February 24th - Cairo here we come!

We left the hotel at 6am for the 8.30am flight to Cairo. As we drove away from the hotel we could see there were hot air balloons taking off a few fields away. 

At that time of the morning the journey is quite quick. As we sped along the road towards the Luxor bridge, there were men at the roadside waiting to be picked up for work. They must have been cold, as they'd lit small fires to keep warm. 

Once we crossed the bridge and turned towards Luxor the sun began to appear over the top of a hill to the east. I couldn't believe how fast it came up!

When we got to the airport there was hardly anyone around. There was the usual security at the entrance and then again at the entrance to the departure lounge. The plane was on time, but only half full. 

We arrived at Cairo but had to wait to park, so we didn't get to meet our friend until 10am. He had a comfortable mini bus with a driver waiting for us. Once the luggage was stowed, off we went. Cairo wasn't as busy as I'd expected but we saw the usual mad driving, mainly undertaking. 

It took about 45minutes to get to the Mena House Hotel where we intended just dropping our luggage.  Just before we arrived we saw the new Grand Egyptian Museum, which is still under construction. There is no way that's going to be finished for years!  

It's just underneath the underpass above. 

The staff at the hotel said we could check in and just collect room keys when we returned. 

I had booked ordinary rooms, expecting to overlook the swimming pool. A manager got chatting to me as I was filling out the forms and paying in advance for the room. He asked if it was my first visit, it's my fourth, and so suddenly we were given yet another room upgrade! With a 'nice view' he said. 

We left everything and went out with our friend to the Giza plateau. 

This is a view toward the city with the Mena House golf course in the foreground. 

Although I've done this many times, it's a while since my companions have been there, so we did it all. We were also taken into some small tombs, which were very interesting and a great contrast to the massive monuments outside. 

It was very hot on the plateau due to the sun reflecting off the sand. Away from there was more pleasant. We hadn't been able to get breakfast, so we flagged sooner rather than later!

Something I hadn't seen before was King Farouk's Rest House, opposite Khufu.

 I don't know why I've not noticed it before. It's very big but abandoned and needs major restoration. I think it would make a great visitor centre. 

Just past this is the massive boat pit another one has been found recently. 

From here we went to visit Menkaure. The ARCE man yesterday had told us about the work he'd done there in the past. So we were keen to see it. I had taken photos of the pink Aswan granite lying around the base. Some of the stones had ridges in them that I couldn't understand. He explained that they were the grooves from ropes used to pull the granite up onto the face of the pyramid where it was then dressed in situ. 

By now we were really tired, so we finished our trip by visiting the Sphinx. I was amazed by how few people were about. Normally this area is packed, but there were not many people at all. 

This is an unusual angle to view it from. 

This is more usual. 

We got back into the comfort of the minibus and of course the aircon and made our way back to the Mena House. We went and got our keys then off to the lounge for a much needed freshly made lemon juice - gorgeous!  I absolutely love this hotel. It's so elegant that I feel a fraud staying here! The view of the pyramids for the lounge is unique. 

We went to our rooms and found that we had been given pyramid view rooms - and what a view!

We had a very late lunch and then went to our rooms to unpack and relax. Later on we had dinner and the hotel looks lovely lit up at night. 

Tomorrow we have a really big day, a private visit to a closed site at Saqqara. We really can't wait!

February 23rd - a morning with The ARCE

This morning we were invited to join the Senior Egyptologist and Residence Manager for the ARCE (American Research Centre in Egypt). We were asked to accompany him whilst he visited their West Bank sites. 

The houses in this photo of Gourna no longer exist. They had been built above or against ancient tombs. Some of the tombs were finely painted, but others were in a very poor state after some 'use' by the families. 

It was decided that, to preserve what was left of these tombs, that the houses would be demolished. A famous Egyptian architect, Hassan Fathy, was commissioned to design a village, appropriately named New Gourna. However, some families resisted the move and so there are only two left. A few of the houses have been left at Qurnet Marai, opposite the ticket office. 

The aim of the ARCE is to protect what remains of these houses as well as the tombs nearby. They are being photographed and catalogued to show the history of the area. 

Some of the uncovered tombs have yet to be investigated properly, so for the time being they are protected by filling the entrance with mud brick. The painted tombs, of which there are many, have a padlocked metal gate. Some even have a vertical burial shaft, like this one below. 

This is looking down on one of the recent houses after preservation. 

The ARCE have made wide paths up the side of the hills, not only to visit the tombs but also to take advantage of the stunning views across the West Bank towards the Nile. They have even placed covered seating areas, a thoughtful touch!

As we followed the path downwards we came to a working site. All of the men were carrying rubber containers filled with rubble. This was first sifted before being discarded. 

Essam then led us across to the new tomb of Djehuty, TT110. He described to us how the tomb has been cleaned. It was covered in smoke damage, to the extent that nothing really could be seen. It must have been painstaking work for the conservators, trying to remove it. Parts just could not be cleaned. 

We were lucky enough to actually be allowed inside. It's very dark at the moment, as it's not open to visitors yet. I was surprised to see an actual solar panel, there aren't many around in Egypt!

The tomb is unusual in that it has references to the joint rulers, Hatshepsut and Thutmosis lV.  There is a lovely scene of Djehuty presenting a bouquet of flowers to her. There's plenty of hieroglyphs, but they're not very clear. It's going to be interesting for us to translate them when we return home, a few weeks work at the least!

From here we moved back up the slope to where all the pottery shards were being washed and sorted by a workman. 

From here we saw them in their separate crates, waiting for re assembly, not a task I'd want! As you can see, this bowl is made of many pieces glued together. 

This is a beautiful, but plain jug that came from Memphis and would have been a wine amphora. 

Our first decorated vessel. 

And finally a second one, a rather elegant vase. 

Our visit to the sites came to an end. It had been a really interesting morning Andy I know that I've learned a great deal about the valuable work the ARCE do here. They also run training schools for young Egyptian people to learn form the best archaeologists, Egyptologists, conservators and epigraphers. That's how it should be, Egyptians looking after their own history with help from others. 

On our way back to the hotel we stopped at Kom el Hetan, the Colossi site. I needed to drop off some things for Hourig Sourouzian, the Director of the site. She was away in Paris, giving a lecture but her husband, Reiner Stadleman was there. It was lovely to see him as I thought that he'd been ill, but he was absolutely fine. We made an arrangement to return at the weekend, once we've come back from Cairo. 

Lunch was a special treat today. The owner of the hotel had invited us for a traditional Egyptian meal. It was delicious! It worked out well for us as it meant we didn't have to go out for dinner before having to get up early for our flight to Cairo tomorrow. 

After this, we went back to the ARCE office to see Essam. He had photos of various digs he'd been involved with that he wanted us to see. We were particularly interested in that next to the pyramid of Menkaure as we will be seeing it tomorrow. We spent about an hour with him then said our farewells, exchanging details so that we can keep in touch. 

This is our last night at the New Memnon Hotel and I have to say that it is exceptionally good. I only wish that I had found it earlier in my travels. I thought that I would miss being by the Nile and the convenience of easily crossing over to the east bank, but I haven't. 

It's totally peaceful here, unlike staying by the ferry with the constant noise all hours of the day and night. As long as there is somewhere to buy water then I am happy!

The hotel itself has lovely gardens and the rooms are so comfortable. 

There is even tea and coffe AND a proper kettle and a fridge in the large rooms. The bathrooms are well done and have lovely thick, white towels. The shower has some force behind it and is is a proper cubicle, not a shower curtain where the water goes everywhere. This is definitely going to be my choice for future trips and its location overlooking the Colossi can't be beaten, especially at night. As I said in a previous post, to see the statues and the Theban Hills lit up so close is awe inspiring!

So it's off to bed and up at 5.30am for the 8.30am flight to Cairo. Goodness knows what tomorrow will bring!

February 22nd - the second week begins!

We had a lovely morning!

The first thing we did was have a late breakfast and prepared ourselves for a windy day. It's also quite a bit cooler than previous days. 

We went out with the manager of the hotel, who took us up to the ticket office to buy tickets for Seti 1 temple and the tombs of Roy and Shuroy. After this he took us to a little shop on the side of the hill where they sold very, very good carvings. I knew it was going to be expensive and I explained to him that it was going to be expensive, but he insisted that he would get us a good deal, but I knew different! 

When we got there we found a beautiful carving that we wanted to buy and we asked for the price. Suffice to say that we left empty handed!

So, from here we returned to Deir el Medina to try and see the old gentleman that we had seen yesterday, selling the beautiful carvings in limestone. Unfortunately, he'd sold them all and had no more for us, so we had to leave empty-handed yet again!

We then went to the Seti 1 temple.

I really like this temple because it has an avenue of date palms before you reach the main entrance. It reminds me of the Seti 1 temple at Abydos, as it looks very similar to it.  We saw lots of hieroglyphs that we could translate and we spent some time doing this, quite successfully, to our surprise! 

We gained another 'limpet' who insisted on not leaving us and trying to point things out. He was NOT successful. For the first time I saw the large well full of water. It looked newly restored, at least from the last time I visited a couple of years ago. It has two entrances, one left and one right. 

It had begun to get warmer, which was very welcome as it had been a little chilly. I took lots of photos of hieroglyphs to use for homework when we get home. It will keep us going for months! 

We left the temple and decided to avoid the road and go across the sand, through a village, to get to the tombs.

 At one point I thought I'd made a mistake, as we seemed to be taking too long. We saw lots of houses, washing on the line and dogs sleeping in the full glare of the sun. This never ceases to amaze me, I'd have thought they'd get too hot but they seem happy enough. 

We finally came to the road, turned right and there was the roadway up to the tombs. Alongside was a German team on an excavation. They were just to the left of where we were going and looked extremely busy. 

The Guardian was very nice and took us in to Shuroy first. This is quite damaged, but interesting  in that there are lots of drawing in just red ink. There's not that much to see, which is why it should be seen first. 

After here we went into Roy. Now this is a lovely tomb but very cramped. Visitors need to be VERY careful, especially with their heads. Not for banging them, but for brushing against the beautiful ceiling and damaging it. 

The artwork is stunning and extremely interesting. In particular, I love one of the mourners who's wearing a grey wig. He reminds me of me! 

There is a great deal to see here and it's worth having a book with you to read the explanation from whilst in there.  My 'bible' is Kent Weeks' The Treasures of Luxor and the Valley of the Kings. I don't go anywhere on the West Bank without it. Having said that, it's out of date now, as there are newer tombs that have been opened. I tend to get info about them and save it to my iPad mini, which goes everywhere with me in Egypt. 

On leaving Roy, we moved on to the final tomb, Amenemopet. Up the steps, then up more stairs brought us to the highest point for the tombs. The view was fantastic and we could see that the entrance lined up with Karnak. 

The tomb itself is completely different form the other two and in fact, from many of the other tombs in the are. This is because of its size, both in height and length. As we entered though the door there were two large, damaged statues on the left and one on the right. The newly restored artwork is very bright although there is a lot of damage. 

The tomb is an inverted 'T' shape with a couple of rooms off it at the base. In the centre of the long corridor is a pink, Aswan granite sarcophagus. The face is also carved on its lid. At the very end of the top is an alcove with three damaged statues and along the sides of the corridor there are intermittent hieroglyphs and artwork. Either side is a room, one containing a sarcophagus base, which was for the owners wife and the other room was for his children. 

Amenemopet was clearly a very wealthy man to afford such a tomb and granite sarcophagus!

We left the tomb, gazing out over the fantastic view across the Nile valley. I phoned for our lift and we returned to the hotel for lunch and to check in for our Ciaro flight on Wednesday morning. What a performance that was! Doing online is supposed to be simple. Not with Egyptair. They've changed the site and when I tried to check in three of us it would only email out two boarding passes. It took me ages to sort it out. So much for saving time!

I've organised the taxi so all we have to do is be ready to leave at 6am!!!!

So now I'm sitting on the balcony of the hotel looking over the lovely green fields right in front of me, then over to the right is the Theban hills. 

In the distance I can hear the sound of a tractor ploughing the fields and every now and then the noise of a donkey braying. The sun is getting cooler, warning me it's time to go in and get ready for dinner. We're off down to the ferry area to have dinner at the Africa restaurant. 

Tomorrow is going to be a very special last day. We have been privileged to have been invited to meet with the American Research Centre in Egypt (ARCE) for a visit to their sites on the West Bank!

February 21st - a day in which we went off piste!

We started today with a late breakfast and left the hotel around 9.30am. The owner of the hotel very kindly took us to the ticket office and then on to our first stop, the Khoka tombs. They consist of TT178 Neferrenpet, which is one tomb and then two tombs together, TT295 & 296 of Djuthmose and Nefersekeru 

TT178 is easy to get into, once you have walked down into the sunken area containing all of the tombs, plus one other that it is closed. 

TT296 is the first one of the two together that we entered. There are some nice hieroglyphs at the entrance. 

From here you have to duck down through another hole in order to enter TT296. This is stunning. The art work is superb and it has an amazing ceiling. There are panels containing four different designs. 

Then there are the wall paintings

After here, we walked back down to the road so as to make our way to Deir el Medina, the workmens village. As it was a long way by road, we decided to cut across from the Ramose car park, over towards the Ptolomaic temple. En route we came across this man selling fruit and vegetables from his cart. 

In the middle, to our amazement, we discovered a football pitch! We later found out that it was over forty years old and was used by the people of the village of Gurna. Their houses were demolished a few years ago to preserve all of the tombs buried beneath them. 

As you can see, there are just two metal goal posts on an area of flat land. 

We continued across to the temple and once we got near, we were spotted. With a sigh of resignation I realised we were about to be given the heard sell. One was selling plaques, the other carved animals. They remained with us until we reached the walls of the ancient village. 

From here we went to the covered rest area for a sit down and a much needed drink of water. To our surprise there were actually visitors! Some French and Dutch people were coming out of the tombs. Not many, about a dozen, but it was still an improvement. 

We went down into the tomb of Inerkau then after that, Sennendjem. Both are really beautiful tombs and they never fail to stun me every time I see them. We had also bought a separate ticket for Pashedu. This is a bit of as log uphill but it's well worth it. It too is beautiful, although personally I feel it's not as good as the previous two. However, there are great views from here, down over the village. 

By now it was after midday and time to leave. We decided to walk back to the hotel, so off we went down the road. We were the last to leave again. It's seems to be becoming a habit!  

Walking along the road towards the ticket office we saw a coach going towards the Valley of the Queens. 

We headed over to Kom el Hetan, the Colossi site. It was very busy with workmen everywhere. 

Attached to the railings surrounding the site are displays showing the work done and how it probably looked in the time of Amenhotep lll. This was really interesting, as the main two Colossi were either side of the entrance to the first pylon, which would have covered the road and into the field beyond. Until I saw the artist's impression, I hadn't appreciated the size of the site. 

Once we had walked the length of the site we crossed the road for a sit down and a drink of fresh lemon juice. This one was made with mint and it was just what we needed after such a long, hot walk.  

This was our view, including the poles!

We sat there for about fifteen minutes and we're pleased to see quite a few minibuses of tourists arrive on the car park. There were a couple of coaches too. Having said that, they just literally got out, took a photo then got back on again!

These are the Stingers that are at the side of the road on all the sites now. 

The hotel was only a few minutes away so we finished our trek and went for lunch. 

After sitting on the roof terrace to write this, we left the hotel to visit the Theban Mapping Library near to the ferry. We waiting a couple of minutes on the road and easily flagged down a passing local minibus. It's 1LE per person for however far you travel, so off we went!

We arrived at the library for 5pm. I was absolutely stunned for two reasons. One, I couldn't believe how well it looked, as last year they were just moving in and I thought it would never be as good as the previous one. Two, I couldn't believe how many children there were!  It was absolutely full of children doing different things. Girls were knitting, boys learning to play the guitar, younger ones colouring and others playing with Lego. There were at least four volunteers, as well as Ahmed, who runs the place. The main thing was that the children were just SO happy! It was such a pleasure to see them all. 

Ahmed explained the opening hours, 12-6pm and that the children tended to arrive after school, 3pm. There are so many that they have three groups, one per hour, and there's a daily timetable. 

Before 3pm they have school, groups coming to visit the library. They run English classes, reading groups and music lessons. 

I really couldn't believe the difference that the move has made. It is much easier for the local children to access these lessons and the books. 

It was time for our visit to come to an end, as the library was closing. We had a lovely time and if I get chance I'll try and visit again before we leave Luxor. 

Another lovely day!