The next part of my Middle Eastern adventure took me to Egypt, land of amazing ancient antiquities. We only had six in this Intrepid group, mainly Aussie women, for eight days.

The journey commenced in Cairo and I have to say the traffic was manic!!!!! With Cairo’s 25 million inhabitants, I have never seen anything like it. Lanes and lanes of noisily beeping vehicles just all over the place, taking no notice of lane markings and coming within millimetres of our minivan. Pedestrians constantly took their lives in their hands as they wove their way across the highway, dodging everything in their path. It was a nightmare!!!

Our private van transported us to Giza, the home of some of the world’s most iconic sights. Instantly familiar yet retaining a mystique and power, getting up close to these incredible pharaonic tombs was surreal and amazing. We explored these structures that have stood tall for 4,500 years. I was in awe. The whole engineering challenge of constructing these tombs was overwhelming. The size of the granite blocks was impressive. The inside thoroughfares of the pyramids were very small and very warm but well worth exploring to get a real sense of the amazing construction. The Sphinx was of course impressive and fun photos were taken.

Ancient Egyptians used to bury a “solar barge” near the tomb of their pharaoh because they believed that their ruler needed transportation in the afterlife. In 1954, the parts of a cedar-wood barge were found in five pits near the Great Pyramid of Khufu. The barge was restored and assembled out of 1200 pieces of wood and it is displayed, since then, in a glass museum near the Great Pyramid in Giza.  It too was very impressive.

Afterwards, we made our way to the Egyptian Museum, home to one of the world’s great collections of antiquities. We wandered the treasure-filled halls of the museum, and made sure to check out the Mummies Hall for a close encounter with some of the country’s most important queens and pharaohs. They were in very good condition for their significant age.

Later in the evening, we met our leader and travelled to Giza station, where we boarded a sleeper train to Aswan (approximately 13 hours). Bedding and air-conditioning were provided. Accommodation was in two berth cabins which converted to bunk beds. The Nile, Elephantine Island and white-sailed feluccas: welcome to Aswan, Egypt’s southernmost city. Its easy-going charm was due in no small part to its large Nubian population. We visited the beautiful Temple of Isis (the Goddess of health, marriage and wisdom) that was rescued from the rising waters of the Nile and relocated on Philae Island. It was a marvel of decorative pylons featuring some of Egypt’s finest carvings – definitely one of the real gems of Upper Egypt.

We enjoyed a terrific glass blowing demonstration and a wide range of essential oil perfumes at a local Aswan store.  We also joined a family for a tasty buffet dinner on Elephantine Island.  The lady of the house had been very busy cooking!

The next day we headed out of Aswan and visited stunning Abu Simbel. With the four gargantuan statues of Ramses guarding the Great Temple, carved directly out of the mountain on the west bank of the Nile, this was one of Egypt’s most memorable sights. The journey by land was 3 hours each way, with an early departure from Aswan at 7am. Carved out of a sandstone cliff on the west bank of the Nile, south of Korosko (modern Kuruskū), the temples were unknown to the outside world until their rediscovery in 1813 by the Swiss researcher Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. They were first explored in 1817 by the early Egyptologist Giovanni Battista Belzoni.

The 20-metre seated figures of Ramses are set against the recessed face of the cliff, two on either side of the entrance to the main temple. Carved around their feet are small figures representing Ramses’ children, his queen, Nefertari, and his mother, Muttuy. Graffiti inscribed on the southern pair by Greek mercenaries serving Egypt in the 6th century BC have provided important evidence of the early history of the Greek alphabet. The temple itself, dedicated to the sun gods Amon-Re and Re-Horakhte, consists of three consecutive halls extending 56 metre into the cliff, decorated with more Osiride statues of the king and with painted scenes of his purported victory at the Battle of Kadesh. On two days of the year (about February 22 and October 22), the first rays of the morning sun penetrate the whole length of the temple and illuminate the shrine in its innermost sanctuary.

In the mid-20th century, when the reservoir that was created by the construction of the nearby Aswan High Dam threatened to submerge Abu Simbel, UNESCO and the Egyptian government sponsored a project to save the site. An informational and fund-raising campaign was initiated by UNESCO in 1959. Between 1963 and 1968 a workforce and an international team of engineers and scientists, supported by funds from more than 50 countries, dug away the top of the cliff and completely disassembled both temples, reconstructing them on high ground more than 60 metres above their previous site. In all, some 16,000 blocks were moved. In 1979 Abu Simbel, Philae, and other nearby monuments were collectively designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The next day we boarded a felucca and spent a day out on the river, watching rural Egyptian daily life play out on the banks, then spent a night under the stars. Our Nubian sailing crew provided all the meals, which were hearty and delicious. Being a traditional wooden boat with broad canvas sails, our felucca offered some shade and protection from the elements. However, there was no cabin or enclosed section. We slept outside on the deck of the felucca on a mattress.

 

After farewelling our felucca crew, we took our private van to the open air museum of Luxor (approximately 3.5 hours). From the spectacular temple complex of Karnak to the Valley of the Kings, Luxor was full of wonderfully preserved reminders of the Pharaohs.

We also visited the Intrepid Foundation’s local project ACE (Animal Care in Egypt). It was a great chance to see the holistic approach the project takes towards animal welfare, and to raising awareness among the locals.  ACE is a veterinary hospital which gives free veterinary care and treatment to all neglected and abused animals. ACE also runs an educational programme where local school children learn that animals should be treated with respect.

We travelled on to discover the many wonders of ancient Thebes. Our first stop was the Colossi of Memnon, two 17 metre-high statues on Luxor’s west bank. Carved from granite blocks, they represent the Pharaoh Amenhotep III and were once part of an impressive colonnade.  The original function of the Colossi was to stand guard at the entrance to Amenhotep’s memorial temple (or mortuary temple): a massive construct built during the pharaoh’s lifetime, where he was worshipped as a god-on-earth both before and after his departure from this world.  In its day, this temple complex was the largest and most opulent in Egypt.  Covering a total of 35 hectares, even later rivals such as Ramesses II‘s Ramesseum or Ramesses III‘s Medinet Habu were unable to match it in area; even the Temple of Karnak, as it stood in Amenhotep’s time, was smaller.

With the exception of the Colossi, however, very little remains today of Amenhotep‘s temple. It stood on the edge of the Nile floodplain, and successive annual inundations gnawed away at its foundations – a famous 1840s lithograph by David Roberts shows the Colossi surrounded by water – and it was not unknown for later rulers to dismantle, purloin, and reuse portions of their predecessors’ monuments.

We continued on to the spectacular royal burial site of the Valley of the Kings. Buried under the arid hills here are over 60 richly decorated tombs of pharaohs. We explored this sprawling and spectacular place, where the pharaohs of the New Kingdom (16th to 11th century BC) were secretly interred for all eternity, and where discoveries are still being made.

It was the principal burial place of the major royal figures of the Egyptian New Kingdom, as well as a number of privileged nobles. The royal tombs are decorated with scenes from Egyptian mythology and give clues as to the beliefs and funerary rituals of the period. Almost all of the tombs seem to have been opened and robbed in antiquity, but they still give an idea of the opulence and power of the pharaohs.

This area has been a focus of archaeological and Egyptological exploration since the end of the eighteenth century, and its tombs and burials continue to stimulate research and interest. In modern times the valley has become famous for the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun (with its rumours of the curse of the pharaohs), and is one of the most famous archaeological sites in the world. In 1979, it became a World Heritage Site, along with the rest of the Theban Necropolis.  Exploration, excavation and conservation continues in the valley, and a new tourist centre has recently been opened.

The tombs inside the valley of the kings were decorated by the workers of the village of Deir el-Medina, who came from different routes over the Theban hills.   Many tombs have graffiti from the ancient tourists as the site attracted tourists from the last two centuries.  We ventured inside three of the tombs as advised by our tour leader. The amazing coloured art work was fantastic and was truly a highlight of the trip.

Returning to Cairo overnight, we travelled again on the sleeper train and headed north in readiness for our short flight to Jordan. The ancient antiquities of Egypt were very impressive and awe inspiring but I had to wonder at the current state of play in C21st Egypt. Dirty, crowded, polluted, full of litter, 80% poverty rate, government and police force corruption. I left the country feeling quite depressed and hoped that Jordan would offer a more uplifting experience.