November 10 - Another day in Luxor

Colossus of Memnon and Medinet Habu

Yesterday afternoon I roamed around some of the near by monuments, starting with the Collossus of Memnon.   It has nothing to do with Memnon, actually.  The statues are of Amenhotep III, the father of Akhenaten.  These two great figures were originally at he entrance to his mortuary temple, which is set out for a huge distance behind the huge pair.

These statues were already over a thousand years old when Cleopatra brought Marc Antony to see them.

This pair of statues, still under restoration, rival the Colossus in size.  There is still a lot of work to do on them, but they are restored enough to get a good idea of what they must have looked like.

Many of the sculptures now visible in the restored Amenhotep temple have just emerged from centuries burial.  The progress made by the restoration archeologists in the four years since I was last here is quite remarkable.  They have found more great stuff here than anyone quessed had survived in this location, and are doing a wonderful job getting them back into their original positions.

This head of Amenhotep is quite striking.  It seems to me it bears a strong resemblance to his son Akhenaten.

There was still plenty of time left in the afternoon, so  I spent some time in the beautiful temple of Medinat Habu - this was the mortuary temple of Ramses III, and one of the most beautiful and well-preserved of the West Bank monuments.  One of the best things about this temple for me is that there are a number of sheltered areas where the original paintwork is visible.  It helps to get a sense of what these temples would have looked like originally when they were a blaze of colour.

Medinet Habu as seen from the cafe across the road.  It really is in very good condition

These colours are quite well preserved, though the pigeons roosting up there can't be doing things any good.

This is the ceiling of a short passage between two big open courtyards.

Once upon a time, all these pillars would have been brilliantly coloured.  They really must have been an amazing sight.

That seemed like quite enough for one day, so back to the hotel to laze in the garden and check my emails.  Nothing of any great import until I come to an email for EgyptAir.  A notification of a change in the time of my morning flight to Abu Simbel on November 19.  Not a problem.  Then I notice a little added cooment tossed in almist like an afterthought:  Your return flight on November 21 is cancelled.  Just flat out cancelled, no alternate flght available,  just stranded high and dry in Abu Simbel.

Momentary panic, thenI remembered my friend Waleed of Aswan Individual Travel in Aswan, who had arranged various trips for me during my last trip, and who has arranged my ride from Luxor to Aswan this trip.  A quick email to Waleed, and all is sorted.  He is sending a car for me to join the morning police convoy back to Aswan on the 21st, which will get me there in plenty of time for my overnight train back to Cairo.  I suspect it is this kind of problem, more than terrorism, that is causing, and will continue to cause tourists to think twice about visiting Egypt.

Valley of the Kings

Went to the Valley of the Kings this morning - not much by way of pictures for this as photography is not allowed in the Valley.  It is silly, really.  No photography in the tombs is understandable - flashes are bad for the painted walls, and photographers can hold up progress when the tombs are busy.  However, outside is another story, it is just petty beaurocracy gone mad to prevent people from taking pictures there.  So I took some anyway.

The harshness and desolation of these mountains is hard to convey, even in a photograph.  One thing I noticed is that may of the hilltops have a pyramid form, and I wonder if that is what first gave the Pharoahs the idea of puting their tombs there.

My timing was good, several tombs that have been closed for years have just been re-opened, and are really  worth seeing.  One is the tomb of Queen Tausret - like Hatshepsut, she was Pharoah in her own right, another is the tomb of Horemheb, who ruled shortly after the death of King Tut.

Horemheb's tomb is very beautiful, very imposing, and very deep underground.  Climbing  back up the endless stairs and ramps was hard work.  However, as I emerged, I passed a group of Americans who had given up as soon as they saw how many steps there were.  Far too hard, they said, too bad they hadn't done this 20 years ago.  So I am feeling just a litle smug, as they were all considerably younger than I am.