Jan 22 – Exiting the Suez Canal and Sailing the Red Sea. By the time I got up, 7am, we were well out of the canal and sailing at a stately 8 knots toward our destination. It's about 200 miles from the canal to Safaga and the Rotterdam is fast but she won't do 50 knots. This gives us time to sail slowly. The temperature is rising quickly as we head south, right now it's 73˚F.
We had our regular at sea morning and afternoon. The Red Sea is a fairly narrow sea and consequently we are seeing a lot of shipping and oil platforms. Quite a congested area from a navigation standpoint.
At lunch, Caroline performed another style of belly dancing, Saidi. In this dance she had a short stick and her dress covered her shoulders and legs down to the ankles. It had tassels that were the same color as the dress at the hips, knees and shoulders. This style comes from Upper Egypt, around Luxor where we will be tomorrow.
Our entertainer was Adam Wescott, a classical and flamenco guitarist. They put a TV camera on his guitar and projected the image on a large screen so you could appreciate the speed and dexterity of both of his hands. He was excellent.
Tomorrow is an early morning. It's a three hour drive from Safaga, the port, to Luxor. We are going to visit the Karnak and Luxor Temples. We've been to Karnak before and there's so much there that I am really looking forward to going again. The Hypostyle Hall is large enough that the entire Cathedral of Notre Dame could fit inside, spires, flying buttresses and all.
Jan 23 – Safaga-Luxor, Egypt. It was an early start and a long dusty warm day. I've chosen to get the bad news out of the way first so I can enjoy telling you about the sights we saw. Perhaps I should also repeat my previous warning about things I write in italics. Travel related things will be in my normal Times New Roman. Anything in TNR Italics is probably politically incorrect, something that only interests me and I want it in my journal or a rant about something that happened. The next two paragraphs probably fall into the second two categories.
Irritation #1 Half way back to the port the air conditioning on our bus stopped working. Nothing much anyone could do about that but nevertheless it was an irritation. After tinkering with it for a while, the driver opened the windows at the front of the bus, the only ones that could open, and the cool breeze from outside kept us very comfortable.
Irritation #2. We arrived back at the ship later than we should have. Again, not really anyone's fault, just one of the realities of travel. Here comes the irritation. Every HAL ship we've ever sailed on, and it's quite a few, has held the Lido restaurant open for those who arrive back late from a HAL sponsored tour. Either HAL has issued new instructions or the MV Rotterdam has chosen to take a little bite out of the word Service. I arrived at the Lido at 8:35pm hoping to grab some bread and cheese or meat to make a sandwich to take back to the room because what I really wanted was a shower, a snack and bedtime. No such luck, the Lido was closed and had just closed at 8:30. The significance of that is, behind the little curtains that they lower and the little trays they put up, almost all the food was still in place and it would have been a simple thing to let me peek under the curtain and get something to eat. The manager there told me in no uncertain terms that the Lido was "CLOSED" and I had to wait until 10pm to get something to eat in the Lido. Or he offered helpfully, NOT, that I could eat in the dining room. Now tell me honestly, who of you, hot and sticky, dusty and tired from tromping around Luxor all day would want to go sit in the dining room in that condition for 1.5 hours to eat dinner? Well I wouldn't. I can hear some of you saying, "Order room service!" Sounds like a good plan until you realize that I will be in bed asleep long before room service could be delivered. There, I've had my cathartic little rant and can enjoy the rest of my evening. I'm not one to hold on to irritations so in a day or so this will probably be a fond memory, but right now I'm hungry, tired and like all little children, cranky. Thanks for listening!
Upper Egypt's, the site of Luxor, historical monuments date from the New Kingdom (1550-1076 BC) and are newer than those of Lower Egypt (Cairo and the Nile Delta southward), which are from the Old Kingdom (2670-2150 BC). Wait, you say! What happened between 2150 and 1550 BC? Three things actually, first, a period of decline from 2150-2056 BC, called the First Intermediary Period, second, the Middle Kingdom (2056-1650 BC, third, the Second Intermediary Period (1650-1550 BC) also a period of decline. Egypt is the only major culture to survive two complete breaks in its history only to reform essentially intact, albeit with some changes.
Geographer's Note: The designations of Upper and Lower Egypt are somewhat counterintuitive for most North Americans as Upper Egypt is south of Lower Egypt. We're used to thinking of North as up. Here, Southern Egypt is called Upper and Northern Egypt is called lower for two reasons. First, Southern Egypt is at a higher elevation than the north. Second, to get to Southern Egypt from Northern Egypt you have to go 'up' the Nile River that flows from south to north.
The port city of Safaga is primarily a tourist town on the Red Sea and a port for the shipping of locally mined phosphates. Because it's in a desert, the beaches are not only very fine sand but among the widest in the world as they extend 100 miles inland to the Nile River at the closest place. Imagine carrying your lounge chair, umbrella and cooler of beer across that, not to mention the Red Sea Mountains in between! Better bring a lunch too. Just kidding.
The reason we are docked here is that it is the most direct way to the treasures of Southern Egyptian Kingdom in Luxor. We are going to visit Luxor (the city) to see the Temple of Luxor and the Temple at Karnak. The modern city of Luxor is on the ancient site of the Necropolis of Thebes, a major center for worship of the Ancient Egyptian gods. A host of pharaohs built temples there. The east bank of the Nile was seen as the side of life and the west side as the side of the dead. The temples where worship took place were on the east (ex. Temples of Karnak and Luxor) and the burial sites were on the west (ex. Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens). The drive from Safaga to Luxor is 3.5 hours each way. We leave at 8AM and are not due back until 8:00PM so if you subtract the 7 hours driving time we still have over 5 hours of touring in the Luxor area. That's not bad really. We've been on shore excursions that lasted only 9 hours that had 6 hours of driving
Ever since the terrorist attacks on tourists in the late 1990s the tour companies cannot move foreign nationals across the southern desert without a security escort. To facilitate the availability of these escorts, movement is arraigned into convoys. Our convoy from Safaga to Luxor leaves at 8:30am. They travel with security on each bus and often take a tow truck and one empty, spare bus in case of breakdowns. This is the second time we've been here and I didn't see the tow truck or empty bus this time. Along the way there are several security checkpoints. These involve both police and military and are often accompanied by an armored car. We had a security agent, politely called a Tourist Policeman, named Ramadan on the bus with us. He had on a nice suit and tie but if you looked closely you could see the mini-machinegun creating a bulge in the back of his loosely fitting jacket.
After leaving the port we immediately began to climb the Red Sea Mountain range. The landscape is a rocky, sandy desert with mountains of granite or basalt rising out of it like islands in an ocean. The contrast between the two is striking, as the mountains are much darker than the sand. We are in the eleventh out of twelve busses in our convoy and it's interesting to watch them wind around the curves of the highway as we ascend to the top of the mountains. Along the way we passed some Bedouin encampments. They are mainly shepherds and their flocks roam the area until the grass is gone and then they move on to greener pastures, as it were.
About 50 miles later we entered the town of Qena. It's a small town on the edge of the desert. The area is largely agricultural and there are large canals carrying water from the Nile to Qena a distance of some 35 miles or so. The canal runs right along the road we took after we turned to the south off the main highway. This road is not as smooth as the main highway coming over the mountains and some parts of it are unpaved. After leaving Qena we drove through mile after mile of farmland, mostly wheat, clover and sugar cane. Here and there we saw patches of other vegetables, tomatoes, grapes, beans and melons. Every few miles we would pass through a small village where kids and some adults would wave and smile if you waved back.
Farmers here, like those of the Pennsylvania Amish, add to their homes when a son gets married but instead of going out, they go up. The Amish add a new wing to the house so you can count the gables to tell how many generations are living there. The farmers here add a story to the house for the new family. Three and four story houses are not uncommon.
Every time we came to a road that crossed ours there was some kind of security posted. Sometimes it was the Army, sometimes the Tourist Police and sometimes a man in a white turban and long gray nightshirt like robe with a shotgun on a sling over his shoulder. The latter was usually seen in very rural areas where a small farm road crossed the highway. Mostly they appeared to be Remington 860s or Mossbergs, the old reliable pump action 12 gauge shotguns. They were all black and appeared to have synthetic furniture. Since private ownership of guns is rare in Egypt I'm assuming these gentlemen are some sort of militia or rural guard. They were all dress the same, gray robe and white turban and the shotguns were so uniform.
The donkey is still a major mode of transportation out here, both ridden and pulling a cart or wagon. The donkeys were not large by any standard but they were doing a Herculean job. I saw one wagon, full of sugar cane with 4 men on it being pulled by one small donkey that looked like he weighed less than any of the men on the wagon.
In the rural areas there would be a rope drawn ferry every few miles to let people cross the canal. Essentially it's just a six-sided metal tub that has a rope attached to each end. These ropes are threaded through rings suspended from a cable that is permanently stretched across the canal, very much like the rings that hold a shower curtain to the shower rod. As the boat is pulled across the canal the rings follow the rope to collapse against the other bank. Meanwhile the rope on the other end of the boat, also suspended on its own set of rings, extends across the canal so that if the next passenger is going the same direction as the current one he can pull the boat back to get in. Very efficient and inexpensive to maintain.
Egyptologist's Note: What follows is a discussion of what I saw and how I understand it. Much of Egypt's history is not 'carved in stone'. Well, actually a lot of it is literally carved in stone, but some of it has been altered by carving over older inscriptions and most of it was carved at the order of the person being represented or spoken of. As with most autobiographical material, it should be read with a healthy dose of skepticism. For example, some of the texts I've read imply that Narmer and Menes were the same person, while other sources represent them as two different individuals. I believe that the former is probably the correct view, but it is difficult to be dogmatic about some of the aspects of Ancient Egyptian history. With that caveat in mind, here goes!
A short while later we arrived in Luxor, site of the Luxor and Karnak Temples. An almost two mile long, stone paved processional avenue connects these two temple areas. It is lined with sphinxes, on the Karnak end they have the heads of rams and on the Luxor end they have human heads like the Sphinx in Giza. We are visiting the Luxor site first and after lunch, Karnak.
We've never been the Luxor Temple. We drove by it last time we were here, but on that trip in addition to Karnak we visited, the Valley of the Kings, Queen Hatshepsut's Temple (the first female pharaoh) and Colossi of Memnon.
The Temple of Luxor was begun by Amenhotep in the 16th century BC and expanded by other Pharaohs, including Ramses II. It's very linear, that is all the major spaces are in a straight line. There are two major spaces, the Court of Ramses II and the Court of Amenhotep III. They are connected by the Colonnade Hall of Amenhotep III & Tutankhamon, two horizontal rows of seven Open-topped Papyrus columns. Passing through the Court of Amenhotep III you come to the much smaller Roman Sanctuary and King's Chamber. By going through the doors on either side of the front wall you enter the Amun Sanctuary. The only way out is to retrace your steps to the Southern Entrance Pylon leading to the Court of Ramses II.
Although much smaller than Karnak, there are many very interesting items here. The most interesting to me was the cartouche of Alexander the Great. It's the round cornered rectangle of the cartouche with the hieroglyphs of ALKZNDR I inside. When we think Ancient Egypt we often think only of the Egyptian pharaohs and omit the last three 'dynasties' the Persians, Greeks and Romans. After Alexander conquered Egypt he proclaimed himself pharaoh and the evidence is here, carved in the backside of a wall of Amun's Sanctuary.
The Southern Gate was flanked by two obelisks dedicated to Ramses II however one of them was taken to Paris so only one remains. There were also 2 at the entrance on the other side. Those are also gone, one to the USA and one to Britain. The Southern Gate is also flanked by two large statues of Ramses II seated, wearing the combination crown that has the elements of both Upper and Lower Egypt's crowns showing that during his reign the two countries were united.
Also in front of the right pylon (the name they use here to signify the large walls that separate portions of the temple) is a standing statue of a pharaoh. The face has been broken away but since he's wearing the white, cone-head shaped crown of Lower Egypt it's probably not Ramses. As always, the statue is posed with his left foot forward to symbolize the society moving forward under his rule.
Inside these large pylons is the Court of Ramses II. The quadrant of the court to your left as you enter has been used to build the Abu El-Haggag Mosque. Unfortunately just as our guide started his narration, the loudspeakers of the mosque's minaret began the Noon call to prayer. There must be two other mosques nearby because soon one than another also started the call. For almost the entire time we were there the calls continued making it difficult to hear the guide's information.
The quadrant to the right is partly used to build a temple to Ramses II. Over the main entrance to this space Ramses is shown on the right wearing the crown of Upper Egypt and on the left the crown of Lower Egypt. In both images he is shown making offerings to Amun. The columns in front of this small temple are fluted to resemble the reed bundle columns used when temples were made of wood. Inhotep, the architect for Pharaoh Zaser was the first to use this technique.
The balance of the court is open space surrounded by papyrus bud topped columns with lintels connecting them. This column and lintel style of construction has been in use since Stonehenge and before. You might remember that we saw that style of construction on Malta in the monoliths (built about 3600BC) which are more than a thousand years older than the pyramids of Giza (built about 2530BC). The temples of Luxor date from 1960BC so column and lintel have been in use at least 1,600 years. Some large statues stand between the columns. They have cartouches carved on their clothing but I'm not able to read them.
Passing through the next set of smaller pylons you enter the Colonnade Hall of Amenhotep III & Tutankhamun. The hall's sides are formed by 14 very tall, open topped papyrus columns, seven on each side. The opening in the pylons is flanked by two more seated statues of Ramses II. On the side the statue on the left is a scene of two workers stripping papyrus plants as the first step in making papyrus paper. Between the workers heads is a depiction of Ramses II receiving an ankh from Amun on the right and it looks like Hours on the left. On the right he's wearing the crown of Lower Egypt and on the left the crown of Upper Egypt. Once surrounded by walls the columns are all that remain of the hall.
Leaving the hall you enter the Court of Amenhotep III. This large space, almost equal to Ramses II Court, is surrounded by a double row of reed bundle columns on three sides. The far side is slightly elevated, like a stage but is filled with four rows of eight columns each with a wide hall between them.
This hall leads to the Roman Sanctuary & Kings Chamber. Two Roman Columns stand flanking what in a church would be the apse. If fact, during the Roman occupation of Egypt that how this space was used. At that time all the original wall carvings were covered with plaster. They are in the process of carefully removing the plaster to expose the original carving. I'm sure it's not a coincidence that the cartouche of Alexander the Great is also in this area on the outer side of one of the walls forming the sanctuary and therefore never plastered over. The entire sanctuary is enclosed in the much higher wall of the Luxor Temple. So in this one room there is evidence of both the Greek and Roman occupations of Egypt. Never did find anything Persian. Or more probably, I did see some Persian things but didn't know that's what they were.
At the base of the apse is a small door leading through a short hall to the Amun Sanctuary. Every surface of the hall and the sanctuary is covered with hieroglyphics and pictures. In one area they are doing some restoration work which is bringing out some of the original colors. When all the surfaces of this entire temple were painted it must have been an awesome sight. It's pretty awesome as it is.
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