Luxor
The Sheraton
at Luxor was up to the high standard of the trip,
the swimming pool, large, circular and about 20' above the level of the Nile
and separated from it by only a few trees. it often appeared as though passing
fellucas were sailing in the pool. On Easter Sunday each room recieved hard
boiled eggs baked into a bread cake, they were too nice to eat. From Luxor
we visited the valleys of the kings and queens with Mohammed and on our one
day off visited the valley of the nobles for six more tombs. To our delight,
in one of them we came across the original of the band that we had both admired
in the papyrus factory. Villagers have built their homes in the valley of
the nobles and we met many of them on the visit. The normal vendors were augmented
by children "selling" home made dolls. They caught on to Donna of
course and she was surprised to find that although the dolls were very cheap,
no matter how much money she parted with, she never actually acquired a doll.
Many of the homes are built illegally over the tombs. Once built however the
authorities respect the occupants rights but refuse to supply them with electricity
or water. The occupants are more than prepared to put up with this in return
for the opportunity to burrow under the floor looking for relics. Some of
the items we were offered surreptitiously did look genuine but as it didn't
seem cricket we declined to purchase. Egyptian vendors take a lack of sale
very much more philosophically than a Morroccan. We ended our free day by
visiting the museum at Luxor, Mohammed would have been proud of us. While
a Luxor Meg and I hired our own private fellucca for a sail at sunset. Well
actually it was more of a row because it was windless. It also involved quite
a lot of walking because our Captain, another Mohammed, Mohammed moustache,
decided to take us to banana island. This was quite interesting and involved
eating little green bananas and a lot of baksheesh for the islands mafia.
I know I'm not supposed to be describing the treasures but if I were the temple
at Karnak would be the hardest one to describe. the hyperstyle, (a hall of
massive columns in particular is now in our short list of top places to be).
We failed to capture it on film as did the James Bond and Agatha Christie
films.
One of its sights is the scarab beetle to end all scarab beetles. The locals
believe that any woman who walks three times round the beetle becomes pregnant
within a year. Donna has been trying for ages and so has Mandy. Meg trogs
round on Mandy's behalf. Both Donna and Mandy produce daughters within the
year. The Son et Lumiere was unique in that instead of having a seated audience,
the program was in episodes throughout the temple and the punters progressed
in a series of cavalry charges. The earlier tour with Mohammed had been far
more illuminating. He was particularly taken with the lady Pharaoh Hatchepsut.
Her funeral temple looks more like a modern airport than a 3000 year old temple.
I liked the story of her modifications to Karnak. Many rulers added to the
original and Hatchepsut was into obelisks. She wanted one in the middle of
the existing temple. The method of erecting obelisks precluded this. The architect
was flummoxed, Hatchepsut made it clear that it was his problem. He knew what
the lady wanted and the consequences of failing. So he dismantled the temple,
erected the obelisk and put the temple back together.