Master of All The Lands

Journal: Tuesday 3 October 2000
Since the first time I visited Luxor I have had a special affinity with the Temple of Rameses III at Medinet Habu. Usually one of my first ports of call when I’m here, it is my favourite temple in the whole of Egypt and I’ve seen quite a few. Yesterday I [...]

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A Day at the Monuments

Journal: Monday 2 October 2000
Feeling well-rested (after another night with my nice new soft pillow) I woke early this morning and looked out of my bedroom window over the green cultivated fields of the West Bank, towards the river. It was a beautiful morning, still cool and with clear skies of the sort of palest [...]

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Morning in the King’s Valley

Journal: Sunday 1 October 2000
Luck was with us this morning when we left our apartment and immediately an empty service taxi stopped to ask if we wanted to go somewhere. We had planned to visit the Valley of the Kings, but hadn’t decided how to get there as ordinary arabeyas don’t travel that route, so [...]

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A Walk in the Mountains

Journal: Saturday 30 September 2000
Jenny and I had intended to get up early this morning, but we must have still been ‘train-lagged’ as it was 9.00am before we left the apartment and the temperature by then was rising rapidly. Even so, we decided to walk along the road to Deir el-Bahri and turn off up [...]

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Cairo to Luxor Night Train

Journal: Friday 29 September 2000
We took our seats on the Aswan train leaving Cairo at 12.30am. We had bought first class tickets which cost an incredible LE60 (LE40 for me with my International Student Card discount). That’s only about £6.00 in English for a ten hour journey of 660km! The spotlessly clean carriage was occupied [...]

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Surrender

Journal: Thursday 28 September 2000
Sitting quietly in the rooftop restaurant of the Ciao Hotel at breakfast this morning, by an open window enjoying the relatively clean air, high enough up for the petrol fumes not to reach us, Jenny and I were in a subdued mood. I knew that she was feeling the same about [...]

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And Then… A Scam at Giza

Journal: Wednesday 27 September 2000
I am not a city person and neither is Jenny. We’re both sick of the hassle of taxis and just beginning to regret staying in a cheap hotel on the wrong edge of Cairo, so we decided to walk towards the Egyptian Museum where it should be easier to find a [...]

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Saqqara…. Eventually

Journal: Tuesday 26 September 2000
Early this morning Jenny and I were waiting outside the hotel for the taxi that we had arranged for a trip to Saqqara. We had asked the driver if he could take us first to Abbassiya so that I could get my antiquities pass and then on to Saqqara afterwards. Yesterday [...]

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Frustrating Cairo

Journal: Monday 25 September 2000
Even though we had such a late night, I saw the sun rise this morning from the tiny balcony of our hotel room. I hadn’t slept for long, being unused to the noise of a vast city in the early morning and the shunting and forlorn hooting of trains in the [...]

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A Second Chance for Cairo

Journal: Sunday 24 September 2000
September. Jenny and I are once more in Egypt, this time flying into Cairo airport instead of Luxor, my usual destination. On my first visit to Cairo in 1995 I had hated the bustling monster of Cairo city with its teeming population and ochre-coloured smog hanging over the buildings. It took [...]

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Another Delayed Flight

Journal: Monday 20 March 2000
An early start to the day for our flight home to England. We had booked a taxi for 6.30am but when we arrived downstairs for breakfast we were told that someone had thoughtfully left a message to say our flight was delayed by two hours. So it became a leisurely breakfast [...]

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Chapels of the God’s Wives

Journal: Sunday 19 March 2000
This is our last day in Luxor and at breakfast this morning we couldn’t decide how to spend the day. We’ve had quite a busy couple of weeks, but the last few days with both of us having colds, have been tiring. Eventually we opted to take a felucca trip this [...]

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Excavations in the King’s Valley

Journal: Saturday 18 March 2000
Yesterday on the West Bank I saw my friend Nubi, who has been working in Giza for Dr Mark Lehner. He has returned home, like many other Luxor-born people, to celebrate the feast of Eid el-Adha with his family at Kom Lolla. Nubi, who often works in the Valley of the [...]

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Peshedu in the Workmen’s Village

Journal: Friday 17 March 2000
It is the second day of the feast and seems to be just as busy in Luxor today as it was yesterday, so to escape the crowds, Jenny and I went over to the West Bank. Near the ticket office, as we were trying to make our minds up about where [...]

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The Feast of Eid el-Adha

Journal: Thursday 16 March 2000
I had forgotten that today was the beginning of the three-day Muslim feast of Eid el-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice that commemorates the prophet Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac to God and the conclusion of the pilgrimage to Mecca for those lucky or devout enough to go on Haj. [...]

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