Much needed escape to Luxor

After being in Cairo for 2.5 weeks, I was seriously excited to get out into the countryside… The noise, pollution, traffic etc all takes a bit of getting used to! And I’m not quite there yet… And it was the Eid festival, so we had 19 – 22 Dec off…

So we headed to Luxor - a place I can recommend for anyone over the age of 50, or anyone who seriously wants to chill out…

A one hour flight from Cairo (Luke decided a 5am flight would be a good option – “we would have the rest of the day to explore”), and 20 minute drive to the Steinberger Nile Palace hotel – where we climbed into bed and slept until 10.30…

I’m slowly learning that hotels are all massive in Egypt (like 600 – 1200 rooms), and they are all big names (Hilton, Four Seasons, Hyatt, Intercontinental) - so nothing is terribly personal. But this suits us – staff in hotels still can’t understand that Luke and I want a double bed in our room, even though we are not married. I have been called all versions of surnames - and Luke was called Mr (my surname) – which he thought was particularly annoying!

Anyway, our trip in a nutshell included:

- lots of lounging by the pool (even though I didn’t think it was going to be warm enough so didn’t pack a cossie)

- lots of sleeping

- a hot air balloon ride (over the farmlands and Nile)

- a day of touring: we saw the Valley of the Queens, Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsuit’s temple and Karnak ruin

- a day of playing golf (on an 18 hole golf course where we were the only people playing the whole day – bliss!)

- a felucca ride and a carriage ride through the town

We got back to Cairo at 8.30 pm on Saturday night (the equivalent of a Sunday night at home) to be met by our driver at the airport. We then decided we needed to do a grocery shop for the week… Can you believe that we can do grocery shopping until 11pm at night, and the shop was seriously busy? Crazy I tell you… (To give you an example of how busy – the gates around City Stars shopping centre were closed and being manned by guards. There was a queue to be let into the centre, because it was so full they were having to restrict access. But you need to understand that this centre is at least 2 times the size of Sandton City!)

Welcome back to crazy Cairo – it hadn’t felt like we had left!

 

Brief history lesson from Luxor

Who knew that things in Egypt were happening way before Rome even got going! Not a hundred percent sure of the dates, but we visited some amazing places that were built in like 3000BC when we were in Luxor… incredible that they are still standing! A short (sketchy) history lesson on what we saw: 

Valley of the Queens

Literally a valley in the middle of a desert where the Queens of ancient Egypt were buried. But this is no ordinary burial… Tombs consisited of long deep tunnels running into the mountainside, and at the end of them were burial chambers (bigger open area where the carsophagus was put). The carsophagus is the big stone thing that covers the coffin, which has the embalmed body inside. Embalming (depending on how wealthy you were) could take up to 70 days and nights – that’s why we have recovered so many more rich mummies, they have survived because they were done properly. Royalty were mummified with their arms crossed over their chest, normal people were mummified with their arms at their sides. Can’t remember how many queens were buried in this valley, but it was quite a few – like 60 or so… 

Valley of the Kings

When a man became king, his tomb was started. For this reason, the kings that reigned for a long time (Ramses III died aged 98 – amazing considering the average age was 40-50 odd years) had really long passages down into the mountain ie. had larger tombs. Once they died, the builders of the tomb would stop with the tunnel, and would immediately start on the burial chamber – they usually had 70 days and nights to get it done (the time it took to embalm the body).  

Tutankhamen’s tomb is famous – but only because it was discovered recently (like in the last 100 odd years or so), but it really is very small because he died very young (like 7 years old). Really not very impressive in the bigger scheme of tombs…  

The reason we know all this is because every tomb is incomplete – here’s why: Tombs were not just tunnels and burial chambers – they were used to equip the dead for the afterlife… so along all the walls and ceilings of the tombs were pictures. Pictures of wine, food, gold, spears, boats, different gods – anything you could need in the afterlife. These pictures had different stages of being drawn eg apprentice would make the outline, then the artist would make corrections, then carving (had some 3D effects), then colours… The further down the tomb tunnel you get, sometimes the more incomplete the pics are, because the rest of the team didn’t have the time to get there yet… 

The most amazing thing is that these colours are still there – still very vividly! Not bad considering they were made from various natural stones (eg I think blue was made from lapus lazuli – but I could be wrong…) and they are up to 5 000 years old (just think how much koki pens fade over time!) 

The tombs were also filled with amazing treasures, but a lot if it was stolen by “tomb raiders” yonks ago. Some tombs weren’t found by the raiders, and the contents are now in the Egyptian Museum – but again, all treasure was put in the tomb to assist the dead in the afterlife… 

One of the tombs was actually discovered and used as a Coptic Christian church like only 3000 years ago… interesting to see the Coptic Christian graffiti on the walls of the tomb. I wonder if one day the graffiti we make will be considered historically significant? 

One last interesting fact about The Valley of the Kings: If you think that there were 160 (again this number is seriously sketchy) tombs in one valley, isn’t it interesting that they didn’t collide – considering they were built spanning many hundreds of years? Well, there is evidence that one may have collided… the entrance to the tomb goes in one direction, and after about 5 metres immediately does a dogs leg turn – right next to another tomb. Plans for tombs were discovered, however no maps for where they were located were found – but I’m not sure if it was just luck that only one tomb bumped into another, or if they really did have a way of recording where they were? 

Hatshepsuit’s Temple

So there are two parts to this story – one about Hatshepsuit (hotchickensoup) herself, and one about temples in general. I’m going to start with the temple… 

So temples were built by Kings during their reign purely to be used for their memorial service ie. for when they died. This is a once off thing! …but their temples were huge and very impressive. I couldn’t believe that these huge building weren’t used before or after the king died – but I was assured that it was. Again, the size of the temple is a sign of how long the king reigned and how good those times were…

Moving on to Hatshepsuit… She (yes, she was a she not a he) ruled as a King for many years! The royal bloodline had no sons, so she and her step brother ruled for a bit, but he was useless, and she took over (she was a great ruler apparently).

That is why a) she’s buried in the Valley of the Kings, and b) she has the most amazing tiered temple… 

 

Arriving in Cairo

 I landed on 3 Dec 07 and was whipped through the airport – literally! As I stepped into the airport off the plane I was met by a guy who took my passport and fast tracked me through customs, baggage collection and straight to a limousine to take me to my new house (don’t get too excited, a limousine in these parts is a fairly smart car ie. the windows close and there is air-conditioning!) 

To be met by a very sleepy Luke in slippers and a dressing gown – hilarious! Anyway, he has done a fabulous job in getting things organized for my arrival! 

The first thing he found was our house – well actually apartment… It is the whole of the top (3^rd) floor of an old palace in a place called Garden City. It is very old, fairly grand and absolutely filthy! But with a little love it should be amazing! We have a massive entrance hall, with a huge dining room, a huge sitting room, a study (or library, as Luke like’s to call it), a guest loo and a kitchen off it. There’s also a bedroom wing, where we sleep in the most monumental ornate Egyptian four poster bed! Everything about this house is large – the ceiling height is at least two doors high! Our bathroom is pale blue, and the spare bathroom is pale pink – beautiful! All our furniture from home only arrives in Jan, so we are semi camping at the moment! (There is still no food whatsoever in the place! – But hopefully that will change when I get a chance to go shopping this weekend) 

Our house is seriously central – only a 10 minute walk to work every day… (Halfway between Zamalek, the island in the middle of the Nile where all the restaurants etc are, and Maadi, where my office will be moving to late next year). And its very safe – the bottom floor of our building houses a bank, and I walk past the British and American Embassy to work… so there are loads of policemen everywhere… 

A funny thing happened last night – the lady who lives below us came home in her car to find that her spot on the side of the road had been taken. So she left her car in the middle of the road and yelled at the policemen because they should have saved it for her – the traffic gridlocked for miles (it’s a tiny one lane road), and she just yelled at everyone to make a plan! Eventually some random person got in her car and drove it away… You can imagine the hooting and cursing – hilarious! 

Another amusing story – we have had no hot water in our house for the last 3 days! So after eventually braving the cold to wash my hair, on the way back from work a bladdy bird shat on me! I was so distraught to think that I’d have to succumb to another cold shower, but found that on my return our hot water was fixed! Yes, the fact that people have access to my house is something else I am going to have to get used to! The guy that looks after our building (Hassan) had our washing machine installed and fixed our water! He is hired by the family that owns the whole building, and manages to get anything and everything done! 

We have also hired a cleaner, Sayid. Luke met him at the pool at the Four Seasons when he was staying there, and he seems great. We have a driver, Amr ( apparently Alladin was crap!). And we have a shiny new black Jetta (automatic, so that if we are brave enough we can give driving a try!) 

And although English is the work language – it is most definitely the second language! Yes, the office banter is entirely in Arabic (even the letters on my keyboard have funny Arabic signs on them – a great way to learn you would think – but no – the alphabet is entirely different, so I have no idea what the correlation is!) But people have been very kind, and even take time to come and chat to me in broken English – and help me order lunch! 

Dinner has been spent in various restaurants around Cairo, usually with Paula and Lyndon – the other two western expats working here. The strange thing is dinner only happens at 9 or 10 at night – and invariably we head somewhere else for a sheesha afterwards, so only end up getting home around midnight. The other strange thing is that Luke, Paula and Lyndon work until then! That part is going to take some serious getting used to! 

I heard a fairly interesting fact the other night – there are only 30 000 expats in Cairo (considering the total population in Cairo is 18 000 000) – so best I get matey with the Egyptians!  

So far no major panics!