Tombs and Temples

Saturday 31 December

This morning we checked out of our rooms and departed the boat at 8am after an early breakfast. We took a mini van and our first stop was the Valley of the Kings. As with other tourist places in Egypt we had to walk past all of the shops on the way to the entrance of the Visitors Centre. If Disney is known for having people exit its rides through the gift shop, Egypt has gone one better by getting people to both enter and exit ‘through the gift shop’!

The Valley of the Kings contains about 63 tombs of the Pharoahs which were dug into the hills. The Kings started making their tombs this way after the period of the pyramids because using this type of burial place took less time and effort to create compared to building a huge pyramid. Our ticket enabled us to visit 3 tombs of our choice and Ahmed suggested the tombs we should visit. These were those of Ramses I, III and IV. The tomb of Ramses III had the most colourful wall carvings of figures and hieroglyphics. Ramses I’s tomb was the very deep and steep and was an example of an unfinished tomb. It is thought it wasn’t finished because he died before it could be finished. Finally we visited the tomb of Ramses IV which also had very colourful walls but these were the first ones we’ve seen anywhere in Egypt which were protected by sheets of glass in front of them.

We also visited the outside of Tutankhamen’s tomb and Ahmed also told us about the history of its finding. As there was a separate entrance fee for this and we had already seen the King Tut display in Melbourne and more in Cairo we decided not to go inside.

On the way out Jade and I looked at some green stone Egyptian cat carvings and after some bargaining I bought one for Jade for her birthday that is made of malachite. It looks very nice and will be a great memento of her trip here. Some guys chased us all the way back to the minibus with various books, statues, shirts, etc, etc. Wow. It all gets very overwhelming sometimes.

We next visited the funerary palace of Queen Hatshepsut. You’ll have to forgive my spelling, as I’m not checking it. This palace is built in front of a hill and is in a very different style to other buildings we’ve seen. For one it has square columns, which aren’t decorated. This may be because Ahmed told us that 60% of what we were seeing was a modern reconstruction and 40% was original. While this building looked grand from a distance there wasn’t as much to see up close.

We left there about 12.30 and because we were hungry Ahmed had arranged to get some pita bread sandwiches for us at a local shop. These were very inexpensive and very delicious. Mine had potato wedges, tomato, red pepper, chicken and something like tabouli in it. It was less meat based with more vegetables, which is the way I like things. Jarrah had a meatier sandwich, which he also liked. I would like to get the recipe for the sandwich I had, as it would make a great school lunch sandwich. While we were eating we stopped at the Colossi of Memnon, which once stood in front of a temple. They were rather damaged and as they were right by the road it was just a quick hop out of the van for a photo.

With our morning tour over we headed back to Luxor on the East Bank of the Nile and our hotel—the El Luxor Hotel. Like the hotel at Aswan this hotel also had a beautiful and large reception area with the couches upholstered in a rich red patterned fabric and the coffee tables topped with beaten polished and etched copper tops.

Our rooms were the best we’ve had in Egypt and were truly 5 stars. Polished stone tiled bathrooms, beautiful fluffy bed coverings, teakettle and cups, flat screen TV (our first in Egypt), comfortable chairs and round coffee table and a fabulous balcony with table and chairs overlooking the Nile. The kids had some trouble flushing their toilet but otherwise we couldn’t fault the room. Too bad the nicest hotels we’ve had have both only been for one night each!

We had some time to rest up which we spent enjoying a cup of cocoa in our rooms and watching TV. There is a movie channel that we watched on the Nile cruise, which has good movies showing all the time.

At 3 we went downstairs to meet Ahmed to go to the Karnack Temple—the largest temple anywhere in the world. This was the temple we went to for the sound & light show so we already knew something about it. But there is just so much history to remember and to take in that most of what Ahmed told us was either new or reinforced things he’d told us from visits to other temples and historic sites. We had some time to walk around on our own before returning to our hotel. The kids and I got ice cream cones on the way out. I am missing some of my usual sweet treats and this filled the bill for me.

We had a few hours to wait for dinner at 8.30 and filled this in in our rooms by resting. Paul and I got involved in watching the movie The Last Samurai. It was in English with Arabic subtitles, which was fine when they were speaking English—but when they spoke Japanese we were out of luck.

At 8.30 we went to dinner at the hotel restaurant. Our tour company Peregrine had shouted us a complimentary ticket to a gala New Year’s Eve dinner. When we arrived we found that the dinner was a set menu or 8 courses designed to be spread out over the evening along with entertainment. We’d had a pretty big day and especially with the kids weren’t up to eating that much food over such a long period of time and some of the dishes weren’t really to children’s tastes so we asked to cut straight through to the main course except for Jade who had the appetizer of braised prawns. The restaurant manager wanted to know why we didn’t want to eat all of the courses but was very accommodating when we explained that the children needed to eat and go to bed. The main was of veal steaks in a mushroom sauce and was very nice. Jade and I had dessert which was a pyramid of strawberry mousse with a strawberry sauce, choc dots and half a fresh strawberry on the plate. We finished with coffee and tea and for the kids this was the first time they’d had two cups of tea in one day since they’d had a cup at breakfast.

Just as we were about to leave at 9.30 the entertainment other than the DJ started with the entrance of the Pharaoh wearing his tall golden crown and his Queen to the march from Aida followed by 4 soldiers and 4 dancing girls. They did a dance in the ancient Egyptian style then processed out again. Five of the guys returned wearing brown galabeas, white head cloths around their heads with the top of their heads exposed and carrying bamboo poles. They did a very entertaining pole dance spinning the poles around and slapping them on the floor. Then the girls returned in belly dance outfits but ones, which covered their whole bodies, and they did a belly dance in the middle of the men. The men and women also danced around each other in couples. We stayed to the end of the dance and were glad that we had the chance to see it. It was after 10pm by this time and Jade was very sleepy so we went back to our rooms and to bed.

Edfu Temple, Esna Lock and the Sound and Light Show

Friday 30 December

During the night just about at midnight the boat docked at Edfu. I was awake and decided to eat a plain bread roll Jarrah had brought me from dinner and to drink some water. I chatted to Jarrah a bit then we both went back to sleep.

We were awoken early again in the morning at 5.30 and Ahmed had arranged for us to have a juice drink at the restaurant at 6am. I was glad of this since I hadn’t eaten dinner the night before and I was feeling much much better. At 6.30 we left the boat for the temple. We took two horse carriages, Jarrah and Jade in one and Paul and myself in the other with Ahmed sitting with the driver. The temple was about a 15 minute carriage ride away. The town of Edfu seems to be very poor. The streets were dirty and without curbs or footpaths. Our carriage was the first to arrive at the temple and Ahmed got the guard to open the gate. The courtyard where all the carriages park had shops all on one side. Most were closed and we thanked our lucky stars that we weren’t going to have to run the gauntlet of sellers. As we passed one shop, however, I saw a scarf that I’d seen in Abu Simbel and I decided to get it. I bargained with the seller and got it for 30 Egyptian pounds—about $A9. I probably could have paid less but I’m happy with it.

The temple at Edfu has its very tall walls still standing because for hundreds of years the temple was buried in sand. This has preserved it for today. This temple also has its roof which is amazing! It is just hard to comprehend that the sculptures we are seeing are thousands of years old and if I touch them I am touching a place that someone who lived tens of generations before me touched. I should say there is absolutely nothing preventing anyone from touching the walls or columns of the temples. There are no signs or Perspex coverings over the sculptures. I guess there is too much to cover. But there is also nothing preventing the pigeons from roosting on these historic ruins.

We returned to the boat at 8.30 in time for breakfast—our first hot breakfast on this cruise—and sailed on towards Luxor. Around 12.30pm we approached the Esna lock and the fun began. I noticed one or two rowboats in our path and at one point motioned to the guys in the boat to get out of the way. Then one of the men stood up and held up a galabea for sale! OMG! The sellers were rowing out to meet the boat. Not only that but they were wrapping up items in plastic bags and throwing them up 3 floors to the boat’s sundeck. Various people were then negotiating over the items or not. Prices were agreed on or not and the items were either tossed back to the sellers or the sellers threw up another bag with clothing in it for the money to be put in and thrown back down. I bargained for several towels which were very nice but the sellers wouldn’t meet my price so I didn’t buy. Jade has seen a very nice blue and red towel with the pyramids and sphinx on it that she wants so we will have to negotiate further at Luxor tonight.

At 1.10 we were called down to lunch. This was right as the boat was going into the lock so we didn’t get to watch this from the sundeck. After lunch we returned to our rooms. I collected up clothes and did a big wash in the bathtub. Then I rested and watched some TV for a while before going up to the sundeck for tea With having been sick and also with having been on the boat for over a day when it was docked I feel that I haven't gotten as much of the shipboard life lazily cruising on the river as I would have liked.

The ship docked at Luxor about 5pm and since we had decided to go to the Sound and Light Show at Karnack Temple we got ready to leave. We met Ahmed at 6.15 and took two horse carriages to the temple for the show, which was at 7pm. The show was very good and professionally done wtih very dramatic music and recordings done by professional actors (someone said that they included Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor) presenting the history to us. We walked through the temple in stages as the lights and recordings explained each area to us and the show finished up in a benched seating area which overlooked the sacred lake (Jade called it the swimming pool). There was a lot of history to take in but it was a worthwhile experience.

Ahmed met us at the end of the show and we took the carriages back to the boat for a late dinner. Since we were eating at 8.40 we noticed that several of the tables were empty and thought that that was because we were late. However, later Ahmed said that some people left the boat already to catch flights or to continue their tours.