Ancient Egyptian Civilization vs. Present Egyptian Subsistence Living

Our access to some of the most significant antiquities from the ancient Egyptian civilization was from the port of Safaga on the Red Sea.  

From our experience on this trip, we've seen a tendency of developing countries to have many layers of bureaucracy seemingly created to provide jobs for their growing population.  Within half a mile after starting from dockside, we had to climb back off the bus to go through the terminal for "screening".  Our guide told us we could leave our belongings on the bus. ???  In this predominantly (90%) Muslim country, we were divided into male and female lines to be screened. 

                                    Our excursion to the Temple Complex of Karnak and the Valley of the Kings was scheduled to be 13 hours long.  Our cruise director joked that she had tried unsuccessfully to get Viking to move the ancient Egyptian monuments closer to the ports.  Within minutes we had passed through Safaga heading inland through the eastern Egyptian desert.

This is not really a good representational photo of the desert--it's far too flat (see the mountains in the top photo) and far too green for what we saw.  These few green plants were seen only in the dry river beds, the rest of the flat land was totally barren.  Our guide told us that the government had recently built the new divided highway, so our first 106 miles to the city of Qena took place at a speedy average of 45 miles an hour.

The road was good and smooth, but every 5 miles or so, we had to slow down for these police checkpoints.  As you can see, they were fully manned and fully armed, but we couldn't see that they checked anything--which was a blessing, as if they had, our trip would have taken forever!

Our first indication that we were approaching a city were these row after row of government housing.  It's pretty obvious that no one is living in the buildings in the bottom photo, but even the new buildings in the top photo showed no evidence of occupation.  The rows were several layers deep, but I couldn't see any spaces available for services, like stores, schools, or gas stations.  

As we drove through Qena, we saw a mixture of occupied buildings with shops or businesses, interspersed with gutted or unfinished buildings.  Our guide told us that 40 years ago the government promoted a building boom, but didn't provide enough money to complete the buildings.  He said in some cases, the people are waiting for more money from the government.  He also said that many of these unfinished buildings in and around Cairo have been ordered to be demolished. 

 In reading about  it, David found information stating that an owner could avoid paying taxes if the property was unfinished, and thus the beginnings of one more story were evident, but there was no plan to complete it. 

After passing through Qena, we turned onto an older road that ran parallel to a canal that takes water from the Nile to be used as irrigation.  We passed miles of farm land that was divided into very small plots.  Our guide told us that the government gave 5 acre parcels to the peasants to farm.  On occasion, we saw a tractor or other means of mechanization, but more often, we saw a handful of people cutting grain by hand or otherwise tending their crops.   

Every 2-3 miles, the canal was crossed by a bridge and our travel was slowed down by speed bumps on either side.  At many of these crossings, we saw donkeys, with or without carts, doing the job of transporting the crops.

These bridge crossings seemed to create a gathering place for commerce or just hanging out with friends.  I didn't catch a photo of the many corners where one or more of the men had a gun strapped to his shoulder.  Our guide said the armed men were part of the Ministry of the Interior (police) and played a part in the security of the area.  He said that making Egypt appear more secure would allow tourists to feel safer, thus increasing their numbers.  As these men weren't in uniform, I questioned his explanation.  

Sugar cane is a major crop in this area.  We saw it loaded on trucks as in the photo above, or onto train cars as in the lower photo.

I would have lost track of the speed bumps if I had tried to count them, but finally, we reached Luxor which was originally known as the capital city of Thebes during the New Kingdom from 1570-1069 BC.  I was pleased that I managed to snap this photo from the moving bus showing the Avenue of the Rams or Avenue of the Sphinxes, discovered in 1949.  It is the 2,700 meter long and 76 meter wide avenue containing 1350 rams that formed a processional connecting the Luxor Temple with the Temple of Mut at Karnak.  The government is in the process of fully excavating this avenue, portions of which still lie beneath the modern city.

                                  This diorama inside the visitor's center gives an overview of the Karnak Temple complex.  

This is the first of five pylons (monumental temple gateways) built along an east-west axis.  

In front of the second pylon are two statues of Rameses II facing each other.

Between the second and third pylons is the famous Hypostyle Hall containing 134 columns.  The center hallway is lined by 21 meter tall columns, six on a side, each one followed on the perpendicular axis by seven 10 meter tall columns.  

This panorama shot is a little difficult to interpret, but I took it standing in one spot while turning 180 degrees.  

 The architraves sitting atop the columns weigh about 70 tons and were placed there using levers.  There is a surprising amount of color in the hieroglyphics on the underside, although it's not very visible in this backlit photo.












                               
The hieroglyphics and carvings are so magnificent!  However, there are places where the faces, feet and hands have been defaced, presumably by the early Christians who wanted to destroy all forms of idol worship, or so our guide said.














I think this photo  brings the enormity of the columns into perspective.



















       

Beyond the third pylon, on the right is the single remaining obelisk of a pair built by Tuthmose I.  On the left, beyond the fourth pylon, you can see the remaining complete obelisk of a pair built by Queen Hatshepsut.












The top of Queen Hatsheput's other now incomplete obelisk lies next to the sacred lake, behind the man in the foreground.  I realized his scheme too late.  I had seen him earlier posing for photos and my trusting mind didn't recognize what he was doing.  I was taking photos and he walked closer to me smiling his desire to be in my picture.  As soon as I took it, he rubbed his thumb and fingers together to indicate money.  I figured a dollar was a small price to pay for my naivety.

The souvenir vendors are particularly aggressive in these areas, displaying their wares and saying, "One dollah." Then it's "Two for one dollah." Once you succumb, the price goes up to $20 and it's easy to feel trapped.  David had to get a little aggressive with one who tried that on him, but we learned by that experience and did better from then on.

There was much more to the temple complex that we didn't see due to time constraints and the heat.  Once blessedly riding in the air-conditioned bus, just a 1.6 mile drive from Karnak, at the other end of the Avenue of Sphinxes, we passed the Temple of Luxor.  The Luxor Obelisk in Paris is the match to the one seen in the background at the left in the top photo.

Excavation of the site was begun in 1884 to remove the rubbish and debris that covered 3/4 of the columns and pylons.  The mosque of Sufi Shaykh Yusuf Abu al-Hajjaj, built over the ruins, was carefully preserved during the excavation which continued through 1960.  It is still a working mosque.  (Forgive the evidence of shooting through the window of a moving bus.)

Our guide explained that the monuments on the east side of the River Nile pertained to the living, so the Temples of Karnak and Luxor had to do with worship and the life of the pharaohs.  Mimicking the movement of the sun, the area west of the Nile was for the tombs of the dead.  

Thus we had to cross the river to reach the Valley of the Kings.

The longest river in the world, the River Nile has been the life-line of Egypt for millennia.

We entered through yet another visitor's center with another diorama of the valley which holds 62 identified tombs.  We were grateful for the little trams that transported us to the beginning of this famous cemetery.  We later learned that the temperature there was between 45-47 degrees C (113-116 degrees F).  

The entrance fee had been paid previously as part of our excursion, but if you wanted to take photos after passing through the gate to the tombs, an additional fee of $18 or 300 Egyptian Pounds was required.  Needless to say, I didn't have to think very hard to realize that it was a small price compared to what it took to get us here.  Consequently, I feverishly snapped pictures about every 15 seconds.  

Only 11 of the 62 tombs are open at present.  They rotate the ones that are open to keep down the degradation by the CO2 and dust caused by tourists.  The first tomb we visited was that of Rameses IV.  

Our guide was not allowed to come into the tomb with us and I would need his advanced degrees in Egyptology to understand the hieroglyphics and paintings, so I will just share and let them speak for themselves. 

Not even my photography ticket would allow me to take photos in King Tut's tomb, so this is what I have as my "I was here" evidence.  Inside the very small burial room we saw the guilded wooden sarcophagus   King Tut's mummy is also on display in a airless glass box. 

 In the 20 minutes remaining, two other tombs were open to us.  I stepped inside the tomb of Merenptah and took a couple of photos at the beginning of the descent to the burial area.















When I saw how far I would have to go, I decided it would be a better use of my time to visit a tomb that was more accessible.

These two collages are from the tomb of Ramses IX.  

Our last, very quick stop was to see the "Colossi Of Memnon" or two giant statues of Amenhotep III. They were placed adjacent to his memorial temple.  The sun was quite low in the sky, so the photos are badly backlit.  These 3,400 year old statues really show their age.  

Our trip home was a reversal of the speed-bumped drive of the morning.  We got back to the ship at 9:00 pm, tired, but feeling that whatever discomfort we had gone through was well worth the wonder of what we had seen.  I know that we literally just scratched the surface of the monuments in Egypt, especially in light of our guide's comment that 80% of the country's monuments have yet to be excavated.