones I talked to, do not
sleep until 2 or 3 AM in the morning. Breakfast and the optional lunch is also
shifted forward. Smoking is also very common besides smoking the Sheesha
and drinking tea. Tea comes in two flavours – the cheap stuff served to tourists
is weak drink made with Indian tea bags, and the home made stuff which is very
strong and utterly destroys the poor tea leaves with intense boiling and a lot
of sugar. Bedouin tea is similar but adds some unknown weeds to make a sweet
relaxing concoction.
Two other drinks I have never seen before – lemon juice is
made by pulping rather than squeezing lemon and spruced up with mint – the
taste is out of this world. Karkadeh is hibiscus tea popular in upper
Egypt, served hot or cold – try it cold, it is great.
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| Nubian village |
Egyptians may be friendly, but as a tourist you will be
aggressively hustled anywhere you go. I dealt with this by completely ignoring
them and walking past without glancing at them, or at most nodding politely, or
a ‘La! shukran’ with scowl. If you as much as show a mild interest in their
wares, be prepared to waste a long time disengaging yourself from their
clutches. There are also the scams and outright rip-offs. Travel websites are
rife with tales of horror. Even so, I almost got sucked in a few times. At
Giza, I was approached by an old man. “Hello, etc, where are you from?”, “Ah
Great, my son is in Texas!”, “Here, please take this gift from me”, so saying
he placed a few coloured stones in my hand”. I promptly placed them on the
stone ledge, and bade him goodbye.
Crossing streets in Cairo can be a bit of an adventure.
Traffic lights are few and far in between, so you have to cross 6 to 8 lanes of
heavy fast moving traffic. It is best to start out with a fully paid up
AD&D insurance. Then watch the locals closely and try to cross in
lock-step with them, and most importantly don’t under any circumstance hesitate
or falter, or look apprehensively at the driver. We have three such crossings
under our belt, with nary a physical scar to show for it.
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| Tahrir Square |
The third time was at the Valley of the Queens in Luxor
where a very old man with no English approached us with a collection of
artefacts – I could tell that they were really old and genuine because they
were coated in dirt. He insisted through the guide that they were not fake, the
guide and I explained to him gently that that was a bit hard to swallow, but he
was unfazed. In the end I bought a couple of pieces for an outrageous sum,
partly out of pity – he was obviously suffering from tremens and wasn’t at all
pushy, partly to help the local economy, and partly because the souvenirs were
pretty neat – a scarab and a broken Wadjet eye. And they don’t have a ‘made in
China’ label on them. What more can one ask for?
Upper Egypt
Our trip to Egypt included a visit to Luxor, a cruise up the
Nile to Aswan, and a quick visit to Abu Simbel. We originally planned to take
the train down to Luxor from Cairo, but the tour agency advised us to change it
at the last moment because of increasing unreliability of the system.
We flew into Luxor, a small airport that hosts international
flights. Of the three days in Luxor, two nights were in a hotel, and the last
on board our cruise ship. The first day at Luxor we visited the Karnak temple,
the Luxor temple and the Luxor museum.
Karnak is probably the most popular tourist site in Upper
Egypt. It is a huge temple complex dedicated to Amun-Ra originating in the
middle kingdom. The main entrance to the temple is to the west and was
connected to a quay on the Nile by a path lined with impressive Amun-Ra
sphinxes. Successive pharaohs added to it, replacing or restoring older structures
in the process.
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| Quay avenue - Karnak |
The rest of Karnak is a maze of shrines and temples from
various periods, built by various pharaohs and other rulers. The Ptolemies
repurposed some of the structures, as did the pharaoh Philip Arrhidaeus, half-brother
to Alexander the great. The Copts converted some of the chapels to their own
use, defacing the original reliefs and replacing them with their own painting.
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| Karnak hypostyle hall |
About a mile north, Luxor temple is located in the heart of the city. It is a smaller version of Karnak, and not as impressive. It was connected to the Karnak temple by a canal which was replaced during the new kingdom by a sphinx-lined avenue. Luxor temple was entirely buried in sand, to the extent that a mosque was built over it. Today the temple remains partially excavated with the mosque hanging over one of the colonnades. Here too, as in many ancient temples, you see extensive defacing of reliefs by the Christians – these good folk were seeking shelter from Roman persecution, but were quite intolerant of other cults and religions. In the grand tradition of recycling, one of the shrines was converted to a basilica of a Roman imperial cult.
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| Luxor temple |
The next day we left the hotel at 430 AM for our balloon ride. We crossed the Nile in the dark in a small boat and arrived at the field
where a few other balloons were being prepared for flight. Because of the
political situation, four of us shared a roomy section in the basket, leaving
me enough room to swing around with my huge camera lens.
When you are at ground level you do not realize the extent
to which this area is pockmarked with excavated or discovered tombs. From the
air you realize the endless task facing archaeologists.
The balloon ride over Luxor is not as exciting as over the
eerie landscape of Cappadocia, but you still get a unique perspective of the
famous funerary temples.
After the balloon ride, we drove to the funerary temple of Hathshepsut, which we had viewed from the air barely an hour ago. The architecture of this temple is unique, built in a series of three terraces connected by a large central ramp, with a backdrop of sheer cliffs. The ramp balustrade on each side is a rampant Horus trailing off into a serpentine Uraeus - remniscent of the balustrades at Angkor Thom. Especially interesting are the reliefs depicting the expedition to Punt, the chapel to Anubis, the chapel to Hathor, and the Osiride statues of the pharaoh queen. Next to the temple are the ruins of the funerary temple of Mentuhotep Nebhepetra, founding pharoah of the middle kingdom.
Next we drove directly to the Valley of
the Kings. We had tickets for visiting the tomb of Tutankhamun and up to three
more tombs. I had read extensively about the Valley of the Kings, so it was a
bit of a disappointment that the best ones were closed to the public. The tomb
of Seti I is of course closed, but sadly, even the Thutmose III tomb was
closed. We visited the tombs of Ramses III, Ramses IV and the dual tomb of Tausert
and Setnakht. All three tombs are rich in wall decorations. The one for
Tausert has the added twist that it was intended for queen Tausert, who was
deposed, and the tomb was reassigned to Setnakht. So you have a mix of
inscriptions. After having read so much about these tombs, the actual visits
were a bit anticlimactic because my expectations had been set by pictures from
the tombs of Seti I and Horemheb and Thutmose III.
Next we drove directly to the Valley of
the Kings. We had tickets for visiting the tomb of Tutankhamun and up to three
more tombs. I had read extensively about the Valley of the Kings, so it was a
bit of a disappointment that the best ones were closed to the public. The tomb
of Seti I is of course closed, but sadly, even the Thutmose III tomb was
closed. We visited the tombs of Ramses III, Ramses IV and the dual tomb of Tausert
and Setnakht. All three tombs are rich in wall decorations. The one for
Tausert has the added twist that it was intended for queen Tausert, who was
deposed, and the tomb was reassigned to Setnakht. So you have a mix of
inscriptions. After having read so much about these tombs, the actual visits
were a bit anticlimactic because my expectations had been set by pictures from
the tombs of Seti I and Horemheb and Thutmose III.
Tutankhamun’s tomb is one of the most popular with tourists,
but actually, almost all of its content is in the Egyptian museum. It does
however contain the pharaoh’s mummy, his sarcophagus and inside it, the
outermost coffin. The sarcophagus is made of quartzite and beautiful carved all
around, guarded at the four corners by Nephthys, Isis, Serkis and Neith. If
the sarcophagus is decorated on the inside, you cannot see it. When we
visited, there was a horde of high ranking poohbahs from some government
department, merrily snapping away with their smartphones. T’s tomb requires a
special ticket issued in limited quantities. It is probably not worth it –
better if they opened some of the other tombs. After returning I read that
Merenptah’s tomb had been opened – that’s definitely one I missed through
inadequate research.
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| Theban lunch |
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| Dendara |
Half the ceiling is left uncleaned, to highlight the
condition it was found. As with most temples, the sanctum sanctorum is the
oldest, and the structures are progressively newer towards the front entrance
and the periphery. Another interesting feature is the juxtaposition of a
partial pylon well behind the façade of the hypostyle hall.
The place was deserted except for a couple of small groups
so we could take our time roaming the dark eerie hallways and ambulatory. We
could even go down one of the crypts, impossible anywhere else, and take photos
to our hearts content. The crypt was reached by a steep low stairway under a
wooden trapdoor – I had to literally crawl to negotiate it.
In one of the chapels, the walls depict the story of the
struggle between Osiris and Seth. On the rear outer wall of the temple is a
rare relief of Cleopatra VII with the Caesarion.
In the courtyard is a Christian basilica where our guide
pointed out the several variations of the cross as its shape evolved over time.
Next to it is a Roman mammisi or birth house.
Overall, Dendara was the single most enjoyable temples of
our entire trip. This is because I had not read much about it beforehand, so
all was novel, yet our guide spent enough time on the details, that we did felt
that we had done it justice and seen all there was to see.
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| Medinat Habu |
That night we checked into our cruise ship. The next day
was again an early start. Our first stop was the funerary temple of Ramses III
at Medinat Habu. Among the temples on the west side, Hathshepsut’s and this
temple are the best preserved. This temple is notable for its well preserved
ceilings and deep reliefs. Pharaohs did this to prevent future cheapskates from
reusing their images and statues. This is easier than you think. Egyptian
royal art depicted pharaohs with idealized features and perfect anatomy. Thus,
the only safe way to identify a pharaoh is by the accompanying inscriptions,
typically a pharaoh has upto five names, glyphs enclosed in serekhs and
cartouches. These they inscribed profusely, and sometimes profoundly.
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| tomb of Amenherkhepshef |
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| tomb of Khaemwaset |
We then visited the tomb of Sennedjem in the workers’ village at Deir el Medina. Sennedjem was a senior worker in the village. The walls of his tomb are painted in bright colours. The burial chamber is vaulted and the entire ceiling and the walls carry illustrations from the Book of the Dead. Here too we had no difficulty in persuading the keepers to let us take photos.
Our last visits in Luxor were into the tombs of Rekhmire and
Sennefer. At the Rekhmire tomb, the keepers, working as a team directed
reflected sunlight onto the walls using mirrors. This was to help me with my
photography – unfortunately the bright sunlight had a spotlighting effect, and
I spent a lot of time trying to salvage the photos after I got home. These
keepers are experts at their business. I had to but start raising my camera
before they had the light shining on the exact spot I intended to shoot! They
were also quite vocally upset when I did not tip them lavishly. |
| tomb of Rekhmire |
Wistfully we bade goodbye to Luxor and returned to our cruise
ship for our journey south.
Nile cruise
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| Sudan |
We spent two days sailing, Luxor to Edfu overnight, passing
through the Esna locks after dark. Edfu to Kom Ombo after lunch, a short stop,
then overnight to Aswan. The last two days were spent docked in Aswan, and on
the last day they kindly let us hang out on board until it was time for our
flight back to Cairo.
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| Sanctum sanctorum - Edfu |
The Horus temple is the complement of the Hathor temple in
Dendara. It has the typical pylon in the front, followed by a pillared open
courtyard, followed by the hypostyle hall leading to the sanctum sanctorum.
The last is in good condition and houses a replica of the solar bark. An
ambulatory runs around the inner shrine. The hypostyle hall’s wall has a serial
depiction of the consecration of the temple. The outer wall has a serial
depiction of the epic fight between Horus and Seth. Seth was worshipped in
some areas of Egypt, especially by the Hyksos during their reign. In other
myths, Seth was demonized.
Many of the cartouches are left blank, a common occurrence.
During the late kingdom, pharaohs were deposed and replaced at a dizzying
rate. The craftsmen being unsure would leave the cartouches blank until the
last moment. The purpose of these temples also changed over time. While the
earlier temples were open only to the pharaoh and his chief priests, latter
temples were open to the general public upto at least the hypostyle hall.
 |
| Kom Ombo - column |
The temple at Kom Ombo is dedicated to two deities. Divided
exactly down the middle, the left belongs to Horus while the right is dedicated
to crocodile god, Sobek. The theme here is crocodiles, with a pit for holding
them and a sacrificing block nearby. Dundee would have been right at home
here. There is even a museum overflowing with crocodile mummies of various sizes
and state of mummification.
The temple also features a nilometer. Nilometers were built
at several points along the Nile, including one in Cairo. They were used for
observing the high and low points of the water level and were vital for
predicting the economy of the upcoming year.
The Kom Ombo temple is more in ruins than Edfu, but has some
noteworthy carvings. A whole side of the temple is dedicated to the art of
medicine and healing, including several carvings dealing with childbirth. One
panel illustrated the Egyptian calendar with its even divisions.
Uppest Egypt
What is also not obvious from photos is the temple of
Nefertari standing right next to that of her husband. In the niches of its
façade stand statues of the queen, standing as tall as those of Ramses II.
Possibly the only time a non-ruling woman is shown at the same height as a man
(usually they barely reach the king’s knee).
Inside both temples, one enters a hall with reliefs on the
walls and square columns. In the Ramses temple, the battle of Kadesh is
depicted in great detail; however, the reliefs are not well lit. The central
corridor is lined with statues of Ramses in the Osiris pose. If you inspect
the temple walls carefully you can just barely see the joints where they cut
the stone blocks to move them. It is impossible to see the joints on the
statues outside.
At the far end is the sanctuary followed by the sanctum
sanctorum with statues of Ra Horakhty, Ramses II, Amon Ra, and Ptah. The last
two were the chief deities of Thebes and Memphis, the main cities of Upper and Lower
Egypt. In fact the name Egypt derives from the original name Hath Ka Ptah –
the House of the Ka of Ptah. Egypt has two other popular names. Another
ancient name is Khemet which means black soil in ancient Egyptian, signifying
the rich fertile soil around the Nile. The modern name is Misr, which in
Arabic means ‘protected from all sides’, but there are other theories.
The city of Aswan is an attractive city in winter. It has a
summer resort feel to it. The sandy hills to the west slope right down to the
river, and across from the city are dotted with tombs of nobles. The west side
is barren desert in sharp contrast to the green cool islands and the east
side. Feluccas sail lazily by carrying tourists. Jetties and cruise ships
line the bank on the east side. Further up river, one can see the Aswan dam,
the Nubian village, and the Aswan high dam. Had I done my research, I would
have planned on spending longer here. I missed the Nubian museum, and Elephantine
Island. I could have hiked up to the tombs of nobles, and the monastery of St
Simeon.
Life in Aswan moves at a slow pace. The people here are
also different, more laid back, perhaps less friendly. We went to the market
to buy some spices. Egyptian spices are supposed to be very good, after all
the spice market in Istanbul is called the Egyptian market, but for whatever
reason, we were disappointed by the variety and quality of the spices on sale.
That afternoon we took a boat ride to the Nubian village.
We were supposed to sail part of the way in a felucca. Well, the felucca had
other ideas. After barely pulling out into the stream, the wind died down and
we stopped still in the water, while one crew member quietly went about un
raveling a cloth bundle and laying out his souvenirs for our perusal – no
aggressive bargaining though. The old man handed us one item after another
silently. A pair of kids in a makeshift bucket boat paddled past us singing
atrocious renditions of Christmas carols angling for appreciative baksheesh –
with a start I realized that Christmas was barely a week away.
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| Ibis |
The Nubian village is inhabited by Nubians in colourful
adobe huts. The place is a tourist trap, but not in a totally bad sense. Our
guide took us to a house where a jolly black lady served us some good tea, and
tried to impress us with her collection of captive crocodiles. The crocs are
there solely to entertain tourists. We walked around the house, looked at some
souvenirs, bought some, tipped her for the tea, and left. The Nubians spread
sand on their rooftop terrace to keep the rooms underneath cool. Like in
India, they use porous clay pots to keep the water cool. And actually we found
the souvenirs quite attractive and inexpensive.
Because of the feckless felucca and my avian pursuits, our
journey back was in the dark, and we disembarked in near total darkness.
 |
| Philae |
A small motorboat ride took us to the island. At the temple
of Isis, the notable features are the pillars in the fore court –their capitals
are all of different designs. There is significant roman construction here –
the gate of Diocletian and the Kiosk of Trajan. The latter we have already encountered
in Turkey at Pergamum. The temple shows a strong Greek influence. It also has
some remarkable graffiti left by Napoleon’s intelligentsia.
The older Aswan dam is smaller affair. We could pull off
the road behind the dam for some photos. Behind the dam is a picturesque
marina crowded with colourful boats. The granite quarry is right in the town
of Aswan. It is the main source of granite for most of the constructions of
ancient Egypt. The granite for the inner chambers of the pyramids of Giza
probably came from here. The unfinished obelisk in the quarry is the main
attraction. The obelisk gives you a good idea of how the ancient Egyptians
hewed the obelisk in place. The crack running through it tells its own story,
as does the attempt to salvage a smaller obelisk from the flawed block.
Through the quarry you can see the chisel marks from ancient times. Strewn
around are many diorite rocks used to dress the blocks.
After a late lunch on board our cruise ship, we checked out
and whiled away the time on the sun deck until our late evening flight back to
Cairo.
The Desert
At Bawiti, the ‘capital’ of Bahariya, we transferred to a
Toyota Land Cruiser, our transport for the next three days. Our Cairo guide
accompanied us, but the driver was a local Bedouin, Baqr. He was also our cook
for most of the meals. Baqr started out pretty stiff and T E Lawrencesque, but
was smiling and joking in English by the end of our trip.
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| Black desert |
Near el Hez we stopped by the Church of St George, which
they say is the oldest Christian church in the western desert. It was in a bad
state of disrepair and the keeper warned us not to get too close to it.
We made a short stop at the Crystal Mountain, a small mound streaked
with many different kinds of crystals. We were now in the White Desert
National Park, and soon got off the road. Every time before we went off road,
the driver would stop and inspect the tyres. The off road drive was an amazing
experience. We drove through soft sand, fish tailing and swerving as the
driver fought to keep from bogging down. The few times we got stuck, he had to
disengage the differential. To add to the fun, he drove at high speed over
soft sand to avoid losing traction. The ground alternated between big swaths
of soft sand, and exposed bare hard rock. The western desert has several kind
of rock, but the most common is chalk limestone which gives it its name. The
sand is strewn with small nuggets of very heavy metal, probably iron, probably
non crystalline haematite. The nuggets look like animal droppings. I think
these are the residue from the erosion of volcanic rock and not constipated
goats. I am guessing here though, because neither the guide nor I know much of
geology.
We stopped for photos at sun set, watching the rocks change
colour from uniform white through mellow yellow and orange and purple (my
photos do not do justice to the scenery).
We got to our camp site well past dusk, but the driver set
up camp by the light of flashlight perched on his forehead. Camp was a simple
affair; a windbreak for cooking and eating, and a tent for the two of us.
Toilet and ablution were alfresco. All camp sites are far apart from each
other (maybe half a km) and there are huge rock outcrops, so privacy is not an
issue. Scorpions and vipers though can be an issue in summer. Though we
didn’t notice any in December, I took the precaution of inspecting our shoes
carefully before putting them on.
The night had gotten very cold (probably about 40 F), and after
dinner we sat around the fire talking for a while. Baqr had dumped the leftovers
a few yards away. We could hear the desert foxes scrounging through the
leftovers that were dumped a few yards away. I even managed to spot one of
them by my flashlight (no, not Erwin). The sky was clear and for a time, we
sat gazing at the stars and the Milky Way. The guide and I argued over the
location of the North Star, until it was settled -unsatisfactorily I might add
- by a silly iPhone app.
Baqr made us Bedouin style tea over the fire. This is tea
leaves and a lot of sugar, boiled until the tea stops screaming in agony, and
then some. What makes it special is wild grass and weed they add into the
mix. The tea is relaxing and warms you up. A Bedouin host will keep refilling
your glass unless you place it upside down, good because I liked this tea -it
reminded me of sassafras tea I drank once on a camping trip with the Boy
Scouts.
The guide and driver slept in the open, I would have loved
to, but it was too cold by then for my liking. We were provided with light
sleeping bags overlaid with a thick Bedouin-ish blanket, and this kept us
reasonably warm.
The next morning Baqr boiled eggs for breakfast and we had impromptu
sandwiches of egg and cheese wrapped in baladi, washed down with canned juices
and tea. Shelling soft boiled eggs is not easy under normal conditions, when
your fingers are numb it is a mess, but on the other hand, a hot egg warms your
fingers some.
We packed up and broke camp early. On the way out we passed
the campsite of a large Chinese tour group. They had a long gazebo tent for
meals, a row of sleeping tents, and, yes, a portable john.
In the middle of nowhere, we came to the Lone Acacia tree.
These plants survive by putting down roots all the way down to the water
table. Next we stopped at the Ain Khadra oasis which boasts a small spring and
a cool palm grove which provides shade to travelers. When we pulled up, there
was an off-road cruiser parked near the spring, and the driver was washing out
his cookware. Otherwise, we did not see or encounter anybody in the desert.
We got back to Bahariya around lunch, checked into our hotel, had a good shower
and lunch before heading out to the museum of the golden mummies. Bahariya is
the site where they discovered tombs from the Graeco-roman period. More than a
hundred mummies were excavated, of which about a dozen are on display in the
museum. The mummies on display were mostly enclosed in cartonage with
paintings usually seen on mummies – Isis, Nephthys, Uraei, etc. The drawings
are not as elaborate as one would find on pharaohs or high officials. Some of
the mummies had gilded wooden face masks. Greek style and facial features are
obvious in the artwork. They make for good contrast with the older mummies and
coffins we saw in the Luxor and the Egyptian museum.
Even though we had the museum to ourselves - the keeper had
to open the museum and turn on lights – we could not take photos. The exhibit
room has several surveillance cameras and the keeper would have gotten into
trouble. This is a remarkable difference from the attitude in the mainstream
tourist sites – the people of the desert seem more honest. But the museum is
surrounded by a high wall with guard towers, so the government probably feels
insecure about the locals.
Nearby we stopped at the tombs of Djed-Amun-iuf-Ankh, the
governor of Bahariya during the 26th dynasty, and of his son,
Bannentiu. Both tombs are underground, and reached through a deep pit. It is
interesting how the pharaohs went to great lengths to hide and secure their
tombs at Thebes, and the lesser ranking people proudly displayed the entrance
to their tombs. It’s the royal tombs that were robbed and their mummies
desecrated, while the lesser tombs remained mostly untouched.
Both tombs were elaborately, if simply decorated, and show
the strong outside influence. The nature and relative importance of the
various Gods and Goddesses had also changed, though Osiris still reigned
supreme.
There were no surveillance cameras but the keepers did not
let us take photos. For a change though, the guide was allowed into the tomb,
and we spent a long time looking at the paintings and discussing them while the
keeper watched us patiently in the hot stuffy tombs. Near the tombs is
Alexander’s temple. This temple was built to honour Alexander the great who is
said to have stopped here on his way to Siwa oasis to meet the Oracle. It is
now a small low empty hall with some faint fresco work on the walls. Even the
slab with his name is missing. In front of the temple are the partially
excavated remains of roman era houses. There are potsherds strewn all around.
I brought home a few but have yet to get them authenticated.
The next day started at a leisurely hour. Baqr dropped off
because of personal problems, and we had a new driver. After a short distance
on road, we turned off to a 70 KM drive across the desert to Wadi el Hitan. It
was 70 kms of slow driving through gullies, over and down ridges, over soft
sand at places. Though there were no discernible track there were road signs
every once in a while. After a couple of hours of rattling along, we finally
came to the entrance of the valley of the Whales.
When first discovered, the wadi was strewn with whale
skeletons, of which a few have survived the ravages of visitors. Many have
been moved to a safer place, while others have been left in place as an open
air museum.
Though the place has very few visitors, it has a small
restaurant and a souvenir shop. We saw at least two other parties while we
were there. After lunch we headed for Qarun lake on our way back to Cairo.
The way out was over a hard desert track to the main Fayoum road.
This was the end of our desert excursion. Wadi el-Hitan and
the white desert were probably some of the most unique experiences we have had
in our lives. The three days in the desert and the three days on the Nile
cruise were an invigorating change of pace and focus providing a nice balance
to the whole trip.
We stopped at the lift-gate, engine running. The security
guard walked over, stared at our driver, and then curtly asked him to turn off
the engine. The disdain for the country yokel was palpable, even in Arabic. Just
a fraction of a second before the dog finished its inspection, our driver
started the engine again – cold stare - “Are you quite done?” asks our driver
(or its equivalent in Arabic), in a innocent tone – a long cold stare while he
considered making an issue of it, before the guard stood off and opened the
gate. Welcome back to Cairo!
It felt funny checking back into a 5-star hotel after
roughing it in the countryside, What a change! I mused as I thumped my shoes
clean and emptied a heap of sand on the floor in our room, and aired my tired
toes.
Conclusion
I have visited five of the seven continents, or three of
four, depending on how you count them. My wife has visited six of the seven
continents – though I doubt we will put our foot on Antarctica. We have now
visited two of the Seven Ancient wonders of the world. If revisionism is your
game, my wife has also seen five of the seven new wonders.
I have probably stood where our hominid ancestors took on their way out of Africa more than 1.7 million years ago. I have stood on an ocean bed where whales swam 40 million years ago.
I have probably stood where our hominid ancestors took on their way out of Africa more than 1.7 million years ago. I have stood on an ocean bed where whales swam 40 million years ago.
Thinking back, I do not have too many regrets about our
itinerary. If anything, I would have visited Abydos, and Alexandria, and a
little more of middle Egypt. And maybe a little more time in Cairo. But I will definitely go back to Egypt. My next trip will be a
more focused one and I will come better prepared.
Recommended homework
These are some of the books I read before, and some after
visiting Egypt. These or equivalent books will make your visit that much more
enjoyable, though there is a risk of over-anticipation, and of burning out even
before landing in Egypt.
Egypt - Insight Guides series gives an overview of the
sights, culture, and history of the country. http://www.amazon.com/Egypt-Insight-Guides/dp/B007R92VJU/
Egypt – National Geographic Traveler series gives a good
overview of the sites, but I rely on it to help me pick the most important
sites. http://www.amazon.com/National-Geographic-Traveler-Andrew-Humphrey/dp/142620521X/
Cairo, Histories of a city, by Nezar Al Sayyad is an easy
read. It traces the history and development of Cairo and is valuable to
appreciating the confusing mix of architectures in this city. http://www.amazon.com/Cairo-Histories-City-Nezar-AlSayyad/dp/0674047869
Valley of the Kings, by Kent Weeks. You cannot lug this
coffee-table size book with you, but is nonetheless very informative and has
excellent photographs. All the more useful since most of the good tombs are
closed to the public. I have the 2001 edition published by Friedman/Fairfax.
ISBN 1-5866-3295-7
The Treasure of Luxor and the Valley of the Kings, by Kent
Weeks, Rizzoli Art Guides series. This one you can, and you must carry with
you, if you are without a guide. It systematically lays out a plan of attack
for each site. http://www.amazon.com/Treasures-Luxor-Valley-Kings-Rizzoli/dp/8854400335
Inside the Egyptian Museum, by Zahi Hawass. A good book for
highlighting the most important exhibits in the museum. Very useful if you
have limited time. The photographs are excellent, but the binding is awful.
Drool over it after your trip. http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Egyptian-Museum-Zahi-Hawass/dp/9774163648
Illustrated Guide to the Egyptian Museum, by Zahi Hawass. I
got this after the trip. I wish I had it before. http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Guide-Egyptian-Museum-Araldo/dp/977424608X
The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, by Richard
Wilkinson. This is not an absolutely complete list, but then I don’t think
such a book exists. It is useful background for understanding the Dieties and
their iconography. More useful for a referring later at leisure. http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Gods-Goddesses-Ancient-Egypt/dp/0500051208
The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, edited by Ian Shaw. A
bit heavy, but gives you the essential historical context for a lot of what you
will see. I am reading it now and very much regret not reading it before the
trip. http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-History-Ancient-Egypt/dp/0192804588
Illustrated Guide to the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo, by
Bernard O’Kane. An excellent guide, but pretty much useless if the museum is
closed to the public. I have a slightly different version form this one: http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Guide-Museum-Islamic-Cairo/dp/9774163389
Links to my albums
I have tried to organize my photos by topic to the extent
possible, but with an eye on the size of each album. The result is a somewhat
inconsistent taxonomy, but hopefully the titles of the albums will guide you to
the ones that would interest you.
All photos are key-worded and geo-tagged with a GPS track
logger. Feel free to borrow or link to the albums or photos.
This URL points to all the albums. Look for the ones titled
‘Egypt- …’. http://picasaweb.google.com/101807098828204708015
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Giza
– the Great pyramids and sphinx at Giza
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Saqqara
– the temple of Djoser, stepped pyramid and surrounding tombs
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Dahshur
– the bent and red pyramids of Snefru at Dahshur
-
Memphis
museum – the Ramses museum at Memphis
-
Coptic
Cairo – the old Coptic section of Cairo
-
El
Mu’ayyad Shaykh – Mamuluk mosque in Cairo
-
Sultan
Hassan complex – Mamluk period mosque and madrassah in Cairo
-
Saladin
citadel – the Citadel of Salah u Din in Cairo, Ayyubid period
-
El
Rifa’i – Modern (Ottoman) mosque in Cairo
-
El
Hakim – Fatimid mosque in Cairo
-
Ibn
Tulun – Abbasid period mosque in Cairo
-
Amr
ibn ll A’s – Rashidunid period mosque in Cairo
-
Bab
Zuwayla – one of the old gates into Fatimid Cairo
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Islamic
Cairo – mostly from the old Islamic section of Cairo
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Cairo
miscellanea – the rest of the photos from Cairo and around.
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Karnak
temple – near Luxor
-
Luxor
temple – in town of Luxor
-
Dendara
– the temple of Hathor at Dendara, north of Thebes
-
Amenherkhepshef
tomb – Tomb of Son of Ramses III in the Valley of the Queens at Luxor
-
Khaemwaset
tomb – Tomb of yet another son of Ramses III in the Valley of the Queens at
Luxor
-
Sennefer
tomb – at Worker’s village in Deir el Medina on the west bank of Luxor.
-
Sennedjem’s
tomb – at Worker’s village in Deir el Medina on the west bank of Luxor
-
Rekhmire’s
tomb – at Worker’s village in Deir el Medina on the west bank of Luxor
-
Hathshepsut
temple – the funerary temple of Hathshepsut on the west bank of Luxor
-
Medinat
Habu – the funerary temple of Ramses III on the west bank of Luxor
-
Balloon
ride – photos from our balloon ride over the west bank of Luxor
-
Thebes
miscellanea – the rest of the photos from Luxor and around
-
Nile
cruise – our Nile cruise from Luxor to Aswan
-
Edfu
– temple of Horus at Edfu, stop on our Nile cruise
-
Kom
Ombo – the temple of Sobek and Harwer, stop on our Nile cruise
-
Boats
– Boats we passed on the Nile during the cruise
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Abu
Simbel – the funerary temples of Ramses II and Nefertari, and the road from
Aswan
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Aswan
High Dam – our visit to the high dam
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Philae
– Temple of Isis near Aswan
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Aswan
– miscellaneous photos around Aswan including the felucca ride, unfinished
obelisk, and the Nubian village
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White
Desert camp – our overnight camp in the White desert national park and the
a few other pics
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Desert
– miscellaneous photos from the desert around and on the way to Bahariya oasis
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Bahariya
– photos around the main town town of Bahariya oasis – Bawiti
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Wadi
el Hitan – the Valley of the Whales
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Qarun
lake – Lake Qarun and Fayoum town
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Birds
– the birds we spotted, mostly on the Nile, some need your help identifying
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Eat
and sleep – miscellaneous photos of food, restaurants and hotel rooms
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