West Bank re-visited

At about two o’clock at night, the engines are started and we start our journey upstream, back to Luxor. The noise wakes me and feeling fairly refreshed and discovering that the Internet is working again (albeit rather slowly) I do a bit on the computer. My cabin is now facing east and I watch the sun come up with the sliding window fully opened. At 7.15 I take breakfast.At 9.45am, we're back at Luxor and manoevre towards our mooring - a different one this time.

We’re scheduled to leave the boat at 10.30am for another visit to the West Bank. All the places of interest cluster fairly close together, a couple of kilometres inland from the village of Gezira. Gezira is on the bank of the Nile, directly opposite Luxor with a local ferry connecting the two. Our route by road is south from the boat, across the Nile on a fairly new bridge and north to Gezira along the main road which runs parallel to the El-Fadiya Canal. This time, we should visit the Tombs of the Nobles, Dier el-Medina (the site of the village used to house the workmen who constructed the tombs) and the Temple of Hatshepsut.

Our guide decides to take us first to the Temple of Hatshepsut. Set against cliffs on the west bank, on the opposite side of the ridge from the Valley of the Kings is Deir el-Bahri. The design of the temple is unique, which is fitting as it is the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, the only woman to rule Egypt as a pharaoh, around 1500 B.C. To overcome the prejudice that a pharaoh must be a man and force acceptance of her claim to power, she must have been a remarkable woman. The site exploits the massive limestone crags as an imposing backdrop and the building itself is limestone which glows white in the sun. The design is arranged in three beautifully-proportioned terraces, each with a colonnade featuring rectangular columns. Each colonnade is set back relative to the one below and long ramps connect the levels. From a distance, the effect is very modern – I was reminded somehow of United Nations buildings in Geneva. Closer, you can admire the statues and the stories relating to Hatshepsut’s life in painted murals and hieroglyphs covering every vertical surface. Access to inner parts of the temple is very restricted because of major conservation work in progress, in which a Polish organisation is involved. Because it is such an important site, there were a lot of visitors there. Pictures of the Temple of Hatshepsut.

In contrast, there were very few visitors at the area of the Tombs of the Nobles. These tombs were created by government ministers and similar. It’s necessary to park on the plain and then walk up a twisting dirt road which climbs the steep hillside and gives access to the tomb entrances. We visited the two best-known tombs – the Tomb of Rekmire and the Tomb of Sennofer.

The Tomb of Rekmire is level with the entrance and features a long passage leading to a carved false door with two side passages. Painted murals and heiroglyphs describe Rekmire’s life in government. Sennofer was Mayor of Thebes and beyond the entrance you descend a narrow, twisting tunnel by uneven steps cut into the rock until hyou reach the level of the interconnected burial chambers. Every inch of wall is covered with painted murals and hieroglyphs and the ceiling features painted grapes and vines since Sennofer was responsible for viticulture. Pictures of the Tombs of the Nobles.

Finally, we move on to Dier el-Medina, the Workmens' Village. This is where the craftsmen building the Valley of the Kings lived with their families. The walls of their houses still exist, to about waist level, so it's easy to get an idea of what it was like. I think there were 67 families, masons, painters and sculptors and there are 67 tombs, on a smaller scale than the Tombs of the Nobles but elaborately decorated with painted murals and hieroglyphs. Pictures of the Artisans' Dwellings and Tombs.

Then it was back to the boat for lunch and a bit of a rest before the evening trip to Luxor Temple. Well, not too much of a rest, because I'd arranged a visit to the Engine Room of 'Zahra' with the charming and helpful Ship's Engineer. Engine Room pictures.

In the evening, we went in our convoy of 'Sprinters' to the temple at Luxor. This large temple sits on the Corniche (the 'promenade' facing the Nile) near the middle of the city. It was still packed with visitors when we visited. Luxor Temple pictures.

By the time we returned to the boat, we were ready for dinner and, once again, the Chef delighted us with a splendid A La Carte menu.

[Additions 13-Mar-2009, 15-Mar-2009, 16-Apr-2009]

Visit to the West Bank of the Nile

The short version:-
"Jan visits a load of old tombs and temples".

The longer version:-
Re-incarnation was believed to depend on the preservation of the body, hence the use of mummification by the ancient Egyptians. In the Old Kingdom, the Pharaohs' tombs were placed in very-visible symbols of their power - the pyramids. Despite the ingenuity of the tomb builders in protecting the burial chambers, over the centuries these tombs were broken into for the valuable artefacts they contained. By the time of the New Kingdom, tombs were placed in secret locations and precautions were taken to prevent even the workmen constructing them from discovering their location. These precautions were only partially successful. The most famous Necropolis where successive pharaohs were buried is the Valley of the Kings, an arid, mountainous area on the west bank of the Nile opposite Luxor.

On Wednesday, 11-Mar-2009, I breakfasted at 7.00am so as to be ready for an eight o'clock departure to visit some of the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Photography is prohibited in the tombs, so I've only a few pictures of the exteriors. We stopped at a large car park already busy with a number of coaches and walked to a series of 'Land Trains' where visitors were shepherded onto the next departure for the journey of a few hundred yards over an excellent tarmacadam road through the rocky valley to the Visitor Centre. This was noisy, with a dozen different languages drowning out the sound track of a video telling the story of the modern exploration of these ancient burial-places. There was an excellent, if slightly confusing, model of the valley.

As the picture shows, the valley is represented by a clear plastic sheet shaped to show the contours of the land. From above, only the tiny entrances to the various tombs are visible. But, below the surface, the tomb passages and chambers are accurately modelled, eerily suspended in space, giving a good idea of the complex excavations.

Our guide had presented us with one ticket valid for three tombs and a second ticket valid for the ever-popular Tomb of Tut Ankh Amun, designated KV62 in the dessicated language of the archaeologists.

Our small group with our guide (right) about to enter the tomb in the background.

Every inch of the tomb passages has elborate painted or incised decoration. In some places, crude frameworks glazed with plastic prevent the fragile wall paintings from being touched but much of the artwork is exposed to direct view. Different tombs vary greatly in the size, length, inclination of the passages and the complexity of the the final tomb chamber. Some chambers are completely empty, others retain the sarcophagus. Of course, all the valuable possessions have been removed to various museums. The effect is impressive, but the slowly moving line of tourists, snaking in towards the tomb chamber then out again to the bright sunshine, detracted from the experience for me. Staff circulate through the tombs, keeping their eyes on the visitors.

As I climbed the steps to leave one tomb, I noticed a hiatus in incoming tourists and, looking back, I saw just one young couple and a member of staff remaining in the tomb chamber I'd just left. The member of staff had allowed the couple to cross the wooden barrier and stand at the very edge of the burial pit. I returned to the burial chamber and signalled to ask if I could also climb over the barrier. Receiving a friendly affirmation, I quickly joined the couple and we all stood for a few moments of stillness looking into the pit, contemplating the civilisation that had wrought these works. That was a magical moment.

I have mixed feelings about the Valley of the Kings. Like Abu Simbel (which I visited later) it is a place which has captured the public interest and provides a major source of income and local employment to Egypt. But the need to provide for such large numbers of tourists imposes change on the site. This, of course, is the age-old question of curatorial ethics to which there is no simple answer. I'm all in favour of giving people the opporunity of sharing these wonders (I'm a tourist, too) but tend to regret what may have been lost. The other aspect that troubles me is that these burial places originally had a high spiritual significance. Generations, from the early tomb robbers through the European archaeologists of the last two hundred years to today's tourists appear to have decided that the sheer antiquity of the original occupants denies them the respect that we would otherwise extend to the dead.

The West Bank of the Nile is the site of ancient city of Thebes. An astonishing collection ruined temples sits on the plain between the mountains and the river and, following our visit to the Valley of the Kings, our second stopping place was the temple at Medinet Habu. Click here for pictures.

Finally, we made a brief stop to see the two massive statues of the Collossi of Mnemnon before returning to the boat a little before one o'clock. As we enjoyed the usual excellent luncheon, the boat slipped moorings to cruise northwards (downstream) about 50 kilometres to Qena on the East Bank.

Most passengers took a fairly relaxing afternoon during the cruise - we'd all found climbing up and down in the tombs fairly tiring. I did manage a visit to the bridge. From five o'clock, tea and cake was on offer in the Club Lounge, to fortify guests for the evening visit leaving at six o'clock - a private tour of the illuminated Temple of Hathor at Dendara. The boat manoevred to a private mooring outside one of the better riverside hotels at Qena as the hotel staff made furious attempts to sweep and swab the large paved area where we were to disembark. The fleet of Mercedes 'Sprinters' had all made their way from Luxor to Qena to transport us from the boat to the Dendara site.

This temple is "only" two thousand years old and was constructed during the Greco-Roman period when the foreign rulers sought to establish their credentials as legitimate pharaohs by slavishly copying the ways of the older dynasties of rulers. The central temple complex is one of the best-preserved sites available to us and, remarkably, still retains its roof. This, the darkness and the small number of visitors on site made the visit, for me at least, exceptional. The more adventurous were allowed to descend into one of the crypts and I think everybody went up to the temples on the roof, using a stone staircase to go up and a long, straight sloping passage to come down. In its heyday, each part of the complex was invested with intense symbolism and the rituals were highly developed. Pictures of Dendara.

On our return to the boat, dinner awaited us and (fortunately) a rather more relaxed start on Thursday morning for a second visit to the West Bank.

[Additions 16-Apr-2009]