Welcome to our little home on the net. We are Steve & Rosemary and live in Buckinghamshire, UK. This is a blog of our life, sometimes interesting, but mainly boring. It is very picture orientated as Steve loves to take pictures, especially of wildlife. Sometimes he has his arm twisted by Rosemary and takes the odd snap of a weed.
I also add photographs to a shared google photo album which is here
Early morning wake up call, then a leisurely final breakfast before we were herded onto the coach for the trip to the airport. Thankfully we could check our baggage in all the way to London. Passed through several x-ray and detector machines. I was asked to have my lens checked by security staff, in case the Cairo security team took exception to it. Binoculars had to go into hold luggage.
We had a long wait for our connecting flight at Cairo, some of the group went on a trip to see a mosque. We stayed in the airport hotel, read books and ate a buffet lunch which had been booked for us. The buffet was similar to the boat buffet, but although the sweets looked absolutely stunning, their flavour and texture left a lot to be desired.
The final flight home was uneventful on a Boeing 737-800, thankfully not a MAX.
Our last day visiting sites. We left for the trip to the Temple Island of Philae, this involved crossing the old dam and then catching a tourist boat to the Island. The Temple of Philae was flooded when the dam was built. In 1979 UNESCO designated Philae, Abu Simbel and other ruins as world heritage sites. Back in 1960, UNESCO started a project to try to save Philae, a cofferdam of steel plates was built around the site. The monuments were then cleaned, photographed and dismantled into 40,000 units before being transported and reconstructed on the Island of Agilkia about 500 meters away. The temple was reopened in 1980.
The boat trip was short. I was allowed a go on the helm! We were soon assembling for our walk around the temple. The first time we saw so many cats posing to be photographed. When we left the site, Rosemary was privileged to be able to feed some of the animals from a ham sandwich proffered by a German tourist. (It was his packed lunch. R envious of tourists who were allowed such things rather than have to go to back their boat/hotel for lunch.) Back on the tourist boat, some vendors were allowed onboard to sell items. This was the first place we had seen Black Africans, Nubians, in Egypt.
On the coach, we travelled to the Aswan High Dam and parked in the visitor centre in the middle of the dam. This dam is huge, with the largest man-made lake in the world. It is not a high tech looking dam. All the previous ones we had seen were tall concrete structures. This dam is made of rubble and clay and has a very gentle slope. It was built by Russian expertise in the 1960s. The dam is able to control the flooding of the Nile downstream.
Back on the Misr, we had lunch and then went for our optional bird watching trip on the Nile amidst the cataracts. A few bird pictures were taken (1000, cut down to just a few).
Finally, we had a trip to the Nubian Museum. The museum, a new one, opened in 1997 has materials recovered from the tombs and temples of Nubia and tells the history of the area. Apparently, there were also some lovely gardens to look around, but as always on these trips, there is never enough time.
Finally back on the boat our final cocktails, dinner and farewell from the crew along with instructions for the morning.
Today we visited two temples. The first was Edfu Temple, we disembarked and either caught a horse and carriage or walked the 200 yards to the coach. Having pity for the poor horses, the guides did not condone the carriage idea. The drive to the temple was fraught by the large numbers of horses and carriages returning from the temple. Some visitors had beaten us and had been there very much earlier than us. At least they had left. This temple is in good condition, with near perfect pylons and interior and exterior walls. There was still defacing of faces by the Roman/Christians, this was higher up because of the sand which had buried the base. The carvings into the sandstone are exquisite, you can see the muscles in the limbs, and the way the knee cap has been shaped.
Back to the boat, and we immediately left for Kom Ombo. Lunch and tea before we disembarked to see the temple and mummified crocodile museum. We docked, and then there was a short walk from the boat to the Temple. An ominous number of shops were on the river bank. Two gods seemed to be represented here, Sobek and Horus. Sobek has the crocodile head and could have been here because of the grand island on which huge numbers of crocodiles once lived. Perhaps worship of Sobeck was to appease their appetites. Another carved item on the wall was a set of surgical instruments, were they for surgery or used for mummification procedures? Much debate ensued.
After the temple, we walked to the small crocodile museum and viewed the mummified crocodiles, plus crocodile related items. A nice museum. A short walk back to the boat and we managed to escape the clutching hands of the many vendors.
As soon as we were on board we departed for Aswan.
Cocktails and then dinner.
A wake-up call, breakfast and then out to see a couple of temples on the East side of the Nile. First stop was Karnak Temple. The walk from the visitor centre to the temple had been made spectacular with open paved space from the Nile to the Pylons. Lighting had also been placed in the tiles in a long strip to the temple. But…. as George commented, the temple is thousands of years old and much is still standing, the modern tiled area, perhaps 20 years old, was already falling to pieces. The day was cloudy as well, so no beautiful blue skies to set the monuments off.
The columns were magnificent, as were the needles. We liked the ‘spreadsheet’ (of numbers of offerings) where the columns were added up, and then there was also the grand total. Lotus and Microsoft eat your hearts out, spreadsheets were invented a long time ago.
Rosemary liked the graffiti on the columns; old graffiti is good and historical, while modern graffiti is a scourge. She started googling the names when she was back on the boat. Examples were 1850, K.Wroblewski; 1857, F.C.Drake; 1804, John Gordon; A.L Corry (she’d hoped for an “H Carter Wos ‘Ere” type one, but no). Another observation was the graffiti was always high up, out of modern-day reach, a testament to the sand which used to cover the site and has since been removed. You could also see on many monuments the lack of vandalism by the Romans at low levels, but higher up, the chipped out faces. Again the sand protected the lower levels of the monuments.
Back on to the coach and a short drive to The Temple of Luxor. On the way, we made a short detour to see the Papyrus Institute, a short demo of Papyrus making, and then the hard sell of art painted on Papyrus. We resisted.
At Luxor, there was a long alleyway lined with sphinxes going in the direction of Karnak. Originally, the two temples had been joined together by a 2 Kilometre sphinx-lined alleyway.
Outside the pylons of the Temple was a row of colossal statues of pharaohs, even now a new one was being restored and rebuilt. Inside the temple was a Mosque which had been build on top of the temple. It looked incongruous so high up. Again this was because of the sand which had entirely filled the temple at some stage. The entry to the mosque was from higher ground on the street side of the temple. After renovation began, it was decided the mosque could stay.
Lunch beckoned, amazing how hungry one gets with regular feeding. We arrived back for lunch, and the Misr immediately set sail for Edfu. We apparently passed through the Esna Lock on the way. This must have happened when we were partying because I never saw it.
Another lecture by George Hart this time ” An Artist on the Nile: The legacy of David Roberts”.
Dinner, a good Egyptian buffet, was after the fun of everyone dressing up in their Egyptian costume of Galabyia for the Crew Show. There was some dancing and embarrassing photographs were taken. R had said when I booked the trip that she could already feel a headache coming on for that night.
Finally there was also a quiz evening on Egyptian history, sadly our group did not win, despite the best endeavours of our note taking American.
Today we were to visit two major sites, so up early for breakfast and then out to the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. A dreaded road train to the site. (Coming back, we walked.) Hatshepsut is the second historically-confirmed female pharaoh. She was a prolific builder and commissioned buildings in Upper and Lower Egypt. She also erected monuments in Karnak.
The Temple had been excavated and much reconstruction undertaken by the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. An interesting factoid is the main axis of the temple is set to an azimuth of about 116½° and is aligned to the winter solstice sunrise. The walkway from the visitor centre to the temple is spectacular.
Next, we drove to the Valley of the Kings, a 20-minute drive, in fact, it is a short distance from Temple of Hatshepsut, just over the ridge, but a long way around. The Valley of the Kings was predictably busy. The ticket gains you entry to three tombs, from a selection of five which are open. These change I believe. You also have the option of purchasing tickets for another three tombs, Tutenkarmen, Ramesses VI and Seti I. Seti was around £45, and Tutankhamun £10.
We stopped for a rather unnecessary 30-minute talk about what we were going to see, and the remaining time of 60 minutes to see even the three tombs was rather short. Those who bought extra tickets for another tomb would have been pushed for time. I dearly would have liked to have walked around the site a bit more and to have taken more time in the tombs.
The Tutankhamun tomb, which Rosemary went in to see on her own, was v small with not much in it, but some fabulous wall paintings and of Course Tutankhamun’s mummy. Value for money, not good, but of course an important tomb. R could not work out where all the treasures could possibly have been. The three other tombs we saw together, were the tombs of Merenptah, Ramesses III and Ramesses IV They were very beautifully decorated, and also went deep into the rock. Reports back from other said the Seti tomb was wonderful , with hardly anyone in it, the price putting visitors off.
In the tomb of Merenptah, I was caught by a tomb guardian, who started to show me around, against all advice from our guides. Rosemary did an instant disappearing act. I never really understood what the guardian said, who also insisted shining his torch on the object being described, which made it impossible to photograph. Then, of course, came the request for a tip, and S, like Charles, does not have any money, and R had vanished from sight. Oh dear.
Back on the coaches for lunch, stopping off to see the Colossi of Memnon. George reckoned that much extra archaeology and reconstruction had happened in recent years.
The afternoon was free. An interesting sailboat was moored next to us. After tea, before sunset time, we were taken around the boat, the SB Feddya, owned by Traveline which also operates our boat, the SS Misr. I think Movenpick actually manages them. It all gets a bit confusing, The Feddya was very well equipped and luxurious – only 4 passenger cabins, and a crew of 20. It operates between Luxor and Aswan. Typically, friends would hire it. I have not seen the cost, but I imagine if you have to ask, you can’t afford it.
There was an optional Sound and Light show at Karnak in the evening. We did not go, and by all reports that was a good decision.
