Posted in 1999, Egypt, Luxor, Travel on April 20, 2008 | No Comments »
Journal: Wednesday 27 October 1999
The century is coming to an end and so is my visit to Egypt. As I often do on my last day, I got up early to watch the sunrise. Sitting out on the balcony in the mild morning air, I couldn’t see the sun but its effect on the Theban [...]
Posted in 1999, Archaeology, Egypt, Luxor, Travel, tagged Luxor West Bank, Medinet Habu, Min, Sokar, Temples on April 20, 2008 | No Comments »
Journal: Tuesday 26 October 1999
On our last full day in Egypt, we again returned to my favourite temple, the mortuary temple of Rameses III at Medinet Habu on the West Bank. We made the familiar journey over the river on the tireless workhorse that is the passenger ferry, with its battered decks strewn with any [...]
Posted in 1999, Egypt, Local Customs, Luxor, Travel, tagged Luxor, Shopping on April 15, 2008 | No Comments »
Journal: Monday 25 October 1999
This morning Jenny and I walked along the Luxor Corniche to the Mummification Museum, a relatively new museum that I hadn’t visited before. It is housed by the river in a very modern building which is entered down steps to river level. Unfortunately when we got there it was closed and [...]
Posted in 1999, Archaeology, Egypt, Luxor, Travel, tagged Temples on April 12, 2008 | No Comments »
Journal: Sunday 24 October 1999
Yesterday Jenny and I spent the day with friends. We took a bus to el-Arabet and visited my friend David in his house there, spending a lovely morning with him drinking his coffee while he read us some of his fabulous short stories about life in an Egyptian village. Later back [...]
Posted in 1999, Archaeology, Aswan, Egypt, Travel, tagged Isis, Philae, Temple on April 8, 2008 | No Comments »
Journal: Friday 22 October 1999
The 7.00am bus to Aswan was a big mistake. Jenny and I had shunned the air-conditioned ‘Superjet’ as being too touristy and instead, bought tickets on the less expensive but slower ‘Kul‘, or local bus. The tickets cost us LE6 (60p) return for a journey lasting about three hours. Taking our [...]
Posted in 1999, Archaeology, Egypt, Luxor, Travel, tagged Luxor West Bank, Rameses II, Temples on April 5, 2008 | No Comments »
Journal: Thursday 21 October 1999
Last night Jenny and I had been invited to dinner at the home of Jennifer, who lives on the West Bank. We had a lovely evening with good food and good conversation and lots of music and laughter. At some point we got onto the subject of camels and how much [...]
Posted in 1999, Egypt, Luxor, Mythology, tagged Amenhotep III, Egyptian gods, Re, Sekhmet on April 1, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Journal: Wednesday 20 October 1999
I don’t know what it is that attracts me to the goddess Sekhmet. When all is said and done she is a nasty piece of work, the instrument of vengeance used against mankind by the sun god Re. I was thinking about Sekhmet today when Jenny and I visited the destroyed [...]
Posted in 1999, Archaeology, Egypt, Luxor, Travel, tagged Luxor West Bank, tombs on March 30, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Journal: Tuesday 19 October 1999
Jenny and I crossed the river again this morning, taking an arabeya and stopping at the taftsh to buy tickets to Deir el-Bahri temple. Whoopee! I discovered that the tombs of Roy and Shuroy at Dra Abu’l Naga were now open at last and so this was where we headed first. [...]
Posted in 1999, Archaeology, Egypt, Luxor, Travel, tagged King's Valley, Luxor West Bank, tombs on March 27, 2008 | No Comments »
Journal: Monday 18 October 1999
In Arabic, the Valley of the Kings is called Biban el-Maluk and means the ‘Gate of Kings’. The ancient Egyptians referred to it as ‘The Great Field’ and ‘the Beautiful Ladder of the West’. Such evocative names for this, the last resting place of many New Kingdom pharaohs, whose tombs are [...]
Posted in 1999, Archaeology, Egypt, Nile Cruise, Travel on March 24, 2008 | No Comments »
Journal: Sunday 17 October 1999
The ‘Lotus Boat’ was an ideal way to enjoy a short cruise on the Nile while visiting Dendera Temple at the same time, without the hassle of the convoy. We had an early start at 6.45am while the sun was still struggling to rise above the river mist. Everything was bathed in [...]
Posted in 1999, Archaeology, Egypt, Luxor, Travel, tagged Karnak, Luxor, Temple, Tuthmose III on March 19, 2008 | No Comments »
Journal: Saturday 16 October 1999
In my experience, the best time to visit Karnak Temple at its least crowded is in the afternoon, when the coaches have taken the weary tour groups away for lunch. By 12.00pm the temple becomes, if not deserted, then a little quieter than in the morning. Unfortunately this is the hottest [...]
Posted in 1999, Archaeology, Egypt, Luxor, Travel, tagged Deir el-Medina, Meretseger, Workmen's Village on March 16, 2008 | No Comments »
Journal: Friday 15 October 1999
Last night Jenny and I discussed what we would do today and decided that we would visit Deir el-Medina, so we were ready to go out early for another trip across the river on the passenger ferry. Once on the West Bank we caught an arabeya to the taftish and bought [...]
Posted in 1999, Egypt, Luxor, Travel, tagged Felucca, Sufi dancer on March 16, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Journal: Thursday 14 October 1999
It is always a joy on the first morning when I wake up in an Egyptian hotel room with the sun shining brightly through wide sheer curtains to step out onto the balcony and look out over the River Nile and the West Bank mountains. We had an early breakfast sitting in the [...]
Posted in 1999, Egypt, Luxor, Travel, tagged Luxor, Sonesta Hotel on March 14, 2008 | No Comments »
Journal: Wednesday 13 October 1999
Guess where I’ve come on my holiday. This time I am travelling with my friend Jenny and we booked a package holiday - something I haven’t done for a long time. We left England this morning flying from Gatwick in pre-booked seats by a window. Although the plane was very full [...]
Posted in 1999, Egypt, Travel on March 9, 2008 | No Comments »
Journal: Monday 5 April 1999
Ahmed came with his taxi early this morning to drive me along the quiet mist-covered West Bank roads to the airport. We crossed the bridge and drove through Luxor while I watched the town waking up and beginning a new day. A mile or two out of Luxor is the [...]
Su's detailed descriptions and photographs of Egyptian Monuments
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