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)

Egypt - Aswan to Luxor

A fisherman on the Nile

The boat was lovely, and we were there for three nights which was even better. Wael did really well, somehow managing to get us early breakfast and dinner, avoiding the crowds and enabling early starts and early beds. At the end of our first dinner, with huge fanfare, a procession and cake, where is it going? Eunice? How could you not have said anything? She paid for that with dancing!

We were out by 06.00 for our visit to the Philae temple, another that had been moved, onto a little island. We were first there which made for some great photos and gave me chance to see lots of cats, including two of the cutest kittens. We really appreciated how worthwhile it was when we came to leave and had to elbow our way out. The initial atmosphere had been a joy. 

Eunice 'enjoying' her surprise birthday dance in the dining room on the Nile cruise

Arriving by motor boat at the Philae Temple

The unfinished obelisk was a visit to a quarry where they had been working very hard on cutting out a 42m obelisk which would have been the tallest in history, it was for Karnak temple, by Queen Hatshepsut, 1478BC, but sadly someone had hammered a wedge in the wrong direction, and cracked it. Quite anorak, but quite interesting. The optional felucca tour followed, a couple of hours on the Nile in a little sailing craft, just chatting and chilling as well as being serenaded by both our captain and crew, and random small boys who would paddle out on surf boards to sing for money. The songs were all the same, approximations of ‘She’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes’, and ‘Allouette’. Most bizarre .

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Philae Temple on an island between the lower (British) dam and the newer high dam. It was constructed between 380-362BC on a nearby island and was subject to regular flooding after the British built the first dam to stop flooding downriver. The dam has been increased in height twice, resulting in the temple being partially submerged which was gradually dissolving the sandstone from which it is made. On the far tower you might be able to make out a dark line, about level with the top of the doorway. That was the water level. UNESCO helped move the whole temple to a higher island about 50m away by building a dam all round it, draining the water and moving it piece by piece to this site. It's a very peaceful and beautiful setting and we could have stayed here much longer had time allowed

Jackie was very happy as there are a huge number of cats there

Beautiful carvings in the Philae temple. I'm no expert, but I think the central figure is the goddess Isis

Chilling out in fabulous surroundings at Philae temple

The unfinished Obelisk at Qism Aswan. There must have been a huge amount of work to get it to that stage only for it to be abandoned. Had it been finished all the rock to the left of it's base would have had to be removed so it could be slid out and away to the Nile for transportation. It's very hard granite rock and was cut by chipping slots using a harder stone then filling with wet wood which expanded and cracked the granite

Felucca sailing on the Nile, a traditional boat in this area

So this is us on our felucca sailing boat. Meet our team, LtoR: Chris, Sarah, Melanie, Eunice, Wael our leader, Christine and Jackie just in view behind the white robed helper, Beverley, Gavin and Steve. Jen was not in shot out to the left

We had a brief stop during our sailing on a little island and saw this bird, which we are pretty confident is a Hoopoe bird (Helen will confirm or correct!) - Helen has confirmed!

You may struggle to see this Pied Kingfisher hovering above the water looking for it's dinner, but it is there, just right of centre and quite different from the vivid blue variety we see in the UK

But what about this one Helen? It's the best shot I got, it moved just as I pressed the shutter. Helen says it's a Yellow Wagtail

The Kom Ombe temple which we saw at dusk

Back to the boat for buffet lunch and, finally, cruising. Lots of shade on the deck and breeze, it was lovely. ‘Teatime’ at 17.00 just before arriving at another temple, Kom ombo temple. We were first off the boat, but sadly not the first boat there. It was busy, we had a sheet with a list of the highlights so we saw all them before making our way out through the mummified crocodile museum. Had to be back by 19.30, not only was that when our early dinner was, it was also departure time for the boat. A really lovely day, full on, but with chance to breathe too.

It's a temple dedicated to to Ancient Egyptian gods, Horus and Sobek and here they are. Horus, with his falcon head is on the left and Sobek with his crocodile head is on the right. The Nile used to have hundreds of crocodiles swimming is this area (no confined to the Nile above the high dam), they were impressed with it's strength so dedicated a god to them

The crocodile was so revered they used to mummify them and here's a collection 

On our calabash ride to the Edfu temple

So, 05.30 start, quick coffee, first off the boat, and first into the two person horse drawn calabash’s. We didn’t like these very much, but there is no option, the drivers have a monopoly so if you want to go to Edfu temple, you have to pay the £50 per person fee. Wouldn’t mind so much except that the horses all looked very scrawny and in need of some care. We were first in the queue, but sadly the man with the key was having a lie in, or something. By the time the doors opened half an hour later the queue was humongous and there was no way the boat was going to be able to sail at 07.30. Interesting enough, on first glance, as we ran through, ahead of the crowds, even disturbing the last few bats that hadn’t quite gone to bed. Back for breakfast and departure and virtually the whole day to relax, Joy. We passed through Esna lock, just before lunch, which really highlighted how fast we must have been going, because when we stopped, phew was it hot, somewhere over 35 degrees. Lunch, teatime and docking in Luxor about 16.45. Wael took us all off to stretch our legs, get our bearings and meet Aladdin, the mad Egyptian carpet seller!

Edfu temple, early morning and we were first in again. This temple was not only completely buried in sand, but a whole village had been built on top of it. If was discovered by accident, and what a temple it is. I like this one, it's dedicated to falcon headed Horus and his battle with Seth and I have to tell you the legend: Osiris was murdered by his brother Seth, who cut up his body, spread it over Egypt and fed is penis to a crocodile. Osiris' wife Isis searched for his body, collected all the parts, including the penis from the crocodiles stomach, put them back together and resurrected him as a mummy just long enough to conceive Horus. When Horus grew up he searched out Seth to take his revenge and a battle is said to have taken place on this spot. During the battle Horus lost an eye which was later reconnected with a divine spirit. This is where the talisman the Eye of Horus originated and is subsequently used to ward off evil spirits

Last night on the boat, sadly, it was a very pleasant experience, even Christine enjoyed it despite the ceiling falling on her in one of the toilets!

And here is the carving that shows that battle, unfortunately defaced. Isis is on the right with her hand raised, Horus is on the left killing a Hippo with a spear, the Hippo representing Seth

The Valley of the Kings an absolute highlight of the trip

04.30 alarm call, bags outside at 05.00 and half an hour for breakfast on the first day of Ramadan. This is getting to be a thing. We were the first ones into the valley of the Kings, the home of 62 tombs, of which they open 7 in rotation. Our guide selected the best three and we were the first in all of them. Fabulous examples of carvings and painting. It was the atmosphere though of being there, alone, that was amazing. The tombs themselves were incredibly warm, to come out to the fresh air, and for it to be cool was quite surprising, can’t imagine what it would be like to share the confined spaces and to come out to the heat of the day.

Hatshepsut’s mummification temple was last on the list. She was the only queen to rule Egypt, somehow she’d managed this as by sending her 9 year old son off to war, expecting him to get killed. He didn’t and eventually came back to take his rightful place, 18 years later. In theory this afternoon is free time for us to explore, but it’s ridiculously hot and the aircon only works when you are in the room! That’s our excuse anyway.

One of the main reasons for wanting to come to Egypt was to see the Valley of the Kings and we were not disappointed - it was amazing and magical. Apparently by about 1500BC the Pharohs had abandoned pyramid building as they were being raided due to the visibility of them. They found this old dry limestone river valley well away from the Nile and had their tombs dug into the limestone out of sight of anyone. They believed their mummied remains, if left untouched would allow them to be reincarnated so his them deep down. There have been 62 tombs found so far, and they open 7 on rotation to stop them from deteriorating too much. We were allowed to visit three and our guide selected three from the seven open which he thought were the best. Here we are just entering the tomb of Merenptah, son of Rameses  

Heading down the slope towards the burial chamber. Remember, this isn't a museum, this was formed 3500 years ago and a dead king was lowered down here by the Ancient Egyptians

The coffin in the burial chamber

The sarcophagus and burial chamber

Some of the wall paintings. The colours are vibrant after all this time

Isis and Horus

This is the tomb of Tutankhamun. We didn't go in here as we were told there's nothing much to see. It's very small with little decoration and all the fabulous gold and decorations are now in Cairo museum. He was 19 when he died, having become king at 9, so his life was very short and little time to make a big tomb. It was here that Howard Carter's horse broke through accidentally in 1922 revealing the entrance

This was our second tomb, Rameses III

Amazing colours that have survived so well

We were just amazed at the depictions here  showing the sarcophagus being lowered and at the bottom the ship that they believed carried the spirit to the afterlife

Amazing wall paintings

Here's a plan of the burial tomb

This was our third one, Rameses I. Very steep this one

Heading down the steep last section towards the sarcophagus at the bottom. This tomb has been closed for the last five years and only reopened recently, so the colours of the painting were fabulously vibrant

Just look how clear they are, just amazing

There was so much of this, it's just magnificent and has been like it for over 3000 years. What a privilege to see it 

What a truly incredible visit, it really lived up to our expectations. As usual, photos don't do it justice, you really have to be there and feel the history and atmosphere

This is Hatshepsut's mausoleum just along from the valley of the kings. Another amazing story of how a woman became king when only men were allowed to. The story was told expertly by our guide, I'm not going to retell it here, but it's worth reading

More beautiful paintings. This was in an area that was roped off but a couple of guards indicated that I could go beyond and take a photo. Wael, our leader had told us about this, "remember, nothing is free" he had told us, they will expect a tip. I stood there thinking, should I go through? I looked at Gavin next to me who said, "remember, nothing is for free" I've got a 20 Egyptian Pound note in my pocket (£1), I'm going, sure enough, I got hassled for a tip, but paid up. This is the photo

So we've had a truly great day today, it has really made our trip. Last early start in Egypt for us tomorrow, 04:45am wake up call to see the Karnak temple, so I'm now going to crash in that bed. Night, night

Before I go, while I was taking serious photos, Jackie was taking photos of cats - lots of them, so here's a couple