Luxor

8th June:

It’s hard to get up in the morning. We are sleeping quite badly during Ramadan as there seem to be a lot of pre-dawn calls which make sleeping between about 3am and 5am quite difficult. We are out of the house by 6.30am and our first stop is the The Colossi of Memnon, the only remnants of a temple commemorating Amenhotep Ill; these two statues are 19.20 meters high.

Our next stop is the Deir el-Bahari Temple built by Queen Hatshepsut, the first female Pharaoh who ruled for 15 years.

We are literally running to get out of the heat as at 7.30am it’s already extremely hot. Luckily there’s a little train to take us from the ticket booth to the temple.

The kids are becoming a little weary of people wanting to pose with them for money.

In the Valley of the Kings, down the road, we can choose three tombs out of a possible 63, although only a small number are open at any one time. There is a cool model map of the whole valley, showing each of the tombs going underground. Farag has suggested Thutmose III and the kids choose Horemheb and Merenptah as the tombs go deep into the ground. We purchase extra tickets for Tutankhamen and Ramses V and VI. Cameras are not allowed in the Valley but it seems, once again, that this is a mere formality and once inside the tombs, there are all sorts of shady dealings and whisperings about photos. It is amazing just to be inside the tombs and we only take a couple of photos of the kids’ favourite images on the walls.

Our favourite part of the day was sitting inside the tomb of Ramses V and VI. The hieroglyphs on the walls are so beautiful and most are coloured. The tomb is much wider than the others we have been into and on entering, we can look all the way down to the Sarcophagus at the end. The guard inside is very relaxed and leaves us to quietly lie on the floor and study the roof above, which is beautifully intricate. It is so quiet that when we all sit still, there is a deathly stillness. We spend so long in there that he eventually invites us to take some photos and just wants to shake our hands.

Our last tomb is Tutankhamen’s. It is very small and unassuming and it is a wonder how all the hundreds of objects that we saw at the Cairo Museum fitted into this space. I suppose people would say the same if they saw our storage unit in Cook Street.

Tutankhamen’s mummy is in a temperature controlled case inside the tomb and the third layer of his sarcophagus is here too.

This tomb is obviously the tourist choice, as more people start to arrive as we are leaving and we are pleased to have woken early for the privilege of being alone in the tombs. When we get outside, it is blindingly hot and we stagger out into the sun and make a dash for the car through fifty desperate Anubis sellers.

We spend the rest of the day at home as it’s too hot to be outside and we need to do some school work.

In the evening we take a boat across the river to the East Bank and along to Karnak Temple, race about 2km through a car-park and fall in behind a German Tour group. The temple is big and imposing, especially in the dark and we wait excitedly as the opening music echoes out of the gates followed by a loud booming German narrative. Damn, we’ve come to the wrong show. We are given translator headsets but they have terrible feedback. Not to mention that nearly every German tourist is puffing away on a cigarette; the whole thing is enough to give me a migraine.

In the end, we get to stay for the second show in English at 9pm. It is a similar show to the one in Giza, in it’s elaborate use of metaphor. I don’t know who writes these shows but they’re something else!

“And if one of you this evening was to voice the question that you are whispering in your hearts “who art thou, Amun”? (cue spooky music), the answer would seep from these walls. These lintels, these pedestals, these secret chambers, these piles of ruins. For the answer is written everywhere, in a thousand different hieroglyphics.” Cue dramatic music: dern derrrrn.

And how about this……. May these hieroglyphics come to life once more to bid farewell to you, new pilgrims of upper Egypt. Like a sudden flight of a myriad sacred birds, their spread wings sprinkling the droplets of the river like a meditation.

Sheesh, to think we would have missed all that if we’d only been to the German show.

The next morning we’re up early again to visit Luxor Temple.

It is here in Luxor, once the ancient city of Thebes, that most of the ruins of ancient Egypt are found. There was once a 3km avenue of sphinxes between Luxor and Karnak temples.

Today we are the only people at the temple other than the guides and souvenir sellers.

An air-conditioned museum is the only option for a hot afternoon.

The Luxor museum is smaller and less overwhelming than the one at Cairo but we are shadowed by a very unusual character who keeps doing handstands to try to impress us and then stands uncomfortably close while we peer at the exhibits. It is, however, rather hard to concentrate with someone standing within breathing distance. Roger gave him a Werther’s Original lolly and he went away. I think he would have preferred a gift of a teenage virgin but someone should tell him you won’t get anywhere with handstands and creepy hovering.

Egypt has been such an amazing place to visit. I am pleased that we decided to come against the advice of many Government agencies. At no time have we felt unsafe or taken advantage of in any way. People have been kind and open-hearted and it is sad to see this amazing country, which relies so heavily on Tourism, left almost deserted by fearful travellers. On the upside, we had the whole place to ourselves!

Seeing in the beginning of Ramadan has given us a whole new outlook on the Muslim experience and a respect for the generosity and kindness shown to others less fortunate, and the huge importance of being with family during this holy month.

The kids have had the most exciting history lesson of their lives so far and we are worried that now every experience they have in Turkey and Greece will be met with “what! but it’s only 2000 years old”.