Cairo to Aswan to Abu Simbel to Luxor and a Touch of Alexandria

*Note: I can't get the spell checker to work and it's midnight and I'm tired and I need to be up in 5 hours, so ignore any spelling errors for now...I will try to fix them later

There's a lot to report since my last entry, but not a lot of time so I will try to to explain in brief all the chaos that has occurred within the last week.

Cairo the End

The last entry ended one day short of our exit from the capital city of Cairo. That night we ended up going out with two people from our hotel, a Brit named David and an Italian named Mikela. The journey that we embarked on proved that getting some where sometimes tends to be more fun that the actually destination.

Around 10:30pm we set out for the Cairo Jazz Club which is reputed to be a great little club with booze (a rarity in Arab countries), live music, charming atmosphere, and a thumbs up from the creators of my Let's Go Egypt travel guide. We were going to take a taxis because Mikela said that it was too far to walk, but when the taxi driver called a random pedistrain over to translate our destination (this happens a lot here as many people know only three phrases in English: Welcome! What's your name? and Where are you from?), the pedestrian told us that it was only a 10 minute walk. Assuming that this Carioian knew his stuff, we bade the taxi driver goodbye and started walking. What we soon found out is that 26 July St., where we wanted, was a 10 minute walk away, but the Jazz club wasn't. There are very few street signs and even fewer street numbers in Cairo and this makes it quite nervewracking to locate the correct address anywhere in the city. The four of us greatly amused the locals as we walked back and forth over and over again for an hour asking different people where this place was and watching them all point fingers in opposite directions. The funny thing is that no one had a clue in this part of town where we wanted to go, but it didn't stop them from smiling and giving false directions, with the comforting words, "Yes I know this place." Eventually we found a shopkeeper that knew the street number of his business and realised that we were at 9 July 26th St and wanted to be at 197 Jult 26th St. So a taxi was called and the order to follow the street until 197 was found was given. So around midnight we finally made it to our destination to find that the prices were sky high, there was no Jazz that night, and the place was packed. After originally walking out exasperated, we realized that there was really no where else in the vacinity to go and that we had spent about and hour and a half trying to find this place, so we owed ourselves the over-priced beer. This beer lead to a picture of a mixed drink and at the end of the night (early morning) we were all comfortably numb and quite happy.

Our late night outing lead to a late start to our final day in Cario and therefore we only got to spend about 3 hours at the Cairo museum. To fully enjoy this massive work of art in itself, you need about 5 hours. The Cairo museum houses most of the important finds from all of the archaeological sites in Egypt. There are rooms upon rooms of mummies, sarchopoguses, pottery, panels, jewery, statues, and tidbits of imformation. But the chaotic layout of the museum, the lack of air (no fans or air conditioning and about 1000 people swarming around), the inadequite amount of written descriptions, and the no so helpful (or friendly) staff make you a bit irritable by the time you emerge back into the sunlight. The King Tut room though is worth the visit. This is one of the few rooms in the place that looks as if a true curator designed the exhibt. The golden and jeweled items are neatly spaced and nicely labeled. King Tut for those that don't know, was the famous child Pharo. He ruled for only a few years (from I believe age 8 to 19, when he died), but what really makes him special is that his tomb was found in 1922 by Howard Carter, completely intact. This means that grave robbers had never invaded it and that all the kingly possessions were still there and now are on desplay for curious tourist.

We were told by many people that if you go to the Cairo museum you must so the special mummy room. This room cost twice as much as the amission ticket to the whole rest of the museum, but was rumored to be well worth the funds. This rumor proved to be over inflated. Although the mummy room is quite interesting it isn't worth the extra dough (expecially if you don't have a student card). Within the cramped room are the supposed mummies of 7 royal family members (4 are from the same family). These bodies are laid out in glass boxes and each contains a small label telling the visitor who they are, but in truth there was a lot of mummy mix up over time and they could be the bodies of anyone. The mummies are interesting to look at and don't look anything like other cadavers that I've seen. They look a little like a cross between the plasticized bodies I saw on exhibt in San Francisco and wax scuptures - with shriwled features and long bony appendages (the toes and fingers are the only ones that you can really see).

Evening brought about the Frigid Express to Aswan. After adjusting to the warm weather here, it was like being in Antartica while on the 15 hours air conditioned ride to Aswan.

Aswan and Abu Simbel

Stiff and frozen, we stepped out into the warmth of Aswan the next morning and were greeted by the representative of the tour agency that we have firmly sold out souls to. He deposited us at a hotel near the train station that could have been quaint if the creepy vibe wasn't so pervasive. The only people at this hotel besides locals that spent all day drinking tea and chatting in the parlour, were other saps that had been conned into this travel itinerary, and these locals viewed us transients as if we carried the plague. 15 minutes after arrival, we were bundled into a van and it was off to explore the Aswan High Dam and Philae. The High Dam is considered a huge work of art and comtains more than 17 times the material used to construct the Great Pyrimid of Cheops at Giza (that's a lot of material). It also created Lake Nasser, which is the world's largest man-made lake. It's a neat thing to think about, but not something that I felt was worth the admission price to see up close. But to know about the Dam helps one to understand the massive relocation projects that went on all over Southern (Upper) Egypt as a result of it's construction. The building of the Dam caused the flooding of many areas and buried numerous ruins, Nubian villages and Egyptain settlements. This also lead to a massive multi-country joint venture to locate many of the more spectacular momuments to higher ground. This relocation involved slicing and dicing these temples into thousands of pieces that could be easily moved and then painstakingly piecing them back together again. Can you image that kind of jigsaw puzzel. It's amazing to visit these temples (we saw about 6) and realise that this wasn't their original location, but to not really be able to see the cut lines.

Philae, which now houses the Temple of Isis, is one of the many ruins to be relocated. This Temple is important because it was the longest running Temple in Egypt. Even after the country was conqured by Christanity and monotheism was implimented, offerings to Isis were still allowed to persist here. Only in the 6th century BCE, was worship forbidden. This is also the supposed location that Isis found the heart of her dismembered husband, making it the most sacred of her temples.

The next mornig we were roused at the ungodly hour of 3am to head out to Abu Simbel. Abu Simbel is another of the moved temples, but it is even more spectacular than any we'd seen so far. A 3 hour bus ride deposits you at the enterance to this attraction. As a random side note, the cleanest restrooms in the whole country (even better than most of the hotels that we stayed in) are located here - go figure. After arguing with the clerk for charging an extra 8 LE for a ficticious guide we were allowed passage into the site (they charge you, but they don't give you a gidue, explain that one to me). If you travel let at the cobble stone road than you will arrive first at the Temple of Hathor. This Temple was built by Ramses II to honor his wife, Nefertari, and Hathor (fertility/sky goddess). This is one of the only temples in Egypt that is dedicated to a woman.

A few hundred meters from the Temple of Hathor, is the real reason that people come to this desolate area, the Great Temple of Abu Simbel. This is Ramses II's great masterpiece and supposively dedicated to the great sun god Ra-Hurakhti, but the focus is really on him and he puts himself on the same leave as the god. The higlight of the Temple are the four 22m high statues of Ramses that sit two on either side of the enterence and watch the sun rise over Lake Nasser. Inside the Temple are inscriptions and wall paintings that are still in good condition.

To our disbelief, we happened to show up on the day of a film shoot. But it wasn't just an ordinally film shoot, it was for the movie, "The Holy Family," the movie that Em and I have been unconscienously following for the pass month. We were three days behind in Um Quis (Jordan) and a day behind in Petra (Jordan) and lo' and behold, we caught up to them in Egypt. That's just too funny.

A three hour bus ride later and we arrived back in Aswan in time for some afternoon exploration of our own. We took the locals' ferry to the West Bank of the Nile, where we proceeded to climb 100-odd stairs to the Tombs of the Nobels. These are tombs of govenors and dignitaries from the 23rd to 18th c. BCE that were cut into the sandstone cliffs. The nicest tombs are those of Sarenput II (a garrison commander from the 12th c. BCE) and those of Mekhu and Sabni (a father and son from the 6th-dynasty BCE). Most of the tombs are carved out retangles in the rock, but the aforementioned tombs inlude numerous rooms (including the Holy of Holies - where only kings and preist are allowed to venture) and reliefs on the walls.

Later in the evening we ventured to the Nubian Museum and were pleasantly surprised to find it quite nice. This museum is the only place that you can find a complete timeline of Nubian culture, complete with detailed information panels, artifacts, dioramas, air-conditioning, and a outside park that includes more exhibts. If anyone makes it this far south, I recommend that they visit this place. This is how the Cairo museum should been designed.

The following morning, we and some fellow travelers set sail to see Kichener and Elephantine Islands. Kichener's Island is completely comprise of what is called a botanical garden, but in reality is a nice little park filled with trees and concrete walking paths. It takes about 5 minutes to walk from one end of the Island to the other. The tour drops you off at the enterance without telling you what exactly the place is and then picks you up an hour later at the other side. Although it is pretty and the greenery is nice after so much desert, I don't see the point of visiting this little park, except that it is a nice little money maker for the locals beacuse to get off the Island you need to pay to go through the park.

Elephantine Island houses the Aswan archaeolgical museum, a Nilometer, and a series of Temples. The museum is a bit archaic, housing a random collection of artifacts that are hardly labeled, and the Nilometer is really just a stone staircase that goes down to the water. The ruins though are quite nice. There are a series of Temples from different time periods and the remnants of villages that housed the devout. On the Island is also a currently inhabited Nubian village. On a quest to purchase water, I got invited to the Chief's home and was taken on a tour of his crocidile colletion (of which he was more than happy to try and persaud me to buy).

That afternoon we embarked on our two day Felucca trip down the Nile from Aswan to Kom Ombo. The felucca is like a sail boat but can fit 10 people on it comfortably. All bags and supplies are stored under wooden boards that create a floor for the passengers to lie about on for the two day voyage. We set sail at 2pm with a crazy Spainard named Juan, a hippy from Kansas named Paul, a brother and siter from Montana (Kristen and Ken), and a Brithish couple (Ian and Rosie). This was the most Americans that we'd seen in one place since leaving Israel. A felucca is a nice way to relax, beacuse there is little that you can do. You lay on the deck all day and read or draw or sleep, but that's about it. Since the whole mileage of the trip is really only about 15km, you spend a lot of time drifting back and forth or in port at a random island. We camped out at a sand dune one night and by a small village the next. The second night we all ventured into town in search of sugar and ended up creating a town spectacle as a soccer ball was produced and it was 6 of us foreigners against about 20 young boys. It was a lot of fun because everyone was there and the parents were smiling or pretending to be referees and smaller children were in awe and Rosie was giving out bubble gum which put smiles on a lot of kids faces. Paul also was a hit because he has dredlocks that go to hit butt and everyone kept asking if they were a wig. They'd never seen anything like it before.

Our two days past too quickly and soon we found ourselfs in a stuffy van headed to Luxor, via Kom Ombo and Edfu. Kom Ombo contains two symmetrical sides, one dedicated to Sobek (the patron of crocs) and one dedicated to Horus. The is also a Chapel of Hathor and a pretty neat face-your-fears chamber. Apparently the ancient Egyptains decided that some people needed to face their fears and as a result they would drop into a dark holes that deposited them below a level of crocidiles and required them to swim through some cruvy passages to get out again. This was all underwater and pitch black. I think Fear Factor had its roots here.

From Kom Ombo to Edfu we went. Edfu contains a magnificently perserved Temple of Horus.

Finally we were deposited at our three star hotel in Luxor and given the rest of the day off to relax by the roof top pool.

Seven AM wake up call and it's off to see the West Bank. The first stop on this jam packed morning was to the Colossi of Memnon. These is a pair of large statues that are all that remain from a temple that once stood here. The stautes are mis-named as no one really knows who they belong to (it's believed that they are dedicated to Amenhotep III), they were named by Romans that thought the rough picture on the side looked like Memnon.

From there to The Valley of the Kings. This is home to 64 known tombs (the last one discovered 3 years ago and believed to be related to the Tomb og King Tut). Our ticket granted us access to three of the eight tombs that were currently open to the public. We ventured into the Tomb of Ramses III which contains wonderful reliefs - depicting scenes from the Book of the Dead, the sacred barque of Ra, chariot race, etc - that are in full color and quite well perserved, but the experience is kind of ruined by the plastic that covers all the exposed walls to prevent visitors from touching the carvings. Then we visited the Tomb of Ramses I, which has the shorest entrance in the valley, but the most magestic sarcophgus, large and made of rose granite. The last tomb was that of Merenptah, which boasts the deepest burial chamber in the Valley. The Tomb of Ramses II was not open to the public.

Onward to Deir al-Bahri or the Temple of Hatshepsut. This was the temple that I had been waiting to see as I read about book about Hatshepsut and was anxious to see her masterpiece. This temple it was said was to have been carved into the surrounding rock in such a manner as to appear to come from it and not look out of place. When the temple was originally built, this might have been the case. But the temple was completely destroyed and only recently completely rebuilt by Polish archaeologist. It's still quite a site to behold, comprised of three different tiers and filled with statues that once depicted the female King (they were defaced by her Step-son, nephew, husband, Thutmose III, after he killed her to gain the crown back). There courtyards once held trees and small ponds, but those are no more.

Last on the list for the morning expedition was the Valley of the Queens that houses no only queens, but young royal children that died. This site is not much to behold. The gem of the place is the Tomb of Nefertiti, but it is only open to those that wish to pay 20,000 LE (about $5,000) and up. Nefertiti's tomb is supposed to be the largest and most beautiful in all of Egypt. What is open in the Valley are the Tombs of Titi (a favorite wife of Ramses II) and of Amonherkhepshef (the son of Ramses III). The latter tomb is interesting because it contains a sarcophagus that contained no body and a some box that contained a 7 month old fetus. The story goes, that when Amonherkhepshef's mother heard about her son's death see miscarried in her grief and that child is buried in the tomb.

A few hours to ourselves and then onward for the afternoon excursion.

We first went to the Karnak Temple, which is really a series of Temples that were built over muiltiple generations. At the enterance to the Later Temple is a double row of sphinxes that line the walk way. These sphixes go from Karnak to the Temple of Luxor, but most of the three mile pathway is buried under the street. Karnak is by far my favorite place in all of Egypt. Here king after king decided to one up the last and build things more spectacular. Ramses II built a whole courtyard with 134 giant colums that tower over the visitors and once were covered with a stone roof. Hatshepsut's two granite obelisks shine in the sunlight. There is the sacred lake of the preists and many, many smaller temples to various gods and goddesses. It's really a magnificent place.

The last sight of the day was Luxor Temple. Luxor Temple is like a smaller version of Karnak, not as grand, but still choacked full of add ons and adaptations. There is a 14th c. AD mosque that is built about 10m up in the air becasue at the time it was built, everything under it was covered in sand, and that was ground level. At the end of the walkway there is a Roman door and reliefs that have been painted over their Egyptain comtemporaries.

From Luxor Temple back to Karnak we went. We meet up with Kristen and Ken from the felucca and decided to attend the Sound and Light show at Karnak. This was quite the adventure. Like doeful sheep, we and the other 100 or so visitors, followed the tour guides from the entrance to the collanaded hall to the sacred lake. At each stop speakers blasting actors' voices told the story about the item and random colored light shone. It was set up like a story with each voice a different person, but was so terrible that we were laughing at the end about what a waste of time. The Sound part of the show was okay and we learned a few useful pieces of information, but the Light part of the shows needs some work.

Our last morning in Luxor we headed to the Mummification Museum. This doesn't deserve the name of museum. It is merely on room that contains a few reproductions from the Book of the Dead that depict the mummification of a body, and some glass cases with a few instruments and sarcophagus lids. It took about 15 minutes to go through and didn't really explain anything about the process of mummification (the sole reason we went there).

Alexandria

Another 15 hour train ride and at 3am we were deposited in Alexandria. After trying four hotels, we finally found a vacancy and crashed for the evening.

We ventured to Alexandria because numberous people told us that we could catch a ferry from here to Cyprus. Decided that knowing where the ferry left from was our first priority and we ask at the Tourist office. Here we were told that the only ferry to Cyprus left from Port Said (three hours from here). So we went to every travel agency in the area trying to find someone that could tell us the schedule. Finding this a fruitless adventure, we went to the internet cafe and spent two hours trying to locate a ferry online. This search proved fruitile as the last ferry running from Egypt to Cyprus or even Greece ran 1 and a half years ago. So defeated and wondering whether we were ever getting out of this country, we booked a flight for tomorrow on Egypt Air to Istanbul. We're going to skip Cyprus and just explore Turkey and Greece.

There were two good things to come out of this completely useless venture to Alexandria (our flight leaves so early that we don't even have time to see anything here) are: there are actual coffee shops here, and when looking for a obscure spice for my old boss I was directed to what turned out to be a modern, American like mall with the Egyptain equivlent of a Walmart Super Center. After seeing nothing but street markets and small stores selling cookies and un-refridgerated cheese for the last month, it was such an odd things to see a mall with a very nice and modern grocery store. It made the frustration of the mornig melt away.

So tomorrow we leave this country and head to Europe. Three weeks was a good amount of time. Just enough to see most everything, and just long enough to get jaded. Egypt holds a certain appeal for me, must have to do with it's history and ruins, that allowed me to love it, while at the same time hate it because of the constant harrasment, verbal sexual comments, touts, little kids trying to pickpocket me, and general un-friendliness of the masses. I still maintian that everyone should come here at least once and I think that I may sometime return in the future (although I'm the only one that I met that might come back).