Luxor revisited

Tuesday

For our last trip within Egypt we returned to Luxor for a second visit. We had several reasons: First of all we really enjoyed Luxor last year. Also Paula missed that trip as she was on a school outing to Kenya, and you certainly can't leave Egypt without visiting some of these famous sights. And there is so much to see that one trip is just not enough.

After a morning spent organising some house-buying paperwork at the Dutch Embassy in downtown Cairo, we took a late afternoon flight to Luxor. After some haggling (this starts as soon as you leave the plane and only stops when you have returned to the airport), we took a taxi to the Iberotel, where we had stayed before. It is a bit run down, but ideally located on the Nile, close to Luxor Temple. It has a sloping garden with a view of the West Bank and a pool on a floating pontoon in the river. After a meal in the Italian restaurant it was lights out quickly, to be ready for a busy day seeing the sights.

View from the hotel: felucca's at sunset

View from the hotel: the West Bank at sunrise

Wednesday

After breakfast we walked to the public ferry, dodging several hasslers (need taxi, motor boat, "my uncle has good bikes, very cheap") and crossed over to the West Bank. We rented bikes (made in China and maintained in Egypt!) and cycled towards the monuments. The first stop was "the Colossi of Memnon", two giant statues at the entrance of the temple of Amenhotep III. This temple has completely disappeared due to the yearly flooding of the Nile, and is now painstakingly being reconstructed by an enormous archeological team. We decided to visit the Valley of the Kings next. This is a small, narrow canyon, which contains some 60 tombs of the pharao's, and 15 of these are open to public. It turned out to be a pretty long, hot ride, on an uphill road. At the site we let the girls decide which tombs to visit; you are allowed to enter three on your entry ticket. Based on the 3D model in the entrance hall they chose the largest and deepest ones. So we saw the tombs of Tutmosis IV and Siptah, which were indeed deep, and modestly decorated. As third choice Ramses II had a long line of tourist waiting to enter we redirected to Tutmosis III, which we had seen last year. This tomb is beautifully decorated with cartoon-like paintings of some 700 gods and demi-gods. It is located in an almost unreachable crack, in a remote corner of the Valley, and it really makes you wonder how this was all constructed some 3500 years ago (considering that the pyramids are even 1000 years older!). Cameras are not allowed in the Valley, to preserve the delicate paintings.

Cycling up to the Valley of the Kings

We cycled back and had an Egyptian lunch (with beer) at the Ramesseum Restaurant, next to the

temple with the same name. Paula wanted to see Hatshepsut's temple, and she and Piet cycled there, while Mary and Dorien returned to the hotel for a swim, as they had already seen it last year. We walked around the blazing heat amidst busloads of Russian tourists, appreciating again the size and spectacular location of this monument. Then it was swimming time as well, and after a Chinese meal we again had an early night.

Thursday

After breakfast we went across to the West Bank and rented bikes again, with now our best friends. Having bikes gives us a lot of freedom and also keeps us relatively free from hasslers. We cycled to the ticket office and got tickets for Deir al Medina and some of the Tombs of the Nobles. Deir al Medina, a short, steep ride from that office, contains the workers village, where important craftsmen and artists, who worked in the Valley of the Kings, used to live. The village has been excavated and partly reconstructed, but the highlights were the two tombs we visited. Sennedjem was an artist who lived during the reign of Seti I and Ramses II, and his small tomb is stunningly decorated and extremely well preserved, matching some of the finest tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Next door is Inherkhau's tomb, who was a foreman during Ramses III and IV, and managed to get himself a beautifully painted burial site as well.

Making our pick at the West Bank ticket office

Deir al Medina, the workers village, with a Ptolemaic temple ruin in the background

Another short cycle ride brought us to the area of the "Tombs of the Nobles", which is a large hill full of holes, with some "modern" dilapidated houses of the village of Gurna on top of it. The Gurnawis were (are?) the infamous tomb robbers of the past, but now live in poverty and squalor. There are more than 100 tombs and we visited the ones of Rekhmire (a governor during Tutmosis III and Amenhotep II), and Sennofer (a garden supervisor for Amenhotep II); especially the last one was again beautifully painted, and very well preserved.

We cycled back to the Nile on some back roads through the fields, and had lunch at Ali Baba's Restaurant, at the edge of the river. We had excellent fresh fruit juice and some simple Egyptian food of local bread, tahina, tomatoes and cucumbers. The clouds started to come in and, before we knew it a gusty dust storm ("chamsien") had started; it is the season for it. Still Mary and Dorien wanted to go ahead with a donkey ride and our friends from the bikeshop quickly hustled up two animals. They went for a ride along the Nile and back through the fields, while Piet and Paula returned to the hotel for a swim and some reading. On return of the donkey riders we had some snacks, played card games and had another short swim, followed by a meal in the Italian restaurant and our third early night.

Mary and Dorien are getting ready for the donkey ride

Friday

Today was Paula's choice: either go to Karnak at the other end of Luxor or have a Luxor Temple-Brooke Hospital combi. She chose the latter and we were off to Luxor Temple. This is a large complex build by several pharaoh's (mainly Ramses II and Amenhotep III), with large columns, statues, many hieroglyphs and reliefs, depicting the pharaoh's deeds. There are even Christian paintings and a 14th century mosque within the complex; it has been used by everyone. We were obviously too early for the tour operators as we had a leisurely wander around, without too many other people. When we left the busses were emptied and the complex was flooded by tour group after tour group. Unfortunately the weather was still suffering from the dust storm: windy, quite cool, and very, very hazy due to all the dust in the air.

Piet and Dorien on the Avenue of Sphinxes, connecting Luxor Temple and Karnak

The sweepers of Luxor temple

We left and searched for Brooke Hospital, which was supposed to be close-by. However, that area is now totally razed for (apparently) excavations. Then we made the mistake to ask one of the caleche (horse cart) drivers what happened to Brooke. "Very far, no walking, difficult finding", and on our 4th day in Luxor we obviously mistrusted the old fellow. In the end he was right and took us in his caleche to the outskirts of Luxor, to a place we would never have found ourselves. Brooke Hospital for Animals is an organisation that provides care to horses and donkeys that have to work in poor conditions, with clinics all over the 3rd world. In The Netherlands they are famous due to a reality television show, where three young, female vet students were sent to Egypt to help with the Brooke doctors. The way some of the animals are treated, especially in Cairo, is shocking, and this is obviously an organisation close to the heart of Mary and the girls. The duty vet explained what they were doing: acting as a first aid station and using three mobile clinics to go around the villages to offer free care and advise. The place was very clean and organised, and there was just one resident donkey recovery from a traffic accident. The doctor explained that in the busy (tourist) season owners are less likely to turn up, as this could mean some loss of income.

With our caleche at the Brooke hospital

We returned to the hotel with the caleche and had a piss poor lunch in one of the "fancy" waterfront restaurants, and went back to the hotel for a last dive in the pool. Late in the afternoon we had one more hassle taxi ride back to the airport and a short flight back to Cairo. On arrival it turned out that it had been raining heavily in Cairo, and traffic was a complete chaos. Our regular driver Ashraf was stuck on the Ring Road near Maadi, and quickly organised his Italian-speaking friend Tarek to pick us up. This also proved difficult, as a number of the underpasses were flooded due to poor drainage. In the end it all worked out and we arrived home at 20.30, ready for some food and the winter Olympics!