Sunday, December 26, 2010.
5:30 PM Before breakfast at Edfu this morning we were hustled onto a bus to go to the temple of Horus, the falcon god, son of Isis, with whom the pharaohs most identified. This temple was built by one of the Ptolemy rulers. When Alexander the Great died in the mid-4th century BC, his great empire fragmented into many distinct kingdoms ruled often by generals from his armies. Ptolemy, also Greek, was probably the general on the spot in Egypt at the time and he assumed control here. His descendants continued to rule until Cleopatra was defeated by the Romans in 30 BC. The Ptolemy rulers were careful to integrate the theology of the Egyptians with their own in order to ensure a smooth transition of power. In this temple, built in the Greek, rather than Egyptian style, Ptolemy is depicted as a god and as a human ruler.
We were quite early at the site, necessitated by the fact that our ship was due to sail on to Luxor at 8AM. Nonetheless, there were many others climbing off buses as we arrived about 6:45. We crowded as close to the door as was possible, our entrance tickets in our hands. As the time grew nearer to the opening time of 7, the groups around us multiplied phenomenally. When the door finally opened, the crush was painful. I had images of the newspaper headlines: “Canadian group trampled at temple in Edfu!” We made it through unscathed but with some appreciation of the kind of fever that sweeps through a crowd determined on a goal. It was so silly too. The only resource that we were competing for was to have a clear view of the replica boat discovered in the “holy-of-holies” at the centre of the temple. The original is in the Louvre. The temple is vast and impressive as are they all, each in their own fashion.
In many of the temples we have seen destruction of some of the figures and faces of the gods and goddesses. Christianity came to Egypt in the latter half of the first century AD but was persecuted under some of the Roman administrations up until it was legitimized in the 4th century. Even after that the Egyptian theology differed in significant ways from that adopted in the Nicene Creed and what has become known as “Coptic,” or Egyptian Christianity was persecuted for some time by the more orthodox line. To practice their faith in Egypt many communities made use of the abandoned temples of the gods, and in doing so defaced figures of the gods which they found offensive to their own beliefs.
Tonight we will dock at Luxor and tomorrow have a crazy day of trying to see all of the places we were to have gone to over two days. Changes happen on tours because of many unforeseen exigencies and one has simply to go with the flow. Tomorrow night we will stay at a hotel in Luxor and will fly to Cairo the next morning for our last day with the group. Afterward Mark and I will move to another hotel for 12 days in the downtown area. I don’t hold out a great deal of hope that it will be in any way grand, but it will be interesting. Today has been a pretty lazy day since we returned at 8:15 from the Horus temple. Most pleasant: reading, writing, snoozing, eating, and watching the Nile roll on by.
One other thing. The tables in the dining room seat eight or nine. All of the “young” people on our tour took one table and we have been with the couple who are parents to two of the girls. Seated with us has been an Indian family from Bangalore: father and mother about our age, their son and his wife and 5 year old daughter. We have had good conversations with them about the British Raj and etc. The parents are 2nd or 3rd cousins, having a great-grandfather in common. They were intended for one another from when they were very young though no one said so until they were grown. Marriages are conducted by arrangement but only if the horoscopes of the young people are properly aligned. A priest does a detail calculation of their chances of having a good marriage based on many obscure but deeply respected details. A marriage would not proceed unless the stars augured a good outcome. Once that hurdle is passed the young people meet each other. If they do not like one another, again, the marriage will not proceed. I think though that usually they will accept their parents’ choice as they have been brought up to believe that this is how one lives. The bride moves in with the husband’s family and all live together from then on.
This family of five live together in Bangalore. The father is an engineer. He has a company for which his son works, and is actually now taking over. The company developed and supplies particular pieces of the door mechanisms for the Airbus planes. The family lives in a house built in 1935 by her grandfather. The house is called Flagstaff House so was likely lived in by a British military commander during WWII. There is a picture at the family home of someone in the royal family staying there during a visit to India. It might have been King George V or Edward VII, there when the Prince of Wales. The family was obviously well connected with the Raj and maintain a good opinion of the over-all legacy of the British in India. The mother’s grandfather studied in Oxford before WWI and was a classmate of Ghandi. Her father was a high commissioner of some kind for the British before WWII so her mother spent most of her teen-age years in London. She herself went to university, studying for a degree in domestic science but has never held a job. Her son is her only child. She is a lovely person with a soft and kindly face, looking older than her 63 years.
Tuesday, December-28-10 7AM
We are in the airport at Luxor waiting for our slightly delayed flight to Cairo. Yesterday afternoon I hit total temple fatigue. No more, my brain was screaming. Just give me a quiet room to veg in and I’ll never leave it again. This has been a very intense tour. It’s been great and our group has been very good and now I’m glad it’s over. We were to meet yesterday morning at 7 in the lobby of the ship to head for the Valley of the Kings. Wake-up call 6 AM. Ours never did come. At 6:50 we just happened to wake up to the sound of people moving down the hall. Rapid fire organization, rush, rush, downstairs, only to discover that our transport into town was delayed. Sitting about on the dock, into the van and off for about a 40 minute ride to the amazing Valley. It is literally a valley, surrounded by high, sand-coloured rock hills or mountains. Early dynasties of pharaohs were buried in small, then larger pyramids. Because these were so visible, robbery of their treasures was relatively easy over the centuries. Eventually tombs were moved to this more secure area close to Luxor. As each Pharaoh came to the throne a site was selected for him and work was begun. The workers cleared earth to bedrock and then chiselled down, creating a passageway to carved out inner chambers. Some of these were quite large and elaborate with high ceilings and walls painted with images evocative of the works of their particular lord. The tomb of Tutankhamen is one of the smaller ones as he died suddenly at only 19 years of age, after a reign of about 10 years, so the final preparations were more rushed.
These preparations were fairly elaborate. The pharaoh’s body was placed on a special stone table angled to allow the run-off of liquids to a separate section for collection. A high priest, wearing the headdress of a jackal, would make an incision on the left side of abdomen, and pull out the organs. Each was prepared separately for preservation and placed in what are called canoptic jars. These were usually grouped together in a vessel other than the sarcophagus. The heart was left within the body. After the body was cleansed, it was wrapped in linens and placed in an arid area for 40 days to become thoroughly dry. Only then was it ritually wrapped in the final funereal clothes, placed in its sarcophagus and taken to the tomb. The tombs were sealed with enormous rocks and the corridors leading to the entrance ways were filled with rubble. Tutankhamen’s tomb was the only one found in the modern era that had not been stripped of its treasures. When the tomb of Ramses V or VI was constructed close by, some of the rubble entirely hid the entrance. Workers huts for Ramses or possibly later pharaohs were built over the area, further obliterating any signs of an earlier tomb. The discoverer of Tutankhamen’s tomb, Harold Carter, searched for it for about four years without success. He had a hunch that it might be in the area of the ancient workers’ huts and concentrated his efforts there. Like so many things that happen when a lot of work goes into a quest, luck can add the last essential ingredient. A pack animal urinated during some removal of debris, exposing the corner of a step. When the step was cleared, it led to another, and another, until the entrance to the tomb was clearly visible.
It was very hot standing exposed to the sun in the Valley of the Kings. There were significant crowds of tourists even when we arrived quite early. Most were, like ourselves, with a tour guide, getting a rapid overview of the development of the funerary process and of the tombs. The guides could not accompany us into the tombs, probably to cut down on the time people would remain, so all this happened at the surface. Our first tomb was quite deep, down several flights of stairs. There wasn’t a great deal to see once there aside from the elaborately and colourfully painted ceilings and walls. Coming back up was hard as the ascent was steep and the air far from pure. Once at the surface I began to feel my temple burn-out pulsate. Our tickets allowed visits in any three of the 17 or so that were open. Some of us had also purchased extra tickets to see King Tut’s tomb and I particularly wanted to go there, having read such a lot about its search and discovery. It was not terribly deep, and, as I mentioned, it was relatively small. Aside from the wall paintings, the curators have also left a replica of one of the four sarcophaguses that held Tut’s body. At one side though, was his actual mummy, modestly draped from the neck to the ankles and in a glass case, but clearly showing a blackened head and feet. There was serenity and a dignity to the sight.
From the Valley of the Kings we travelled for a brief stop at a workshop for replicas of ancient figures made in stone and alabaster. The workers use methods not unlike those of their predecessors of millenniums past. Then on to the temple of Queen Hatshepsut. She was one of the few women to take the role of pharaoh and she ruled with a strong hand. Her story was interesting but in the spirit of having enough of temples for the foreseeable future, I will forebear. It was early afternoon and we had not had anything to eat since a hastily wolfed bun around 7AM. We checked into our hotel in Luxor and had about 45 mins to settle, eat and be in the lobby to visit Karnack. NO!!, everything in me said. I went about my afternoon in a leisurely fashion – getting a room service lunch, resting, going for a walk in the neighbourhood, and just acting like I was on a holiday. It was lovely.
Today we were awakened at 4AM to catch our 7:30 flight back to Cairo. We came directly to the hotel but a group of us hired the van which had picked us up at the airport and went out to the large Cairo souk or bazaar for a few hours. We ate lunch in a restaurant called a Koshary. It makes only one thing: koshary. This is a dish of macaroni, fried noodles, onions, lentils, with a tomato sauce on top. It was tasty, nourishing and very inexpensive. With a drink, we paid 11 EP each, about $2. Then the souk!! The souk consists of many blocks of narrow alleys with shops lining the ground floors, filled with colourful tourist goods. As one makes her way along this gauntlet, one is assailed by vendors and their sons and their cousins and grandfathers. Come lady, visit my shop. No charge, lady, just come and look. Where are you from, lady? Ah, Canada! Canada Dry!! Want a scarf, lady. Leather purse, T-shirt, Cleopatra image.......Ah, lady, such a nice face. I make a special deal. Ah, you a lucky man, such a beautiful wife. And so on. It’s open warfare commerce, too aggressive to be pleasant, though some of the owners, especially after the first block, are more laid back and easy-going. I did buy a few things that I wanted but probably won’t return.
Mark and I looked up the cafe that Mahfouz used to patronize in that quarter. It has been named after him since his death several years ago and it draws considerable numbers of tourists like ourselves. He wrote the terrific trilogy Cairo House that we read last year in our book club. It inspired a lot of our interest in coming here.
We had a little goodbye ceremony with Maged at the hotel. He leaves tonight to fly to the city where his wife who is eight months pregnant is staying with her mother. We all loved him a lot. The rest of us walked out and got falafels at a local spot and ate together in the room of two of the women. We talked at some length about the things in Egypt that surprised us and about the best and most difficult experiences that we had had. It was a very good gathering. We all said goodbye to one another then with promises of sending on photos and keeping in touch. One guy will organize a Facebook sharing site for pictures. I don’t know much about how that works but have been assured that it will be entirely manageable. And so this phase of our trip has come to an end. Tomorrow we will move to our other hotel and take up residence in Cairo just the two of us for another whole phase of adventures.
Remember again to scroll down to the very bottom of the page for more photos. Hope all are well. Brenda.
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