Our second day in Luxor started early. Well, again, early Egyptian style - which meant that we were told in no uncertain terms to be in the lobby, ready to go, no later than 7... and we left at 7:30 for our trip to the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens.
Our guide was a lovely Luxor native named Rihanna.
She may have been pretty, but she was also a stern taskmistress! Continuous threats to punish us if we lagged behind were punctuated by pop quizzes to see if we had been paying attention to her information.
I thought she was GREAT. Sometimes I appreciate a dictatorial bent in a tour guide.
We crossed a bridge crowned with an enormous photo of a waving Hosni Mubarak - whose grinning face can be found all over Egypt.
Our first stop was at the Colossi of Memnon, so named by the Greeks (who were wrong about the provenance of the giants). Off to the side, a young boy was grazing his donkeys.
We only had a few minutes at the colossi, but that was absolutely fine since we had an awful lot to see and not much time to do it in.
It was interesting to me to see how there are villages right in the midst of all of these ancient tombs. In the time of the Pharaohs, the west bank of the Nile was reserved for the dead - because that's where the sun went to die at the end of each day. Now, it's home to whole towns of people that make the alabaster tchochkes sold all over Egypt, or rent donkeys to tourists. The Egyptian government has been trying to move these people since King Farouk's day, but they've had no luck and have occassionally met with violent resistance.
And yes, some of them make a living through tomb-robbing. Old traditions die hard.
Next came the Temple of Hatshepsut, which was unfortunately the site of the Luxor Massacre in 1997. I was aware of the killings before visiting, but I hadn't known this temple was the site.
Hatshepsut was the only woman to ever rule ancient Egypt as Pharaoh. Her monuments can be found in the Valley of the Kings, though her nephew Tuthmosis III made a real effort to destroy any evidence that she had existed. The temple survived because even Tuthmosis III didn't think it was a good idea to tear down a building dedicated to the wrathful gods of Egypt.
There is a large relief in the temple depicting an expedition Hatshepsut undertook to Punt (perhaps Somalia?). She brought back myrrh trees and planted them in front of this building 3500 years ago.
For obvious reasons relating to what I'm sure was an uphill battle, getting the ancient Egyptians to accept a woman in charge, Hatshepsut had herself rendered as a man. The statues of her have bared breasts, like the men.
Along with the usual glaringly white European tourists were a large number of Egyptians. We took a couple of pictures of their styles of dress. These women really cut quite a figure, with the perfectly coordinated headscarves and jewelry! I wish I looked this put together on a regular day.
Soon enough, we had to leave Hatshepsut's temple to head to the Valley of the Kings. We made one of the obligatory quick stopoffs so endemic on Egyptian tours - this one at an alabaster workshop.
Again, though, the demo was actually very interesting! We saw examples of the process, from beginning to end. The man in the above photo was using this hand-cranked machine to hollow out a hole in a chunk of alabaster in the process of becoming a vase. It sounded like nails on chalkboard - all the hairs on my arms have gone on end thinking about it!
We did end up purchasing a couple of alabaster items, so it was worth their while. We tried our hands at bargaining, and got the price down substantially - but they wouldn't move below a certain price, instead throwing in various other items "free".
Sorry for holding the rest of the group up a little with our haggling!
Next, on to the tombs in the Valley of the Kings. 62 separate tombs have been found officially, with the latest being just a couple of years ago. The setting is desolate desert - but not so desolate, now that it's filled with tourists. We heard an Englishwoman reminiscing about visiting many years prior, when the only option for getting to and around the tombs was on camelback.
The desert wasn't white, like the Negev, but it still had that sort of empty beauty. Looking up brought men and children into view, climbing the hills all around the tombs.
The ticket you buy at the entrance gets you into three of the open tombs. If you want to tour Tutenkhamun's, you have to buy an extra ticket for 70 LE, about $12. We opted against this, since we had already seen his treasures in the Egyptian museum and we heard his tomb is rather small and unimpressive. After all, he only ruled for a few years. Makes you wonder what was buried with Ramses II and Seti, who ruled for lifetimes!
Going into the tomb of Ramses IV, Husbear asked me to pass him the camera. Taking pictures, even without flash, is strictly verboten in the tombs, but I passed it to him...
He got a couple of amazing pictures of the inside of the tombs.
And then the camera was confiscated by a man in a galabiyyah. I freaked out that he wouldn't give it back, but he did when we left. Husbear didn't take amy more pictures in tombs.
(Later, we saw a guy in a different tomb confiscate a Japanese tourist's camera. The tourist opened his wallet, and the guy took what he wanted and gave back the camera. Another time that we failed to understand baksheesh in time.)
A couple of people in our group wanted to see Tutankhamun's tomb, so we waited outside for them. Husbear walked up to the entrance to see how much was visible, and got yelled at - another guy, demanding 5 LE (illegally) for the privilege of looking at the outside of an open hole in the ground.
We were lucky enough also to go to the Valley of the Queens, where we saw Queen Teti's tomb and the tomb of Amunhirkhepshef (what do you guys think of that for the name of our first child?), a son of Ramses III who died in battle at the age of 9. (!) In the corner of Amunhirkhepshef's tomb is a tiny skeleton, apparently a fetus spontaneously aborted by his mother when she heard of the death of her son. Macabre, huh?
We then headed back to town, where I went to the hotel to wash off all of the desert dust and take a little nap, while Husbear left in search of food. He found a very different noodle machine - different from the ones he used at the Italian restaurant in Austin!
The noodles were extruded onto this revolving griddle, which cooked them a tad and then scraped them off onto a plate.
He picked up kofta (like shishkebob), taamiyah/felafel, some tahini (sesame paste) and a little salad of tomatoes and cucumbers. I liked the kofta a lot - it had a really good grilled flavor, and wasn't too dry. The taamiyah, again, was pretty greasy and undersalted, but was good in a pita.
When we arrived in Luxor, Gomal gave us the option ("decide now!") of taking a fellucca, one of the traditional Egyptian sailboats that ply the waters of the Nile. As far as we saw, they are now used only for tourists, and our boat captain told us that they usually take out only one group a day, for two or three hours right around sunset.
The three-hour trip we took was very relaxing. Our captain was great, laughing and joking with us and trying out English riddles. He even brewed us karkade, the hibiscus tea, which was delicious as always.
It did feel a bit strange to be on a boat, on a river, and not be able to comfortably wear a bathing suit. Or drink a beer.
We had a little stowaway. He didn't bother us, so we let him hang out until he decided to take a plunge off the side of the boat. (I asked Muhammed, our boat captian, if this tiny Nile monitor lizard was his. He looked at me, "That crocodile? No, that is certainly not my crocodile." I think he liked him though. -L. Pants)
It was wonderful to see the lives of the people along the Nile. Children splashed each other, water buffalo grazed, men fished off of tiny boats.
He even let us steer for a while (it may have been necessary, since he comprised the crew of one). It was just as easy as it looks in these pictures.
I had a moment where I couldn't believe we were actually sailing. In a boat. On the Nile! It snapped me out of some of the dissappointment I'd been feeling. In a lot of ways, Egypt was what I'd been expecting - millenia of history against a modern backdrop, money fighting poverty, religious differences right at the forefront...
I just hadn't expected to feel SO out of my element. Italian culture shock was nothing compared to this.
But this took my breath away. We made it to Egypt.
Going back to Luxor we were reminded once more of the prevalence of American culture - at least the McDonald's related portions.
I haven't mentioned the nature of Egyptian security. In most places, including our hotel in Luxor, tourists were allowed to just walk straight through security - while Egyptians were stopped and frisked and had their things turned inside out.
To be honest, it was a strange feeling that sort of added to the whole "old raj" feeling we experienced in Egypt. Tourists were treated very differently than the Egyptians. I'm still processing the feeling, but I know it wasn't pleasurable.
We left for the train station just before 8 to catch our 8:15 train. I was concerned about not having enough time...
While we waited, on our platform, a crowd of young boys from Aswan surrounded Husbear and practiced their English on him, until a police officer came and shooed them off.
Our 8:15 train arrived at 9:00. Sharp.
I felt like the train had a certain Eastern Bloc feel to it, but I found a plaque in the hallway giving the address of the company that built it - in West Germany. Guess I was a little off on the provenance.
Next - our last day in Cairo (unless I just can't handle it anymore and stick in a post about something else.)
In other news - the house has lately been enriched by one Auntie, freshly arrived from Californ-i-ay! Hi to her!
(and WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, mostly, to the midterm election results. Wow. Look what happens when we leave! My Italian conversation teacher thanked me yesterday... for the vote for liberty.)
girlie
