The longest day
I couldn't help but compare this trip to our trip to China in 2002. Hmm, let's see --
Similarities
Can't read any signs because we can't read the alphabet. Egypt - check. China - check.
Four day cruise on a famous river that ends at a dam. Egypt - Nile; China - Yang-tze.
Must bargain in order to make any purchases. Egypt - check. China - check.
Beautiful and talented female tour guide. Egypt - check. China - check.
Always mobbed by people trying to sell you stuff. Egypt - check. China - check.
Trip includes a wonder of the world. Egypt - pyramids. China - Great Wall.
Lots of poverty, highly concentrated population. Egypt - check. China - check.
Lots of internal plane flights on the tour, frenetic but rewarding schedule. Egypt - check. China - check.
Incredibly ancient monuments. Egypt - check. China - check.
Air pollution. Egypt - check. China - check.
Beautiful scenery. Egypt - check. China - check.
Better not drink the water. Egypt - check. China - check.
Entire tourist industry incredibly motivated to make our trip perfect. Egypt - check. China - check.
Monday March 12th
I woke up in the middle of the night, then wondered if the people making so much noise in the hall were our tour group leaving. I finally went back to sleep, and then the wake up call came at 2:15 AM. We had organized our suitcases the night before, so we quickly put them out and went downstairs for coffee, then directly to the lobby. I picked up 2 box lunches, then a hotel worker thought I got the wrong ones and started questioning me about which pile I got them out of. It was 3 AM, who could remember? We were ready to get on the bus at 3 AM as planned, but the young assistant tour director did not show up. Finally they pulled the bus around anyway, and there was hustle and bustle as the hotel employees, bus driver, and security guard tried to figure out what they were supposed to do. It was at this time that we realized that we had an armed security guard with us at all times. They finally loaded all the bags and we pulled out at 3:30, 30 minutes late. We learned later that the assistant had been in a taxi accident on the way to the hotel, and had a broken leg.
We were met at the airport by Karima. It was mobbed with tourists going to Luxor. There were several planes leaving at an interval of 30 minutes. Our plane was huge, and sat 8 across, which seemed very strange for a 45 minute flight. When we got to Luxor I sat down to wait for the luggage and noticed the lady in the next chair had the same scars on the ankle that I do. Her English was worse than my German, which was kind of fun for me. It turned out she had sprained the same ankle, and wasn't sure if it was broken because the doctors at Cairo hospital wouldn't x-ray it. Eventually the luggage came, and then we all headed off for Karnak temple.
On the way there we crossed a newly excavated part of the avenue of sphinxes. They have just discovered that the avenue goes all the way between Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple. However, most of it is under modern construction, so they can only excavate new parts of it when they have the opportunity to buy the land it is on from private owners. After taking a circuitous route, we got off the bus and walked about 1/4 mile to the temple. It was only 7:15 AM! We entered the temple through a small part of the same avenue of Sphinxes.
Next to the huge outer wall was a messy pile of mud bricks. When Karima explained it we could see that these were actually the original mud brick ramp that had been used to get the stones up to the top of the wall 4000 years ago! Normally the mud brick ramps would be removed.
There was one big restored column in the first courtyard, and a big statue of Ramses II. He certainly liked to build statues of himself, and was also known to take other people's statues and carve his name on them. On one side was a row of sphinxes that Ramses II had "temporarily" moved there until a new spot was ready for them. However, they never got around to moving them again and they are still there. In an inner courtyard was a remnant of an onyx statue with a black foot. How beautiful would that statue be if we could see the rest of it?
It is hard to imagine how huge the hypostyle hall is. On the protected undersides of the roof and many of the columns were the remains of the orginal beautiful colors. The columns were all elaborately carved. One of them had a grafitti made in 1850. The grafitti was originally at ground level because the temple was full of drifted sand, but now is 20 feet high!
The Egyptians like to leave everything exactly as is, and do not restore anything, just try to prevent deterioration. So everything has this ruined, incredibly ancient feel to it. We saw the obelisks of Thutmosis III and Hatshepsut. They have removed the wall that was erected in ancient times around Hatshepsut's obelisk, and the top part is lighter in color than the part that was behind the wall.
We saw the pictures of Hatshepsut that were chiseled out, and another obelisk of hers that was toppled.
At the end of the tour, Karima showed us a place where we could take a picture of the obelisk through all the columns.
I think all the walking was too much for some of the people on our tour, but I was just getting started. It was only 9:30!
We got back on the bus and drove along the river a short distance to Luxor Temple. Here we saw the other end of the avenue of sphinxes. There were 2 colossal statues of Ramses II and an obelisk at the entrance. The obelisk on the right was given to France and stands at the Place de la Concorde. Next to the obelisk is a colossal head that seems dwarfed by it.
If you stood just right, you could see the third colossal statue in the inner courtyard. This is visible because the avenue has a little jog in it. The entrance to the courtyard had to be moved a little because when they were building the temple (thousands of years ago) they found an older temple where they were building. There is also a mosque built on top of part of the temple, which they have left intact, since it is several hundred years old, and is still used.
The two black statues had very nice pictures carved on the back and sides -- African captives, 2 gods tying the knot of upper and lower Egypt with lotus and papyrus, and the goddess of writing.
A little further back is a statue which they think depicts Tutankhamun and his wife, Ankesenamun.
At the very back of the temple is a beautiful Coptic fresco.
We had a group picture taken since it only cost $4 each, and it came out very nice.
On the way back to the bus we were mobbed by vendors, and Karima showed us another way in which she could help us. She liked one of the vendors, so she took a bunch of his stuff onto the bus and showed it to us. It was "papyrus" bookmarks, 15 for one dollar. There was no bargaining because she had already negotiated a low price with the vendor. (We never saw 15/$1 bookmarks again, usually 10/$1.) A number of people bought them.
After all this it was only 10:30. We went to our ship, which was parked on a quay of tourist shops down a flight of stairs. We had to walk through the lobby of another ship to get to ours. We were given a cool drink, the hors douevres. and then our room key. On the dresser of our room was a liter bottle of Cru des Ptolemees. The showers are reasonably sized and actually have a drain of their own. Everyone reported that their room safe does not work. Lunch was at 12:30 -- a nice buffet. Not many other passengers were there yet.
After lunch we got back on the bus to go to the Valley of the Kings. Most people went to sleep during the ride. We drove south along the Nile for 5 miles to get to the bridge to the west side. In the distance we could see Howard Carter's house up on a hill. When we got to the Valley of the Kings we went through a little museum, and then a little train took us up the hill.
We visited Ramses 3, 4, and 9, all of which were decorated with paintings inside. On the way out we were trying to hurry, but the train driver had other ideas. He was busy selling post cards. When we finally got going he stopped about 100 yards from the entrance so his buddies could go after us.
We managed to get to Hapshepsut's Temple before it closed. It also had a train to take you to the main temple. The top tier is very nice, and has an impressive falcon statue. On the third level is a temple dedicated to the goddess Hathor. Most of the decorations had worn away, but I saw one lovely frieze that I thought was the expedition to Punt, but our guide said it must be something else.
On the way out we ran the gauntlet of hawkers. One lady saw a shawl she wanted, but the vendor wanted $25 for it, so she came to ask Karima how much she should pay. Karima told her she would go and get it for her, and wanted to know if $2 would be OK. We thought it would take her a minute or two to get it, but she walked up to him, gave him the $2, took the shawl, and came back up. We asked her how she got it so fast. She told us the vendor was doing something illegal, so she threatened to go get the tourist police, who were nearby. On the way back to the ship we stopped briefly for pictures at the Colossi of Memnon.
We just had time to go to the room before heading out again to the light show at Karnak. I should not have gone, as was I was too tired to enjoy it. Finally we were ready for dinner and bed.
Previous day - Sunday, March 11th--------------------------------------Next day - Tuesday, March 13th
What a looong day!