Egypt - an education - part 8
Our vojage down the Nile River ended in the morning at "Luxor".
After breakfast we were again loaded on buses and driven to the desolate west side of the Nile, to the "Valley of the Kings", where there are numerous underground empty tombs. The place reminded me of a vast rock quarry with piles of excavated rubble everywhere (perhaps even on top of yet undiscovered tombs still buried under it).
We had time to visit three of the most decorated, or extensive and complex or historically significant because of their previous tenants. Sad to say, as you already know, none, other than the tomb of young king "Tutankhamen", were not plundered already in antiquity - any and all contents that were still available and existed anywhere in modern times, are now housed in the Cairo museum or scattered in museums all over the world.
Not far from there, in an adjoining valley, we also stopped to explore the temple of queen "Hatchepsut". This building is an impressive broad and three storied (almost "modern looking" and well preserved) columned edifice tucked under and into a broad high mountain cliff. On the way back across the river, another opportunity for photographs - this time at the colossus of "Memnon" (two huge statues in a sitting position that are by their lonesome in an open area, some yards apart from each other - perhaps at one time in front of a now nonexistent temple)
The tour guide gave us one more opportunity to spend money - this time at an alabaster shop, where there were being offered locally made items from this translucent rock. As far as I was concerned, these were just more stones I can live without, regardless of their admitted beauty, especially in the form of vases or statuary.
In the afternoon awaited us the most impressive sites of all - "Luxor" and "Karnak", which, in spite of them being in ruins, are majestic in size and scope and better preserved than most of the rest, partly because for ages they were buried under sand. The complexes are near each other and in their time, when observing some religious or royal ceremonies, there was held a solemn procession from one to the other along the avenue of the "Sphinxes" still extant.
In the evening, we again boarded the train for an all night return to Cairo. I was exhausted from much walking all day and after the TV supper in the sleeper coach, I had no problem falling asleep. In the morning I was awakened barely in time to get dressed, eat my TV breakfast and get my tired ass off the train in the hot and crowded Cairo RR Station. By the way, did I mention that the sleeping cars on the train and of course all the buses, needless to say, also the rooms on the boat and in all the hotels, were air-conditioned? Stepping out of them was like entering an oven.
Almost done, be patient!
Ata.
After breakfast we were again loaded on buses and driven to the desolate west side of the Nile, to the "Valley of the Kings", where there are numerous underground empty tombs. The place reminded me of a vast rock quarry with piles of excavated rubble everywhere (perhaps even on top of yet undiscovered tombs still buried under it).
We had time to visit three of the most decorated, or extensive and complex or historically significant because of their previous tenants. Sad to say, as you already know, none, other than the tomb of young king "Tutankhamen", were not plundered already in antiquity - any and all contents that were still available and existed anywhere in modern times, are now housed in the Cairo museum or scattered in museums all over the world.
Not far from there, in an adjoining valley, we also stopped to explore the temple of queen "Hatchepsut". This building is an impressive broad and three storied (almost "modern looking" and well preserved) columned edifice tucked under and into a broad high mountain cliff. On the way back across the river, another opportunity for photographs - this time at the colossus of "Memnon" (two huge statues in a sitting position that are by their lonesome in an open area, some yards apart from each other - perhaps at one time in front of a now nonexistent temple)
The tour guide gave us one more opportunity to spend money - this time at an alabaster shop, where there were being offered locally made items from this translucent rock. As far as I was concerned, these were just more stones I can live without, regardless of their admitted beauty, especially in the form of vases or statuary.
In the afternoon awaited us the most impressive sites of all - "Luxor" and "Karnak", which, in spite of them being in ruins, are majestic in size and scope and better preserved than most of the rest, partly because for ages they were buried under sand. The complexes are near each other and in their time, when observing some religious or royal ceremonies, there was held a solemn procession from one to the other along the avenue of the "Sphinxes" still extant.
In the evening, we again boarded the train for an all night return to Cairo. I was exhausted from much walking all day and after the TV supper in the sleeper coach, I had no problem falling asleep. In the morning I was awakened barely in time to get dressed, eat my TV breakfast and get my tired ass off the train in the hot and crowded Cairo RR Station. By the way, did I mention that the sleeping cars on the train and of course all the buses, needless to say, also the rooms on the boat and in all the hotels, were air-conditioned? Stepping out of them was like entering an oven.
Almost done, be patient!
Ata.
posted by Okorn Family at 2:16 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home