Travel to Old Civilization Part 3 - Luxor and back home

As I lie in my bed, I feel guilty of thinking that the trip would not be worth it, as I mentioned earlier we are a group of diverse personalities and I didn’t know how we would get along. I now realize that it was our diversity which had made trip enjoyable. It brings a smile to my face when I see Karthik eager for a patel shot from different angle against every monument in same pose of his face tilted at 45 degrees, Saurabh trying to capture each moment in a perfect way and when the perfection was achieved his eyes gleaming with excitement and not stopping to rub it in our faces, Manoj was perfectly balanced I wonder how he manages it, I on the other hand never wanted to be in any photograph, trying be capture a moment in my lens or who cringed every time I saw myself in a snap. With these thoughts in my mind I drifted off to a dreamless sleep.

Day 2: 16th December 2006 – Luxor As usual I woke up to the alarm ringing from Saurabh’s mobile. We had to freshen up in the train as no hotel was booked for us in Luxor. We arrive in Luxor at 5:30 in the morning. Sabry from Travco picked us up from the railway station and we arrive in the Hotel where we meet Suraiya our guide for the day. This lady seems to think to we are some kids from college and thought that we might not appreciate the information on the monuments of Luxor, so she did not part with much information throughout the trip.

Valley of Artists
We started at about 6:30 towards the valley of artisst. On the way we captured the river Nile with calm waters flowing through the city. The setting of Valley of Artists is perfect against tall rocks. It has remains of the residence places of the artist’s house. There are two tombs of the artists which are open to the public. We had visited few tombs in past two days but no tomb was as colorful as these two tombs of the artist. Each painting looked like it was done yesterday. As I gaze at these elaborate art work a thought strikes me we consider ourselves technologically advanced but the paints in our house do not stand for 2 years while these 3000 year old paintings still stand in their fully glory. I wonder what kind of technical advancement did they possess. Would we ever be able to find a key to this mystery? We finish capturing the pictures of this valley of artist and move ahead.

Temple of Hatsepsut
Our next stop was Queen Hatsepsut’s temple. She was the only women in the history of ancient Egypt who took to the throne after death of her consort and half brother Thutmose II. She also wore the royal false beard to the throne. According to customs of ancient Egypt a woman cannot ascend the throne. The high priest advised her to create a temple for the Sun God and depict that she was born as son to the pharaoh. So she constructed a temple as offering to Sun God and depicted as herself as a boy. The temple is three-tiered and surrounded on three sides by high desert cliffs. With its facade of simple square columns, it looks more like a public library than a temple. The monument designed against a cliff is an architectural harmony between man and nature. Heliographic paintings on the wall depict the queen’s divine conception. Although vandalized by Hatsepsut’s foes and buried in sand for centuries, the masterpieces has not lost its splendor. It is an incredible expression of the absolute power of pharaoh, whether woman or man. The temple will remain highpoint of our visit. We could manage to capture the temple against its majestic settings and spent a considerable amount of time in the temple admiring and capturing the beauty of the place. Drinking in the beauty of the temple we proceeded to our next stop of the day.

Valley of Kings
It was almost 11 or 11:30 or so when we reached Valley of Kings. Valley of Kings is cluster of tombs dug in the mountain. It was surprising to see how well-preserved the tombs are especially the colour of the paintings. It is true that they have been protected from light for thousands of years but that does not decrease the awe we felt on seeing them. I cannot express the feeling on seeing the colours and script of the paintings. The wall of the 4 tombs we saw were dipped in the sea of colours. The tombs are size of a small house but the ceilings are much higher than normal ones. Although photography is not allowed within the tombs we sneaked in a few and ended paying a small amount to the caretaker of the tombs. All the tombs in the valley have been plundered except for Tutankhaman’s tomb, treasures of which lie in museum at Cairo. Our guide Suraiya was rushing us, I don’t know why? Fuming we proceed to our next step.

Karnak Temple
Karnak Temple is dedicated to God Amun. Although badly ruined only few sites in Egypt would be as impressive as Karnak. It could be the largest temple complex ever built by man covering an area of 100 hectres. The temple has been restored by UNESCO. If today I say the temple is impressive, one can only imagine the grace this place would have had in its young times. Our guide told us that the temple was built and enlarged over a period of 1800 years. It was customary for the kings to add something to this temple during their reign. We took photos of the obelisk raised in this temple. The wall paintings look as they were done yesterday. The temple does not retain any colour these paintings must have had but that does not diminish the effect. The sanctum sanctorum has rock stand on which the golden statue of God Amun was placed. The sanctorum has door behind the idol. The high priest was supposed to enter from the back door, perform his duties and go back via the back door. The priest or king were forbidden to show their backs to the Lord, it seems so similar to Indian custom isn’t it. There is a sacred pond from which water was used to purify the idol. Water from Nile via underground canals kept the pond filled with water. Of course we did not forget to capture the beauty of temple in our lenses. The temple is said have a courtyard lined up with ram headed sphinx which led to the Luxor temple, but you see only remains of it as modern construction has lined up the once 3 km courtyard joining the two temples. Our next step is the Luxor Temple but we are too tired after visiting the Karnak Temple.

Luxor Temple
We wanted to break for lunch and then visit Luxor Temple but it seemed Suraiya wanted to finish off things and go off. She pushed us to visit the temple which we did but not without sitting at the temple for a good 15-20 minutes. Luxor Temple though smaller than Karnak Temple is worth seeing. Luxor Temple is also created and dedicated to God Amun. Two obelisks created by Ramseay’s II stand guard in the entrance of the temple. Ramseys’s II our guide told us was too fond of himself and his creation. The description fit Saurabh to the T and thereby was rechristened as Ramsey’s II. The name stuck to him throughout the remaining journey. Out of the two obelisks one lies in museum at Paris. The Temple of Luxor is interesting for having had within it a mosque and a Coptic church. The mosque is even still in use. These religious places were created by the Arabic and Roman rulers of Egypt. We finish off with this temple pretty soon and there comes to an end to the visit to the majestic creation of the past. A tryst with River Nile It is about 4 or 4:30 in the evening as we huddle to the hotel from where we started in the morning. We take some time to freshen up and see ourselves in small open air restaurant. Karthik and I order a cappuccino and Nescafe. We are relishing the coffee and our usual lunch arrives. There is Egyptian rice today instead of spaghetti and is first time I relish my lunch. We are tired and it starts showing on our faces at least the photos reflect that. We laze around till the tiredness wears off and its 5:00 in the evening. We walk by river Nile and Saurabh wants to take ride on the Faluka. A faluka is a sailboat with a particular type of sail made from cloth. Manoj is not very keen to take the ride due to security reason and is tensed major part of the trip at least till he saw the patrol boat. I enjoy the trip, but the somewhere the trip upsets me, I still can’t put a finger to what upset me but something did for major part of the evening. The faluka ride was great seeing the sun set by the river throwing up the pink colour, the reflection of which was seen in the waters of Nile was simply awesome. We returned to the bank after a ride of about 45 minutes. We walk by the Luxor temple which is now illuminated with evening lamps. If I found the temple beautiful by day, the sight of the temple against the lights is sheer poetry. We snap those moments. Manoj had then a brainwave to visit the Karnak temple that too in horse carriage which we did but the temple was not lit up lamps. After the boat and horse carriage ride we decide to cover the distance of 3km on foot. One distinct feature of Luxor is traffic is very minimal. Near to our hotel we spotted a souvenir shop as we were exchanging currency. Karthik Kalkur went to exchange the currency while we three of us entered the souvenir shop. We threw ourselves on the papyrus painting as there were genuine and less in price compared to the one we bought at papyrus gallery. I selected the painting as Saurabh and Manoj bought a bust of Queen Nefertiti, I still regret not buying it. When the time to pay the bill came, we remembered that Mr. Kalkur was missing, we assumed him to have gone to the hotel. As we entered the hotel we saw Mr Kalkur greeting us with his sweet smile. He said he enjoyed an Egyptian belly dance at hotel. I don’t know how good it was for that we have to ask him only. We started to the railway station soon. We boarded the over night train to Cairo. My legs had already given away by then. We chit chat and pass the time as we doze off.

Day 4: 17th December 2006 – Cairo I wake to find a raging allergy covering my face and my lips have swollen up. It becomes a good joke by the day. We check into the President hotel to freshen up. After a usual heavy breakfast we start for the Cairo Museum to our dose of mummies and treasures. We meet our guide Maggie by the gate. Cairo Museum The place is swarming with tourist as bees swarm a beehive. The museum has huge collection of ancient Egyptian history. In addition to Egyptian history it has stuff dating to Greek and Roman period also.
The highlight of the museum though is world famous king Tutankhaman’s treasures found in his grave. There is an entire room dedicated to his treasures. In ancient Egypt body is put in a coffin, then that is put in another coffin, and that is put in 2nd coffin and then into a bigger 3rd coffin! Then this whole thing is kept in box like structure and 2 more box structures like this on top of the other! Keep in mind that EVERYTHING was made of pure gold, including the boxes and stuff. King Tuts face was covered with the 11kg gold and his face with the unmistakable beard is so popular whenever Egypt is mentioned. The special head gear and the funny beard etc which are often seen when you talk about Egyptian Pharaohs constitute that face mask of King Tut, and it was also in the museum. Maggie told us that there was another king’s tomb on top Tutankhaman’s tomb which protected the tomb from being plundered. How amazing it is that a relatively unknown king in Egyptian era is a famous entity today. This treasure included gold chairs, tables, cots, slippers, daggers, sticks, rings, masks, toe caps etc all in pure gold. After seeing the treasure, I thought what would it be like if treasures of all the king would have been unearthed? Lost in thought we enter the mummification section. It is eerie feeling seeing the mummies of the kings. Believe it or not the skin, teeth, nails and hair are still intact and gleaming. One unique thing was the thumb of these Egyptian kings were as long as their other fingers. After finishing with the museum we buy few books at the entrance and then get to our next which is Khan el Khalili market.

Khan el-Khalili
Bazaar After relishing on Egyptain Tea, we set out to explore the bazaar. The bazaar is similar to any market in India, but the stuff they sell here is not authentic. The market is marked with narrow lanes and shops on both sides. I was hunting for bust of Queen Nefertiti while Saurabh was looking for sheesha. After combing the market for close to two and half hours or so, I gave up on my search for the bust and I think so did Saurabh. It was 3:30 in the afternoon as we started for President Hotel. We went to a café for a cappuccino and to our delight we found vegetarian pizza. Over a cup of hot coffee we bought our kartush which we had ordered through Maggie. The kartush has our name inscribed in heliographic script on one side while the other size had image of our zodiac signs. I do think we paid more that normal price for it. Nevertheless after enjoying our three veggie pizzas, we went to the hotel to collect our belonging. We checked out of the hotel at 5:30 in the evening. We reached Cairo railway station to board our train to Alexandria. Believe me the traffic is no less than any Indian city. The train puffed into the station and we got into it. It is almost time to say good bye to Egypt which we do with happiness written in our eyes. We see the photos on the train which have come out remarkably well. At least they appeared good on the LCD screen; the final outcome is yet to be seen. Time flies as we reach Alexandria. Alexandria Airport We reach Alexandria Airport by 11:00 in the night and we are in for a long wait. There is not a soul at the airport and it looks like starting of some C grade Hindi film of Horror genre. There are no cafeteria around which are open. Around 1:30 we go for security check in. Unique behavior at the airport is the officials are busy smoking while doing immigration check and passengers smoke in the airport premises which generally prohibited. We board the flight at about 3 in the morning. The plane lifts into the air and we are zonked off. My eyes open at Sharjah Airport only.

Day 5: 18h December 2006 – Sharjah Airport As we come out of the airport, Manoj gets a call from Sudheer asking him to convey a message to me that my Mom has called Sylvia my testing manager at Bangalore to find out my whereabouts. As soon Sudheer’s call is over I get call from Prasanna conveying the same. I call my mother informing her about my whereabouts and later called up Sylvia. I wonder at the anticlimax of the trip and wonder should this be the way the trip should have ended. With such thoughts in my mind we take taxi towards Dubai.