© David E. Moon, 2014 All rights reserved
Luxor
We arrived at Luxor in the morning and took a horse-drawn carriage to
our hotel. It was late August, it was incredibly hot, and Luxor was virtually
devoid of tourists. We checked into an old colonial style hotel. Liveried
staff greeted us, delivered our luggage to our room, and departed before
we had even
finished registering.
Large fans circling
lazily below the
high ceilings of the
hotel disturbed the
otherwise still air of
the lobby. It was
surprisingly cool
despite the lack of air conditioning. The floors were polished marble; the
doors and trim, rich, dark wood; the stone walls were hung with historical
oil paintings and tapestries, and the furnishings were large oversized
wicker with brocade cushions.
Our room, like the lobby, was large with a high ceiling and ceiling fan, its
polished marble floor cool under our bare feet. Furnished with a large
mahogany wardrobe, large wicker wing chairs, mahogany desk, and a
large four-poster bed it had a faded opulence. Wooden, ceiling-high,
louvered doors opened onto a shaded marble patio with wicker chairs and
a wrought iron, glass-topped table.
Meals were served on an open patio, shaded by a vine covered trellis. We
sat at linen covered tables set with monogrammed silver and china.
Flowers and fresh cut grass perfumed the air. Liveried waiters were
friendly, efficient, and attentive to our every need. This was not our world
of low budget travel, it was the world of the old British aristocracy
transplanted to the outposts of empire. I felt an imposter, an actor in a
melodrama, and I revelled in it.
The only disappointment at the hotel occurred the next morning. Fresh
baked rolls and bread, fresh melon, honeyed fruits, and the aroma of rich
strong coffee welcomed us to breakfast. Sadly, what we took to be butter
turned out to be unsalted lard and we spoiled our first rolls by spreading
them with this unpleasant concoction. Butter would have completed the
menu, but even with unbuttered rolls, the breakfast was delicious.
Temple Tours
North of Luxor, dominated by
the ruins of the Great Temple
to Amen-Re, facing the city of
the dead and the necropolis
across the Nile, lay the ruins
of Karnak. Begun by Senusret
I, in 1971 BCE and expanded
and rebuilt through the
Ptolemaic era around 300 BCE, it is the second largest ancient religious site
(after Angor Wat, Cambodia,) in the world. Most of the extant buildings
date from the New Kingdom 1550 - 1077 BCE.
The massive Hypostyle Hall with its 134
massive columns, as much as 21m tall and 3m
in diameter topped by 70 ton architraves
covered 5,000 m
2
and was literally awe
inspiring.
While exploring Karnak temple, we
succumbed to the pleas of a small boy selling
“antique” scarab
beatles, hand
carved from
onyx. We
bargained hard and purchased one for only 3
pounds ($6.75 Cad), further hard bargaining
bought smaller, button sized scarabs for 50
piasters ($1.20 CAD). Later, another young boy
offered me a nearly identical scarab. I told
him that I already had one and showed it to
him. “How much you pay?” he demanded. I
told him 1 pound. He immediately responded,
“OK 50 piastres.”
Across the Nile from Karnak lay the City of the Dead and the Necropolis.
The city of the dead contained the royal mortuary temples and housed the
priests, soldiers, artisans, and labourers who supported them. The
necropolis included the Valley of the Kings (tombs of the Pharaohs) and the
Valley of the Queens (tombs of the wives and children of the Pharaohs). We
consulted the concierge at the hotel about tours of the temples and tombs.
He suggested that we hire a personal guide. There were so few tourists that
we could get a personal guide for the cost of a tour. He contacted an
Egyptian archaeology student who worked as a part-time tour guide to
fund his post-graduate studies.
We negotiated a one-day tour of the west bank (the city of the dead and the
necropolis). The cost of the guide included ferry fare and bicycle rental for
transportation. We visited the ruins of the city of the dead, the Valley of
the Kings, and the Valley of the Queens. Our guide spoke excellent English,
was very knowledgeable, and loved sharing his knowledge.
The temple of Hatshepsut, stripped of its original paint and ornamentation,
was magnificent, but inside we saw a model of the original temple showing
its exterior finish. Decorated in the fashion of the times, it was brightly,
even garishly painted, as were the other temples and monuments when in
use. As much as I regretted the damage done to the structures with looting
and the passage of time, I preferred its present understated elegance.
We visited Tutankamen’s tomb, famed as the only tomb not plundered in
antiquity, but the treasure had been removed to the Cairo museum and we
would have to wait until we returned to Cairo to see it. On our return to
Cairo, we visited the museum only to discover that most of the best pieces
were away on world tour. It was fifteen years before we finally had the
chance to see the King Tut exhibit, in of all places, Seattle Washington, a
three hour drive from home.
An interesting aside to come from our tour of the tombs was an
explanation of how the tombs had been lighted during their construction
and decoration. Some
author’s, anxious to
support their theories
for extraterrestrial
visitations in earth’s
pre history, used the
construction and
decoration of the
pyramids and tombs
as proof of technology
beyond the capabilities of the humans of the time.
A favorite example was the elaborate decoration of the interior of the
tombs. These were pitch dark inside and yet there was no evidence of
smoke or charcoal residue from the torches, candles, or lamps that would
have been required to light the work. Our guide solved the problem with a
mirror of polished copper and a piece of cardboard wrapped in tinfoil. The
copper mirror was held at the entrance of the tomb to reflect a shaft of
light into the tomb. Our guide then used the cardboard to reflect the shaft
of light onto the walls. The light was bright enough for hand held
photography.
Lessons Learned
We learned two very important lessons from our guide. The first explained
the constant hassles we had been having with men grabbing and touching
Barbara. We asked him why Egyptian men were so aggressive towards
western women. He explained that it was not all western women, it was
because of the way Barbara was dressed. She was wearing a floral jump
suit, high-collared neck and covered to the ankles. We thought it pretty
conservative, but her shoulders were bare and this was considered very
risqué in Egypt. So risqué in fact, that men considered that she must be a
prostitute. He offered this by way of explanation rather than excuse.
Barbara changed to high-necked, long-sleeved blouses with a long skirt
and the hassling virtually stopped.
The second important lesson was that when we were with our guide, the
faux-guides and souvenir sellers left us alone. When we were by ourselves,
we were constantly being hassled. The solution was simple, when on our
own we would hire a young guide. His instructions were that he was to
keep the other faux-guides and souvenir sellers away from us, he was not
to take us to any perfume parlors, antique stores, or carpet sellers, and in
exchange, he would get a bonus if we had a peaceful day. We put the
theory into practice the very next day as we toured Karnack temple. It
worked marvellously. As soon as the souvenir sellers or faux guides broke
cover, our young guide would rush toward them, yelling in Arabic, and the
interlopers would return to cover.