Posted in 1997, Egypt, Luxor, tagged Deir el-Bahri, Luxor West Bank, terrorism on October 2, 2007 | 3 Comments »
Once more it was with great sadness that I left Luxor on October 20th 1997 to travel back to England. Part of me had been left behind in Egypt, as it always was, in what had become my ‘home from home’. This wonderful country had got under my skin and I would miss so much [...]
Posted in 1997, Egypt, Local Customs, Luxor, Travel, tagged Luxor West Bank, Wedding on September 30, 2007 | No Comments »
In the evening my friend and guide Hassan invited me to go with him to part of the wedding celebrations of a friend of his in the village of Kom on the West Bank. I’m not sure how long the celebration had been going on already but this evening, he told me, there was to [...]
Posted in 1997, Archaeology, Egypt, Luxor, Travel, tagged Luxor West Bank on September 30, 2007 | No Comments »
This was my last full day in Egypt and most of it had been spent on Luxor West Bank. We were going there again today. Robin and I had visited Malqata earlier this year and I had fallen in love with this remote site on the edge of the desert, once the palace and town [...]
Posted in 1997, Egypt, Local Customs, Luxor, tagged eating on September 30, 2007 | No Comments »
The next morning I had a message to say I had been summoned to the West Bank by my friend Haga Omm Mohammed who lived at Kom Lolla, near the temple of Medinet Habu. She had a gift for me. I was greeted with the usual smiles of welcome and invited to stay for lunch [...]
Posted in 1997, Egypt, Travel, tagged Hurghada, Red Sea on September 29, 2007 | No Comments »
An Australian couple from our hotel were going to Hurghada so we arranged that I would share a taxi with them for the journey. Apparently the road was still intact after yesterday’s rain, which sometimes can make it impassable, so we left Luxor with a long line of other taxis and coaches on the 5.30am convoy. [...]
Posted in 1997, Archaeology, Egypt, Luxor, Travel, tagged Luxor West Bank, tombs on September 27, 2007 | No Comments »
Because of the feeling of tension in Luxor at the moment, I wanted to take a break and decided I would like to go to Hurghada on the Red Sea coast for a day or two. The idea was that my friends and I would take a bus from Luxor, but everyone said it was [...]
Posted in 1997, Archaeology, Egypt, Luxor, Travel, tagged Luxor West Bank, Medinet Habu Temple on September 26, 2007 | No Comments »
On Sunday my two friends and I spent a whole day at Medinet Habu Temple - my favourite West Bank site which was so often overlooked by tourists in favour of the Ramesseum or Deir el-Bahri. Many tour groups spend only a morning on the West Bank. Time is necessarily limited on these tours and [...]
Posted in 1997, Egypt, Luxor, Travel on September 25, 2007 | No Comments »
Luxor was changing. Since I arrived, I’d noticed a difference in the town. It was the 75th anniversary of the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb and there were many events scheduled to commemorate it. The most prominent event was the performance of Verdi’s opera Aida against the stunning backdrop of the Deir el-Bahri Temple of Hatshepsut, [...]
Posted in 1997, Archaeology, Egypt, Luxor, Travel, tagged eating, Luxor West Bank, tombs on September 25, 2007 | No Comments »
Another day on the West Bank. Three months ago I visited the tomb of Kheruef at Asasif and having read more about the mass of information contained in the beautiful reliefs there, I wanted to see it again. Kheruef, among other things, was a steward of Queen Tiye, the wife of Amenhotep III. At the [...]
Posted in 1997, Archaeology, Egypt, Luxor, Travel, tagged donkey ride, Luxor West Bank, Ptah & Meretseger on September 25, 2007 | No Comments »
I was reading the book ‘A Thousand Miles up the Nile’. The author, Amelia Edwards, travelled to Egypt in 1870 and sailed in a dahabeya from Cairo to Abu Simbel, visiting the ruins on the banks of the Nile by donkey. Her book, published in 1876, immediately became a best-seller, a travelogue full of her [...]
Posted in 1997, Egypt, Local Customs, Luxor, tagged , Luxor West Bank on September 23, 2007 | No Comments »
Haga’s other name is Omm Mohammed. Haga (or Haja) is a honorary female title given to those who have done Haj, the sacred journey to Mecca. Omm is the name given to a mother and Mohammed was her son, the first of twenty children she was to bear in a life of hardship and poverty in the [...]
Posted in 1997, Archaeology, Egypt, Luxor, Travel, tagged Carter's House, Luxor West Bank, Qasr el-Aguz on September 23, 2007 | No Comments »
My two friends and I walked out of our hotel in the early morning and who should we bump into but Ali, our friendly taxi driver from our last trip, standing by the door of his cab in front of the hotel, looking stately in his long white galabeya with his gold teeth glittering in [...]
Posted in 1997, Egypt, Luxor, Travel on September 16, 2007 | No Comments »
Another long and tiring journey to Egypt and less than three months since I was last here. I just couldn’t stay away. It was early October 1997 and I had come to Luxor again with two of my regular travelling companions, Robin and Lucy. We landed at Luxor airport at 4.30pm and after negotiating the [...]
Posted in 1997, Archaeology, Egypt, Luxor, Travel on September 14, 2007 | No Comments »
Once more it was almost time to say goodbye to Luxor. Our flight was leaving late in the evening so we wanted to make the most of our last day. Robin and I had become rather attached to the West Bank of Luxor, not only for its monuments but for its peaceful tranquillity and friendly [...]
Posted in 1997, Egypt, Local Customs, Luxor, Travel on September 13, 2007 | No Comments »
On this trip we all seem to have made so many friends and met lots of new people. Egyptians are always so generous, they insist on you eating at their houses and meeting their extended families. It was difficult to keep refusing and making excuses, which seemed rude, so today Robin and I went over to [...]
Su's detailed descriptions and photographs of Egyptian Monuments
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