 A30: Pharaoh's statue at Karnak temple at night. |
Date: 6 Dec 2000, Wed Place: London Gatwick -> Luxor We arrived in Egypt by Britannia Airways on 6th December 2000. It was evening and dark when we arrived at Luxor airport, and the first thing that we saw when we got off the plane was scores of soldiers armed with machine guns milling around the airfield. There was a special bus that we took when we climbed down the steps of the plane, to take us to the small airport, which was only 50 metres away. The first con we experienced was at the airport when they herded us into two rows to queue up for visas. Each visa supposedly cost fifteen English pounds when the price in Lonely Planet was much lower, in Egyptian pounds. The visa official insisted us paying in English pounds so we had no choice. Note: 1 English pound = LE 5 (5 Egyptian pounds) After that, we trundled out of the airport. There were so many taxi drivers asking where we wanted to go, that we had difficulty getting out onto the road. They were also quoting ridiculously high prices for getting us to the hotel.
|
 A31: Side view of entrance to one of the halls of Karnak temple. |
Finally, after 15-20 minutes of bargaining with various taxi drivers, we agreed on a price of LE30 to take all four of us to Pharaon Hotel. In retrospect, this was still quite a high price, as the correct price should have been around half of that. Anyway, we arrived at the hotel and checked in. In the evening, we went out for a Sound and Light show at Karnak Temple. It was a fantastic play of light and story-telling, sometimes quite kitsch, but the lighted tour through the temple in the cool of night was awe-inspiring. Sharp, dark shadows combined with eerie music and voices seem to be a popular entertainment for tourists.
|
 A32: Colossi of Memnon on the West Bank, before Valley of the Kings |
Date: 7 Dec 2000, Thu Place: Luxor Next day, we went to Valley of the Kings on the West Bank. We hired a taxi driver, Mustaffa, for our entire day trip there. This cost us LE65 which was rather cheap, I think. One of the first monuments we saw were the Colossi of Memnon, all that remained of a temple built by Amenophis III. It used to emit an eerie noise at dawn until the cracks in the structures were fixed by a Roman governor.
|
 A33: Colossus of Memnon from the side |
These statues were called Colossi of Memnon after a Greek hero Agammemnon in the Trojan War. In the myth, the hero's mum was the goddess of the dawn Eos. Agammemnon was killed by Achilles when he went outside the city walls to meet Eos. Thus, the whistling noise made by the statue was likened to Eos weeping for her dead son every dawn.
|
 A34: Joe at the place where we bought tickets for Valley of the Kings. |
We went to buy the tickets for Valley of the Kings while Mustaffa waited in the car. He seemed like a nice chap and often offered to take photos for us at various stops.
|
 A35: What we saw from inside Mustaffa's car |
Riding inside Mustaffa's car was quite a nervous experience as he swerved to avoid donkeys, camels, horses and all manner of things along the road. Moreover, his car had no right view mirror! Cars in Egypt often do not signal, but honk all the time as a kind of communication and signal. When I first tried to put on the seatbelt, Mustaffa said there was no need. The reason was because there was no seatbelt. Anyway this was quite a new experience for me, but I quickly got used to it. It is kinda cool...
|
 A36: More views from inside Mustaffa's car |
We approached the Valley of the Kings. Several pharaohs were buried here after they realised the uselessness of trying to locate their tombs in obscure places and avoiding the tomb-robbers. These guys were just too smart for the kings.
|
 A36a: A big mountain I saw inside the Valley of the Kings |
There were several mountains inside the Valley. A tourist-wagon driver offered in vain to take us to the top of the hill for LE 1. It was only a minute's walk away! We saw three tombs in the Valley of Kings: Ramses VI, Amenophis II, Merneptah. They were gigantic tombs with false chambers and big holes for unwary robbers to fall into. However, most of these tombs had the sarcophagi damaged by greedy robbers, and the kings' bodies missing.
|
 B00a: Just before we went up to Hatshepsut temple. |
|
 B_0a: Walking down from the temple of Hatshepsut |
We visited the temple of Queen Hatshepsut, which was terribly mutilated by a jealous Thutmose III, who was her co-ruler, after her death. There were statues at the top of the stairs but we wondered why there was two on one side but only one on the other side.
|
 B01a: Crowd of people clinging for dear life from a Service Taxi, as seen from Mustaffa's car. |
Service taxis are "shared" taxis in Egypt, where people can hop on anytime if their destination is en-route with the destinations of the other passengers. As a result the fees are very cheap for each passenger. Some people cling on to these taxis if they're very crowded. Perhaps that's the way to get a free ride? Mustaffa's taxi was a private taxi. Hence we had no clingers-on. Phew.
|
 B02a: View from mountain near Deir Al-Medina (Workmen's Village) |
The workmen's village was a place where the builders of the pyramids in the King's Valley lived and died. Hence they built little pyramids for themselves where they were buried.
|
 B03a: Another view from the same mountain. |
The maze-like things in the photo are the remains of a building, probably the workmen's quarters. |
 B04a: Near the top of the mountain, where Cheese was trying to take a photo of us with automatic camera. Say Cheese! |
We were forbidden from exploring the caves in one of the tombs, hence we climbed up a series of steps to the top of a high mountain and enjoyed the scenery, taking lots of photos. That night, we went to Ali Baba Cafe in Luxor for dinner. The waiter offered us BalaH (dates) for break-fast as it was Ramadan. Cheese and Jade also had rice tasting like washing liquid for dinner. Following that, we were invited to the waiter's "brother's" jewellery shop and his friend's papyrus shop. We didn't buy anything at all at the jewellery shop even though they tried to entice us with all their might. It was tiring indeed to be pestered into these shops and having to listen to their long stories. After dinner and "getting pestered", we went to McDonald's for ice-cream. I discovered then that McDonalds was a very good place to get small change for baksheesh. I bought two ice-creams and paid with big LE50 notes. After that, we walked around the bazaar a bit before taking a horse-carriage back to the hotel.
|
 B05a: When we first saw the Temple of Horus at Edfu. |
Date: 8 Dec 2000, Fri Place: Luxor -> Aswan In the morning, we engaged another driver, Badoui, to take us to Aswan with stops along the way. This had to be done with a police convoy as they were afraid of terrorists along the Luxor-Aswan expressway. Police cars came along with us as we drove. Badoui was a friendly Egyptian who liked to drive fast while rocking to Arabic pop music in his taxi. Hence it was pretty exciting to ride in his dusty, dilapidated-looking six-seater. He also liked to tell stories and jokes about Ali Baba, a foolish old man who defeated forty thieves. Along the way, we stopped at the temple of Horus at Edfu. It looked magnificent when it suddenly appeared from behind a wall as we drove up to its front.
|
 B06a: Inside one of the many doorways of the temple of Horus. |
We entered the grounds of the Temple of Horus facing its back, and walked alongside it to the front entrance. This temple, like many others, had 3 halls and gradually diminishing doorways, to enhance the dark and mysterious ambience as the Holy of Holies was reached.
|
 B07a: Outside the Temple of Horus. |
The many stumps are the remains of columns of the temple.
|
 B08a: A creepy inner chamber at temple of Horus. You can see Cheese trying to peek into the photo. |
The temple had a lot of inner chambers and secret corridors.
|
 B09a: A wall with inscriptions of offering and prayer, at Temple of Horus. |
If you look carefully, you can see an Egyptian praying with his palms facing the front.
|
 B10a: Egyptian caretaker walking towards two tourists. |
Temples in those days were gigantic. Notice the height of the walls from picture B10a. Of course, the ceiling has already fallen down.
|
 B11a: A dark-looking photo of me in one of the doorways in the Temple of Horus. |
We spent quite a long time at the Temple of Horus as it was very big and magnificent. It had many beautiful and gigantic doorways at which we stopped and took photos.
|
 B12a: Statues of the pharaoh holding the sceptres of power, at the Temple of Horus. |
Pharaohs often identified themselves with Horus, the god of the underworld, and thus claimed divine parentage. Hence they liked to carve statues of themselves holding the sceptres of power in the underworld.
|
 B13a: Light streaming in to illuminate this dark temple. |
This temple must have been dark in the days when it was used. The only lights within most temples came in the form of flame torches.
|
 B14a: A column resembling rolled and bundled stalks of papyrus reeds, typical of ancient Egyptian columns. |
Ancient Egyptian columns were fashioned in a few similar ways, and this is one of the common styles.
|
 B15a: Eugene in front of a mysterious man. |
I have no idea why this photo was taken...
|
 B16a: Twin resplendent guardian falcons, symbolising Horus, at the front of the temple. |
These falcons symbolised Horus, as he was the main deity of this temple.
|