Egypt - Luxor to Safaga on the Red Sea

Our Explore! team in Egypt. Photo supplied by our tour leader, Wael. LtoR we have: Beverley, Chris, Sarah (behind), Melanie, Steve (behind), Brian, Jackie, Gavin (behind), Christine (Tina), Paul (behind), Eunice, Jen and Wael holding the Explore notice

This is our third and final blog post in Egypt as, tomorrow, we fly to Jordan. To see the earlier two entries either scroll down or click these links:

Cairo to Aswan: https://brianandjackiecross.blogspot.com/2022/03/egypt-cairo-to-aswan.html

Aswan to Luxor: https://brianandjackiecross.blogspot.com/2022/04/egypt-aswan-to-luxor.html

Jen and Paul on our calabash ride to Karnak temple

At the end of the last post, I said the aircon only worked when you were in the room, and that is sort of true. The keycard had to be in the slot (and the patio door closed) for the aircon to wheeze and puff but not actually chill the air! Two fairly uncomfortable nights followed!

Our last full day all together, yet another early start, with a disappointing breakfast, another horse drawn calabash ride to Karnak temple, interesting as it was just stopped when the King died, so the mud bricks, for building the entry gate were still in position. Getting a bit templed our by this stage, but only Medinet Habu temple to go, where the carvings on the cartouches were ridiculously deep, to prevent a new king from coming in and replacing an old kings name with his own. (They were all kings by the way, not Pharaohs, the only pharaoh was Ramesses II, who proclaimed himself a god).

Early morning (just past 6:00am) at Karnak Temple before the crowds and this is the unfinished entrance, all work stopped when the king died

Etch our history guide, knowledgeable, enthusiastic and friendly

Our final stop was at the tombs of the workers who worked in the Valley of the Kings (Dier el-Medina). They were never allowed to leave, so they couldn’t tell anyone where the kings tombs were. They were also well paid, so rich as they couldn’t spend any money. So on their days off, what was there to do but dig, and decorate, their own tombs. Did make them worth looking at, but you’ve got to wonder what the point was really!

These columns are so big, as Chris demonstrates. How did they build them?

Our final large group dinner was across the Nile, so back on another little boat, which is always good, though sadly the meal wasn’t as good, or as fast as the one the previous day! With that we began our farewells, only Gavin, Eunice, Steve, Brian and I were continuing on the Red Sea extension, though Chris, Melanie and Sarah, whose original booking hadn’t been with Explore hadn’t known there was a Red Sea extension, so had booked their own. We had an 08.00 private bus, they had a 17.00 public bus and everyone else had an early start to the airport. Our driver drove, and overtook like a nutter shaving an hour off our expected 4 1/2 hour journey! We arrived intact though to the Lotus Bay resort, which really is very pleasant, though I do feel we are in the old and dowdy rooms, keys, old tube TV and no safe. Good working aircon (though we are on our second room as the aircon in the first, was very efficient, but periodically very noisy) and lovely balconies. The newer rooms are probably all for the German and Russian all inclusive guests! Wael had strongly advised that we should go half board as it’s Ramadan and the limited local options are even more limited. Very glad we did, though staying on resort does feel wrong to us. The food is good, plentiful and cheap and I have a breakfast man and a dinner man. The dinner man is the pudding man and just wants to talk to me. “Where do you go after dinner? I couldn’t find you.” “Bed with my husband” hasn’t put him off! Breakfast man however is a star, I had pancakes on the first morning, one with chocolate, which seems to be the norm, and one with honey. Yesterday there were two pancakes on a plate when I walked up, one with chocolate, and one just waiting for honey as I approached, and today there was a bit of a queue, Brian said he’d just ordered some, as mine were just handed to me! That really is service!

A clue is here. This is the back of the unfinished entrance where all work stopped when the king died. The darker brown are mud bricks and formed a temporary structure, like scaffolding, that they believe allowed the workers to get higher up and drag the huge blocks up ramps. The blocks here are rough and not flat, so they built it first, then smoothed the face, finally carving the figures and shapes

Wael had booked us a snorkelling trip for our first day, and even arranged for Chris, Mel and Sarah to come the 20 minutes from their resort to join us. Six hours on the boat, three snorkels, lunch, a trip to an island that was little more than a sand bar and a banana boat trip was all very good value, and we had a lovely day. The coral is not stunning but there were lots of pretty fish, wrasse, my favourites and a couple of puffer fish are probably all I can identify, along with clams with gaping blue shells. No photos obviously. More farewells, this would be the last time we would see Mel, Chris and Sarah, the group is getting smaller.

But here's another mystery, see that obelisk in the distance? It was one of two erected for Queen Hatshepsut (the other was destroyed by a later king and is in the foreground). They were both nearly 30m tall, the highest obelisks ever constructed at the time and made of granite. Estimated weight around 320 tonnes. Three questions: how did they get it here? How did they get it  upright? And how did they get their engineering so good that it's still perfectly upright 3500 years later. It isn't part buried in the ground, it is balanced upright on another granite slab, no fixings, just standing upright. Despite earthquakes it still stands. 

We had fun with Eunice, Steve and Gavin though, doing no more than lounging, eating and chatting. It was sad to see them all go yesterday, E&S to Stamford, and Gavin back to Tanzania. We’ve had another day by the pool and were going to do blogs and emails today, only our local SIM has run out, not the 11G we were expecting then! We’ve just spent 50 Egyptian pounds (about £2) which may or may not have got us 7Gbytes, which may have “doubled up” to 14, so there may, or may not be a posting of this blog! Tomorrow we fly to Amman, Jordan, via Cairo, to start our next trip. Looking forward to seeing Jan and Paul and meeting a whole new set of people.

There's the base of the obelisk, flat and balanced on another granite block. No subsidence, no movement, there it stands 3500 years later, perfectly upright. Could we do that today?

All in all I think we’ve enjoyed our trip, people we have actually dealt with have all been lovely, but the constant ‘invitations’ into shops, ‘just to look’, and the constant wanting of tips have got very wearing. All tipping was done by Wael when we were with him, including him giving us small notes to tip the calabash drivers directly as there would be no peace otherwise. Wael was an absolute star, he was very caring, efficient and on our wavelength, and we could have a laugh and a joke which is always good. What we’ve seen has been amazing, though I think we’ve both got a little templed and tombed out. We have however felt a little isolated, we’ve been to lots of places, with lots of tourists, including the bazaars, which certainly weren’t local markets. The need for an armed policeman to accompany us everywhere in Cairo, and the need for sites to know we were expected and hotels to know we had left, just to ‘keep us safe’, apparently, has not left us feeling we would like to come back on our own. It has also been excessively, and unusually hot, we have hit 40degrees, which is too much for us! The forecast for Amman is showing single figures overnight, which is quite surprising, but will be a joy if it happens, though I have asked Jan to bring me a pair of trousers out as even in Cairo I didn’t have the right combination of things to wear to look presentable in an evening!

Look at the colours on the ceiling, blue showed wealth as it was difficult to make. They used ground up Lapis Lazuli. Do we have paints that would last 3500 years now?

However, the temple is showing it's age. If you think this is bad, have a look at the photo below...

This is how it looked in 1954 before rebuilding work. Apparently no new stones are used, they faithfully rebuild using the original stones in the order they believe to be correct, holding them together with cement and showing any areas missing with plain, unadorned cement. No decorations or carvings are made. And who are 'they'? It isn't the Egyptian government or anyone in Egypt. Various monuments are repaired and rebuilt by foreign universities. Karnak is being done by the French, but others are by the USA, Germany, UK, anyone but Egyptian, much to the disappointment of Etch, our Egyptian historian. They are not allowed any input, total control is held by the foreign institutions and it is they that rebuild as they believe and write the history and information. If these institutions were to pull out work would stop, there is no money in Egypt to fund this work, but one wonders why they can't at least involve people like Etch, or other natives of Egypt to take part in discoveries of their own history. It seems a little sad, but on the other side, Egypt gain hugely from tourism and entry fees once they are done 

Intermediate visit on the way, these huge carvings are of Amenhetep III & Colossi of Memnon. These are by the side of the road, free entry!

On to Medinet Habu temple led by our ever enthusiastic Etch

Here he is in full voice telling us about the ultra deep carvings of the cartouche containing the name of the king - so deep it defies any subsequent king to erase the name and replace it with their own. I just love his enthusiasm, what an interesting guy to talk to

Oooh, they are deep aren't they!

On to the workers tombs next to the valley of the kings and Etch is off again. The sun's also getting higher now and it hot - really hot!

Here we go down the first one. Not as grand as the kings tombs but still quite deep

Inside the tomb there are no carvings, only paintings, but they are very vivid colours after all this time

And so to our last evening together and Wael took us across the Nile to a restaurant. No identification needed now, you know everyone. Wael took the photo

And then he went to the back to puff away at a shisha whilst making phone calls

Lovely view from our table across the Nile

After the parting of our ways we arrived at the Lotus Bay Resort in Safaga on the Red Sea for some R&R. This is our view from our balcony. There's the pool down there and, beyond our private beach and the Red Sea. That'll do! Safaga is a tiny resort of a few hotels and shops situated as it is in the desert. All around are brown mountains and sand, yet here there is lawn and people cutting the grass here. Notices tell us the grass is watered using recycled water, but from where? Maybe there are desalination plants nearby, it's 4 hours drive to the Nile 

We had one more day with a depleted team, out on a boat on the Red Sea snorkelling with Steve, Gavin, Jackie, Sarah, Chris, Melanie and Eunice

A pleasant day was had by all, three snorkels on coral reefs and a visit to a small island

The day our team reduced still further to just Jackie and me. After this photo Eunice and Steve left for the UK and Gavin for his home in Tanzania

One more photo as I thought this was interesting. This is Luxor temple, right in the middle of the town and a short walk from our hotel. We walked past it quite a few times, but never visited (mainly because you could see most of it from the road). Melaine took this photo for me as I couldn't be bothered to walk down there again in the heat of the day (41 C). It shows an obelisk to the left of the entrance, but there used to be two, one either side. Where is the other one? We can tell you the answer: it is now in the Place de la Concorde in Paris. It was an exchange made some years ago and the French gave Egypt in return a small clock tower that now stands by the Muhammad Ali mosque in Cairo. The clock doesn't work and the whole thing looks a bit tacky (I didn't even bother taking a photo of it at the time)