Land of the Pharaohs - Day 7: El Kharga to Luxor

06:00 Wake up

06:30 Breakfast is basic. Cheese, fig jam, bread, boiled eggs, tea. Gauda has a word with management regarding the lack of coffee.

The coffee arrives.

07:25 Hit the road! A blue sky day.

First stop, on the outskirts of El Kharga, the temple of Hibis, originally built by the Persian emperor Darius I and extended by later pharaohs. At the entrance, we are told that the temple is closed for renovations. A bit of baksheesh gets me inside for a few minutes and I get a few pics, but no good look around.

El Kharga is a developing town. The streets are lined with trees. There are even flowers in the central reservation. We see bulldozers and front end loaders everywhere. The Egyptian government is trying very hard to get people out of the cities and into the surrounding area, where infrastructure can still be developed.
Outside of the town we see the usual date palm groves, irrigated fields, patches of alfalfa and barley. It is very green and clearly very productive. The patches of green are punctuated by patches of yellow desert, but the agricultural patchwork continues for about 100km, with small settlements every few kilometres. These settlements have names like ‘Algeria’, ‘Kuwait’, ‘Palestine’ and ’Jedda’. They were originally created by president Nasser as settlements for soldiers discharged from the army. Upon discharge, they received a house and a bit of land.

Here ends the oasis...

The desert becomes a barren, sandy wasteland again. Nothing but sand for as far as the eye can see. Over a hill, and it changes to pebble-strewn flats and low hills. Watching the desert go by like this is hypnotic.

The road to Luxor

 
The sun is high, the sky is blue and the desert is yellow white. It is beautiful in its strange, stark barrenness. As the sun rises, the heat starts to distort the landscape and we see mirages every so often. In fact, it is warm enough for Talat to remove his padded jacket. He is still wearing his scarf, though.

A dune covering a hill

So it continues, featureless but for the odd hill and turn in the road. In a valley between cliffs, Gauda’s mobile phone beeps with a signal it has picked up. Over another low hill, and it is green everywhere. We are in the Nile valley! Sugar cane, tomatoes, cabbages, onions, alfalfa, barley, lettuce, mustard. The fields give way to the usual riot of human activity: houses, houses-to-be, houses-that-was, satellite dishes everywhere, farmers bent double, drovers, women, children, cows watching the world go by, tractors pulling loads of sugarcane, trucks laden with bananas and tomatoes. Not an inch of land is unused.

Over the Nile and we are in Luxor itself. This part is beautiful, with bougainvilleas in bloom lining the side of the road. Even the drivers have taken up a curious habit of driving within the painted lanes. What next?
Talat drops us off at the Winter Palace. He continues on to the Red Sea coast for a pick-up there and then on to Cairo, where we will meet him again in 6 days’ time.

The Winter Palace in Luxor! What can I say? It is an iconic old hotel and for the next few days they will be looking after us. Outside there are large gardens with lawns, flowers and trees. Pools. Restaurants. The rooms are spacious and have everything that can open, close, switch on and run hot or cold. It could be worse.

The view from our balcony

No time for lazing about, though. It’s time for lunch and then some serious touring. We take lunch at a restaurant on the shore of the Nile. What a fantastic view: Felucca’ s moored up between huge cruise boats, birds gliding over the silver-blue water and the mountains marking the start of the desert in the far distance. The food was equally good: Lots of salads, breads, spreads and cheese.

The view across the Nile.

(This where my notes for the day end. It was so overwhelming that none of us got around to writing anything down. The rest then, from shared memory, photos and research)

This city, Luxor, from the Arabic Al-Uqsur, was the capital city of ancient Egypt for a thousand years, from about 2100BC to 1100BC. During that time it was known as Ta-Ipet, the City of the Shrine, in the Coptic language. The Greeks called it Thebes. The ancient Egyptians called it Niwt-Imn, City of Amun-Ra, the sun-god. It was famous all over the world for its wealth, religion, learning and political power.

Today we will be looking at two of the most famous temples of the ancient times. First, the Temple of Amun at Karnak, Building started in about 2200BC and it was continuously expanded and restored for the next 2000 years or so. Much of it still lies buried under modern Luxor, but that which have been uncovered makes it the largest temple complex ever built by man. More than 30 successive pharaohs expanded the complex, each trying to outdo the previous one. The result is a monument created by generations of the finest sculptors, engravers, illustrators and stonemasons in the Egyptian empire.

After lunch, we get a new driver and he drops us off in the parking area. We approach the temple over smooth, modern flagstones until we reach the Avenue of Rams leading into the temple complex. Looking down the avenue, I can see through the successive gates in the massive pylons dividing the complex.

Tourists! They're everywhere!

Down the Avenue of Rams and into the Great Court, within it one remaining papyrus-shaped column and several sculptures. There is not much that immediately catches your eye, but look closer and the detail has changed: On the outside, there is descriptions of the battles and the treasures that the pharaoh returned to Egypt. On the inside, it is all about devotion to the gods.

In ancient Egypt, the people believed that the gods once lived among them, but abandoned Earth for their heavenly realm due to humankind’s odd behaviour. The humans realised that this was not good and managed to strike a deal with the gods: One human would represent humankind to the gods. If humankind maintained the rituals and the feasts, then the gods would listen to the human representative. This human was the pharaoh. He was the only link between god and man. This is the reason why most of what we can see in the temples relates to the pharaoh making offerings to the gods. He had no choice. That’s what he did, for his entire life. His job was to keep the gods happy.

Pleasing the gods depended on personal preference: War, slavery, torture, rape, pillage and desecration was one way. Another was the building of monuments commemorating your acts of war, slavery, torture, rape, pillage and desecration.

Today, we’ll be looking at the monuments.

There is much to be explored to the left and right, but we continue straight on.

Through the gate of the Second Pylon and into the Great Hypostyle Hall with 134 columns, some up to 24 meters high, built by pharaoh Seti I but redecorated by his son Ramesses II. In keeping with the theme, on the outside of the pylons Seti and Ramesses describe their victories in battle and the wealth they have brought back to Egypt. This was for public consumption. On the inside, they described their devotion to the gods and catalogue what they have done to bring glory to the gods. Every single column is inscribed with religious texts. 132 Offerings. Surely, that has to be enough?

The top of the columns

The hall was built to resemble a gigantic papyrus forest, with light filtering through from above. The scale and the majesty of the work is awesome. In places, some colour remains after 3000 years in the sun. We are awe-struck This is the stuff that I saw on photos for years. Today I am in the middle of it!

I step back a few steps, to a spot where the columns hide me from Gauda and the tourists at the same time. I close my eyes. There is no wind, just the drone of the tour guides, Gauda explaining what we are seeing and the late afternoon sun burning my face. The smell of dust. I open my eyes and everywhere it is written:
I am Ramesses, beloved of Amun, made by Ra, chosen by Ra, king of Upper and Lower Egypt. Powerful is the justice of Ra!

After a bit of reflection I realise that that is exactly what he wanted me to think.

Ramesses, Beloved of Amun, Son of Ra

Some avenues lead off the Hypostyle Hall, but Gauda convinces us to stay with him. We walk straight on into the central area. This area was largely built by queen Hatsepsut, but taken over by her son, Thutmes III. Not much is visible of her work, but one magnificent example remains: She erected an obelisk here, but Thutmose III, her son, could not stand the sight of it. Equally, he could not destroy it, because it was dedicated to the gods. He had a cunning plan: Build a wall around it! That way, nobody could see it, but he did not have to destroy it.

Thank you, Thutmes III. That wall you built protected the obelisk from 3500 years of tomb raiders and erosion. Today, it is one of the few remaining monuments clearly associated with the female pharaoh Hatsepsut.

Outside one of the shrines. Hatsepsut's obelisk is in the background, and Thutmose III's further back.

At this time, Gauda tells mom ‘Arise!’ We’ll look after the wheelchair, while the two of them explore on foot. We continue further into to the complex. It becomes slightly more rubble and less museum, but everywhere you look it is more and more temple. Over walls, down passages, up stairs. We arrive in a small shrine that is quite dark. Just a square room. On the walls are the most beautiful blues, greens and yellows. Gods and goddesses painted the way the priests imagined them.

This is the first time that we have seen real colour, rather than the hints we saw earlier. There are several more of the small rooms and we clamber over walls and past ‘No Entry’ signs to see them, wheelchair in tow. The same story every time: Magnificent colour, but completely bare and very dilapidated.

Amun in blue. The walls have been cleaned, but the black marks on the ceiling are the soot of thousands of years of cooking fires.

It was only much later that evening, when I had a chance to think about the events, that I realised that those rooms were the sanctuaries of the gods. The whole temple was built around those simple, bare rooms housing statues of the gods.

This place is huge. Everywhere you look, there is a path saying ‘follow me!’ I attempt to follow all of them. After a while, I realise that I will need many days to explore what is on offer here. The temple of Amun at Karnak is the largest temple ever built, much larger than St Paul’s in the Vatican, and it lies within the largest religious complex ever built. The temple itself measures 395m by 95m. That is eight Rugby fields. There is no way to see it in an afternoon.

It is past dusk and Eli drags me out. All the tourists have left. It’s just me, the stones, the palms and the pink sky. This is perfect photo time. Some of the guards are bitching, but I don’t care. I pay their salary. I have waited twenty years for this day.

Palm trees in the late afternoon sun 

At last! Just me in here.

A colossal statue of Ramesses II, with a smaller statue of his his daugter, Bint-Anta in front of his legs.

Mom is not exactly all happiness and light when she finally sees us. Neither is Gauda. Anyway, we make our way to the exit. We all manage to get a loo break too. Our driver is missing/moaning/late. He shows up, but we can tell that Gauda is not happy with him either.

Eli decides on something a bit warmer and we dissuade her from trying to make her way to the hotel by foot. We drop her off at the hotel, wait a few minutes and then set off for Luxor Temple.

It is quite dark when we finally pass the guards. The temple is magnificent. It is lit by floodlights accentuating the relief carvings, while hiding the ravages of the ages. And so we have another change to stand in awe of these beautiful monuments, both to he ego of the pharaoh and his gods.

The view from the outside.

At the entrance is a beautifully smooth granite obelisk, flanked by an equally well preserved statue of Ramesses II. The walls of the outer pylon are weathered, but another statue of Ramesses II survives. Most of this temple was built during the reign of Amenhotep III, but Ramesses II made substantial additions.

During the festival of Opet in ancient times, the statue of Amun at Karnak was carried here, in procession from the temple of Karnak, along a 2.5km long avenue lined with sphinxes to meet the statue of Amun at Luxor and so to reassert the gods’ power over Egypt and the authority of the pharaoh by virtue of his bonds to the gods.

 A colossal head of Ramesses II

Standing in front of the first pylon today, one obelisk remains, the other now resides in Paris. The story goes that Josephine said to Napoleon: ‘While in Egypt, send me a little obelisk’. So he did. As a gesture of thanks, the French king sent a clock to Egypt in 1846. It is still installed in the Citadel in Cairo. It has never worked.
The one obelisk is dramatically lit by floodlights, accentuating the smooth surface of the granite and the deep relief carvings on it.

Details of the carving

Flanking the obelisk are two seated, 7m tall, statues of Ramesses II, looking surreal against the black sky.
We walk through between the towers of the pylon and down the colonnade, also built by Ramesses II. The floodlights accentuate its majesty, while hiding the ravages of time. We are in awe.

Ramesses looking serene.

To the left, high up, is the mosque and tomb of Abu el Haggag, built inside the temple about 3000 years after the original, and on top of an earlier Christian church. This is the story of this place. Originally built about 3500 years ago, it was extended by several pharaohs, fortified by the Romans, used as a church by the Christians, houses a Muslim mosque and was finally used as prefabricated housing by the poor, before modern excavation started.

We walk on, slowly, with our eyes continually drawn upward by the scale of the columns and the beautiful lighting. Through the great court, past the second pylon and down the colonnade: a 10m wide hall with seven pillars on each side, each reaching 21m into the sky. In the darkness, they vanish once out of the focus of the floodlights. Through the colonnade we enter into the Sun Court, an open space which, in the night, loses some of its grandeur. It was here that a group of workmen sweeping the floor found a cache of 26 statues, buried in Roman times by priests having to devote more temple space to statues of the emperors than to statues the old gods. In the cache they remained for 2000 years, untouched and perfectly preserved. They are some of the finest examples of Egyptian sculpture on Earth. Most of them are in the Luxor Museum of Art. We will see them.

The Nile gods tending to the heart of Egypt

Our legs are aching and we have had about as much culture as one can have on one day. We turn back for a slow walk back to the bus. I hurry out to have a look at the avenue of sphinxes, many of them newly excavated. These are the same ram-headed sphinxes we saw earlier at temple of Karnak. Originally, they lined the 2.5km long avenue linking the temples of Karnak and Luxor. Today, most of them lie buried, but several dozen leading out of the temple of Luxor have been unearthed. While I try to get some pictures, a self-appointed tour-guide, apparently deaf, arrives to tell me that these are sphinxes, they had something to do with pharaohs, this is Luxor, I have a camera and for an extortionate amount of money he would be happy to impart more of his knowledge.

I meet the girls back at the bus and we call it a well earned night. It is past nine in the evening and we can hardly think anymore. Back at the hotel, we decide to go to the hotel’s Bedouin-style restaurant for something to eat. Sitting down at the table everything was terribly white, clean and shiny. I was also informed that I could have a pipe, but only out by the pool. Oh, well.

The food was Bedouin fare for old ladies. Almost tasteless, westernised and overpriced. I can’t even remember what we had, but I remember that mom was so tired that she only had a baked apple with cinnamon. After dinner I was informed that, terribly sorry, but smoking service has closed for the night. It’s not even 10 o’clock!

I still need to think about the day and prepare for tomorrow. I can’t go to bed now. So I say good night the girls and head off. Across the street, on the cornice are many restaurants catering to all tastes. At El Khebabjy, my new mate Sammy Zohry gives me a table overlooking the Nile, arranges a pipe and an ice cold Sakkara. There I sat for a few beers, looking at the reflections on the Nile and thinking about this fantastic day.