Posted in 1996, Archaeology, Egypt, Nile Cruise on September 6, 2007 | 3 Comments »
I was sad. This was my last day in Egypt. I had been in the country for two weeks and it felt like months. Time in Egypt has a strange quality, the days rush by in a flurry of activity but seem at the same time to stretch on for eternity. I could not imagine [...]
Posted in 1996, Archaeology, Egypt, Luxor on September 4, 2007 | No Comments »
Last year the taxi ride to Dendera Temple was a nice trip and we thought we’d like to do it again, so booked our friendly taxi-driver Tayib for a 6.30am start. What we (or Tayib) hadn’t realised was that the police convoy had recently been introduced for journeys to Dendera. We all had to line [...]
Posted in 1996, Egypt, Local Customs, Luxor on September 4, 2007 | No Comments »
‘Come to the festival’, Abdu said one evening.
‘Where?’
‘Karnak!’
Well, that was the magic word. How could we resist? We could also do with some light relief. My friends and I had spent the day in Luxor Temple, especially studying the Opet reliefs of Tutankhamun in the Amenhotep Court. These reliefs depict the most important of the [...]
Posted in 1996, Egypt, Local Customs, Luxor on September 2, 2007 | 2 Comments »
At the end of our felucca trip, Abdu invited myself, Robin and Lucy to visit his home in the West Bank village of Esba. We were keen to see more of ‘the real Egypt’. The felucca pulled up against the riverbank and we all climbed down the precarious wooden plank onto the shore, a reedy muddy [...]
Posted in 1996, Egypt, Luxor on September 2, 2007 | No Comments »
My friends and I had arranged to spend this morning on a felucca trip. We’d met Abdu a couple of days before and we had promised we’d go sailing sometime on his felucca, Titi, so today was the day. Everyone visiting Egypt should experience a felucca trip. The felucca is a sailing boat, traditionally made [...]
Posted in 1996, Egypt, Luxor on September 2, 2007 | No Comments »
Robin, Lucy and I were all set to go to Abydos today - on the local train. At breakfast we mentioned this to our tour rep, Gillian, and she was horrified, strongly advising us not to attempt the trip. She gave us all the reasons we shouldn’t go and pointed out that neither the tour [...]
Posted in 1996, Archaeology, Egypt, Luxor on August 30, 2007 | No Comments »
My friends Robin and Lucy, who had been in Egypt with me the previous year, had arrived at last and we decided we would try to get to Abydos. In 1996 this was not an easy journey and we were told that we would need special permission from the Antiquities Office in Luxor because the [...]
Posted in 1996, Egypt, Luxor on August 30, 2007 | No Comments »
The cruise was over, I had said my farewells to new friends and the excellent crew and I was now staying in the Isis Hotel - I’m a creature of habit, but at that time it was one of the best hotels. I had a couple of days on my own before my two friends [...]
Posted in 1996, Archaeology, Egypt, Luxor, Nile Cruise on August 28, 2007 | No Comments »
Although we had been in Luxor for two days, I was still staying on the cruise boat and on our last day aboard as part of a tour group, we had a lot to get through. At 7.00am we were already on board the tourist ferry bound for the West Bank, with its towering rose-tinted [...]
Posted in 1996, Egypt, Luxor, Nile Cruise on August 28, 2007 | No Comments »
It felt very good to be here in Luxor again after waiting for almost a year to come back. Our first visit today was to Karnak Temple, at that time my favourite place. I did the tour with my group and as we had time to ourselves afterwards I followed the walls around to the [...]
Posted in 1996, Archaeology, Egypt, Nile Cruise on August 27, 2007 | 2 Comments »
Sailing between Edfu and Esna is always a joy. It is a peaceful countryside where little mud brick hamlets crouch beside the river, hardly changed since pharaonic times. Straw or fodder for animals is stacked on the roofs, along with peppers or whatever herbs and vegetables are suitable for drying. Most of these tiny villages [...]
Posted in 1996, Aswan, Egypt, Nile Cruise on August 27, 2007 | No Comments »
Named after the first Nile cataract, the rocky un-navigable part of the river, the Old Cataract Hotel in Aswan is probably most famous to the English as the place which is said to have inspired Agatha Christie to write her novel ‘Death on the Nile’ in the 1930s. Later the early scenes from the movie [...]
Posted in 1996, Archaeology, Aswan, Egypt, Nile Cruise on August 26, 2007 | 2 Comments »
The storm of the previous night had cleared by morning and we had had a fine day. I went to Philae Temple with my group, my second visit there, and saw much more than I had last year, with a slightly greater knowledge of what I was looking at. The sheer magnificence of the setting [...]
Posted in 1996, Egypt, Nile Cruise on August 23, 2007 | No Comments »
Each Nile cruise I’ve been on has had some sort of entertainment in the evening. Tonight was the weekly ‘galabeya party’, when we passengers were expected to dress up in newly purchased ‘Egyptian dress’ - galabeyas and head-gear - and generally make fools of ourselves - all in the spirit of good fun. After dinner [...]
Posted in 1996, Archaeology, Egypt, Nile Cruise on August 23, 2007 | No Comments »
My morning began with me wrapped in a blanket and sitting up on deck at dawn to watch the sun rise. I had at first been a little disappointed to learn that we were not going to Luxor at the beginning of the cruise, as I was eager to see Karnak again. But a cruise, [...]
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