As arrivals go, last night’s disembarkation from our dahabiya (traditional Egyptian sailboat) was hard to beat, as first the sun set dramatically over the Valley of Kings and the West bank of the Nile and then a full moon rose above the temple at Luxor.
The archaeologist Howard Carter’s famous words as he unsealed the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings “I see wonderful things…” are ringing in our ears and while his reputation locally, having reignited the West’s obsessive Egyptomania and ‘theft’ of so many of that country’s precious artefacts, still veers on the notorious, this his signature discovery for his famous patron, the Earl of Carnarvon and his earlier excavation of the much larger Tomb of Queen Hatshepshut with fellow Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, has ignited our collective imaginations. Sending our bags on to the hotel we waste no time in beginning our exploration of Luxor’s temple and grounds which are remarkably atmospheric by moonlight.
Probably adding insult to injury for the long suffering locals, our hotel which is a few miles away in a tiny desert village, south of the Valley of the Kings, is a Hollywood Art Director’s interpretation of the film set for “1001 nights”, not that we are complaining after the spartan cabins and primitive plumbing on board our dahabiya, or the Soviet-built brutalist hotel where we stayed in Aswan at the start this trip.
Up early the following morning to explore the temple of Karnak on its sacred lake setting, or rather barely scratch its surface as its vastness as the world’s largest temple complex make it almost unknowable and even our friend and Egyptologist John who is travelling with us seems to be somewhat nonplussed by it all, we withdraw to our Pasha’s retreat for a brief siesta. Even though it is January the midday sun is remarkably hot and eventually the cooling long shadows cast by the vast pillars of Karnak’s Great Hipostyle Hall, are the only places onsite offering any relief.
Somewhat rested we set out again mid afternoon to hike the trail to the summit of the hill above the Valley of the Kings, retracing the steps that the tomb construction workers took for millennia, which starts at Nag Kohlah close to our hotel and ends at the Tombs of the Nobles and the Rasmusseum.
Following this still used donkey-path with its precipitous views in the heat and dust is hard enough in a hat and sunglasses, but even more difficult to conceive blindfolded (as the stonemasons are said to have been to avoid them revealing the locations of the tombs they were constructing to grave-robbers). Leading eventually up and along the length of the escarpment which hides the Valley of the Kings from the outside world, the path passes through the Deir el-Medina (artisans village, containing their own modest tombs), the Valley of the Queens and the Valley of the Kings.
En route in the far distance the narrow, impossibly green fertile strip of sugarcane fields on either side of the Nile river basin, contrasts dramatically with the surrounding desertscape and the vast grandiosity of the ‘Ramesseum’, constructed over a two decade period as the final resting place of the great Pharaoh Ramesses II and the inspiration for the English Romantic poet Shelley’s famous sonnet ‘Ozymandias, King of Kings’. Hot and tired, we approach the path’s summit and suddenly the vast panorama of the Valley of the Kings opens up before us and we stare at it slack jawed before beginning our descent to the vast necropolis of the warrior queen Pharaoh, Hatshepshut, at Deir el Bahri.
It’s long been accepted that ancient Egypt’s temples were a riot of vibrant colour when first constructed, but we’d never really seen a living example. So the still bright pigments illuminating many of Hatshepsut’s temple friezes were an almost jarring contrast to the monochromatic sandstone exteriors- a reminder of what has been lost over the millennia that these structures were buried beneath the desert sands or other later constructions (like the monastery that was built above this very site) before Petrie and Carter completed their excavations in 1909.
Hidden in not so plain sight are the Pharaoh Queen’s attempts to airbrush her gender from history, (rather like the later official portraits of England’s First Elizabeth, which depict her as at best an androgynous figure). In some of her later statuary Hatshepshut even adopts the classic Pharaonic beard, as ancient Egypt’s longest serving queen was always vulnerable to male dominated court factions siding with her young stepson Thutmose III, for whom she acted as regent for nearly two decades.
Once again we find ourselves defeated by the vastness of the temple complex and vowing to return there at sunrise we hail an ancient Peugeot 405 taxi and have him drive us back to our hotel, catching the giant silhouettes of the Colossi of Memnon in the setting sun en route, which are still standing guard at the entrance to the scant remains of Amenhotep’s memorial necropolis, destroyed by a massive earthquake in 1200BC, which was even larger in its day than the monumental ‘Ramesseum’.
Up as early as we can on our last morning (a midnight flight to Cairo beckons, followed by a no doubt fitful four hours of sleep before catching our connection to LA), we fuel up as we have every morning here, with that classic Egyptian ‘breakfast of champions’ Fuul Mesdames (fava beans cooked in cumin) and served with flatbread).
Fuul Mesdames: Serves Four or Five
2 cans fava beans
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 or 2 chili peppers, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup chopped parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
EV Olive oil
Heat a skillet with water and add the fava beans, salt and cumin; warm through then partially mash with a potato masher (it shouldn’t be too smooth).
Mash the garlic and chili peppers together in a pestle and mortar, making a paste, then add the lemon juice and combine into a sauce.
Add the chili pepper and garlic sauce to the fava beans with a generous pour of EV olive oil, then top with the chopped parsley.
Serve with warm pitta bread, sliced tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, green onions and olives.
Unfortunately we are not nearly early enough for Hatshepshut’s temple which is already overrun with tours, so we hightail it to the almost deserted Valley of the Nobles which is modest in scale and where the tomb entrances are interspersed with the bustling dwellings of the desert village of Qurna.
Finding a guide to help us navigate the warren of tomb entrances, he shows us the simple tomb of the Governor of Thebes (as Luxor was called in Pharaonic times) during Akhenaten’s brief reign, which features still intact Aten worship symbols- incredibly rare, as these sun god motifs were almost all destroyed in the rapid return to religious orthodoxy by the priests of Amun, after Akhenaten’s death. This modest two roomed tomb with its simple stone sarcophagus brings us full circle back to Tutankhamun, Akhenaten’s eldest son who ruled for a brief period until his untimely death at just nineteen years of age.
It’s a modest but moving link to the “wonderful things” Carter uncovered nearly a century earlier and for us, equally unexpected.
What an informative and entertaining article by Marco. Always great to have a reference to Shelley's Ozymandias, one of the most magnificent poems ever written. Stunning photos, too.
What a rea, I feel so lacking in knowledge of that part of the world. You are a never ending source of information and inspiration to travel more in the future.
Xxxx