Memphis, Sakkara, and Farewell to Egypt, 14 October 2018

Memphis, Sakkara, and Farewell to Egypt, 14 October 2018

Our last day in Egypt, we enjoy a hearty breakfast before departing for Memphis and Sakkara, our final visits on this amazing trip. As we drive along the bus, I see two feral dogs running full out, at the same speed as the bus, and they slip through the metal decorative fence to dash below to the river, probably to get at something to eat. Today we’ll go to Memphis and Sakkara, and we’ll then have lunch in a place famous for its bread.

Memphis was built in 3,000 BC, as the first city in the world, by King Mena, to unify the lower and upper Egyptian capitals. It is in the middle of the two countries, at a point where the Nile begins to branch out. The cemetery of Memphis is called Sakkara, to the west of Memphis, where the Step pyramid is located. We will also go inside a pyramid and see some pyramid texts. We will also see a tomb of Kagemni there, which depicts scenes from the daily life of the person who died, agriculture, hunting, making offerings, and more. It is only at this cemetery where this is visible.

Hassan gave us two sheets of paper with his key to hieroglyphs, and the list of determinatives and key symbols. The Egyptians used R for L,  and the Greeks brought the, the letter L, so the lion symbol does not appear until the Greek period. The determinative for an old man indicates wise, Egyptian men exaggerate their age so they appear wiser. The symbol for the Israelites had the word people, not country, because they were not settled.

Here in Memphis there are no remains of the city itself, which was mud brick, but the stone buildings and statues remain. Wherever the capital moved, Memphis remained  the theological capital,  where Kings were crowned.  We see near the entry a triad of Ptah, Sekhmet and Nefertim, with the symbol for Rameses II. The word Memphis was men palace and nefer beautiful or great, thus the name. The Greeks added s to everything, thus meneferis, Memphis. Our ticket says mit rahina, the ancient name in Arabic based on hieroglyphs. Mit means avenue, rahnia means Sphinx, the first avenue of Sphinxes. This Sphinx was lying on its right side thus the carvings in the limestone are better preserved. We see a statue of the king approaching the gods through a small version of the god in a shrine, similar to how Christians pray to a saint for intercession with god. A large statue of Rameses II came from a temple, and this was displayed in the US city of Memphis for 10 years as part of a celebration of all cities worldwide named Memphis. There is another like this is the British Museum, and one without legs remains here, and they built a museum around it. We see it from the perspective of how sculptors saw it as they carved it. The left side is perfectly preserved, especially the face, headdress, the muscles of the body, the texture of his kilt and knife belt, even the fingernails. He holds the two contracts of kingship with Egypt in his hands, each stamped with his name. His wife Nefertari would have been on his left side, much smaller, but only her arm remains. Inside the museum built around this statue is a statue of Bes, the dwarf who carries a basket of fruit and wine on his head, a benevolent god, found in every temple and home.

At Memphis we see a whole pack of slender but not skinny feral dogs, in varied colors of off white and tan, females and one male and at least one pup. A vendor is throwing bread to them, and then they come over to us, tails wagging. They are a mini version of our dog Atlas, about 1/3 size and shorter fur. Many of us are animal lovers so we take quite a few photos of them.

We head toward Sakkara. We see lots of folks up and about, especially women, almost all in black, some with the niqab. Indoors women wear colorful clothes, no black dress.  In the countryside, women often wear the black dress and a hijab outdoors, and often the niqab. 20-30 years ago, Hassan notes that few women wore the black dress or the veil in cities and even some villages, but this has become more conservative in recent years. The specific dress is from tradition, not the Koran, but people think they will be more pious by dressing this way. This is in part based on the legend on Isis and Osiris, where Isis disguised herself as an old lady wearing black, so she is allowed by the gods to cross the river to an island by sail to feed her grandson. One of the gods guarding the boat asked for a bribe, Isis gives him her gold earring. Thus sailors today have a gold earring to pay someone to feed them on shore or ferry them to shore. The black dress is from this legend. Once on the island, she tells the gods that her husband’s brother took her late husband’s land, the field that should have gone to her son. The gods agree, then she reveals herself as Isis; Egypt is the field and her son Horus is the grandson.

We arrive at Sakkhara and see the Step Pyramid in the distance. There is another pyramid nearby which is mostly a pyramid shaped pile of rocks. In early pyramids the walls were leaning on a mound of rock and rubble, eventually they collapsed and what is left is a pyramid shaped pile of rubble. There are 120 pyramids in Egypt, but only 10 are the solid structures we think of as pyramids. Sakkara is the cemetery with more discoveries, always new discoveries are being made. We come to the pyramid of King Teti, 2,400BC, mostly only the rubble remains, all the chambers are down below out of sight. This type of pyramid was sealed by huge stones slid into place, hard to chip through, so tomb robbers would heat the stone then throw cold water on it to split the stone. The burial chamber was built, the sarcophagus put in place, the walls painted, and then they could mostly finish the pyramid, and the coffin could then be slipped inside the sarcophagus. Inside we walk through a narrow low and steep passageway, past where the sealing rock came down. We come to the tomb area, encrusted with the King Teti cartouche on the walls, and we can see into the sarcophagus. It has a calm and quiet feel.

Next we go to the tomb of Kagemni, with a smaller entryway, he was the son-in-law of the king. Close relatives were buried near the king.  Kagemni’s tomb is like a mastaba, a table. The style of the entryway also appears in the Muslim tombs in the City of the Dead, the only place where this is seen in a cemetery. People would come here with a picnic, even stay overnight, and sit with the ancestors, even today people say when they go to the family tomb, they go to sit with their family.  In these old tombs, people documented what they had on earth, as they believed this is what they would be brought back with in them in the next life. At the entry, we see an image of Kagemni with the short beard of nobles. Ka is a person’s invisible twin, a childlike copy which flies up to the gods, then the ba which is the soul, would reunite with the ka and the body for resurrection; if any parts were lost the person would not come back.

Inside we see a papyrus boat with a sea scene with hippos and crocodiles, in the second room are a series of dancing girls leaning backwards, with two more who are clapping their hands. The five girls are the corps de ballet, standing on their right legs, with the left leg kicking up, the arms raised, and they are leaning back almost horizontal. Nearby is Kagenmi standing on a papyrus boat, he is fishing with nets and hooks, which are depicted below. We see large fish like salmon, squid, tilapia, perch, elephant fish, catfish, waiting to be caught, while we see hippos and crocodiles being chased by his servants who advance before his boat, clearing out the crocodiles and hippos from the master. In another scene we see frogs and butterflies and Nile plants. A man is shown kneeling and giving food he has masticated to a baby pig, feeding it before it has teeth. Another man is milking a horned cow, holding her baby in front of her to keep her calm. A rope is tied around the front leg of the cow, around the back, and to the back legs, then tied together. First the calf drinks for a bit and then the man quickly moves in to begin milking the cow, and we can see small drops of milk. The cow is surprised to see a man milking her after the calf was switched out, we can see this from the surprise on her face and the tongue sticking out. Another scene shows a baby cow with the front legs of the cow on the stern of the boat as they row away, then his mother would follow (her tongue is out showing excitement or agitation), so would others follow, and a man in the back would urge them forward. In the next room we see a large Kagemni looking over his backyard with animals. In one part, men are force-feeding geese. They also are feeding hyenas which they used for hunting. Egyptians used three animals for hunting, lions, hyenas, and greyhounds, and fed them before the chase they would not eat the prey while hunting. The legs of the hyenas are tied as they are dangerous animals. We move to a much larger reception room which has an offering table, beautifully decorated, with the tomb down below. At one end is the false door, a façade with a slot for the ka and the ba to come through and  visit the body. The walls depict servants bringing animals fruit, grain, flowers, jars, and more with the symbol for 1,000 to show thousands of offerings. The animals are depicted moving and lively, the baby animals even playing with each other. In the next small room is the depiction of making wine and beer. It is being made and put into large ranks of containers, supported on wooden sledges pulled by teams of men, one pouring water on the front of the sledge they ease it along.

We now go to the Step Pyramid, the first stone structure on earth, 3,000 BC.  It is currently under some restoration, thus the scaffolding on one side. We walk up the hill and come to the entry gate. This first structure was the work of the architect Imhotep, the genius who figured out how to build the step pyramid. He was a high priest, architect, and doctor.  Jean Louis Lauer, was a French archaeologist, who started restoration of the Step pyramid, the only building visible here at the time. He came here as a young man, worked here nearly 70 years, who uncovered all these tombs. The Step pyramid was one step, a mastaba, and Imhotep had the idea of adding more steps like the primeval mound on which was Ra. When it was done, there were four steps, then he adds 8 meters from two sides, thus six steps. The layer of limestone told us about the construction method. There are also shrines for coronation, and a colonnade, the entire complex surrounded by a massive wall. This wall is 5-7 meters wide, very thick, and the vertical shape with crenellations which made it very stable. There were 14 entrances, 13 of which were fake, to control access. Stone decoration was a new idea so what exists mimics mud brick.

Much of this imitates how homes were constructed. Inside the entryway corridor there is the door hinge, the ceiling is made of half-rounds of stone, like the bottom of the palm fronds used in a home (the flat side faced up). The colonnade is the first columns of stone ever on earth (most are restorations). There are 42 recesses between the columns, 21 on each side north and south, just as Egypt was divided into 21 northern provinces and 21 southern provinces. In each recess was a statue of various gods and goddesses. The columns are like a home’s column made of papyrus tied into a pile with rope and fitted into a mud base, which are scalloped outward, the opposite of Greek columns. These columns show the “ties” and the “mud” base. No one had ever tested how long such stone would last, so for durability, the architect attached each column to a wall behind so the columns are not freestanding. This opens out into a huge open area with the Step Pyramid rising above us to our right. The scaffolding shows how the restoration work has been done on the left side while the right side is rougher and more worn, less visibly restored.

This pyramid is the first ever on earth. The size of blocks here is small compared to the pyramids at Giza. This is the first time people quarried stone, the first time lifting stone, the first time fitting stone, so they did not go for huge, just stable. They was no mortar used here, the small stones do not fit together airtight so the pyramid is collapsing outward from the corners. The 1992 earthquake made it clear that this needed to be saved, and the government decided to dedicate revenues to restore this. A southern tomb is being restored nearby. What is so unique here was never done again, to take certain living festivals to the afterlife. Earlier, kings were supposed to be young, fit, and fertile, and once they grew old they were killed. Once this was a kingdom, understandably the kings wanted to change this, they had a festival called Hapset, a renovation of the 30 year term of the king. The king had to demonstrate his fitness by doing some activity like lifting weights, running, etc.; here he would emerge from the colonnade running around the courtyard, then a bull would emerge and he had to lasso the bull and stop him. Then the king had to catch the tail of a different bull, wrapping its tail around his wrist and stopping it. Finally the king would run a lap around the courtyard, and then they begin the ceremonies of the new term of the king. First, he had to fake his death, they would “bury” him in the ceremonial tomb, and then he would be the “new” king, so then he would emerge alive and he would get the double crown. On the walls of Abydos we see this ceremony being done by Rameses II. But no one could really do this with a bull, but they might have done it with a cow. Weak kings would do this more often, sometimes as often as 2 years, which showed how weak they were. Most countries that still do this are showing off for their own people but fundamentally they are weak. After 2,700BC, this ceremony was discontinued and no others have this large courtyard.

We climb the wall by the southern shrine and we see all the pyramids. First the Bent pyramid, then the Step pyramid in the far distance is 10 kilometers away. Near to that is the red pyramid which was faced by a different limestone that faded, built by Senefru. In the distance north 20 kilometers away are barely visible the pyramids at Giza. Then finally are the last pyramids built, the layer of rock over stones and rubble, the “cheap” type. I take a video of the whole area, such an amazing view, we spent four hours in Memphis and Sakkara.

We go on to the government weaving school, where the ancient art of hand weaving is taught, as a coop program with the children spending half the day in school, half the day learning weaving. The cotton wool blend carpets are tied 200 knots to the inch, the cotton about 400 to the inch, and silk ones 400-800 knots to the inch, which is why they take the longest and are the most expensive.

We head back to the hotel through heavy traffic, it is amazing that we don’t see pedestrians getting hit every block or so, maybe is because the traffic moves so slowly that the pedestrians are so brave. After a shower and packing, it is time for the farewell dinner. Hassan asks us about our favorite or most surprising memory of Cairo, and we all applaud his and Michael’s wonderful leadership of the trip. After the farewell dinner, contact information is exchangd, and we head up to get ready for one more early departure. The group now splits, we go back to the Bay Area, others continue to Jordan and Petra or other places. We arise  tomorrow at 3:45am, bus leaves for the airport at 5:00am, then back home via Istanbul. It has been a wonderful and illuminating trip. We love Egypt.

Old Cairo, Khan el Kahlili, and Meeting Up With Ahmed, 13 October 2018

Old Cairo and Khan el-Khalili Bazaar 13 October 2018

We have another very early wakeup call, at 2:45am, and we gather in the lobby at 3:15am for some coffee and portable breakfast items. Off to the airport, check in and security, a one-hour flight to Cairo, and we gather luggage and people back onto the same bus we had earlier.

We go to Old Cairo where we will see the St. Sergius church, the Ben Ezra synagogue, the hanging church, and the tomb of Sadat. Old Cairo is less than 2 square miles, with 20 mosques, 10 churches and one synagogue, an was historically a very tolerant area. St. Mark preached in Alexandria, then came to Cairo, he returned to Alexandria where he was tortured and killed. In the early 20th is century, his body was taken from its tomb and then to Italy. The government gave it back recently, and the body of St.. Mark is now back in the church in Cairo. For nearly 300 years, Christians were persecuted by the Romans, and then persecuted again as they had pursued a different style of Christianity from Rome. As we enter Old Cairo, we go by the old cemetery which has tombs of Christians, Jews, and Muslims.

This part of Cairo was the first capital of modern Egypt, originally called Fustat, from the 10th century. We go down some stairs to the level of 17th century Cairo, lower than the street level. It was divided into districts, each one having a gate to shut it off from other parts of Cairo. The districts were mixed in religion and were like one family. The gate was locked at sunset, and no one would be admitted after that without the password that changed daily. This helped to protect religious tolerance, because it was district vs, district,  not religion vs, religion. When Napoleon came, people went up into church towers and minarets and saw the French movements, and were able to resist for a very long time. We go down a long alleyway lined with books. Over a large arch, we see a bas relief of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus on the flight to Egypt; they hid here for at least a few months in the crypts of the synagogue, because Egypt was run by the Romans at the time.

We enter St. Sergius Church, even lower at the 6th century AD level. Deep walls were built in this area to drain the water about 20 years ago. Two years ago, the crypt was full of water, but now it is clear and we can walk there. We see a glass covered area lined with mosaics; in the 10th century, the government forbade people from going to the Nile for the critical day of cleansing, so they built this area to create that cleansing water access. The church is built of mud bricks in basilica style, with a wooden ceiling over the nave, and a half-dome behind the altar. There is an elaborately carved wooden rood screen with two entry gates, a gold and velvet hanging in the center and  crowned by icons of the 12 apostles with Mary and Jesus in the center.  The wooden ceiling symbolizes Noah’s ark covering and saving the people. The walls are lined with paintings of saints which look about 12th century. The elevated pulpit is striped stone on an eight-sided shape, and there are 10 stone columns with Corinthian capitals. The main altar is flanked by two smaller chapels, just like the ancient Egyptian temples. The Coptic church means the Egyptian church. Hu-ka-Ptah is one of the ancient names for Egypt, land of the spirit of Ptah, and eventually this became Copt. When the Muslims conquered Egypt, the word Copt began to stand for all Egyptian Christians. 95% of all Egyptians Christians are Eastern Orthodox, with a small number of Catholics and Protestants. This church was built in the 6th century on the site of where the Holy Family hid. We enter the crypt with a small area of niches, identified as the place where the Holy Family slept. As we depart, the Mass is beginning, each prayer is done first in Coptic (ancient Egyptian) and then again in Arabic. Outside the church is a map showing where the Holy Family came to Egypt, overland on a route now dotted with monasteries, and they returned via the Nile and then crossed at Sinai where Moses parted the Red Sea.

We walk to the Ben Ezra synagogue, also built in the basilica style as it was a church dedicated to Angel Gabriel, then Ben Ezra in the 12th century bought this and made it a synagogue. From the 7th to the 12th century it was a church. Jews built the first synagogue in Egypt in the 3rd century BC, before Alexander, built by Jeremiah. The Romans destroyed it, then after the Romans were gone, both Christians and Jews claimed it, there were more Christians than Jews, so it became a church. In the 12th century, churches were highly taxed, they could not pay the taxes, thus the purchase by Ben Ezra. It was used as a synagogue until 1950s when most Jews left after industries and farmland were nationalized. Nasser nationalized large farms, taking 90% of their farmland and divided the remainder into 20 small farms, which pleased the poor farmers and scared the wealthy, including many Jews and Christians. Most went to Israel and the US. Today there are only 48 Jews here, descendants of the poorer Jews, this one, Ben Ezra is now a museum. There is still one synagogue in use downtown. After peace in 1979, this synagogue Ben Ezra was restored. The inside is beautiful carved and inlaid wood, with the cabinet of the Torah closed. The Ganeza is the place where documents with the name of God were stored, as they could not be destroyed, hundreds of thousands of documents were discovered there by an American Jewish archaeologist, including the oldest Torah on earth, written on leather. This area was holy because it was said that Moses prayed here. Across then river is Giza, which the Jews called Goshen. They believed that the basket with the baby Moses was found near here, because this area was close by the Nile at that time.

Our next stop is the Hanging Church, built on one of the old Roman towers in the 5th century AD with many steps leading up to it.  When this was built, the ground level was a few stories lower. The Coptic cross over the entrance has the small Maltese cross in the center and twelve points that represent the apostles. The walls and ceiling are highly carved stone and wood, with Arabic inlays over the archways where one enters the church. Before the split, the title of the Patriarch was called the Pope, who was crowned in Alexandria. The pulpit is built on 15 columns, arranged as one column and 7 pairs, which represent Jesus and the apostles and the evangelists. One of the columns is darker, symbolizing Peter who denied Christ. At one time the government prohibited restoration of old churches or building new ones. The patriarch went to the governor, who said if they had faith and could move a mountain, they could restore the church. After 3 days of fasting and prayer, the governor comes, there was an earthquake and the mountain behind the church shook and the governor fled in fear, and they were able to restore their church. The pulpit has some ancient Egyptian symbols. The cross on the pulpit is resting on a step pyramid, and the other cross is enclosed in something like cartouche for protection. We see a special 18th century icon featuring St. John the Baptist with Mary and baby Jesus (even though Jesus and St, a John were about the same age). The icon is trimmed with gold and silver painted wooden columns intricately carved. Like with many religions, people who were mostly illiterate learned the stories by pictures, not by reading documents. Interestingly, the eyes of Mary and Jesus seem to be looking at you wherever you stand, giving the impression that their heads are moving. As we exit the church, we see the Roman tower from the 2nd century AD, replacing the fortress of Babylon built in 1,300BC it was built by Babylonian captives under a Rameses II; this was the final refuge of the Romans when the Arabs conquered them. It is quite a way below the street, but back then it was ground level and close to the Nile. As we exit, we go by the first Arab capital of Cairo, with the very first mosque in Egypt. The Romans brought the capital to Alexandria (Ptolomy), and the Egyptians were a land-based defense country, riding horses from the desert, not a naval power, so the Arabs we challenged when invaded by naval forces.

Hassan tells us about Anwar Sadat as we approach his tomb. Nasser did not want a powerful general
as his vice president, fearing a coup, so he selected Sadat who was quiet. Sadat came to power in 1971, and the top generals were against him. They planned to arrest Sadat that night, but, but Sadat arrested yhem at noon, thus the revolution of 15 May. The Muslim Brotherhood was started by a teacher in the 1920s, was about Muslims being more pious. In 1930s they became violent with weapons etc., in the 40s they assassinate the Prime minister and a judge, and after that they are banned. In 1954, when Nasser became president, the Brotherhood asked for their share, Nasser denied it, there were numerous attempts to assassinate him. He then arrests the Brotherhood leaders, some were executed, other had long jail terms. Then Sadat becomes president, releases them, turns the page, said they had freedom except for politics. Nasser was loved by Egyptians but disliked by foreigners, Sadat was the opposite. In 1973, Sadat massed his army secretly on the west bank do the Suez Canal, got it reopened in 1975. In 1977 Sadat visits Israel and speaks to the Knesset. Then in 1979, the Camp David peace treaty was signed, and Egyptians and Arab countries turned against him. Some started planning his assassination then. In 1981, he was e while at a big military parade in Cairo, called a tattoo. That event was broadcast on CNN, and certain officers were chosen to participate. One officer, who had been investigated for questionable connections it cleared, told his organization that he would be there. For the event, all military rifles had no firing pins, only guards with firing pins would be presidential security. The night before the show, each of the officers who had 10 men under him, and hat officer replaced him with another fundamentalist former army soldier who was a sniper. The following day, they order sandwiches for breakfast from a restaurant nearby, where they change out the firing pins inside the sandwiches, the get the firing pins and load their rifles.  The parade started, airplanes flew over, the replacement soldier was on a Russian truck while Sadat was watching the plane. The soldier told the driver to stop, he refused, the officer pulled the handbrake, and the sniper shot Sadat in the neck. They thought Sadat would be wearing a bulletproof vest but he was not. The two men jumped off the truck, yelled at everyone to clear, Sadat was already down they hit him with 37 more bullets. Sadat said “impossible” three times as he saw them coming. They did not announce his death but that he was injured, later announced his death. His security was usually underneath him for the parade. Sadat wanted the security moved because it was being broadcast. He did not want people to think he is as afraid of his own army. They took he security behind the sitting area and by the time they arrived it was too late. After he shooting the two escaped, no one had reacted. They were arrested later as they had camera footage. They did this because they felt he Sadat was betraying Egypt and his religion. The place where  this happened was directly across from the The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, from
1973. Sadat was constructing a mosque for his burial site, but it was not finished, so they buried him under the Unknown Soldier memorial in a fine wooden box. The centotaph calls him the Reis, the Pious, the hero of war and peace, he had dedicated his life for peace and he was martyred for principles (which he had said in advance of his assassination).

We arrive  at Khan el-Khalili marketplace, and Hassan lets us loose for an hour. We find a nice blue djellaba for Madeleine, a small owl for Larry (in Egyptian called Boom), a cat for Mary, and a small necklace for Natalie. The 10th century Cairo main street was called Al Mays, with a few side streets.. Today it is a narrow lane lined with shops and layers of goods for sale hanging over the street. We go by another ginormous  shopping street (Mosqii) which is covered with umbrellas and by afternoon will be thronged with shoppers. We head back to the hotel now to rest.

This afternoon we meet up with Ahmed Emam, Nashwa’s father, a native of Egyot who lives here 4 months of the year. He drives us through the hardware and building materials district of Cairo which was fascinating and frighteningly crowded. We drive out to see the New Capital, and then back to the home he is building in New Cairo, which is quite beautiful and filled with murals of Egypt and the Bay Area. We enjoy an Egyptian dinner with him and his sister and nephew and then back to the hotel to prepare/for our last day in Egypt.

Luxor Museum, West Bank Farm Visit, 12 October 2018

Luxor Museum, West Bank Farm Visit, 12 October 2018

We pack up to leave the ship, and say farewell to the staff and the beautiful view of the Valley of the Kings. We’re off to the Luxor Museum for a visit.

Hassan tells us what happened after Tutankamun died, that the generals and priests took  over, as it continues today. Tutankhamun was the only son of Akhenaten, and the Generals and priests brought him back to Luxor and forced him to change his name and retire the old religion, all at age 9 years. He was a puppet, and the high priest, Ay, was the real power behind the throne. Noting that the mummy mask of Tutankhamun showed his ears were pierced, but he did not wear earrings; for a child to be considered an adult, he must reach 11 years, and the tradition is that while boys wear earrings, men do not. The Noble’s were eager for him to have children, so he married his sister from Nefertiti, and tried to have children, she miscarried twice. She was 11 years old when she married him at age 13. In the tomb of Tutankhamun there are two fetuses mummified, likely theirs. At age 18 he dies, we do not know exactly how. At the first examination in 1922 they noticed a wound in the skull, so the theory was that he was hit on the head. Later with further examination of the body (which remains in the tomb, they bring the examination equipment to the tomb), they found that his thigh was broken, but that seems unlikely because they could treat that. Another examination showed that he had malaria. Hassan is convinced that internal powers killed him, perhaps by poison, before he would be able to have a son.

Tutankhamun was 18 when he died, his widow was 16, so she had to marry the high priest Ay, when he was quite old. This made him the king, and he dies dafter 2 years. She was on her own again, many generals wanted this position. She sent a letter to the Syrian king, the Hittites, the eternal enemies of Egypt, she wrote to him and asked him to send one of his sons, a prince, as she did not want to marry one of her subjects. The king sent her a letter back, which we have, saying he did not believe the offer, that she wanted his son to be killed. She replied and reiterated the offer, and he replies and sends her his son. As soon as he crossed the border, he is assassinated by the army generals. One of these .generals was Rameses I and Horemheb was the other. They had a deal that Horemheb would go on the throne but Rameses would be the heir, and they kept this deal for 18 years.  Then Rameses starts the 19th  dynasty, but he was old when he came to the throne, so he only ruled for two years. His son was Seti I who came to the throne, and his son was Rameses II who later became the longest living pharaoh. After this, Egypt was always ruled by generals, up to 1952. This is a tradition in Egypt, Hassan notes that people here feel more secure when they are ruled by someone from the army.

We arrive in the Luxor Museum, opened in the 1970s. Egypt established provincial museums to help share some of the collections of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, as well as items that were discovered locally. Here lies the mummy of Rameses I, which was sold decades ago to a Nigerian, who sold it than American collector, whose heirs gave it to the Atlanta Museum, and eventually they gave it back to Egypt in a grand procession. The two huge red granite heads of Amenhotep III flank the entry, one with the crown of upper Egypt, one with the crown of lower Egypt. Both are quite beautiful, and it is nice to see the detail work up close. We see the Cache of Luxor, a group of 24 beautifully preserved statues found in 1989 at Luxor temple. They are indeed in wonderful condition, and it is amazing to think that over 3,500 years of human habitation and construction, these statues were not discovered. Almost all of them are of Horemheb or Amenhotep III. The whole museum is laid out really well with signage in English and Arabic. It is somewhat dark but the artifacts are well-lit, so there is a bit of feeling like being in a tomb of dark sanctuary. We have a whole hour to explore the museum, which is so nice, there is a lot to see.

Outside after the museum, Hassan explains how the obelisks were moved. They were transported first by ship from the upper Nile, then over a series of logs on land to the temple. Then the top is put onto the ramp (which is already there from building the towers) until it rests on the buried tower. They dig and bury the base of the obelisk, and build four walls around the base, lower than the towers, they fill the four-walled room with sand, and they go the the top of the room.  They start letting the obelisk down with ropes, until the bottom of the obelisk sits in the sand. The top is tied with massive ropes pulled by four teams of men, with their leader on the top of the tower giving instructions. A small door at the bottom of the room is opened and the sand is pulled out. Meanwhile the top is in motion, and while in motion it is lighter. It is stood upright on the sand, the men are still holding the obelisk from the top. The walls of the room are used to access for carving the hieroglyphs and it is only carved after being erected. Scaffolds leaning on the walls allowed access for carving.

We arrive at the Hotel Steingenberger on the Nile. It is historic and quite beautiful, a large courtyard filled with plants and two restaurants with terraces. Out room is lovely and spacious, and overlooks the Nile, we can just see the Temple of Hatshepsut in the distance, a stunning view. After a short refresh, we head back to the West Bank via boat for a visit with a local farmer for lunch.

We come to the home of a farmer named Achmed. Some of his children and nephews meet us at the boat, and we walk a short way to his lovely white home by the shore. A large table is set out under a palm frond roof, and we all sit down. We begin with a mixed salad of tomato and greens, and bread that is baked in the sun, accompanied by tahini – everything is made from what is grown on the farm, except the rice which comes from the delta. Then comes a steamed zucchini, and cabbage leaves stuffed with rice and fruit, sliced potato with tomato baked in a tagine, okra in a sauce, shredded beef in a tomato sauce, and barbecued chicken. Everything is delicious, and we finish with the small sweet Egyptian bananas and hibiscus tea.

Achmed’s family came from the area near Aswan, and when the dam was to be built they moved here. This West Bank was always flooded, but with the dam, land suddenly became available which several farmers claimed, including his family. In addition to farming with his brothers, he makes furniture from palm trees as his father did. He gives us a demonstration: he uses a hammer made of acacia wood, which is very hard – he has been using this for 30 years. From the date palm he uses both green and dried fronds. He cuts the green with a machete, then skins the green part. He chisels some holes in a green section. He then takes a dry section and splits it, putting the dried section into the hole in the green, after which he will leave it to dry, so the green hole shrinks and holds tight to the dry part. They also make a rope out of date palm leaves, because cotton ropes would get eaten by the water buffalo in a few minutes. Achmed deftly weaves a date palm rope in about two minutes, and we all get to try pulling on it.

We go around the back of the house, where Achmed shows us the young water buffalo kept in an open enclosure behind the house,. A 10-day old lamb runs in and we hear its mother calling it, and one of the children takes it back. Some ducks and chicken are in the next pen, and nearby is a young horse maybe 3 months old.  Achmed and the children show us how they grind the dried wheat using a round stone with a wooden turning stick. The large clay oven is fed by leftover stalks from the animal feed, which they leave on the road the be crushed by the cars go by and then burn. The bread is cooked on flat rounds made from egg cartons soaked in water and reshaped. They bake bread every 5 days, 50 loaves at a time, for the extended family. We return to the front of the house, and Achmed lets us come into his very nice home to meet his wife, sister, and sister-in-law, who are cleaning up in the kitchen. We exit through a garden where hibiscus flowers are growing amid citrus trees. We head back to the boat, and enjoy on the way back the story of how Hassan knew a Achmed and how this lunch came to be part of the tour.

In the afternoon a few of us decide to take a walk to the Winter Palace Hotel, a fairly warm 20 minute walk. It is the historic hotel which was once the winter palace of the royal family, a beautiful place, very classic and Victorian in feel, featured in Agatha Christie and Elizabeth Peters novels. We go out to the spacious gardens where it feels 10 degrees cooler. Inside we explore a bit, and settle in the Victorian bar for a drink. It is all dark wood and upholstered dark red walls and comfy wing back chairs, probably much as it was 125 years ago. We walk carefully back to be hotel …. most of this area has few sidewalks, but because it is Friday it mis less crowded than usual.

Our group assembles for a carriage ride through Old Luxor. I think more than a few of us were unhappy with the somewhat neglected condition of the horses in Edfu, who were all very thin and tired. Hassan tells us that the many horses in Luxor are monitored by animal welfare authorities, and drivers are rewarded for taking good care of their horses; they do in fact look healthier, although the donkeys we see pulling carts still look very skinny. Our driver is named Achmed, he is originally from Aswan, are here with his wife and they have two sons. He looks about 18 years old, is very friendly, and seems  experienced in driving the buggy.

We drive through a more modern area of Luxor, where every building seems to be under construction of  some sort, either visibly unfinished or with piles of building materials out front. We see a man with a donkey cart carrying what looks like 35-40 sacks of concrete, more than we could even fit in our van or a truck. How the donkey pulls this I cannot imagine. We see lots of families on motorcycles, usually the father driving, one child in front of him on the gas tank, another behind, and behind that child is his wife, often in hijab and all black, carrying a small baby; no one wears helmets here. The vans with the open doors rush by us throughout the trip, and the horse seems unfazed by this. Soon we come to the Old Luxor area, where stores and markets line the narrow street – and by narrow I mean the width of the carriage plus one person to squeeze by on either side, which they do. Clothing hangs everywhere, both washing hung out to dry by the apartments above, and many hung across the street attached to a shop display below. All kinds of fruit and vegetables and baked goods are available for sale, shoes, dresses, djellabas, plastic home items, cookware, jewelry, and more. I am a little  worried we are going to run over someone, but both Achmed and the folks walking seem to navigate this with ease. There are enormous number of children out, often without an adult, some as young as 3-4 years, and sometimes  quite close to traffic.

There are far more women out at this time than during the day. We see a vacant lot where it appears that 7-8 donkeys are feeding and being bedded down for the night. We go through one area which seems quite a bit more poor and run down than the bustling areas we passed earlier. Soon we arrive at the bridge over the Avenue of the Sphinxes, and we pause to see Luxor temple at one end and Karnak temple at the other; it is going to be quite impressive when it opens.

We end our trip at a coffee house where have refreshing hibiscus and lemon drinks, and Hassan demonstrates the shisha, and a  few brave souls try it out. We return to the hotel via bus, have a small bite at the Lebanese restaurant in the hotel, and return upstairs to pack for our early departure. We go out on the balcony and enjoy the lights of the Nile below. I would love to come back here sometime.

East Bank, Karnak and Luxor Temples, 11 October 2018

East Bank Luxor, Karnak and Luxor Temples,Thursday, 11 October 2018

We head out at 7:30 for Karnak Temple. Everyone looks much more rested, after a relaxing afternoon and evening, and who wouldn’t after getting up at 2:45am yesterday?

On the bus there was a question posed about military service, which is compulsory for men, at least one year for the educated, three years for those who are uneducated. Women do national service, which is mandatory if a person wishes to work in the government, otherwise it is not required.

Luxor comes from Al Aksar, meaning “palaces” as any stone building to early Arabs was a palace (700AD). It was called Epitrecit, the southern shrine around unification, also the southern capital. It becomes the overall capital in the New Kingdom, called was, which means the scepter in the hand of the pharaoh, meaning authority. It keeps that name until the Greeks come and they name it Thebes, the hundred-gated city, because of all the temples. This city was always critical for unification, and the kings who unified the country were always from Luxor. In the New Kingdom, they decided to invade neighbors to make a more secure border, and they kept enlarging and invading, and eventually Luxor was the capital of Egypt and 14 countries were united in the empire from Sudan to Libya to Turkey to Crete/Malta/Cyprus. Thus Luxor was the capital of a large, rich empire, and Hassan says Luxor holds 1/3 of all the monuments in the world. Temples in the East Bank were for everyday life, while those in the West were royal funeral temples, and as the largest capital, had the most temples. Karnak temple is the largest. Nothing remains of the city and towns and even royal palaces, because everything was built mud brick, for everyday life, while for the afterlife, tombs and temples and shrines and obelisks were made of stone.

Karnak temple (named for the local village) was the main temple of the whole empire , and the god Amun was worshipped here. Amun who had been a minor god, becomes the main god. Amun-Ra was the god combined from Amun and Ra, and has the two large feathers in his headdress (in English we say Amun-Re). As we approach Karnak, we drive along the Corniche du Nile, the main street of Luxor, along which are beautiful old hotels, including the one we will stay at tomorrow, the Steigenberger. We go by the Winter Palace Hotel, which was indeed the last palace of the royal family. Nearby is the temple of Luxor, much smaller than Karnak. Karnak and Luxor were attached by an avenue of sphinxes.

Karnak temple was the main temple of Amun-Ra, started before 3,000BC as a small temple, then a small stone temple in the Old Kingdom, which was later demolished and rebuilt in the Middle Kingdom, which was then demolished and the huge temple we will see today was built in the New Kingdom over time. Today parts of apartment blocks are being demolished to restore the 2-mile Avenue of the Sphinxes to make this an open air museum, to make it look like it did in ancient times. Various kings added to the stone temple with new sections and enclosure and walls. The word Amun became the word Amen, used in various religions, Amen means so be it, in Christianity, Judaism, Islam (Ameen). In ancient Egypt, after a long prayer, people would say the name of the god of the temple instead of repeating the whole prayer, thus prayer and Amun, prayer and Amun.

Inside the spacious, air-conditioned visitor center is a huge detailed model of the Karnak temples, plural. There are three temples, one for each of triad, one for Amun-Ra, one for Nut his wife, and one for Khons, son of Amun-Ra and the god of the moon. The temple occupies 61 acres and is the largest on earth. Hassan jokes that we will see only 59 acres. The large enclosure was made of mud brick as it was frequently enlarged, but the gates were made of stone. In 1,600BC was the original small temple from which kings added. The main hypostyle hall is quite grand, which has something like a central nave which allowed light into the two side halls.

We walk out onto the plaza, which has been cleared of the village which surrounded the temple. Some tree roots were found from 1,500 BC, so the new trees were painted in the same spot. From here we can see across the Nile to the Temple of Hatshepsut, a prime location, which also had a view of the obelisks of Hatshepsut here. We walk along the wide place together to the entrance. There is a mausoleum of two 10th century sheiks, similar to saints. Nearby was the quai from the Nile, which is how people approached the area, including two huge ramps used for moving stone blocks. We come to the avenue of the rams, with the body of the lion and the head of the ram, Amun-Ra, with the king as the small statue under the god’s protection, this  was built in 1,300 BC by Rameses.

We enter the Grand Forecourt, with two lines of Amun-Ra statues continuing the avenue to the entry. Habu, who defeated the sea peoples in 20th dynasty, built a whole temple outside the main gate to the right. In the 24th dynasty, the built two new colonnades to the side, and they removed the ram-headed gods to the side. In 25th dynasty were ruling the Libyans kings, a new colonnade was built in the middle with 10 huge columns with a roof. One large column is fully restored, with the closed lotus blossom capital. Later, Alexander conquers Egypt, and this interrupted the two large entries which are unfinished.  Next to the tower is the original mud brick ramp used the build the towers, discovered about 1880. Before this discovery, it was thought that the Herodotus approach of pulleys was how  things were built. This ramp was never removed because the towers were never finished. We come to the statue of Rameses II in the “mummy” pose with feet together, the curly beard, and arms crossed over his chest, which shows him like god Osiris, after death as a god. Across the court is the statue of Rameses alive, with the left leg forward and arms at the side, and the straight beard. Most people stand with the left leg a bit forward, this is the most comfortable position, due to blood flow. We also tend to start walking with the left leg, just like the arm, always left-right-left-right, thus it also became a sign of leadership. Early archaeologists thought women were of lower status because his wife was tiny below him,  but this was actually related to the king becoming a god, but his wife does not become a goddess, so she cannot be represented full size, but only smaller as a human. He could put a large statue of her outside the temple but not full size in the Temple. The small statue of her is like having something he could look down to see as he loved her, just as we carry photographs. In this statue, she is carrying a flower.

We walk through the gate, and a Hassan poses a question, about whether the figures are ancient Egyptian or Greco-Roman, and we can tell by the more rounded body shape that they are Greco-Roman. These wall sections were added to narrow the gate and add a place for Ptolomy to have his figures. Next we go to the enormous hypostyle hall, which has 134 columns, compared to the 18 we saw the other day. Many films have been made here. It is breathtaking in size and scope, and imagining what it looked like when it was all painted, it must have been thrilling to see. The central set of columns have the open papyrus, all the others have the papyrus bud for capitals. The slight bulge at the base of the column is to make it look like the base of the flower, rather than structural. The main columns are 25 meters, the side columns are 24 meters, called basilica style, which Europeans thought they invented but all ancient hypostyle are like this. This is the third greatest achievement in ancient Egyptian building history, the first is the Great pyramid of Khufu, the second is Abu Simbel, and this is the third. Rameses did #2 and #3, he was the greatest builder, with temples and monuments everywhere. The hypostyle hall is about 17,000 square feet. The diameter of the column is decided by the size of the roof slab span above, and the spacing is decided by this as well, in both directions. How did they build this? They figured out the area, drew on the ground where the columns would go, then dug down for the foundation, built the bases and then leveled them all at the ground, then they started building the columns. It was fairly easy to build up to about 6 feet, all the columns, out of square stones, then they used the ramp to build another layer of two meters, then more ramping, then more two meters of stones, etc. then they ramped up one last time and installed the slabs. They began to remove the ramps, and three groups of artisans worked. The first polished stone and shape capitals of columns, and the whole column was originally the diameter of the columns. Then the second group came with hammer and chisel and inscribed the hieroglyphs and figures, and third group, the painters came and did the decoration. Each painter handled one color, which was water-based and colored by ground stones, bound with egg white, beeswax, and table salt; all had limestone as the white base. What keeps these colors visible is that the were painted at a certain temperature. The master would first go through and put a dot of color for the paint, like painting by numbers now. Each layer was done to the step of painting, then the ramp was  removed, then the three teams did their work, then ramp removed, etc. This whole hypostyle hall took some time, it is estimated at 8-10 years, since this was done by Rameses II, who was impatient and powerful. Hassan says he is the only pharaoh who would have wanted next day delivery. Painted areas of temples are amazing when there is anything preserved, because they were out in the open, unlike tombs which were sealed up. The name of Rameses was inscribed multiple times on each column, cut very deeply. Rameses had usurped prior kings’ materials and buildings by chopping off the old name and adding his own, so he expected the same after his death, thus his name is all over, and if the cartouche was cut deeply someone else could not carve his name in the same spot. So throughout, his cartouche and name are more deeply carved than the rest of the decoration.

Thuthmosis I built the next temple, he is the father of Hatshepsut. He placed two obelisks here. Hatshepsut added her own obelisk. She disappeared, and Thuthmosis III extended the temple all the way to the far end. Then Horemheb added his extension to the side, as is the case of the other kings of the 18th dynasty, and 10 new towers. Where we now see a crane, Akhenaten enclosed this temple and built a temple to Aten. Akhenaten moves the capital to Amarna, then he dies, Tutankhamun came back, people still disliked the new religion and Akhenaten, and the late general- kings took the stones that Akhenaten was using and repurposed them for new towers. They could tell that the blocks were now in their original places. Then comes Seti I, farther of a Rameses II, who extended the temple further.

We come to the  obelisk, which is one huge piece of red granite, always. For smaller obelisks they could use limestone, but this one came from of Aswan 200 kilometers away. The purpose of the obelisk was for the god Ra. Each obelisk is topped by a pyramid. There are few obelisks in the Old Kingdom because the pyramids. By the Middle Kingdom they were no longer building pyramids, so there were obelisks everywhere instead to commemorate Ra. Hatshepsut “heard” the voice of her father Ra, telling her to erect two obelisks made of gold, but she could not find enough gold. She instead made two massive red granite obelisks, because golden obelisks could not be faked. Thus is the expression “carved in stone” for truth. The gold off the obelisk was stolen soon after, as gold does not stick to red granite like it does to wood. She also said that the obelisks were finished in 7 months, which was impossible, perhaps it was 7 years, or perhaps she meant just the finishing of decoration and gold.  How was this 29 meter tall, 300-ton obelisk erected? We will discuss this later. The upper part is more yellow, because her successor built earthen walls around the lower section with her name then covered it, with only the top part about Ra visible. Hassan jokes that the top has a suntan.

Nearby is the top of the obelisk, showing Amun-Ra leaving his hands on Hatshepsut as king, showing great support for her. This is just near the location of the sacred lake, near the place where the priests lived. The lake was connected directly to the canal by pipes fed with fresh water related to the flood. The large scarab statue nearby is not from here but was brought here in the 19th century. People even of the Christian and Muslim faith found the scarab lucky, and the legend is that you walk around it three times for good luck or healing, or seven times for finding a mate or pregnancy. Lots of people are doing this, and even though it seems silly, we do too.

We have a little time to explore on our own, and we find a side shrine to Hatshepsut where she is being given life in a stream of ankhs from her father Amun-Ra. Her figure has been chopped out by her successor, but the intent of the painting is still clear.

We now head to the Papyrus Institute where we will see papyrus made. Papyrus has lasted 4,500 years so far, we saw ancient papyrus in the Egyptian Museum. When the ancient Egyptian religion died out so did all types of knowledge, medicine, industry, etc. Papyrus had died out along the Nile after all the dams. An archaeologist brought some from Sudan and cultivated it. He started an institute to teach this art again. Most of what is seen in markets is made of banana leaves and sugar cane, not real papyrus. Here we will see new artworks on papyrus, signed by the artist, with copies of scenes from temples and tombs. Hassan also explains how he negotiates discounts with various stores. The manager does a demonstration for us. He shows us the papyrus plant, which is tropical, and now grown by the government. The stem is triangular, like the pyramid, a symbol of eternity, and in the north where it thrives the stem is several inches in diameter. The closed flower has a bulge, the open one is a nice spread almost triangle in shape. The stem is cut based on the length of the paper desired. The papyrus is peeled, and the peels used for baskets and sandals. The inner part is sliced, and it has about 10% sugar vs. 50%+ for sugar cane. The manager rolls it with a rolling pin to remove the water and it becomes flexible. It is left in water for a week so the sugar can seep out, and this sugar water is used as glue. The papyrus is now a tan color and the strips are laid across each other. He puts it between two pieces of carpet and puts it in a press for one week. It comes out strong yet flexible. Fake papyrus is made of banana leaves with chemical glue which will retain lots of sugar, and it will crack once dry and out of the plastic. Real papyrus is also waterproof and after soaking can be disassembled and reused. It accepts all inks and color, and can even go through a laser printer for invitations. The manager describes some key scenes, the judgement of a king with Maat and the king confessing to the 14 gods above the judgment, and the tree of life, with the four young stage birds look to the east (life), while the bird of old age or wisdom looks to the west.

Luxor has two temples to the triad including Amun-Ra, Karnak and Luxor. Luxor temple was built to celebrate the sacred marriage of Amun-Ra. King Amenhotep III was a son from the second wife, and he married a commoner, not his half sister, so he copied the story of Hatshepsut, and claimed that he is son of the god Amun-Ra from his body, that there was a marriage between Amun-area and his mother. Thus he was accepted on the throne for 30 years. As we approach the temple, the sun is setting and the lights are going up on Luxor temple with a crescent moon above. This was built 1,500 BC, and Rameses connected this with the Avenue of the Sphinx, and usurped the whole of the  temple with his name everywhere.  There is also a 10th century mosque inside the temple grounds, and there was a church here in part of the temple at one time.

Inside the two towers is Amenhoteps’s colonnade. There are five large statues in front of the towers, until last year there were only three. There is one huge obelisk out front, the other is in France (Muhammad Ali got a French clock tower in exchange). The obelisks were put here by Rameses II.  The obelisk leans slightly left, as one of the base part sank into the silt, but this is still secure. The hieroglyphs look very crisp and new, as if they were done yesterday . There are baboons at the base, as the baboon was considered related to the god Ra and sunrise. This temple was used at dawn and at dusk. Twice a year, the triad of gods processed from Karnak to Luxor temple on the avenue.

Almost all temples are aligned on one axis, but because the statues of Rameses were off center, Rameses decided to make the entrance towers slightly askew of the axis. Inside the large courtyard, we see the wall of the 10th century mosque, with the entrance about 20’ over where we now stand. A huge mound covered the temple over time, as early Christians abandoned the old religion, and the temple was buried by trash, built on for houses, stables, mosques, and more. The sacred area though, is always the sacred area, the early temple, then the church nearby the sanctuary, and the mosque, Erie all of the same spot. At the mosque there was a procession for the sheik of the mosque with flags and festivities and a ceremonial boat, similar to what happened in ancient Egypt.

Rameses II constricted 74 beautiful columns here with the papyrus capitals. The later columns from Amenhotep are rather plain, slender and deeply fluted with simple capitals. The huge statues of Rameses are similar to others with the crown of unification. Just past they entrance is a major panel which features the god of the Nile Hapi, depicted twice, tying the body of the king with lotus flowers. The god Hali is depicted with a breast as he represents both the make and female aspects of the river and of life. The nearby statue of Amenhotep and his wife Tiye; her features more Nubian. She was a strong character, and ruled over her husband and her son, Akhenaten. Across from this statues is another of Amun-Ra and his wife Nut; they were equivalents of the king and his wife for the god and goddess. This statue was built by Tutankhamun, so this is one of the few representations of him outside the tomb, also on the walls are scenes of belly dancing, although these have faded over the past 30 years.

We now go into the forecourt with its 14 huge columns, leading to the colonnade and the sanctuary beyond. The far end of the sanctuary was turned into a church by early Christians, as they hated worshipping the Roman emperors and gladly turned to making this Christian. We explore all the way to the very end of the temple, through essentially 10 “rooms,” just where the back of tho temple meets the road. There is so much here to explore and we have barely scratched the surface. We gather back at the Avenue of the Sphinxes to return to the ship and freshen up for dinner.on the way I notice that Luxor has many more stop lights than we saw in Cairo, and lane separator lines. Hassan also noted that Luxor is very clean, which is true.

Luxor, Valley of the Kings, and a Balloon Ride, 10 October 2018

Luxor, the Valley of the Kings, and a Balloon Ride, 10 October 2018

We arise early - really early, 3:00am – for a van to the shores of the Nile where we boarded a boat decorated with lotus flowers and balloons and birds, to go to the West Bank and the balloon base. The boat has a table in the middle laid with coffee and tea, though we had coffee at the ship. It is quite dark but we saw a number of police en route as well as small shops opening really early. We motor across the Nile and take a van to the launch site. Along the way we see the brightly lit tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Around 5:15am they begin to inflate the giant ballon which will take 28 people in the basket, way more than I expected (I was thinking a Wizard of Oz type basket). They start the burners which are very hot and sound and feel like the breath of a dragon. We load into the basket by climbing over the side and quickly we are aloft.

The view is utterly magnificent… I have never been in a hot air balloon before, and did not realize how hot it would be. We float upwards slowly, rising above the launch area, suddenly the rising sun’s rays spread over the landscape and we see the Tomb of Hatshepsut, bathed in a rosy glow. The sun rises and sets very quickly here. As we turn we see a temple of  Rameses, and then we begin to see the many tombs cut into the mountain as well as the remains of buildings below. We see the workers’ village called Deir el Medina, and a temple of Habu. In some places we can see down deep into the excavations themselves. From this vantage point we can see the tan sands of the the rock areas as well as the bright green cultivated areas with clusters of houses. We continue to soar over the area, as the pilot deftly goes above some power lines, and then we brush the tops of some crops and land in a dirt field. We are quickly surrounded by groups of very slender boys and skinny white donkeys, as the crew of men run up to help guide the deflation, carefully keeping the balloon from the hot area of the burners. We dismount the basket and walk through the dirt field to the minibus, which takes us back to the large bus by what I think is the Colossus of Memnon. Our breakfast box await us and we drive to the Valley of the Kings.

According to ancient Egyptian thinking, the sun rose in the east and went down or died in the west, so the East side of the Nile is where people lived the west side is where they had cemeteries. There were royal cemeteries, cemeteries for nobles and high officials, and for others lower ranked and poor people, and the royal funeral temples were built a distance from the royal  tombs themselves to foil robbers. Temples built in the green valley were often washed away so what remains in the best condition are the ones cut from rock. What remained of Amenhotep III’s temple are two huge statues called the colossus of Memnon, made from a single piece of stone. After an earthquake, people thought they heard a woman’s voice, and according to Greek legend they called it Memnon, after the dead king who was mourned by his mother. This became the first tourist site, many Greeks came here in the 1st and 2nd century. It turns out that when the statute cracked, the cracks would heat up after cool morning breezes and caused a crying sound. After the 2nd century they restored the statues and the crying stopped. This is all that remains of an entire funeral temple. About 10 years ago, part of a statue was discovered by a farmer and now there is an active excavation at the site. Huge amounts of artifacts are being discovered.

We continue on to the Ramesseum which is very large, and includes some huge mud brick granaries surrounding the temple. A cache of royal mummies was recovered from a tomb under a house, including the mummy of Rameses II. The rule at the time was that any antiquities found underneath a house belonged to the person who owned the house. Ultimately people near the Vally of the Kings were evicted by the army and removed to a new settlement, and more 700 tombs have now been found in this area. By the 18th dynasty, all royal burials happened here. The tombs were guarded, and 62 royal tombs were found, but only one, Tutankhamun’s, was found intact, because it had buried by debris from another tomb nearby. The tomb of Tutankhamun was actually found by Howard Carter’s water boy.

We then head toward the Valley of the Kings, an area which was supposed to be secret. One architect left information about the location on the wall of his tomb, which allowed tomb robbers to refocus their efforts. We see the home of Howard Carter with a small museum to Tutankhamun.

We enter the visitor center and see the wonderful 3D map of the valley, which includes a clever model of the tombs underneath the surface. I search for number 62 which is Tutankhamum, and it is tiny compared to the others. We exit to the ticket area from which we will depart for the tombs.

We board a yellow tram not much bigger than the Lakeside Lark at Fairyland, and head up the bumpy paved road toward the first tomb we will see. We are skipping the tomb of Tutankhamun, in part because of the large separate fee required, and also because nothing of value remains, including wall paintings. The kings of the 18th, 19th, and 20th dynasty are all buried here. The stone here is all limestone.

We walk to the first tomb, that of Rameses IV, 1100 BC, and it is breathtaking, filled with beautifully painted walls and ceilings from 3,100 years ago. In the main chamber we see two versions of Nut cradling the sky and earth below. There is even graffiti in ancient Greek, from the time when early Christians were hiding here.The painting is directly onto the rock, not onto plaster; the plastered areas are restored. The strange repeated calamari shapes apparently indicate the walls of a building. The walls overall depicts the afterlife, as they understood it through the eyes of their present lives. Ancient Egyptians disliked the night, because it was the time of ghosts and evil spirits and wild animals. They believed that when the king died, he would have to go through the pictures of the 12 hours of the night to reach eternal life. The prayers to protect the king from night were prayers inscribed on the wall, rather than waiting for priests to recite prayers; these are called pyramid texts. These were done first so that if the king died early, at least the prayers would be ready. The main scene is a night scene with Ra in the boat, protected by a snake and further protected by gods. After each tomb we gather in the shade so we can ask questions of Hassan. In this case, we learned that when a character is upside down it is evil, a god stunned is sideways inside a cartouche, an evil god is upside down, and when there were large groups of snakes, a big snake is good, a small snake is evil. The  good snake would eat the procession characters to protect them, a bigger snake protects against the smaller snakes.

We all know the story of Moses. When Moses goes to the pharaoh to try to convert him, he turns pharaoh’s rod into a snake, but the pharaoh laughs because he sees this as simple magic his priests could do. Pharaoh calls the best wizards in Egypt, to meet up on a feast day in front of a large audience. Moses asked everyone to throw things on the ground and these turned into small snakes, he turns his staff into a massive snake which is known to be a good snake, which amazes people. In the story, the big snake started eating the little snakes, and the wizards knelt down and converted. For this they were persecuted for this new belief.

The tomb is that is next is that of Rameses IX, but first we go by the entrance to the tomb of Tutankhamum, which is essentially under a large pyramidal mound of debris. We see two versions of Nut, one for day and one for night. A vertical section has beautifully detailed animals, from the bottom, a duck, an owl, a bull, and Horus on top. We note that there are no tails on the gods, tails are for gods being dealt with on earth, as opposed to the gods in the afterlife who do not have tails. We see the extended ankh with four horizontal lines below, going between Osoris and the young pharaoh, which means life and stability. We also see a line of six boats, all with different god’s head on the prow and stern. A small frontal face represents the preposition “on.” If a frontal head appears in a scene, is a legacy of the change in artistic style during Akhenaten. A god depicted with two heads represents the god watching over the king in a 360 circle, with the two heads meant to depict circular motion. The sides areas were for storage of specific types of items, jewelry, musical instruments, etc. The two drawings of Nut in the main chamber were of Night on the right and Day on the left. When the solar disk is being swallowed with the solar disk inside her body, it is night.

Now we discuss the discovery of Tutankhamum’s tomb. The outer tomb is of Rameses VI closer to the surface, and which covered the tomb of Tutankhamum. Belzoni in the 19th  cemetery had dug out 17 tombs in 2 years of work but he was not doing scoentific excavation. By 1860s there was an Egyptian Dept. of Antiquities, people.

Members of the many nationalities which were digging here until 1910, found 61 tombs. People felt there was nothing left here to discover. Why did Howard Carter dig here, when others had said that there was nothing new to find in the Valley of the Kings? One say he was walking through on his horse, his horse fell and he was thrown, and he saw a stone with a cartouche with the name of Tutankhamun. Nothing with the name of Tutankhamun was ever found before that, so he thought he tomb would still exist and would be intact. He needed a sponsor, so he spoke to a rich British man, Lord Carnarvon, with whom he would split the find, and they had a deal (this was in 1918). They went for permission, and started digging in the marked squares. He started far away from the final tomb location, and after the third season with no discoveries, things looked not good. In 1921, Lord Carnarvon wanted out of the deal, Carter asked him for one more season and then he would end. He knew he had one section left to do, and suspected this is where the tomb was. So Howard Carter started selling everything he could, and when Lord Carmarvon saw him selling things, he realized Carter was serious and he agreed to finance for one more season. They started in October 1922, and he tomb is found 4 November 1922. Carter’s water boy Abdul Rassoul, who kept the water jars filled, one day found a shady spot near the work area, he was pretending to dog with a stick, then he felt something solid which was a step. He jumped up, yelled for Carter, by the end of the day they were standing in front of the stair wall. Carter and Carnarvon became famous, Abdul told the media how he found he tomb and he was much-photographed and spent his life talking with tourists and became rich.

The law of antiquities used to mean that half went to discoverer, half went to the Egyptian government.  But the laws were changed a few years before the the Tutankhamun discovery, which gave the discoverer only 10%. Nothing with gold or unique items could go to the discovered, nor anything (small statues, etc.) in multiples or leas than 10.

We go to see the third tomb, which had to take a detour to avoid another tomb. Each king’s tomb was begun the day after coronation, but of course they would not know how long they would have, so they make a basic tomb and them the longer the king lives, the more they can add to the tomb and they extend it.

Tuthmosis III is the greatest king ever, he succeeds Hatshepsut, and he enlarged the tomb to be the largest ever. Tuthmosis was humble, and his tomb was up a stone pinnacle and then down inside. Of course  tomb robbers did ultimately find it.

We now see the tomb of Queen Ta-Useret. She overlapped from the 19th to the 20th dynasty. Her husband the king was Emones, they had one child who was very ill, but he was the only heir. He got polio and was never strong, he became king after his father died but he died two years later, and the queen was alone on the throne. She had to marry someone to be king, as they did not want a repeat of Hatshepsut. She married a general as the army was more strong than the priests. She chose a Syrian army general. When the Egyptians conquered a place, they told people that if they kept fighting they would be killed, if they accepted the Egyptian way they get to keep their business and rank. This was a Syrian general named Eresu, someone with no roots or no family. All the other generals were upset at the choice, especially the top general Seknakht. Two years later the queen died, she is buried in dignity, then the generals went to the palace and attacked Eresu. Seknakt became the next king of Egypt, but he was old so they were working quickly to dig his tomb. They hit an earlier tomb, they stopped but could not restart. So he came to the tomb of the queen, opened her tomb, kicked her mummy out, and did an extension it he died before it was complete, so he was buried in another chamber. The wall paintings depict a queen, so they plastered over sections and showed his name and image. When the tomb was discovered, they thought it was his but eventually they saw the queen’s images underneath. Hassan tells us there is a feminine feel to the tomb, and it was used by early Christians so there is defacement and soot damage. Indeed, the ceiling is lower, there are more female figures, and the two figures closest to the entry door greeting Horus are both the queen rather than the king. One of the most stunning images is that of the Queen riding a huge snake with a lasso around his neck, because snakes could move quickly across the sand.  Later, Hassan notes that there were 12 gates, 12 gods of good, 12 gods of evil. If the king did not know the answers to all the questions he would be asked in the afterlife asked, he would be dealt with by a three-headed snake, thus the answers were on the walls. Dots are used to indicate water or incense.

Finally we go to the tomb of Rameses VI, a separate ticket with stunning paintings very intact. This tomb was actually made by Rameses V, whose tomb hid that of Tutankhamun from discovery for thousands of years. Rameses VI was not the son of Rameses V but his cousin, and VI hated V. He kicked V out of this tomb and carved his name in various locations. As the  plaster came off it was clear that the tomb was originally of Rameses V. This tomb is spectacular, with mostly intact wall paintings and bas reliefs.

As we depart shortly before noon I think it is about 95 degrees. We are all melting and slowing down a bit, especially given the early start.

Our last stop is the Temple of Hatshepsut, which we saw from above, a place I have dreamed about seeing. There are three deep terraces, built in 1,500 BC by her architect, high priest, and boyfriend, Senenmut. Hatshepsut was the daughter of a king called Tuthmosis I. After he died his son Tuthmosis II succeeded him, because the rule was that if the King’s queen (chief wife) did not have a son, the son of a second wife would marry his half-sister to succeed the king. In this case Tuthmosis II had to marry his half-sister Hatshepsut. She was resisted by priests and nobles when she tried to take the throne after his death, first claiming that she was a man, then claiming that Amun-Ra is her father, with a human woman as her mother, whom Amun-Ra breathes life into through the ankh into the mother, as depicted on the wall of the temple (similar to the Immaculate conception of Mary). Later we see this scene, with the mother visibly pregnant after her encounter with Amun-Re. This is accepted by the people, and she rules for 18 years. Her son is Tuthmosis III, and after he came to the throne, Hatshepsut disappeared. We are going to her funeral temple, which would all have been brightly painted, standing out against the tan of the desert. During her reign she fought no wars, instead she send expeditions to keep the peace and did not lose one inch of her empire.  Tuthmosis III was the son of Tuthmosis II by a second wife. Hatshepsut was his mother in law, stepmother and aunt. The temple was uncovered by a group of Polish archaeologists, and they spent 41 years restoring this. There are a number of small tombs in the walls above the temple. There is a large spacious home on the other side, built for American archaeologists from the University of Chicago, a big change from the usual accommodations of tents.

We hike up to the very top of the temple for a beautiful view and an overview of the whole restoration site. There is a lot of work still underway on the side temples. Some of the carvings are so well-preserved they look as if they were carved yesterday. We finally find the panels with the story of Amun-Re giving birth which while faded are still quite clear. It is getting quite hot now, and we are all clearly a bit tired from this long, warm day.  We pass a final gauntlet of vendors in the marketplace but even they seem tired out by the heat, they are much less assertive than in the morning. Back on the bus we get some water and head back to the boat for lunch and a shower, both of which sound great right now. We take a nap and feel quite refreshed for a barbecue dinner on the deck with a lovely breeze.

Kom Ombo, Edfu, and Sailing the Nile, 9 October 2018

Kom Ombo, Edfu, and Sailing the Nile, 9 October 2018

We arise around 6:00am, and after breakfast, we disembark at Kom Ombo on the east side of the Nile. As we ascend, we see the water line on the Li prat if they. Temple, and they had the dog out the temple. Here’s the found a New Kingdom temple, and a middle Kingdom temple, and there is still an engineering project and an archaeological Project going on. We can tell that the temple capitals we are see these are Greco-Roman era, with the ornate capitals. Kom in Arabic means mound, Ombo means gold, as  ancient Egyptians lived on mounds. This was the center of collecting gold from all over before distributing. This temple was dedicated to Sobek, the crocodile god. Animals were worshipped as gods, either because they were helpful like cows, or they were feared like cobras and crocodiles. This area had a lot of  crocodiles, thus Sobek. Here the Nile is about to make a big turn, and thus an island formed with still  water, an ideal location for crocodiles. Today there are no crocodile or hippos here because of the dam on the upper Nile.

There are two temples here, thus two protection symbols of the wings, solar disks, and cobras. One temple here is for Sobek a form of Seth, and the other for Horus. By having a “good” god Horus he balances out the “evil” god Sobek. The bird above the entry has some green, red, and blue on the wings above. Originally every inch of the temple was painted, and those that are below the lintel are better preserved. In the area it does not rain, but dust in the air covers the art. This temple was from about 200BC, as it was already sacred to other gods before. No mortar is used, nothing to stick the stones together, the stones are fit carefully together including the roof. With the Greek period they started to use joints and dovetail construction, mostly red granite for the double triangle dovetail pieces. Sometimes they used copper which could be melted and was flexible, but this was rare because of cost.

Tuthmosis III used the raised bas relief, Rameses does sunk relief which is quicker and less expensive thus allowing him to make more temples. Everything is doubled on each side of this temple. Discussing the unique style of perspective used in Egyptian art, it takes the front and the side together (Hassan does a cute demonstration of this). This was a way to show a third dimension, rather than showing things overlapping they would usually show up. Males were usually shown with feet farther apart than females, especially with kings. Often they show people with two right hands because it emphasizes the strength of the right arm. The particular way this is done shows the best side of each body part. On this particular bas relief, we see the king with Sobek in a textured kilt, with the goddesses in a diaphanous dress, a textured wig, with the navel showing and only one breast. Ancient Egyptians were all depicted as very slim with identical faces, while the Greeks showed a different more rounded profile (especially the belly) with actual features. Nekmet is the goddess from upper Egypt and Wadjet from lower Egypt, both are shown putting the crowns on the king in this coronation scene.

At another scene on the Horus side, we see something new in the Greco-Roman period. We see the king with the triad of gods, and now the queen is shown, never done before except Nefertari who was worshipped as a goddess. The name of this queen is in the cartouche, which is c-l-e-o-p-a-d-r-a the fourth, the great-grandmother of Cleopatra VII. The queen carries symbols for life and prosperity, and the gods have already given the life symbol offerings, so the god still holds the power and authority symbol. We discuss how to read hieroglyphs, which is that the animals, birds, and people are facing the direction from which the symbols are read, either left to right or right to left, or top down. If a king is talking to a god, their comments are facing each other.

We discuss the idea of a calendar, and how the ancient Egyptians were the first to divide the day into two 12-hour sections. The other thing that is Important is to know when the flood is coming, usually heralded by the appearance of Sirius the Dog Star. They have divided the year into 365 days of 12 months of 30 days each which an extra 5 days to celebrate the first five gods. The week was 10 days, three weeks in a month, and three seasons to the year. One season was the flood season, then the cultivation season, then the dry or harvest season. On the stone calendar each day is marked off as we mark off days on a paper calendar. We learn to decode the strokes of 1-9, with the horseshoe as 10, up to 29, then 30 is shown by the tail of an animal. For a new month it shows the day and the month and the season, this shows first dat of the third moth of the growing season.

We go to another area with a text part of which on the right that goes to the right, and the reverse, with  crocodile and falcon back the back to divide them. This shows the goddess giving birth to the king, then nursing him with eternity, then the cartouche of Ptolemy, and the other Horus side shows authority and life being given to the king. This area is divided exactly between the two gods; measurements show the areas are equal to within a millimeter. There are two sanctuaries, one for each god, with a secret access between the two sections to a crypt. This was also the safe deposit box of the temple, as it could be sealed up. This also held mummies of falcons. In the inner sanctuary the king could talk to the god as an oracle with the priest in the crypt below sounding like the god, in stereo, in a way the king would not have ever heard before.

At our last stop, we see ancient Egyptian medical instruments, with the high priest and doctor. The instruments are being offered today first go to someone to wash the instruments. On the table are scalpels, needles for stitching, a sponge, a swab, and the papyrus of the patient history, the medical record, and two cups for brain surgery. There is also a scale, tweezers, forceps, teeth cleaning instruments, clamps to hold aside tissues during surgery, and forceps for birthing.

We go to the a corridor behind the sanctuary where commoners were allowed, the area behind the sanctuary is indicated by the niche and two ears for the god to listen their their prayers, for wishes and confessions. From this we have the expression “even they walls have ears.”

We go by the dig area, which is excavating the spiral steps which go down to the bottom of the shaft, and thus to the Nile, unique to the temple of Sobek the crocodile. The shaft measured the level of the Nile and also allowed people access to the measuring marks. The higher the water level would usually meant higher tax because of a good harvest, unless it was too high and the crops were ruined. This gave the high priests the ability to levy taxes for their province.

At the end we go into the small museum and see a large number of mummified crocodiles, statues of Sobek and crocodiles, and crocodiles eggs which ere often used as offerings. The crocodile was linked to the pharaoh as a symbol of strength, as Sobek carried the body of Osiris after he was killed by Seth.

We return to the ship for cruising this morning to Edfu. We open the window in our room and the air outside is quite nice. We pass by scenes of palms and vegetation and birds along the shore that must look as it did thousands of years ago, with no buildings in sight. I’m catching up on the blog, lots of typos and phrases to correct. We see what is either a quarry or another archaeological dig along the shore, and even one camel resting by the water.

In the afternoon we head to the temple of Edfu. First we have a somewhat hair-raising ride to the temple in a two-person buggy. They go along at quite a clip through what seem like dozens of three-wheeled taxis, and the streets have no lines for lanes. Apparently after the Arab Spring, the horse and buggy drivers unionized to prevent taxis and busses from taking people to the temple. We go through was must be a rather low-income commercial area, filled with shops, cafes, stores, and apartments up above, and signs everywhere. Men outnumber women on the street about 50:1. We arrive to a rather elaborate parking area for the carriages where there must be 50 horses parked under shady canopies.

Edfu is a Greco-Roman temple, very well preserved, as it was covered by a mound. Once people converted to Christianity, this area was covered and a village was built here, perhaps 50 feet higher. Only the two towers stuck up, and in the 1860s the French architect Marietta came here to dig. This meant kicking people out of their homes, which was an odd concept for people here. They had to have a garrison from Cairo to protect the archaeologists.

This temple was dedicated to Horus, and the struggle of good and evil. Before 3,000 BC, a couple were appointed to the throne, a god called Osiris and the goddess Isis. Everyone liked them, Osiris taught agriculture and industry, how to make beer and wine, and everyone was happy. Everyone also loved Isis, goddess of love and beauty. Seth was jealous of his brother Osiris, who had married the prettier sister, Seth was married to Nepthys, and they had a rocky relationship. Seth decided to trick Osiris, announced he wanted peace, invited everyone to the party. At one point, Seth comes out with a coffin made of pure gold, which he offered to anyone who would fit into it exactly (like Cinderella and the shoe). Osiris tries it and it fits him perfectly, Seth shuts the coffin and carries it to the Nile. It floated to Syria and lodged inside a sycamore tree. Isis had not gone to the party because she did not believe Seth was really wanting peace, she had an intuition. When she gets the news, she follows the route of the coffin until she got to Syria, looking for the sycamore tree under which the coffin was lodged, but the tree had already been used for the roof of the new royal palace. Isis disguises herself as a maid, she saw a sick baby, the child of the king, she cures it, he king promises to reward her with anything. She asks for the tree, takes it back to Egypt, opens it, and takes out the body of her husband. She wanted him back to life for one time so she could have a son. She tries every spell she knows, but no success. Another goddess tells her that she is doing it the wrong way, instead of trying to bring him back to have sex, have sex to bring him back. Isis is trying with the dead body, no reaction, she continues to try but still no reaction. Then another goddess said, she was not doing it right, she should not be in human form but become a pigeon. She becomes a pigeon, he reacts and feels her and they have sex. Then he died again. Isis is pregnant, and carries the coffin with her everywhere, hiding from Seth. She gives birth to Horus in the marshes of the delta, always moving to hide. One night a messenger comes through ands tells her Seth is coming, she quickly takes Horus and leaves the mummy of Osiris behind. Then she had to leave the baby to go find her husband. This is when a cow, the goddess Hathor, comes to help, and nurses the baby. Isis did not get back to Horus for many years, during which time Hathor raised him. Horus thus had two mothers. Seth finds the body of Osiris, cuts him into 14 pieces which he buried all over Egypt, and piece number 14, the penis, was thrown in the Nile. A catfish swallows it. Isis goes on a long journey to collect the 13 pieces. The catfish did not want to give the piece back, they fight many times, at Esna where we go through the locks tonight Isis decided to bury him without the last piece, she crossed his arms and wrapped him in bandages to keep his pieces together. He is buried and become the god fo cultivation and of the underworld, thus his skin is black like the dirt or green like plants.

Horus grows up and is encouraged to get revenge for his father. This temple became the main site of worship of Horus. Finally Horus defeats Seth and becomes king of Egypt, and passes authority to human beings, thus the king represents Horus on the the earth, and when he dies he will become Osiris. In ancient Egyptian, there is no word for death, it is just a move from this world to the afterlife.
The towers here are massive. The king Ptolomy is holding vast numbers of people he is smiting. Next to this he is shown wearing the two crowns, the crowns are inherited, they are never buried with a king but were passed on. We see some windows up top, but there are also some windows randomly cut through these walls. Some people used the temples as a place to live, and made the windows for air. The tall grooves in the wall were for the flags of the triad of gods, and the fourth is for a visiting god, just like the two flagpoles on the White House. Flanking the entrance were a basalt sculpture of Horus with the two crowns, and a second one with the Emperor Trajan underneath. To the left of the entrance is part of the prehistoric dwelling here, prior to building, which has yielded some interesting discoveries.

Inside we can see how massive the wooden doors would have been perhaps 15 meters high. We pause at the start of the large courtyard, looking at the columns with some blank cartouches so they could be carved once they would know which king would be coming. These are still blank because no king came during this period. This 18-column hypostyle hall still retains some colors, and it is huge. Hassan tells us Karnak will have 134 such columns. A layer of soot remains on the ceiling from when persecuted Christians were living here. The higher level figures were defaced, as the lower figures were already covered by the mound. The hypostyle hall was called the hall of appearance by the Egyptians, where the god would appear once a year, carried on a special bar which carried the shrine inside. Once the doors opened up the priest would lean the statue forward as if it were leaning, people would kneel, and then the statue would disappear again. The statue was made of wood covered with gold so it could be moved. We enter the second hypostyle hall with 12 columns and a very dark, lower ceiling. We then enter the vestibule with the side chapels, and then the inner sanctuary with the pedestal, the shrine, the offering table, and the sacred boat. The shrine is only about 3 feet high, and the boat about 8’ long. The beautifully hand polished red granite shrine looks like metal rather than stone. They priest would enter burning incense to chase away bad spirits, break the seal on the double door, place it on the table, take off the god’s robe, anoints it with oils, then add a new robe, puts the offering on the table, goes away a while, takes the offerings to storage, returns the god to the shrine and locks and seals it, walking backwards as he exits, wiping his footsteps behind him for security. This was repeated it the evening but without changing the robe.

The Greco-Roman temples had only one main shrine with a corridor for offerings behind, rather than the triad of sanctuaries typical if Egyptian temples. Mariette had take the original boat, had a replica made, and replaced the real one which probably saved it from being stolen, although he kept the real one n his home until he died and it was discovered.

We go hit a side chapel for a talk with Hassan about Atun. In the beginning the Egyptians believed there was watery chaos, and the god Atun created himself, was bored, and created two couples earth Geb and sky Nut as one couple, and couple, She for air and Tefnout the lion goddess. Nut holds the earth with her feet and fingers even as Sho was trying to push her away from from GED. At dawn Nut gives birth to the sun disk, which appears east toward the sky, sunset is when she swallows the solar disk ,  it stays in he body, visibly passing through until is born again. They were part of the Nineth, the four first gods plus Osiris, Isis, Seth, And Nepthys and Horus.

We exit into the corridor which is quite large, enclosing the whole temple. We see both the scenes and the text, like theater, script and acting. The walls depict the titanic struggle of Horus and Seth, the endless struggle in different forms and shapes. These two gods could also change their forms; if Seth becomes a snake, Horus becomes a cat. If Seth flips up and becomes a crocodile, then Horus must become human and go on a boat, etc. when the struggle is over, the boat gains a sail, and Seth is the tiny hippo chained underneath to the boat. The symbol that looks like the Maltese cross is actually the determinative for the word town or city. We also see Horus standing on the bull Seth. Good is always up and human, evil is lower and an animal, like St. George and the dragon. Then we see the final scene of judgement, the high Priest reading their case, with the final decision to kill the pig (Seth) to be torn apart.

Together we trek back to the entry, find our horse and carriage for anther hair-raising trip back to the ship, and give the driver the pre-selected tip. We board and settle in, while the boat cruises to Luxor. Near the locks, almost everyone goes up on the top deck to see the locks in action, which seem similar to other river locks we’ve been through. The ship does indeed squeeze through very slowly with only a few inches to spare. In the night sky we can see Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, as Venus has already set.

Aswan Dam and Philae Temple, 8 October 2018

Aswan Dam and Philae Temple

We arise early, pack our bags, and take the launch to Kalabsha island.

The Aswan High Sam, built in 1964-1971, in a curved shape to better resist 500 miles of water, the largest engineering feat of the 20th century. Base is 980 meters and slanted up to 40 meters at the top.
 It is 3600 meters long, 111 meters tall including a screen wall below the dam. The dam has metal enough to build 13 Eiffel towers, and red granite enough for 17 pyramids the size of Khufu. There are 12 tunnels below with 12 turbines for water. The dam was started by the Americans, some dispute arose, and it was finished by the Russians.

In 1952, there was a military coup, and the first president was Mohammed Namba he wanted to hand power back to civilians, but he was arrested and spent the rest of his life under house arrest, then Nasser became president. Nasser refused to give the Muslim Brotherhood their “share” and there were many assassination attempts against him. The population was then about 23 million, but the valley was not enough to feed the population, so the idea was to create the largest man made lake in the world, so farmers could have 3-4 crops a year instead of one. Nasser asked for help which was offered by the US and the World Bank in 1954. The offer was withdrawn in 1956 as he was forming the Non-aligned movement. Nasser’s response was to nationalize the Suez Canal, which was under a 99 year lease to the British, and used the funds. The 1956 war involved the British (the canal lease), the French (who ran the canal), and the Israelis, but Eisenhower intervened so as to not lose access to the canal. The Russians wanted influence so they sent building experts and financing, 1964-1971, Nasser died before it was done. The symbol of friendship sculpture I  the shape of a lotus flower was dedicated, and the Russians were kicked out.

Kalabsha island has some beautiful temples moved from 50 kilometers away. It did not have a name, as it was a high point, so it was named for the temple. It is Roman, built for Caesar Augustus in 25BC. The solar disk with two wings and two cobras protects against demons and devils. The curved side walls indicate the place where Amun-Ra would sit to make creation. The total darkness inside the temple shows the darkness of creation, the rise of the floor shows the union of earth and sky. We see a small shrine to the goddess Hathor, which has beautiful columns with ornate capitals, dedicated to Augustus. The two entrance columns are the face of a woman with the ears of a cow to indicate Hathor, the Greco-Roman columns had capitals which added additional design elements t0the traditional lotus and papyrus capitals, called a composite capital, as we see here.

The Nubians never had a written language, so the painted walls we see are pre-history, before writing from Egyptians. In the first stone stele, a man is herding animals. These are similar to the cave painting in France, with cows, antelope, what look like dogs. We see a large boat with oars and a line indicating the wares, fr about 5,500 BC. Another showed a giraffe, an elephant, and even one that looks like a llama, which was possible given that the climate was colder then. The carved people are herding the animals. A huge triumphal stele is nearby, filled with hieroglyphs and a scene of military conquest.

Most scholars consider Rameses to be the pharaoh whose sister found the infant Moses, but given how long Rameses lived, this is unlikely. Most recent theories put the Rameses II-Moses interaction toward the end of his reign, when one of his wives found Moses, who grows up in the court, kills the Egyptians who pursued them, flees to Israel for 15 years, then goes back to Egypt but Rameses had died, and his son Meremptah was on the throne. One detail in the Koran says “weren’t we brothers when we grew up,” which would have been Moses and Rameses. With the plagues, thought to be coming from the Jews, one would think that the pharaoh would be glad for them to leave, and did not start immediately to pursue them. He pursued them because the Jews were thought to not really slaves but bankers who looked after the valuables of the Egyptians, which they had taken with them. After pursuit, the pharaoh drowned, and the gold they had was not theirs, so they melted it down while Moses was on the mountain and made a bull to worship for forgiveness from their sin of theft.

We move on to the last temple of Rameses here, called Beit el Wally. Rameses was 1,300 BC, 19th dynasty. The walls show Rameses in a military campaign, with Rameses towering over a castle fortification, showing how powerful he was. After the battle, they allowed those who surrendered to join the Egyptian army, if they did not surrender, they were tied together by the neck and their arms tied behind their backs for Rameses to smite. In the wall carvings, the organized armies were Egyptian, the ones in a mess were always the enemies. Here the Nubians are clearly indicated by their broader, African features. After surrender, the Nubians are shown bringing all variety of animals, ebony and ivory, including a playful monkey, and lots and lots of gold. After the entry, we enter the vestibule, with ionic style cut columns beginning around 1,300 BC. Rameses is making offerings of various goods to Horus and Isis with a scorpion crown, and in another scene he is offering the symbol of justice with the feather. If the heart was lighter than the feather in judgement, the person was good. Finally we enter the sanctuary with a niche for the statue of the gods, plus wall carvings of many offerings. Rameses and the ram-headed god (god of the flood) who is holding the king’s hand and giving him the ankh of life. By the side is a scene of Rameses being breast-fed by a woman who is Isis.

Around 800 BC is the 26th dynasty, the Nubians who conquered Aswan went up to Luxor, and ruled Egypt for 100 years. They were conquered by Basmatik, whose stele is nearby. We enter the final temple, Kalabsha, with an enormous courtyard area surrounded by columns with varied designs which mix Egyptian and Greek elements. This temple was disassembled by an international team into 13,000 pieces and moved by boat in 1964 as the waters were rising.

The plan with the Aswan High Dam was to increase from 3% to 7% the arable land. Population then was 23 million, now 100 million, thus the plan to reclaim 400 million acres to extend the valley’s arable land. When the dam was built, it was enough to provide all the electricity the country needed, but now with a greater population and much more in terms of technology, Egypt needs more power, with TVs, air conditioners, washing machines, cell phones, computers, all using power. Hassan says that Egypt has changed more in the past 40 years than in the prior 4,000 years. Tourism in this area was really boosted after the High Dam, at one time there were 7-8 boats cruising the lake, now there are only 2-3 boats, since 2011. This lake changed the climate, Aswan used to be the driest place on earth, now it is more humid. Also, the weight of the water causes small earthquakes especially over the past 20 years. The fertility of the valley was lost with the loss of the silt, which has to be replaced by chemicals, and drainage to take excess water away and recycle it. Now they are turning to organic fertilization. There is also a worm in the water that can transmit hepatitis C and liver cancer, and those now live all year round because they thrive in still water of the lake, not the moving current of the Nile. About 5 years ago an American company created a drug that is 95% effective, but it was very expensive, and millions of people have the disease here. The government bought a license to make it here and they give it to people for free. Security here is very tight, because if some sort of enemy action took place on the dam, all of lower Egypt would be washed away in a few hours, as well as Cyprus, Crete, and Malta. Thus much of the military is focused on protecting the dam.

We leave the ship Prince Abbass and board a bus for the Aswan Dam and Philae temple. There have been three dams here, the first from the 1890s. We stop at the top of the dam, where water is brought from the curved ends into the tunnels and then the turbines at the bottom. The spillway is actually the old dam area. The dam actually “leans”  on the rocks. The dam has a very gentle slope, all made of red granite, no concrete. The silt is drained at the mouth of the river in Sudan and in front of the mouth of the bypass canals by the dam. Here the water is 174 meters deep. We get out at the power station, and then drive up to the top of the dam, where we can really get a sense of the immensity of the dam. Even the old dam slightly downstream looks large, but small by comparison. The cross section panels show the complexity of construction and the many layers of the dam. This was the largest dam in the world for decades, until the Three Gorges Dam was built in China. The smaller same was enlarged twice in 1922 and 1936. The dam is 40 meters tall, and we can see the locks down below, which are no longer used. We can see here the rocky bottom of the Nile, as south of here the cataracts. From here it is 1,000 meters to the Mediterranean Sea. On the other side we see Philae Temple in the distance.

We drive on to a boat to Philae, passing Aswan City, and hear about Alexander the Great. After defeating the Persians, he decided to come to Egypt which was very weak at the time. Alexander wanted one religion wherever he conquered. The priests would then lose their huge income from worshippers. The priests played a trick on Alexander, instead of sending an army, they sent a welcome party and brought him to Memphis as the  capital of Egypt and crowned him with the ancient Georgian ceremonies and the Egyptian crown. He spent years here until he died of malaria in India, and then his half brother Phillip to the throne but only if Alexander’s Persian wife gave birth to a girl. She was killed first, and Ptolemy, a Greek general, came to power.

After a brief bio break, Hassan tells us he will bring some selected merchants on board that he has spoken through and determined prices. We walk out on the dock lined with vendors, mostly selling small animal sculptures and a beautiful blue rock that seems to be on every blanket. We board a white skiff outfitted with colorful decorations. We land on Angelica Island. Water used to partly cover the old location for this temple, and the dark tide marks are visible on the columns. For the move, they had to flatten the top of the island to make it flat for rebuilding the temple. It was started in 1970, finished 1980, Germany, Italy, and England did this project, although England did not participate in saving the Nubian temples (because of the dispute over the Suez Canal). This temple was built in 100BC, under Ptolemy III, dedicated to Isis. The Greeks revered Isis as being similar to their goddess Athena. One side of the temple was defaced by the early Christians, in part because they were scared of the magic of the place.  Half the temple was buried so that side was not defaced. As each king came to power they added to the temple. Inside the main gate is some graffiti from Napoleonic times. We see the king making an offering to Isis, the table depicts the items vertically (no third dimension), including pigs, birds, bread, figs, meat, jars, and more. The ancient Egyptians ate pigs, but did not offer pigs to the god because sometimes pigs took the form of an evil spirit, but in the Greek period pigs were offered by them, 300BC on. The offerings brought to the gods were put on the offering table, then the priests would take the offering behind the temple to eat. They would post every week what the gods “wanted” in terms of food. Jewelry went into the pockets of the priests, thus they were very wealthy, and they were second to the king was the high priest. One special piece of red granite says “once upon a time, the Nile did not flood for seven years.” People and animals died, and they realized that this happened in ancient times when they did not offer enough to the Ram-headed god Khnoum, so they go to the temple at Elephantine Island, make offerings, and the flood returned. In this inner courtyard is a special birthing temple dedicated to Isis on the side of the main temple.

We pass through the open court, where the huge capitals correspond to each other diagonally, not across from each other. In a side wall is a niche for when Christians took over the temple after it was abandoned, about 500 AD. A Greek inscription describes the church in a Greek script. Inside the hypostyle, we see the king with a tray of fruit offering to Osiris, who gives the symbols of life and the crook and the flail which symbolize how Egypt is ruled. Since this is the temple of Isis, she is in the main one of the three sanctuaries, with Osiris and Horus  to the left and right. We see Isis covering the mummified body of Osiris with her pigeon wings. We see the scene of Isis breastfeeding Horus on her lap, essentially the source of the Madonna and child Jesus.

Exiting the temple, we go behind and see an 11th century church, when Christians had helped to expel the Romans and could practice their religion freely. We have some free time to walk around, and see almost a dozen small cats with very large ears, some of which are eating fish they caught below. On the boat, Barney buys a hematite necklace and a camel bone necklace for Madeleine, and a blue stone for himself.

We motor back, and board the bus to our new ship, the M/S Sun Ray. The ship is built to fit the locks, which were built before the tourism ships, so they are narrow. We drive through Aswan City, population about 1 million. They do not have public  busses here so there are the minibuses (which drive with their doors open) and what look like trucks with camper shells that are loaded with people. Everyone crosses the street randomly, and there is a raised area dividing the two sides of the road; interestingly there are no lines for the lanes. We go by a soccer stadium, a 1,000-year-old cemetery, a hospital, a beautiful mosque next to the large Coptic cathedral, a TV station, and lots of apartment blocks. We see Elephantine Island in the distance in the middle of the Nile.

In the late afternoon, we enjoy a relaxing felucca ride, on a large boat big enough to accommodate all of us. We sail south first with the current, circled Elephantine Island and see the lush green of Kitchener’s Island which was a botanical garden. There is a beautiful breeze and being close to the water is lovely. Two young brothers on what looks like a surfboard paddle up, singing a medley of songs in an unusual modality, hitching a ride on the felucca, hoping for some money. One person’s hat blows off and they paddle after it to retrieve it, thus earning a nice tip. This is a nice end to a busy day, and tonight we sail for Luxor.