Abydos Desert Sites & Beit Khallaf

Journal: Saturday 19 November 2005

Amid a great deal of excitement we were all up with the larks this morning (are there larks in Egypt?)  to join the early convoy to Abydos. Several of our group have never been there before and they couldn’t wait to see the Temple of Seti I at last. We were travelling in the minibus with yet another Abdul as our driver, as well as ‘our’  Abdul – this trip could get confusing. For the first time, we were permitted to drive straight to Abydos instead of turning off with the convoy to Dendera Temple and we arrived at the little village of el-’Araba el-Madfouna around 10.30am, finding to our joy that we were the only tourists there. Abdul had been in touch with his contacts at Abydos to ask if we could visit the desert sites, though none of us were holding out much hope because they have generally been off-limits for several years.

I love the first view of the temple when driving into Abydos. It stands proudly and sedately at the end of the road, just beyond a little garden area where cold drinks and relatively modern toilets can be found. We all made straight for the temple while Abdul went off to find his contact. I never tire of this Seti Temple with its magnificent reliefs, although today it had to be a swift look around because we knew that we would be coming back this way in a few days. To our great surprise the antiquities inspector gave his permission to visit some of the outer sites, though not the tombs this time as the excavation teams were working there at present. We got back into the minibus and headed north west out into the desert landscape in the company of the inspector and a police escort.

I find this area of Abydos very exciting, invoking thoughts of Egypt’s earliest kings and most ancient artefacts. It is a pilgrimage for me, a pilgrimage which has been happening for 5000 years or so. Since King Djoser built the first pyramid, ancient Egyptians flocked to Abydos, believing it to be the burial place of Osiris and turning it into an ancient ‘Mecca’. An annual re-enactment of the Osiris myth took place here for kings and commoners alike and if an Egyptian couldn’t make the journey in his lifetime, the ‘Abydos Pilgrimage’ was painted on his tomb walls, a symbolic journey to this sacred place. The pilgrims brought offerings of wine and incense in red clay pots which they smashed and millions of fragments can still be seen on the sandy slopes of  Umm el-Gab. Many archaeologists have been attracted by the remains at Abydos but it is only since the 1960s that many new elements of the site’s long history have been found by the use of modern technology, slowly emerging like lost pieces of an ancient  jigsaw puzzle.

We drove past Petrie’s evocative old dig-house on the way out into the desert. When he excavated here in the early 20th century, Shunet el-Zebib was the only large standing funerary enclosure – believed to be the oldest surviving brick building in the world. At that time Shunet was interpreted as a fort but it has since become clear that it the massive enclosure walls had a religious significance, a funerary complex built by King Khasekhemwy a generation before Djoser. It is now thought to be a ‘prototype’ for the first pyramid and has many similar elements such as massive niched enclosure walls, separate chapels and an inner pyramid-like mound.

Standing before the huge enclosure of Shunet el-Zebib and looking up at the 130m long, thick layers of sun-baked mud brick walls, I couldn’t help feeling a sense of awe at this ambitious construction which encloses an area of around one hectare. Inside, lying on the yellow sand there are still many potsherds from red clay vessels which  contained the ibis burials from a later re-use of the monument. But the most exciting aspect of being here was to stand at the edge of the area where, since 1987, David O’Connor and the Abydos Expedition has unearthed a total of 14 brick-lined boat pits containing the remains of well-crafted and fully functioning wooden boats. Perhaps not as well-preserved as the famous solar boat at Giza, but certainly predating it, these proved to be the world’s oldest surviving boats built of planks, as opposed to those made of reeds or hollowed-out logs. Of course there was nothing to see except a slight depression in the sand because the boat-pits are once more covered up, but I have a good imagination.

We wrenched ourselves away from Shunet el-Zebib after a while to cross the dunes to a mysterious enclosure known as Kom es-Sultan, another impressive mudbrick structure to the east of Shunet. Kom es-Sultan represents part of the ancient city of Abydos, an area made up of complex layers of material, originally a tell which has long been destroyed by sebbakh (organic fertilizer) digging. It is assumed that the town surrounds the site of the earliest Temple of Osiris (or Khenty-Amentiu) in Abydos. Little is known about this structure itself, but the only known statue thought to be Khufu, builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza was found here.

A good part of the huge middle Kingdom mudbrick walls are still standing but only a few blocks now remain to give us a glimpse of the temples and structures they once contained. Huge numbers of stelae have been plundered or excavated in the past from this area which have provided a great deal of information on the cult of Osiris. More recent excavators have found substantial remains of residential streets of houses, as well as a larger domestic building or ‘mansion’ and many of the local industries are represented by evidence found there. The valuable information that has come from Kom es-Sultan has gone a long way towards piecing together the history of the isolated artefacts found at Abydos over the past century, allowing archaeologists to re-evaluate their context. Today the modern village of el-Khirba partly covers the area of Kom es-Sultan, but adjoining the enclosure is a recently excavated portal temple, built by Rameses II. To this day a wide beaten path through the desert leads from Kom es-Sultan to Umm el-Qa’ab, indicating the route of pilgrims over the millennia.

Our route was back to the village and the Seti Temple, where we went into the garden for a cup of coffee. A stall with souvenirs was manned by a young man, perhaps a descendent of one of those vendors of votive pots, incense and statues sold as offerings to ancient Egyptians on their pilgrimage in years gone by. It was here we learned that we had permission to visit Beit Khallaf.

Mastaba K1 at Beit Khallaf is situated to the north of Abydos and just to the south of Sohag near the village of Mahansa. The huge mudbrick monument is just as impressive as those at Abydos, but because of its remote location few people ever see it. This is an area investigated by John Garstang in the early 20th century and for many years there has been debate about the mastaba’s owner. There are actually five of these monumental stepped tombs in the low desert here dated to the early dynastic period, but K1 is the largest and best preserved. Several artifacts naming the Dynasty III King Netjerikhet (Djoser) were found in mastaba K1, along with numerous seal impressions, one naming a Queen Nimaathap as ‘Mother of the King’s Children’, while impressions bearing the name of Netjerikhet were also found in the other mastabas. Current archaeological evidence suggests Netjerikhet was the son and successor to Khasekhemwy, and probably performed his burial. Nimaathap was possibly related to Netjeriket in some way and may even have been his mother. The quantity of stone vessels found in the Step Pyramid and Nimaathap’s mastaba also contained identical ink drawings of the god Min, suggesting that they came from the same ‘heirloom’ collection.

Our police escort patiently waited at the foot of the mastaba while we thoroughly investigated its walls and climbed up to the top to look into deep shafts left by early excavators. There are several breaches of the walls where robbers have dug into the sides and top of the monument, but whether they found anything of note I don’t know. Today there are no inscriptions or decoration to excite the average tourist, but for me it is much more interesting than a pyramid because of its antiquity and it has captured my imagination with its history since I first saw it on a previous visit a few years ago. Are these mastabas the missing link between Khasekhemwy’s  funerary enclosure and the first Pyramid at Saqqara?

With a lot of thought-provoking discussion we carried on our journey in the minibus the short distance towards Sohag, where we booked into the Hotel Safa, which Sam and I had stayed in last year. At around 7.00pm I went out onto our balcony overlooking the River Nile, just in time to see a huge full moon rising over the eastern hills behind the town.

East and West

Journal: Friday 18 November 2005

I cannot help but regard Luxor as two separate places, the East Bank and the West Bank, always divided by the wide stretch of river. While the west sleeps its peaceful sleep as a necropolis should, in contrast the east is teeming with life twenty four hours a day. Today, Jim wasn’t feeling well and we all decided to stay on this side of the river and keep him company, whether he liked it or not, spending the morning in his hotel room that he dare not leave. In England we are all part of an Egyptology discussion group, so why not carry it on here. Jim lay stretched on his bed as we talked about the walk we had done yesterday and speculated on the temples no longer there and the kings and queens who had built them or stolen them from earlier rulers. Jim is never one to stay silent for long and soon he looked better, chipping in with the conversation as much as the rest of us. We spent time also discussing our plans for he next few days when we would venture north into Middle Egypt.

But by lunchtime Jim was fading again so we left him in peace and went to have a lovely lunch in the hotel. Sam and I rarely eat at lunchtime but the food in the New Winter Palace restaurant was too tempting to resist – the salad buffet is amazing!

After lunch I went for a walk with Malcolm and Fiona. There have been a lot of changes here in recent years and many parts of the town are being smartened up. I was glad to see that the old suq was still there, although the first part of it has a new cobbled pavement and many of the stalls have been painted or rebuilt. There is even a new grand arched entrance! This is the area that attracts tourists, though they don’t often venture very far up the long street. Further along the pavement disappears and the road once more becomes a rough dirt track, littered with dubious puddles and donkey droppings. This is where the locals shop. I love this part of the suq as there is so much to see. Stalls selling bright gaudy fabrics mingle with shops selling spices of every variety. Next there may be aluminium pots and pans for any occasion, or plastic laundry baskets hanging in rows from long nails. Vendors of Galabeyas, shoes, taped Egyptian music and coffee shops line up along the street and they are all busy with their daily trade.

We walked round the town in a big loop and ended up on the Corniche. Looking across the river the Theban mountains of the West Bank were turning a misty mauve in the late afternoon and smoke from cooking fires was drifting low over the villages. Whichever side of Luxor I am, I’m always pulled by the opposite bank as though a magnet is drawing the two halves of the town together.

Temples Then and Now

Journal: Thursday 17 November 2005

For today we had planned a trip over the river to the West Bank on the big passenger ferry which runs from the Corniche near Luxor Temple, so it was not far to walk from our hotel. I have seen many ferries come and go over the years, some of them little more than rusting hulks on their final voyages to be replaced by the time I visited again. Now there was another new ferry, shiny with bright white paint and with metal floors intact. We all went up to the top deck and watched as the Corniche and the temple receded as we neared the opposite bank. It was still quite early and we were not bothered by the hawkers and touts I was used to seeing hanging around the dock. Sticking with local transport we caught an arabeya to Dra Abu’l Naga. The six of us almost filled the back of the Peugeot pick-up, but of course there was still room for half a dozen young boys to climb onto the back step and cling on. I’m sure they only came along to look at us, as the stares gradually turned into questions, ‘What’s your name?’, ‘Which country?’, ‘Baksheesh?’, ‘Cigarette?’.

Getting off near the junction leading to the King’s Valley, a bargain journey costing only 25 piastres each, we set off walking back along the monument road. Our plan was to look at the sites of all the destroyed temples that line the road, just to see if there are any obvious remains. Just across the road from where we left the arabeya, behind the Temple of Seti I, is the site of the Temple of Nebwenenef, a ‘Prophet of Amun’ and one of the few private  individuals to have a mortuary temple in the Theban necropolis. There is now nothing to see here but past explorations have revealed a few Dynasty XVIII or XIX objects found at the site, including two broken pieces from colossal statues of Rameses II. Nearby there was a tiny Temple of Amenhotep I and his queen Ahmose-Nefertari, in which blocks were found that were carved with heb-sed scenes. Three statues of Ahmose-Nefertari were also found here. Again, the site today is just a patch of bare ground.

We walked further along the main road until we came to the site of a colonnaded temple of Rameses IV, just near the end of the Deir el-Barhri causeway. Howard Carter investigated this site and found foundation blocks and some plaques bearing the names of Rameses IV as well as a few other blocks with the names of earlier kings which must have been re-used. The end of the causeway was also the site of Hatshepsut’s Valley temple, but now is a large patch of flat open ground that locals use as a shortcut to the Deir el-Bahri road and boys use to play football. The Valley Temple is known to have been destroyed in antiquity, but Carter discovered foundation deposits from the site during his investigations, which included alabaster jars and tools. A little further along is the site of another destroyed and probably unfinished temple which appears to have been begun by Rameses IV and re-used by Rameses V and VI. Many fragments from the structure have been found. Sandstone reliefs depicting the head of Rameses VI came from the second court and many remains of re-used blocks from other monuments were found including Osirid statues of Amenhotep I and a block depicting Hatshepsut crowned by the god Amun that probably came from her Valley Temple.

To the left and right sides of the road just north of the Ramesseum, is the site of a Temple of Tuthmose III, where at least we could see some evidence of a monument. The modern road now cuts right through this temple and on the left are substantial remains of a mudbrick pylon, while on rising ground to the right the site is marked out by aligned blocks, one or two with some nice reliefs and we saw a couple of column bases and fragments of painted fluted columns. The temple’s ancient name was ‘Henket-ankh’, and it was probably begun in the earlier part of Tuthmose’s co-regency with Hatshepsut. Many of the blocks and objects from here have found their way into museums around the world. Another destroyed temple is situated to the south of the Tuthmose temple, jointly belonging to Kings Merenptah and Siptah of Dynasty XIX. This is now a low mound at the side of the road, with no suggestion of the ruins it possibly covers. It was excavated by Petrie who found foundation deposits naming King Siptah and Chancellor Bay, as well as plaques, jar-sealings and fragments of vessels.

By now we were in the area of the Ramesseum. Just to the northern side of the huge Mortuary Temple of Rameses II, is a ruined Temple of Amenhotep II. Originally excavated by Petrie, it is currently undergoing re-excavation and restoration by an Italian Archaeological Mission. The remains here appear to be quite extensive. Against the Ramesseum’s northern wall was also a chapel of the ‘White Queen’, so named because a white limestone bust of Rameses’ daughter and consort Merit-Amun, depicted in her religious role as ‘Sistrum-player of Mut’ and ‘Dancer of Horus’, was discovered here. This bust is now in the Cairo Museum.

Across the road we had a wonderful view of el-Qurn, the pyramid-shaped mountain peak in which the ancient Egyptians believed that Hathor, the ‘Lady of the West’ resided. At the foot of the Theban mountain between Deir el-Bahri and Deir el-Medina, behind the village of Sheikh ‘Abd el-Qurna, is one of the oldest of the Theban temples, belonging to Mentuhotep Sankhare or Amenemhat I. It is thought that the structure was never completed and the temple consists today of only a platform and causeway, though very difficult to find. Because Sam and I had looked for it before, we didn’t bother today and carried on walking along the main road. Just to the south of the Ramesseum was a tiny temple in the name of Prince Wadjmose, a son of Tuthmose I. The temple is now completely destroyed, but statue fragments bearing the names of Wadjmose and Tuthmose I were found here as well as various blocks of Tuthmose III and several stelae. The next sites we came to were a destroyed temple of Tuthmose IV, and close by, a temple built for Queen Tawosret, wife of Seti II. This she shared with her successor Siptah. Little is known about this monument but there has obviously been some recent restoration done here.

By now we had reached the end of the Monuments Road, with the Merenptah open-air museum to our left. It took several hours to walk along the road, stopping to investigate any possibility of a monument, even examining odd blocks of stone sticking up out of the sand. We were all hot and thirsty so the obvious next step would be the Rameses Cafeteria at Medinet Habu. But on the way there was still more to look out for. Taking the back road past the ticket office, we still had to pass the site of a temple of Rameses IV known as the ‘North Temple’ but there are virtually no remains to be seen. Likewise a ‘South Temple’ of which little is known beyond a ground plan. A mortuary temple constructed as a gift from Amenhotep III for Amenhotep son of Hapu, the king’s chief architect and scribe, contains more extant remains in the form of a large area of pavement with a few scattered blocks and column bases. Finally we all lined up on a large mound of rubbish to get an overview of the destroyed temple of Ay and Horemheb where a team have recently been doing some restoration work.

The café at Medinet Habu was crowded with lunch-time coach tours, most of the long wooden tables were taken by Japanese tourists eating packed lunches provided by their hotels. We managed to find a free table at the edge of the café and gratefully sat down for a rest and a lengthy lunch consisting of lovely Egyptian salads and yummy garlic bread, washed down with deliciously refreshing lemon juice.

Feeling a little more lively as the mid-day heat began to abate we eventually walked across the road and into the Temple of Rameses III. Now this is what I call a temple – it has long been one of my favourite monuments in the whole of Egypt and it always feels like an old dear friend. Fortunately we had come inside during a lull which often happens in the early afternoon and the temple was very quiet. We each set off in different directions, which meant that the couple of guards on duty quickly gave up trying to follow us and went off for their siesta. The small temple, the oldest building at Habu constructed by Hatshepsut was closed due to the ongoing work by Chicago House. I headed off towards the shrines of the God’s Wives. Only two of the original four chapels still remain, but on a lintel above a doorway there is an ‘appeal to the living’, in which the Divine Adoratrice Shepenwepet II asks that a prayer be said for the occupants of the chapels. The request concludes in a threat – that ‘as for those who do not utter these words, the Mistress of the West will cause them to be sick and their wives to be afflicted!‘ So I like to say a little silent prayer as I pass by, just in case.

I wandered around my favourite parts of the temple for a couple of hours and we all met up again in the hypostyle hall as the first of the coach parties could be seen coming through the huge pylon gate. It was time to leave. The afternoon was drawing to a close and we all decided it would be nice to stay and have an early dinner in the Rameses Café where we could sit and watch the sun go down behind the Theban mountain, while the face of the temple gradually comes alive with the artificial lights playing over the walls as dusk falls.

Eventually we made our way back across the river on the ferry to Luxor. It was a beautiful evening.

A visit to el-Kab

Journal: Wednesday 16 November 2005

Having obtained permission yesterday from the tourist police to visit el-Kab, we wasted no time and decided to go there today, joining the 8.00am convoy towards Aswan and leaving it at el-Kab, which is about half way between Esna and Edfu. Sam and I had been there before, but the others hadn’t, so they were quite excited to visit an unfamiliar site.

The ancient town of Nekheb was called Eleithyiaspolis in classical times and consists of monuments spanning periods of Egyptian history from Predynastic through to Ptolemaic. El-Kab and its sister site of Hierakonpolis on the west bank of the river were the home of Nekbet, the vulture goddess of Upper Egypt. This is one of the oldest settlements of Upper Egypt and not often visited by tourists, although it is open and tickets are sold there. There is even a new-ish but as yet unused cafeteria, ready for the coaches that never stop here. The guards always seem delighted when tourists turn up.

There are a great many tombs at el-Kab, you can see the openings high up in the cliff just off the main road, but the ones which are open are a few of the New Kingdom tombs on a terrace reached by a steep flight of steps. We didn’t expect to be able to take photographs in the tombs, but as always when in Egypt we were totally taken by surprise when the guards allowed us to get out our cameras. I hadn’t taken any pictures last time I was here because of the dark conditions, but with my digital camera it’s so much easier.

We began with the Tomb of Paheri (EK3). Paheri was a Mayor of the town of Nekheb during Dynasty XVIII. The paintings in his tomb are beautifully preserved with a lot of remaining colour and show many scenes of offerings at his funeral procession as well as agricultural scenes of daily life. In a niche in the rear wall is a statue of Paheri with his wife and mother. The next tomb was that of Tomb of Setau (EK4). Setau was a priest in the service of Nekhbet during the reign of Rameses III. On the outside wall of his tomb is a stela showing Setau and his wife adoring Re-Horakhty and Khepri. The paintings inside show the tomb-owner with his relatives in various offering scenes and a depiction of the Barque of Nekhbet with jubilee texts of Rameses III on the west wall. The reliefs are not quite so well-preserved as in the previous tomb, but there is still some lovely colour.

A tomb I especially wanted to see was that of Ahmose, son of Ibana (EK5). I had done some work a few years ago on translating parts of his famous biographical text from the hieroglyphs and I was so grateful to be able to photograph the original texts.  In his biography Ahmose is described as ‘Captain of Sailors’ and he was prominent in the wars of liberation against the Hyksos rulers when the southern princes laid siege to the town of Avaris in the Delta. The text tells of the favours Ahmose was granted for his part, including the award of the ‘gold of honour’ and tells that he was given four slaves by His Majesty from the booty he carried off. He was the Grandfather of Paheri (EK3) who is seen offering to him in the tomb. The next tomb of belongs to Renni (EK7), a  mayor of Nekheb during the reign of Amenhotep I. Renni’s tomb depicts the usual agricultural scenes, banquet scenes and funeral procession. The detail and the colour in these reliefs is superb and there are some very unusual cameos such as ‘muu’ dancers in the funeral precession, the opening of the Mouth Ceremony and a ‘tekenu’, that mysterious object pulled on a sledge that is occasionally glimpsed in a funeral procession. I have long been fascinated by the tekenu. There is a niche in the rear wall of Renni’s tomb which contains the remains of a statue of the tomb-owner flanked by two jackals. One of the most beautiful aspects of all these tombs is the painted ceilings and in Renni’s tomb the ceiling is painted to represent the cloth roof of a tent or canopy.

We had asked to drive down the Wadi Hellal road which runs 4km west towards the desert and where there are many other sites to visit but to our sheer amazement the guard asked us if we would like visit the town site of Nekheb, beyond the massive mudbrick enclosure walls that Sam and I had looked at longingly on previous visits. Last time we were here we got shouted at for even taking a picture of the walls from the side of the road! This was a chance in a million.

The huge mudbrick walls of the town enclosure are 12m thick and still contain within them a vast area of ruined temples, cemeteries and a sacred lake. There was so much more to see than I had imagined. Once inside the walls, which still have a wonderful example of a mudbrick ramp, we walked over the scrubby ground towards the central area, through the low remains of a stone-built pylon gate. The central temple is the oldest of the remains, with its origins possibly dating to the Early Dynastic Period. Of the two ruined structures remaining today, the Temple of Thoth was begun by Amenhotep II in Dynasty XVIII and enlarged by later New Kingdom pharaohs. Another monument, a larger Temple of Nekhbet the vulture goddess, was built during the Late Period and partly overlays the older structure with many re-used blocks from the Middle and New Kingdom. It was difficult to make out the plan of monuments within the town site as the inside is very overgrown and confusing, but the remains of a birth-house and a small Roman temple can still be seen. One feature which captured the interest of the men in our group (always more interested in technical matters) is the complex drainage system which is exposed in front of the second pylon of the Nekhbet Temple. I was captivated by the reliefs of the re-used blocks in the ruins, some of them upside-down or wedged sideways into a space and once or twice we came upon lovely little statues which felt forlorn and neglected.

We spent a long time inside the town site, but all too soon it was time to move on to the wadi Hellal and we collected another guard who had keys to the monuments there. At the entrance to the valley is a Ptolemaic rock-sanctuary dedicated to Seshmetet. Just to the southeast and higher up the hillside, is a temple of Nekhbet consisting of two halls with Hathor columns and a rock-cut sanctuary. This was built by Rameses II, restored by Ptolemies VIII-X and has a stela of Rameses II cut into the façade. The reliefs inside the temple are not well-preserved, but the steps leading up to it and the courtyard have been recently restored. Back towards the road is a structure called locally el-Hammam (the bath), a square single roomed chapel dedicated to local gods and to the deified Rameses II by his Viceroy of Nubia, Setau (a different person to the owner of tomb EK4).

Further along the valley road is ‘Vulture Rock’, so-called because its shape seen at a certain angle (which in my opinion needs a great deal of imagination) is said to resemble the shape of a vulture. Or maybe it is where vultures, probably prolific in the cliffs of this remote spot, go to roost. The southern face of the rock is covered with petroglyphs and Old Kingdom inscriptions probably made by pilgrims passing this way on the ancient desert road towards the Red Sea coast. Several Old Kingdom kings are named on smooth panels cut into the rock, the earliest cartouche is that of Snefru. There are also Late Period primitive rock-carvings including many boats. We scrambled around the rock for a while before moving on further into the desert.

At the end of the track is a lovely little temple dedicated to Hathor and Nekhbet, built by Tuthmose IV and Amenhotep III. The single chamber was apparently a way-station for the barque of Nekhbet when the statue of the goddess was brought to her desert valley. Quite a lot of colour still remains on the wall reliefs inside the temple, depicting Tuthmose IV and his son Amenhotep III. The building was restored in late antiquity and brightly painted scenes of rituals as well as the vulture goddess still can be seen. On the chapel façade is a text by Prince Khaemwaset, the son of Rameses II, announcing his father’s jubilee in year 42, as well as graffiti by other passing travellers including more primitive boats.

It was late afternoon when we left el-Kab to join the convoy back to Luxor and we were all delighted at what a fantastic day we had had, being so fortunate to be able to visit the town site of the vulture goddess. We treated ourselves to a celebratory tea on the terrace of the Old Winter Palace and discussed our day. It’s lovely to be in the company of friends who are all passionate about Egyptology.

Luxor Temple

Journal: Tuesday 15 November 2005

The morning dawned clear and sunny as it almost always does in Luxor. I love the way that you can depend on good weather here, even in the winter months. If it is cloudy or even raining, it never lasts long. The Abu el-Haggag mosque is close to the back of the hotel block we are in and the first thing I heard this morning was the early call to prayer, beginning with the slow deeply resonant ‘Allahu Ahbar’ chanted in the pre-dawn light. Within minutes the other minarets had picked up the chant and the sing-song voices, albeit mostly recorded these days, rang out from all corners of the town. Then I knew I was truly back in Luxor.

We all met up for a leisurely breakfast and decided we would spend our first day here in Luxor, just looking around. Malcolm and Fiona haven’t been here for a while and wanted to reacquaint themselves with the town and get their bearings. The first thing on my list as usual were the bookshops – just a peek to see if anything important had been published that I don’t already have. Aboudis, my favourite, is right next to the hotel, so this was my first stop, but nothing took my fancy this morning. The trail led from Aboudis, to the other Aboudis next door, to Gaddis on the corner and inevitably to the Amoun Restaurant for coffee later in the morning, where we all sat outside in the sunshine to watch the world go by.

Afterwards I went with Sam to visit the offices of the convoy police to see if we could get permission to go to Medamud Temple, which is only a kilometre or two north of Luxor and to Tod, a few kilometres to the south. Although these sites are very close to town and tickets are sold at Luxor Temple, we still needed to arrange the visits with the tourist police. Inside the police station a few flights of scruffy concrete stairs led us to the convoy office and we were asked to wait to see the officer in charge. We had thought that all this would be merely a formality and were horrified to be told that we would have to pay a small fortune for a police escort, including a specially-hired air-conditioned minibus to take them. It would seem that funds and transport are short and they would not let us go without us fulfilling this condition. After much argument, we refused to pay and tried another plan. We also wanted to visit the tombs and wadi at el-Kab and knew that again we would have to join the convoy for this trip. Fortunately this time the commander said that we could join the regular convoy as far as el-Kab, then I guess we would be in the hands of the Esna police and so not his problem. Well, at least we had won one battle.

At mid-afternoon we all met up again at Luxor Temple, cameras at the ready. I wanted to have a good look at the battle reliefs on the outside wall and the low afternoon sun slanting from the west was ideal for showing these in their best light. It’s an area of the temple that many people neglect but is very interesting. The western exterior wall gives details of the Syrian wars of Rameses II and on the wall surrounding the King’s pillared court there is a depiction of Rameses attacking a fortress at Dapur. On the outer wall where the court meets Amenhotep’s colonnade, Rameses can be seen shooting at the Fortress of Neheren. These reliefs show his Lybian war as well as the capture of the city of Satuna in Palestine. There are some lovely floral motifs here, similar to those in the ‘Botanical Garden’ at Karnak. Further along, on the outer walls of Amenhotep’s sun court, we see again, remains of the poem of the Battle of Kadesh which is also shown high on the temple pylon.

In Luxor the sun is enveloped rapidly at dusk into the violet cloak of the Theban Hills. One minute it’s light and the next the temple is floodlit with only darkness beyond its walls. But this is also a good time to see the reliefs, thrown high by the shadows of the artificial lights. The tall columns in the Colonnade of Amenhotep III look magnificent at dusk. My next stop was the ‘Birth-room’ where I always hope to get some  good photographs of the divine birth of Amenhotep III, which in daylight are quite shallow and worn. The low lights provide the best chance of doing this. Here the story enfolds with Queen Mutemwiya , supported by Amun-Re and Hathor, before Tuthmose IV. These are the parents of Amehotep III. The god Khnum stands with his potter’s wheel, ready to make the Ka of the new king. We see the queen led to the birthroom and she delivers her child while seated on a block throne in the presence of the gods. Later we see the Ka of the newborn Amenhotep presented to Amun-Re by Hathor and the king presented to the deities.

By 6.00pm the temple was beginning to fill up once more with tour groups. This is one of the few sites open to visitors in the evening and it is always crowded. We almost had to fight our way out through the mass of people coming into the temple, through the pylon gate, although things have improved since a new rear exit was opened near the mosque.

Discussion Group Abroad

Journal: Monday 14 November 2005

Another year, another trip to Egypt, this time with a group of five friends from our Egyptology discussion group. The itinerary has been organised by my good friend Sam and we are all looking forward to some interesting discussions between us in situ at the sites, rather than the ‘armchair Egyptology’ we have enjoyed over the past year. My travelling companions this year are Sam, Jim and Jane, Malcolm and Fiona.

Our group met up at Heathrow airport for the weekly Monday Egypt Air flight to Luxor, which for once left almost on time. We even managed to get seats fairly close together and spent most of the comfortable flight chattering excitedly about our plans. Because we had all been to Egypt before, we knew what to expect and I think we all have our own agendas about where we want to go and what our priorities are.

We finally arrived and got through Luxor airport by 10.00pm. As always, as I left the aircraft, the warm Egyptian night air enveloped me with the unmistakable smells and sounds of Luxor. Although it’s November the night was still mild and the distant orange glow in the sky that is Luxor town was beckoning. In the terminal building we bought our visas and collected our luggage without too much of a scrum. Abdul, our faithful driver, was waiting outside in the car park to pick us up us in a minibus he has organized which is ideal for a group trip, and we spent some time admiring it enthusiastically. Another twenty minutes and Abdul had dropped us off at our hotel.

This year we are staying at the New Winter Palace on the Corniche. Although I’ve been into both the Old and New Winter Palace many times, I’ve never stayed here before and I am quite impressed by the standard of the hotel room. We got a really good deal on the flight and accommodation and I’m sharing a room with Fiona, which helps enormously with the cost of the holiday. Although I do like my own space when I’m away, I am always penalised as a single traveller in hotel rooms. Our room is at the back of the hotel with a long balcony overlooking the gardens – a wide expanse of vivid green lawns and palm trees. It’s great to be back!

 

Another Journey Home

Journal: Monday 6 December 2004

Sam and I were up at 5.00am. Abdul had arranged to take us to the airport at 7.00am but it was actually nearer 7.45am by the time we left, which just reminded me that Egyptians have no concept of being on time. When we got to the airport, there was a big queue of locals for the Cairo flight, but Abdul managed to persuade the police to let us go to the front of the queue as we were late. We checked in our luggage and they grumbled about the weight but let us through as we were the last to check in – the flight was due to leave at 9.00am. We hurried up to the cafeteria, only to be confronted by another big queue at the counter and there was not enough time for a last cup of coffee. At least we didn’t have long to wait and soon almost everyone else had boarded the busses so we thought we’d better go too. We were both very subdued but I felt OK as we climbed the steps on to the plane, with a last look around before going inside. It wasn’t until we were taxiing up the runway that Sam & I dared to look at each other. My cold suddenly got particularly bad and Sam put on her sunglasses and hid her head under a blanket. After about an hour we could speak to each other for the first time today! I really hate this bit.

We spent the flight talking about where we had been. We’ve covered a lot of Egypt this time, from the Delta and Cairo, right down through Middle Egypt and finally Luxor, even venturing south as far as Esna. The flight was good, the movie, as usual, unmemorable and we arrived in a grey wet London only half an hour late. The rest of the day entailed a long tiring drive down the motorways. Home eventually with all my memories of another fantastic trip until the next time.

Luxor Museum Extension

Journal: Sunday 5 December 2004

I woke this morning to look out at the Nile and the mountains. This will be my last early morning view for a while as it will be dark when I get up tomorrow. Sam was in a funny mood at breakfast and said she doesn’t want to do anything today. But while drinking our many breakfast cups of coffee we realised that we absolutely had to go and reconfirm our flight with Egyptair, which should have been done three days ago. Maybe they’ve given our seats to someone else by now……?  I said I wanted to go to the museum and Sam decided she would come too.

Sam and I walked down to the Egyptair office by the Winter Palace Hotel and had to wait almost an hour for our turn. At least they have a numbered queuing system now – it used to be a free-for-all with the Egyptians pushing in front all the time. They still do this but it’s not quite so bad. They still have our seats reserved – oh well…

Feeling lazy we took a taxi to the museum and spent about three hours looking around and taking photos of almost every exhibit. I took a complete set of pictures of the Amenhotep IV talatat wall this time and they should come out really well with the digital camera. I panicked a little when I went upstairs and found they’d moved Amenhotep Son of Hapu, my favourite statue, but eventually I found him in the new section. This is the first time I’ve seen the finished new extension and I thought it was very well done. The architectural and scribal exhibits are especially interesting. I didn’t visit the royal mummies because I hate to look at the faces of kings who should be enjoying their eternal rest, not gawped at by tourists. A big banner outside the exhibit welcomes Rameses back home to Luxor but doesn’t mention poor Amenhotep. Finally we had a look in the bookshop but there was nothing new there and the new coffee shop isn’t open yet.

Back to the hotel around 2.00pm. I toyed with the idea of going over to the west bank to say a last farewell to the temples but didn’t go because I’d probably just end up at Habu again. I had some articles to read and notes to catch up on so I just went and sat out on the terrace for a couple of hours on my own, enjoying the sunshine and trying not to think about going home tomorrow.

We had invited Abdul and Salah out for a farewell meal and Abdul said he’d been recommended a new restaurant called Habiba, out towards the bridge. It’s owned by Blue Skies tour company and it’s a vast place by the river. We realised when we got there that it was really intended for coach loads of people (and we were the only ones there). They did a buffet meal, kept warm like in a hotel, which none of us were very keen to try, so we just had a lemon juice and left, much to the disgust of the manager. The decor in Habiba is beautiful – oriental in style which was obviously very expensively done and it was worth going just to see this. There were wonderful wall lamps and floor tiles and fabrics. Salah even surreptitiously took some pictures with his phone camera for ideas for his house he says he’s going to build. Eventually we ended up at Maxims again. Everyone was in a bit of a funny mood and nobody was saying much. Sam had raging toothache again and I still have a streaming cold, which didn’t help. Afterwards we went to the Etap (just for a change) and sat listening to Maha sing Arabic songs. Abdul and Salah kept getting a bit silly – I think it was their way of trying to cheer us up, though they wouldn’t share their jokes. There was one Omm Kulthoum song which they were both listening to intently. It was a love song about a man who will wait forever for his love. Watching the two men listening was so funny – Abdul had a big grin on his face and was obviously enjoying the music very much, while Salah had his face screwed up and looked like he was dying of an emotional overdose. You’d have thought they were listening to two totally different songs. This amused Sam & I greatly but they couldn’t understand what we found so funny. We left the Etap around 12.30am and dropped Salah at the ferry, then Abdul drove Sam and I back to the hotel. I didn’t get much sleep because I sat on the balcony until 2.30am, just taking in the never-sleeping sounds of Luxor.

Day Trip to Kharga Oasis

Journal: Saturday 4 December 2004
 
A faint pale promise of daylight was just beginning to colour the sky when I went out onto my balcony this morning, but the freezing night air still enveloped me in my light nightdress. Today was our chosen day to drive to Kharga, having missed the opportunity to go the slightly shorter route from Asyut because I was ill. Abdul told us that the direct road from Luxor was now open to non-Egyptians, so we decided to go just for the day. Sam had been planning to drive us on our own, but Abdul invited himself saying it was too far for her to drive there and back in a day, especially when he heard that we had invited our friend Salah to come along as he had never been there. I have developed a horrible cold but I was determined not to let it spoil my day.

By 7.00am we were driving across the Nile bridge and south on the West Bank towards  Armant and the desert road. Colourful birds skimmed the surface of the misty canal looking for breakfast as we speeded along the empty road, with only an occasional donkey cart with its sleepy driver to slow us down. The police at the checkpoints weren’t bothered about us this morning, though a bit puzzled by Sam driving, they just radioing ahead to say ‘itnein Inglezi’ (two English) at every stop. I guess they’d only worry if we didn’t eventually turn up somewhere. Within about an hour we were up on the escarpment and then it was just a long very straight road for about 300km. Sam was driving, with Abdul fast asleep in the front seat, supposedly to keep an eye on her roadcraft, with Salah and I dozing in the back seat.

Sam and Abdul were both bored stiff by the drive, which they have done several times before. It’s a good road now and you can see parts of the old road here and there. When a dune encroaches on the road they have to just build a new road around it until the dune has moved on. Nothing will stop them. The desert here is rather flat and colourless – a bit like the drive from Aswan to Abu Simbel, but I always love being in the desert. Half way into the journey I noticed an elaborate bus stop, looking like the entrance to some forgotten ancient temple, at the side of the road, but not a house for 100km in  either direction. After about two hours we began to descend the Kharga escarpment and down into the depression of the Oasis to a place called Bagdad, and another checkpoint. We had hoped to avoid picking up a police escort, but here at the checkpoint they decided to come with us and we drove the further 70km into Kharga City. Though it’s called a City, this small town rambles along the road through the oasis, a scattering of old and modern buildings between an occasional plantation of palm trees with nothing very distinctive about it.

Our plan was to visit Hibis Temple and try to get into the hypostyle hall and sanctuary where there are some unique reliefs. The gafir however, told us that it is closed (always has been!) and he couldn’t let us in without permission from the antiquities inspector for Kharga. He wouldn’t take baksheesh and even Salah couldn’t charm him. So off we went back into town to see a lovely man called Mohammed Yusseff, a friend of Sam’s and the director of the Kharga Museum. He tried to get permission for us from the Inspector but couldn’t. He even phoned the SCA office in Cairo and spoke to the lady who issues our antiquities permissions and then Sam spoke to her too. I think Mr Yussef would even have phoned Zahi Hawass himself  had he not been out of the country. He was really upset that he himself didn’t have the authority to give us permission to get into the temple. The Cairo office told us it would cost $1000 each to have sites specially opened for us under the new rules. We must have been just lucky up to now with closed sites. This is why the large specialist travel firms have to charge such vast sums for some of their holidays – because they have to buy permission for the sites that are closed. Anyway, we were rather disappointed and after a cup of coffee with Mohammed we left for the temple again.

I was also a bit disappointed to find that the whole temple was covered by scaffolding because of restoration work. There used to be a huge gate through the outer enclosure wall, quite famous for its Roman inscriptions and decrees covering all sorts of topics about Roman rule in the oasis. There has been a plan for the past 20 years to dismantle and move the temple, which has been falling down ever since it was built , and work began a couple of years ago. Rather than get the experts in, the government decided to go for an Egyptian construction contractor who quickly chopped the gate down to about the bottom two courses. In the process they have ruined it and it can never be rebuilt as it originally was. We first learned about this last year – it is not common knowledge outside of Kharga. Mohammed Yussef was talking to us at the Museum and he is livid about it and the fact that it is being kept quiet. It is so sad. The dismantling has thankfully now been halted again, but it is too late for the gate.

Even though we couldn’t get inside, we had another good look at the outside reliefs. They are very unusual because this is really the only well-preserved example of a Persian Period temple and you can see the transition in artwork between the Late Period and Ptolemaic, though the experts say there’s no link. The reliefs are very intricate and the hieroglyphs very well drawn but somehow simplistic. They are lovely. There is some surviving colour, especially the pale ‘Kharga green’ you don’t see anywhere else. Inside the temple is a very special relief of a blue-painted Seth with the head of a falcon, spearing the Apophis serpent. He is a unique desert god revered in the Oases and this temple especially, and this among other reliefs is what I wanted to look at (Sam of course has already been inside before).

After the temple we went back into Kharga and had lunch in a local restaurant in what appeared to be a main square. Sitting at a long wooden table among the workmen, the noise of Egyptian voices in their normal loud animated conversation was tremendous and echoed off the walls and high ceiling. By the time we went to a coffeeshop next door, my cold was getting worse and I was feeling rough. Salah was feeding me countless glasses of hot lemon juice with honey so that I felt like I was turning into a lemon. We had been told by the police that if we were not at the Bagdad checkpoint by 3.30pm we would not be able to leave the oasis today as they don’t allow people to drive on the desert road after dark. We spent as long as we could there, also buying lunch and drinks for four policemen. Eventually we left, driving back towards Baris and the desert road and passing Nadura and Qasr el-Ghueita fortresses in the distance. Unfortunately there was no time to visit anywhere else on a one-day trip.

There was a beautiful sunset on the way back and we had to stop so that Salah could take photographs with his new mobile phone camera which actually looked quite good. I took some paracetamol and fell asleep and woke up to find it was dark and the stars against the inky black sky were incredible. Nothing compares to a clear night sky in the lightless desert. There are a billion more stars than we ever see in the UK, or even in Luxor. We saw many shooting stars too, but it would have been much more enjoyable if I didn’t have a drippy nose and puffy eyes. We arrived back around 7.30pm and dropped Salah at the Luxor Mummification Museum where he had arranged to meet Christine and Jackie to go to a lecture. Sam and I went back to the hotel – she was really tired from driving most of the way so we had a drink and then an early night. I’m feeling really sad because tomorrow is our last day in Egypt.

Deir el-Medina

Journal: Friday 3 December 2004

We had arranged to Meet Christine and Jackie to go to Deir el-Medina, which is Christine’s favourite place. She is an Egyptologist who we have known for many years, but she only visited Egypt for the first time a couple of years ago as she was terrified of flying. I find it odd how so many Egyptologists have never been to Egypt, so that their knowledge is purely academic, while others who excavate in Egypt often never have time to visit any sites other than the ones they are working on. Ask almost any professional Egyptologist a question and unless it is their own particular field of interest they often cannot give you an answer. Christine and Jackie phoned us during breakfast and said they were too tired to go out today – so Sam & I drove over to the West Bank to Deir el-Medina anyway.

We walked through the workmen’s village to the temple and spent a couple of hours there, first looking at the outside walls and then the chambers inside. There is so much beautiful colour left here that we wanted to take digital pictures before it was no longer allowed. You can never tell, the way things are going. I think we photographed every scene in the temple. There are some beautiful and colourful depictions of the gods at Deir el-Medina and they are so well-preserved. Ptolemaic reliefs are not my strong suit and once more I was having difficulty in reading the hieroglyphs, which to me don’t seem to make sense.  After leaving the temple we walked back along the top of the workman’s village. As usual here we were accosted by men selling ‘genuine antiquities’ which they bring out of pockets in little tobacco tins in a very secretive way. I managed to get rid of them quite quickly by speaking Arabic – they soon lost interest, realising we were not gullible tourists, this usually works. Every time I walk through the village there seems to be more and more of it – I’m sure it’s growing.

Later we drove over to Medinet Habu for lunch. I left Sam in the cafe and went off into Habu Temple. I rushed around quite quickly, first in the shrines of the Divine Adoritix – two of them have been closed off with gates, with only the Amenirdis and Shepenwepet shrines open. Took photographs in the first and second courts and the rooms around the hypostyle hall, especially in the Osiris suite and then had a walk around the palace area. I have large albums crammed full of Habu pictures but wanted digital ones too. A gafir kept hassling for baksheesh, but as he hadn’t actually done anything I ignored him for once. There were plenty of other people there to hassle. I had an enjoyable hour and a half wandering around the temple – most of the other people only stayed for 15 minutes or so.

When I got back to the cafe some old friends of ours were there so I stopped to chat with them for a while. Sam had been talked into pricing up an AUC book order which had just come in and she was hidden under piles of books (she works for a book-seller in England). I helped too for a while and we soon got the job done. We have invited our friend Salah to come to Kharga with us tomorrow and we thought if we helped finish this job it was more likely that Shahat would give him the day off. He’s never been to Kharga and is quite keen to go. While pricing the books I found new copies of Aidan Dodson’s ‘Complete Royal Families’, a new book which Sam has just paid £20 second hand for in the UK. Here it was LE150 – about £13, so I had to buy it. It’s very heavy but too much of a bargain not to take it.

We left Habu around 5.00pm and drove back to the hotel for a quick shower and change before meeting up with Christine and Jackie at Salt & Bread restaurant near the Railway Station for dinner. Afterwards we all went to the Etap to hear Maha singing again (we are such creatures of habit). Sam and Christine proceeded to drink a bottle of wine each while I stuck to my ahwa on this occason.