I had a restless sleep and woke at about 05:30 to find Marcie awake and staring out onto the Nile. Sam had told us the night before that the crew would start sailing at 05:00, so I wasn’t surprised, but poor Marcie wasn’t listening and had woken up busting to go to the bathroom. Unfortunately when she went to step off the felucca she found we were already afloat! Mike was also up shooting and the three of us gazed at the East waiting for the sunrise, me in a semi-catatonic state. We watched the sun rise over the tree tops, and then waited for everyone to wake up so we could have breakfast. The funniest was Rami, who woke with a dopey look on his face and his hair sticking up in all directions.
Later breakfast, check out of the felucca, and we said goodbye to the crew in whos capable hands we had made it safely to Luxor. We’d already been up for a few hours but the day was only just beginning. First on the list was Kom-Ombu temple, a large and impressive temple dedicated to two gods, Horus and Set. If you remember from the story at Philae temple, Set is the god of evil who tried to kill Osiris, and Horus is the protector of kingship, son of Isis and Osiris. The two gods originally shared the temple, and the Egyptian people would give offerings to each. Horus wasn’t particularly fussy about his offerings, fruits, little carvings, things that are easy to get would be just fine for him. Set however, being a little more greedy than Horus, insisted that his offerings be made of gold, which had to be brought from many miles away and carefully crafted into gifts for him. Naturally people loved Horus best and offered him many more gifts than Set. Set got angry and staged a takeover of the temple and booted Horus out. Now the people were forced to make all their offerings of gold. They spent more and more time looking for gold, bringing it back to the temple, and making gifts. Eventually they had to spend so much time pleasing Set that they had no time for farming, sowing, irrigation, harvesting and so on. Soon the fertile lands they had always farmed had turned into barren, unkempt fields. When Amoun-Ra (the supreme and sun god) saw this he was disappointed. He asked the people “Why did you ruin the best farmland I gave you?” and the people told him how Set had taken over the temple and about his outrageous demands. Amoun-Ra was extremely angry about this, and he asked the goddess of justice (I don’t remember her name now) to divide the temple exactly in half. He told Set he could keep one half and he gave the other half to Horus. Now, on one of the back walls of the temple you can find a depiction of the temple with a line drawn down the middle. Set is on one side and Horus is on the other, with the goddess of justice above. So things went back to how they were before, and the world was good again.
After Kom-Ombu we drove straight to Edfu temple, another large and impressive temple with exquisite carvings of which some of the colours still remain. Unfortunately although this is one of the more important temples in Egypt, I don’t remember any of the stories about it. By that point I was extremely tired, having had only a short, fitful sleep and having been on the go since 05:30, so I wasn’t really absorbing a lot of information. Not to mention I hadn’t had a shower for nearly 72 hours, which makes more difference to one’s state of mind than you might think.
After Edfu we had time only for a super-fast lunch (McDonalds unfortunately, but it was the closest and easiest option) and Shelly managed to shower before we had to be downstairs. On to our horse and carriage to Karnak temple, the largest temple in Egypt and the largest temple complex in the world. When Sam told me that I thought it couldn’t possibly be bigger than Machu Picchu, but on seeing it I had to re-evaluate that opinion! The horse and carriage ride was fun but a little cheesy – but we already stick out so much as Western tourists I guess it doesn’t make any difference if we fall into all the tourist traps. The façade of the temple isn’t that impressive really, compared to say, Abu Simbel, but it’s pretty amazing once you get inside. There’s a couple of reasons why it’s so big: firstly, it’s dedicated to Amoun-Ra, the supreme and sun god, so obviously he has to have the biggest temple. Secondly, because it’s Amoun-Ra’s temple all the kings wanted to please him, so while most temples have been built by only one king, Karnak was continued over many generations. Plus, it’s located in Luxor, which used to be part of Thebes, the old capital of Egypt (not to be confused with Thebes in Greece). The most striking part of the temple was the colonnade hall, featuring about 130 enormous columns bedecked with inscriptions and carvings. We only had an hour or so to look around, not nearly enough to even quickly look over the whole temple complex, let alone really get to know it. Sam pointed out a long wall graphically depicting Horus taking revenge on Set (remember the Philae temple story?) for the killing of his father. In the end Horus managed to kill Set but I have a feeling that won’t be the last we see of the god of evil. They usually find some way to come back to life.
We took the horse and carriage back to the hotel, the drivers hassling us the entire way for tips, from the moment we got into the carriage to the moment we got out. As we knew that Sam had already tipped the drivers along with their fees we were deaf to their pleas. So insistent and repetitive were their cries of “Backsheesh, backsheesh, backsheesh” that we resorted to drowning them out with a very loud rendition of “You’re the One That I Want” from the movie “Grease”. When we got out without tipping them they shouted something at us in Arabic (probably obscene). Although it’s customary to tip in Egypt it’s never compulsory and the drivers had already been tipped by the tour company anyway, so I was a little annoyed at the cheekyness of the drivers. I think it might be a Luxor thing – the Luxorians seem to be more sneaky and money hungry than in other parts of Egypt.
Back to the hotel to grab a jumper and I finally (oh the joy!) managed to stand under the shower for two minutes. My first shower in three days and although I had to make it very fast it was lovely and I felt like a new woman afterwards. We (Marcie, Mary and I) were actually heading back to Karnak temple for the sound and lights show. When Sam first mentioned it I wasn’t very excited by the prospect – flashing lights and that sort of thing don’t really interest me. But when he said “You probably won’t like it, the effects are not that great and it’s quite heavy on the history” I decided it was definitely worth a look. The temple was gorgeous lit up at night and standing in the colonnade hall looking up at the stars was a fabulous experience. To be honest there was more drama in the show than hard historical fact but we still enjoyed it – I learned more about the actual rites and rituals that the high priests and kings would have performed inside the temple, which I found fascinating. On the way home we saw Luxor Temple lit up which was beautiful as well.
Dinner that night was a relaxed and civilised affair; no doubt due to the marathon day we’d just had. We went to a Western-style restaurant called Maxime’s where I ate a passable moussaka but the service was abysmal – the waiter practically threw the food at us. Compared to the service at all the other restaurants we’d been to in Egypt where everyone had been so friendly and helpful this was a surprise. After dinner a lovely walk home in the balmy air to the hotel, where we had a brilliant night’s sleep in an actual bed.
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