| Submitted by: Mark Nowak United States |
| Submission Date: 11 February 2005 |
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There were a few vendors around, but they weren't particularly annoying -- perhaps I was just getting better at ignoring them. I know that may sound rude, but I can't emphasize enough how eye contact can bring a great deal of unwanted attention. I highly recommend wearing sunglasses even if the sun doesn't bother your eyes.
We were now going to the necropolis of Thebes, the ancient capital of Egypt. I believe we decided to go to the Valley of the Nobles as opposed to the Valley of the Queens where Nefertari's tomb is because her tomb is closed and there was only one other tomb we could have seen at the time. We entered two tombs which had very ornate and well preserved painted hieroglyphics. They were a little cramped, but that was normal for tombs. They had guards in them, and I dreaded being asked for a tip, but it turned out not to be a problem. Unfortunately, flash photography wasn't allowed, and I could see why. Outside we could see various excavation work in progress and the mortuary temple of Ramses III in the distance.
Rabie then took us to an alabaster factory (sounds a lot like shop, doesn't it?). Still it was somewhat interesting to see how some Muslims paint their houses with the story of their pilgrimage to Mecca. We also were given little scarab beetle souvenirs as gifts.
The Valley of the Kings was quite an experience. There were some 62 known tombs scattered about under a pyramid-shaped mount. We went into two tombs as a group -- your ticket only allows you to go into three and only 7 or so are open at a time. You need a special ticket to go into King Tutankhamon's tomb. The pyramids had advertised the wealth buried with the pharoahs, so they had started hiding their tombs here. They were hidden so well that there is a tomb built right over King Tut's tomb -- apparently, that pharoah didn't know Tut was there. The tombs had long corridors (covered with hieroglyphics) and were fairly dusty (some people had to cover their mouths with scarves). As soon as someone became pharoah, work was begun on his tomb. Generally, the longer you were pharoah, the bigger it would be and the more stuff would be in it.
As a group, we entered the tombs of Ramses IV and IX. I bought the ticket that would allow me to go down into King Tut's tomb which was discovered by Carter in 1922. Rabie told us not to worry about the often talked about curse of King Tut because Carter himself lived to an old age. The tomb is famous because the artifacts from the tomb were not plundered. We had to go down a number of steps. The tomb wasn't very big because he hadn't reigned very long. Still, it was a thrill to be there. I think his reign lasted form the time he was 12 until he was 20 or so. Damage to his skull has given rise to the belief that he was killed perhaps by his successor, the chief priest, who would have then mummified him (and poorly at that) and married his wife. King Tut's mummy is still in the sarcophagus in the tomb.
I went into the tomb of Ramses III afterwards and was turned back when I tried to go into another -- that's how I found out you can only go into three with an ordinary ticket. The guard rips a third of an edge of your ticket every time you got into a tomb -- a corner, the other corner and then the center.
We stopped at the Colossi of Memnon, two monumental seated statues that were erected around 1300 B.C., before getting back the same way we came.
Cate was not having a good day. The T-shirt she ordered was not quite what she wanted and it was the anniversary of her mother's death. She was pretty upset and at one point was reduced to tears. Her spirits brightened by the end of the day.
We visited the Temple of Luxor in the late afternoon where one of its twin obelisks now can be found in the Place de la Concorde in Paris. The nonworking clock at the Mohammed Ali Mosque was exchanged for it. Two huge statues of Ramses II can be found there. The gigantic pillars that used to hold up a roof are some 30 feet high. There is an Avenue of Sphinxes in front of it (I had to wait a while with Shelley for some tourists to get out of the way, so I could get a clear shot of the sphinxes). Occasionally, one of the guards would offer to show you something in return for baksheesh.
Quite a few of us went to the Sound and Light Show at the Temple of Karnak. We arrived around sunset. The temple was built over a period of 2000 years with each pharoah adding to it. The columns are immense. It was still twilight when the show started. I was initially standing with Dan and Glennis. The show was given in stages again. We walked through the temple among the great pillars in the dark as the story was told. I could see the stars between the huge columns, and I think I spotted a satellite going by. Since it was Friday, the Muslim holy day, we could hear their call to prayer broadcast over loudspeakers while we were trying to listen to the show. It was distracting and annoying. Eventually we were sitting down looking at the temple across a pool of water. The show seemed to go a little too long.
Cate went around with Ahmed during the show getting good views for her pictures. Ahmed tipped the workers at the show, and he must have tipped well because they also brought them tea.
We had dinner at 8:00 PM. I didn't have much choice in what there was to eat, so I ended up eating meat on a Friday during Lent -- back to being disappointed at meals.
Afterwards, Ahmed and Rabie took Cate, Shelley, John, Ginger, Carol, a quiet couple who joined us in Cairo and me into town. I wasn't going to go because it sounded like it was going to be a shopping expedition. Ahmed asked me what I wanted to do, so I told him I wanted to be around regular Egyptians seeing how they live and what they do. I suggested a coffee house, and he said okay. After the others were dropped off at a mall. Ahmed, Cate and I walked the streets of Luxor until we found a coffee house. Ahmed bought me an Egyptian coffee with regular sugar warning me that it would be strong. It came in a little cup and was prepared in a way that the water wasn't brought to a boil. This caused a 'face' or small head to form on the surface. Being a microwave oven enthusiast and having made tea this way for years, it wasn't new to me. But the coffee was good. I liked it so much, he bought me another.
Ahmed then ordered a water pipe to be prepared and brought over. It had an apple smell to it. When you inhale, the smoke goes through water which filters out tar. Ahmed took a few puffs and offered it to me. I had never smoked before (well, I did try a couple of puffs of a cigarette when I was young), but this was supposed to be a healthier way to do it. Ahmed claimed that there was no nicotine and that the tar was filtered by the water (which turned yellow after a while). I took one puff and slowly breathed out the smoke. Cate looked at me and said, 'You've done this before.' Ahmed asked me how it was, and I said it didn't seem to have much of a taste. He was surprised at that. I tried it one more time before giving it back to him.
We met the others and took a cab back to the boat. They hadn't had much luck with the vendors. Shelley, Cate, Ahmed and I sat in the lounge talking for a while. We had asked Ahmed what other tours were like. He said that in the summer the tours have a lot more younger people in them and that they are all bad. He said we were actually good. Ahmed and I drank shots of ouzo. I think Shelley had one. After the third one, Ahmed wouldn't go any further despite my prompting.
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Saturday, March 11
KARNAK, LUXOR -> CAIRO, PYRAMIDS OF CHEOPS + KEPHREN
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We tipped the people on the boat and checked out in the morning. The sun was still pretty low and bright when we reached the Temple of Karnak. Rabie took us through the complex. It was originally dedicated to Amun while the Temple of Luxor was dedicated to his wife Mut. It was the City of God. Two huge obelisks that once were decorated with a mixture of gold silver and copper built by Queen Hatshepsut remain. They would have served as church steeples and appeared as golden needles. Statues of Tutankhamon and his wife could be found. There was a statue of a frog. It was supposed to be good luck to walk around it several times, so some people did.
At the airport in Luxor Shelley's knife held her up while the rest of us got on board. Cate stayed with her to help her get through security while I took some of Cate's stuff on board the plane. I was feeling better today -- maybe that hibiscus tea was as medicinal as they said. We flew from 10:20 in the morning until 11:20.
It was cooler now that we were back in Cairo in Lower Egypt. We gathered up our belongings, but our bus was apparently missing. Ahmed looked annoyed as he went to take care of it. We sat down, relaxed and snacked while we waited for a bus to take us back to the Mena House. It didn't take long. Now Dan was kidding me about beating me to the best seat on the bus. When we checked in, I cashed a couple of $20 travelers checks, so I could tip Ahmed and have enough to get me into the pyramids. I was in room 491 this time, and unfortunately, Cate, Shelley and I weren't in adjacent rooms. Cate was concerned about one of the male workers at the hotel who seemed to follow her around and expected to go out with her when she got back to Cairo.
When I went to tip Ahmed in the hotel lounge, Cate was talking to Ahmed and his boss. Apparently, she was being interviewed about the quality of our trip. It looked like Sahar was going to get a talking to. They said her shopping trips were going to stop. It looked like Cate, Shelley and I had all written that Ahmed was great in our evaluations. We were running out of time before the pyramids would close, so I got Shelley and rushed us over to the pyramids on foot. I ran ahead and bought our tickets, trying to figure out just where we had to go.
Now experienced at dodging the people who would sell us postcards, camel rides, horse rides, necklaces, scarves and whatever else, we moved quickly past them as we made our way to the Great Pyramid of Cheops. These people can really make a trip to the pyramids unpleasant. We had learned that 'la' means no ('la la' is a forceful no) and 'imshe' means go away. A couple of times we were asked if we wanted something, and when we said no, they responded with, 'Maybe later?' The second time I caught on that maybe this was an attempt to save face and agreed, 'Yes, maybe later.'
Inside Cheops, we moved steeply up another narrow tunnel that had us hunched over. It must not have been more than 4 feet tall. We were sweating, but I'm not sure how much of that was just from the pace we kept in getting there. On the way we took a side trip down a horizontal shaft into another room. Then we came back to the fork. The path opened up to a vaulted ceiling as we near the burial chamber. Again I was surprised by the absence of any hieroglyphics. No pictures were allowed, but the guard at the top of the steps (if you could call the metal strips connected to the wooden planks steps) offered to take my picture. Baksheesh would probably be called for, but I didn't mind. He took my picture, but he didn't ask for anything. I was impressed.
When Shelley caught up to me, he had us wait for a group of four (two guys and two girls) coming up behind us. I think they were Canadians. One of the women reacted angrily when the guard touched her to keep her from moving forward. She told him not to touch her. He said everything was okay because he was a Muslim. She said that that was right -- she wasn't his sister or mother, so he had better not touch her. We heard what sounded like people chanting in the tomb. The guard went inside. Our time was short, so we waited momentarily before the unanimous vote was to follow. When we did, we only found the guard in the chamber. Strange -- where did that chanting come from?
We took a look around and then made our way down having to get past others coming inside. It was fantastic to be inside one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. We took a couple of pictures while standing on the side of the pyramid before moving on towards the Pyramid of Kephren. It was only about a block or two away. I asked the guard at the entrance if pictures were allowed, and he said pictures were okay. I wish I had known that at Cheops, so I could have taken a few more pictures. This time we had to go down into Kephren in a similarly narrow tunnel that I read has a gradient of around 21 degrees for about 100 feet. Handrails and the metal 'steps' keep it from becoming a huge slide. Then there is a short corridor high enough to stand in. Then there is an ascent to the burial chamber. The chamber is 46 feet by 16 feet by 22 feet high. Again no hieroglyphics could be seen.
We were the only ones in the chamber, so we took one look at the sarcophagus and got a little goofy. There was a video camera in the room, but that didn't keep us from taking pictures of ourselves in the sarcophagus. I even reclined in it like a mummy in one of the pictures. The tons of stone around us didn't make us claustrophobic at all. We had to waddle our way out again.
We had done it. We leisurely strolled back towards the Great Pyramid. We could see Cairo in the distance and the huge shadow of the Pyramid of Kephren moving towards it. We approached the Solar Boat of Cheops. This boat (or the pieces of one) had been found in a pit to the south of the Pyramid of Cheops in 1954. I read it was supposed to come together by magic and carry Cheops on his journey with the sun on the underground river at night. Archaeologists put it together and put a building around it. You need to wear slippers over your shoes to see it to protect the floors and the boat from the dust you've picked up.
We didn't get to go inside because it was closed at the time. You could, however, catch a glimpse of it through the huge windows. A boy had come up to us wanting to be our guide. He was a royal pest. One of the museum people chased him away swinging to hit him with some wire or something like that. He still followed us until we made it, ahem, very clear we wanted him to go away. We ended up walking completely around the Great Pyramid. Before we left, we saw some of our group who had come over but hadn't been in time to go inside the pyramids.
Shelley and I returned to the Mena House where we enjoyed a wonderful cheeseburger dinner with hibiscus tea (the Mean House had everything -- well, except for water pressure in my room) with a wonderful view of the pyramids. I had to rush off to make it to the Sound and Light Show at the pyramids, but I gave Sara a quick call before I left. Only four of us took the shuttle around the pyramids to the seats in front of the Sphinx. We got front row seats. A couple of other people came independently and joined us. It got pretty cool after sunset, and I was getting a little Sound and Light Showed out. This one lasted a little too long for me as well. After I got back from show, I roused Cate from a nap and called Sara again (not knowing just how expensive this was getting).
Our wake-up call was scheduled for 1:30 AM. Our luggage was supposed to be out at 1:45. I decided not to even go to bed. Shelley, Cate and I met up in Cate's room. Cate convinced me to call Ahmed from her room to find out her departure schedule and ask him to join us in the evening. We called him at home, and he said he would meet us in the lobby of the Mena House. Shelley decided to try to nap for a couple of hours. Cate and I waited from about 11:30 to 1:00 A.M. We called his home. A woman answered the phone, but I'm not sure who she was. She told us he wasn't home. We never did see him again.
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Sunday, March 12
HOMEWARD BOUND
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I was in my room in time for the wake-up call. I had already showered. It was going to be a very long day. Shelley and I said goodbye to Cate and joined the others for breakfast at the Greenery in the middle of the night. Cate would be going on to Britain for a week, New York for another week and then another Globus tour in South America before returning to Australia. I had invitations to visit Norman and Vera in New Zealand, the Aherns in Florida and the Bonds in Michigan. We left the hotel at 2:30 since we had to check in two hours before our flight at 5:00 AM. The driver seemed to be having some trouble finding the terminal which made me a little nervous, but we got there in time. Cairo was a lot easier to get around in at this hour.
Getting checked in took some time, but it wasn't bad. I was hoping my hurricane glasses could survive this last leg of the trip. Trying to spend the rest of my Egyptian money, I bought some postcards. Our flight was KLM 554 to Amsterdam. Shelley, her parents, the Bonds and I were on it. I was in seat 15A by a window. The movie was 'The River Wild.' I had seen it, so I dozed through most of it. In Amsterdam (the prices at the duty free shops were still ridiculous) we split up. Shelley and her parents were flying Northwest, so they had to go through a security check -- only domestic airlines going to the United States have to. Since I was on KLM, I didn't have to go through it.
My second flight was KLM 611. It departed at 11:15 AM. I was in seat 14A (again by a window). I slept a lot on this flight, rousing mostly only to eat. The movie was 'Star Trek: Generations' which I had seen twice. Arriving at Chicago's O'Hare airport around 1:00 PM, our plane was a little early, and I had no problems getting through customs. Sara met me at the airport and drove me home. I had gone through almost 17 rolls of film. Feel free to write me if you have any questions, comments or corrections at nowak@comm.mot.com.
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