Day 10 - Luxor

Balloons being inflated

At 5:15 this morning, we catch a minivan outside our guesthouse to the launch site for  the hot air balloons, one or which we'll be riding that morning. We stop to pick up a group that I surmise are part of a larger tour. We were originally supposed to ride a balloon the previous day but our man hadn't been able to manage a spot. We were more fortunate this morning as I noticed we were the last two added to a long list.

A twenty minute ride later we arrive at a field on the edge of the desert. It starts that suddenly. You can practically have one foot on green grass and the other on brown sand. A photographer takes a picture of the group of which we are not part but are included anyway. We watch as the balloons are filled with hot air using blasts from a propane burner. I'm a little nervous but not terribly.

Once the balloons are upright, we are loaded into a large basket with sixteen passengers on each side with no attention as to how the weight of those passengers is distributed. So, on one side are all the Americans and, on the other, a bunch of skinny Chinese, one other American couple, and us. As we rise, the basket tilts heavily to one side and I'm nervous but the driver seems unperturbed so I quickly get used to it.

We fly along the edge of the desert with the Nile fed fields of green to our left and the brown rock and sand of the desert to our right. Below, I spot the Tombs of the Nobles and the Workers' Village that we'll be visiting

Lush green, arid desert, and ancient roads

later on today. Off to the north, is the Valleys of the Kings and Queens although the holes where they were buried can't be seen. I hadn't appreciated the size of Medinat Habu (Ramses III mortuary temple) until now as we fly over it. The brightly coloured balloons against the the lush green background of fields and the beige of the desert look like marbles we'd throw on the grass and in the sandbox as kids.
As we land, we see children from the village racing to greet us. Two of the older boys ride donkeys. The air is relatively still and so the driver is able to land with barely a bump. We are immediately caught by eight men grabbing cords to secure us to the ground. The children immediately converge on us looking for money and 
selling kleenex. I take a picture of Nicola with balloons and desert in the background. As we get back into the

Workers' village & Tombs of Nobles from balloon

vans for our return journey, the Americans in our van are each given a bag breakfast. An older gentleman gives his to one of the smaller children who are all have shoes and wear new clothing. It's the two boys on the donkeys who seem particularly pathetic in thread worn shorts and flip flops.

As we drive through a short section of desert to reach the main road, we pass what appears to be a dumping ground for dead animals. I spot a dog pulling at the rotting corpse of a camel and Nicola comments on seeing at least three dead camels in various degrees of decomposition plus a couple of donkeys. Citizens of the developing world are not spared the realities of existence that we hide behind mortuaries, bedroom doors and delivery rooms. 

New excavation

We return to the guesthouse and then join Ahmed, one of the owners of our Guest House, for a tour o the Valley of the Queens and the Village of the Workers we'd arranged the previous day. The Valley of the Queens has tombs like the Valley of the Kings only smaller.  There is one exception is the Tomb of Nefertari, the wife of Ramses II who he absolutely adored. This tomb is in pristine condition however access is restricted to ten minute at a cost of $70 Canadian per person. Nicola had no problems giving it a miss however I was really tempted. That's not to say that the tombs we did see weren't amazing and the commentary by Ahmed very informative.

At the entrance to the Village of the Workers, we stop to look at a model of the site that depicts the village as it might have looked 3000 years ago. Ahmed explains that the wall around the village was meant to restrict access to the village as well prevent the inhabitants from leaving. The pharaoh and his entourage feared that

Nicola after landing

 the workers would spread information about the location of the tombs and the fabulous riches contained within. Houses would contain a number of rooms cooled by ingenious vents in the roof and sides. Beneath the houses, Ahmed points out holes where workers built their own tombs to bury the dead and a few treasures.

Ahmed lead us to the remains of a temple built right next to the workers' village. He shows us the curved configuration of the stones in the temple's wall before we enter. Ahmed says it's a Roman temple however I'm not sure that's what he means by "Roman temple" because the Romans didn't take control of Egypt until it was captured by  Augustus, in 36 B.C. That was well after this temple filled with the gods of Ancient Egyptians had been constructed.  While Nicola sat on a stone in a hall, Ahmed shows me a mural of the depicting the Hall of Truth written about in "The Book of the Dead." In it, a recently deceased king's heart is put on one side of scale. On the other side is a feather. If, after the reading of king's deeds, both good and bad, the heart is lighter than

Ptolemic Temple in Workers' Village

the feather, then the king can enter paradise. Osiris, the god of afterlife and the underworld presides over the ceremony. Osiris was killed by his brother Seth, the god of war, chaos and storms. So, it all makes sense. 

After returning to the hotel, we hang out in our sitting room enjoying the view provided by our second floor floor to ceiling window. We watch boats pass by on the Nile and the many, many birds that live in the tree just outside our window. Nicola points to a boat loaded with garbage and I rush to get my camera. When I return it has disappeared. It's turned into shore to empty its cargo where it will be taken to some spot like that where I'd seen the dog tearing apart the camel carcass.

Later on in the afternoon, we race to catch the ferry across the river to the Luxor Museum. It's filled with objects not already stolen by tomb raiders and sold. These treasures not only fill the museums in Luxor and Cairo but those in London and New York, Paris, Washington, Toronto, Vienna and Munich along with many many more. On our way to the ferry, we are harassed by touts hocking ferry rides across the river. Normally, we'd take the

Bird outside the window of our guesthouse

people's ferry at a price of 5 Egyptian pounds (E£) each but it's 3:30 and the guidebook says the museum closes at 5:00. We negotiate a price of 20 E£s. The tout takes us to a driver who drills us about our plans for the rest of our stay in Luxor on our five minute trip across the river. He eventually shuts up after we convince him we are leaving tomorrow and have no interest in the tour.

When we arrive at the museum, a heated dispute is taking place between two groups of men inside the ticket booth. A policeman seems unsuccessful at finding a resolution. They pause just long enough to tell us that the museum is closed however it will open again at 5:00. We walk next door to a hotel where we order two Egyptian Stella lagers. Stella's not a good beer however it's very refreshing on this hot day for our temperate blood.

View of Nile from the window of our guesthouse

The Luxor Museum is a modern building with glass cases especially built for their its precious objects softly lit in a manner that allows one for easy observation and contemplation, not the harsh florescent lighting of the Cairo Museum that sprays haphazardly across the cluster of antiquities that fill its rooms. I can more fully appreciate the exquisite painting and hieroglyphs that cover sarcophagi , the detail carving on the sculptures, and the precise engineering of the bows, each with a specific function. I particularly liked a sculpture of the pharaoh Akhenaten who tried to introduce a new religion to Egypt centred around the worship of Aten the sun god. From this, art evolved into an elongated, almost comic form that's strangely modern yet did not last past his reign. 

On our first night in Luxor, an Australian woman who runs a craft shop had recommended that we try a home-

Guest house Dinner 

cooked meal in Egypt. So, this evening, we take her advice and purchase such a meal from the hosts at our guesthouse. It's served on the guesthouse's rooftop terrace by Ahmed's brother and made by him or his wife or mother. Who knows? We had not seen a single female during our stay at the guesthouse even though we'd seen the son everyday and Ahmed told us his mother ran the store.

Food in Egypt had not been particularly tasty so we're pleasantly surprised how good this was. The chicken had been glazed with lemon sauce and barbecued over charcoal. The soup was orzo into which we squeezed preserved lemon. Nicola said she'd try making it at home. 

Sculpture of Akhenaten

Bow and Arrows

Chariot

Sarcophagi for entrails

Sarcophagus in Luxor Museum