Egypt, Land of Light episode 2
(Temple of Karnak in Luxor during our private night tour)
And here we board our floating hotel for the rest of our stay in Egypt.
(Turning your back to the Karnak temple one
views the lit avenue of the Sphinxes which runs through the modern town of Luxor from Karnak to
the other side of town ending at the Luxor Temple)
Unlike the area around Cairo, the center of the Old Kingdom, when Pharaohs built pyramids, we now find ourselves in the vicinity of the Valley of the Kings. We did visit the Valley of the Queens, although the story of ancient Egypt is normally about great pharaohs and that is about men with harems full of beautiful nubile women isn’t it?
(Inside the temple of Karnak one finds a modern mosque
built on the ruins of Karnak)
(The vestibule with 18 meter high columns)
Actually, not really. It is a little known fact that men and women in ancient Egypt were considered equal under the law, meaning women could also own property, run businesses and employ men and start divorce procedures if they so chose. Although, that did not change the fact that society was dominated by men as it still is today.
(Those thousands of years old colors are amazing, depicting Amun-Ra receiving offerings from Rameses II)
(Iconic night view of the Temple of Luxor with the town of Luxor on the background. This temple was more dedicated to kings rather than to Gods. The Ramesesses ritualized themselves here and many kings got crowned here)
(Talking about glorifying Kings: Rameses II slaying his enemies, blessed by Amun-Ra)
History also tells the tales of powerful women assuming the position of Pharaoh. Egyptians preferred women with the noble blood of the dynasty over men not belonging to the royal blood line, because royal blood was divine and thus had “god status”.
(Above and below the rock temples of Abu Simbel a Nubian village at the West Bank of Lake Nasser, from which they were saved through relocation to higher grounds. A massive UNESCO project)
(Nefertari, the wife of Rameses II, as tall as he - a honor unheard of in those days)
Ancient Egyptians believed that the entire universe was made up of masculine and female elements, perfectly balanced by the Goddess Maat, who was surrounded by numerous deities such as the male earth god Geb, happily reclined on earth soil gazing upwards towards his star spangled sister Nut, who stretched herself high above the sky holding back the nightly forces of chaos and daily giving birth to the sun. Nut bore the deities Isis and Osiris.
(Grandiose entrance to a burial site in the Valley of the Kings)
(No more bending over to enter like in the pyramids up north)
(Goddess blessing worker)
(Anubis the keeper of the cemeteries sailing a king to the netherworld)
(The valley of the Kings complex almost devoid of tourists)
The next chapter of the story is mostly about Isis who searches her slain twin brother, raises him from the dead and have him father their child Horus, seen in the form of a man with a falcon head, protector of the pharaohs.
(Monto the God of War in ancient Egypt)
(Hathour, one of the most famous goddesses, also called mistress of the sky.
The Greek compared her to Venus)
(Meen, god of fertility; some jealous person
tried to make him less endowed)
(Some ceilings have kept their original colors well)
(Temple of Luxor at night)
Actually Pharaohs were considered the human form of the god Horus and therefore a living God in their own right.
(The grandest of female mortuary temples: the colonnaded temple of Hatshepsut
a warrior Pharaoh around 1500 BC)
Back to those few women who crashed the Egyptian glass ceiling.
(Posing below Horus the Falcon God,
unifier of upper and lower Egypt)
(God Anubis, the jackal, god of mummification)
(Have no clue what this means,
but woman on the left holds the instruments of governing)
Many a pharaoh’s daughter married a brother or half brother to become queen. But women who became Pharaoh such as the famous Cleopatra had qualities even their husband brothers (she was married to two brothers, be it sequentially. To the first one she was a queen and the second one was her ceremonial spouse till both were killed) By the way with a hooked nose shallow forehead, pointed chin and thin lips, Elizabeth Taylor did her a disservice. It was her mind and cunning qualities that brought her to the fore. Enough about this tramp.
(The camel ride was slow trudging through the desert, I think only tourists
do it this way nowadays)
(Everybody had to hold a crocodile while visiting Nubian village)
(Water taxis have their own onboard store)
(Street scene of playing children in Nubian village)
(Everybody had to hold a crocodile while visiting Nubian village)
Myself being married to a present day Pharaoh type woman as consort,(sorry Prince Philip, you are not the only one) might be the reason for my interest in these ancient ladies. And like Prince Philip: walking in her shadow, is the best thing a husband can wish for, because now all he needs to accomplish is making her happy.
(Our guide Ahmed showing a colorful stove in Nubian home)
(Only way to cross the Nile in Luxor: water taxi)
(Luxor tuk-tuk taxis, a concept that came from Thailand and
India, brought to Egypt in early 2000. Now they are everywhere)
(As are motors, scooters and motorized three wheelers)
(We were transported in horse driven carriages as tourists behoove.
Although some people ride for free)
There were at least 7 female pharaohs that we know of like f.e. Nitocris around 2200 BC, who succeeded her slain brother the Pharaoh, by eliminating his killers and thus adversaries to the throne by inviting them to a feast in a underground hall she built for the occasion and then flooded the place while the feast was in full swing with Nile water.
(Our upper deck)
(A boatload of cackling girls and their electronics)
(Gary after an exhausting morning tour)
(Very, very early bus tour to Abu Simbel)
Or Pharaoh Hatshepsut, whose beautiful tomb or better phrased mortuary temple is located in a different section of the valley of the Kings. She was married to a Pharaoh who made her a widow before her 30th birthday with a 3 year old for whom she became a regent. After about 3 years in that job she decided that her actual position should be Pharaoh and so she did and she ruled very successfully till in her mid fifties. She was the longest reigning female Pharaoh in history and Egypt fostered well during her reign as she avoided the male proclivity of warring and concentrated on architecture and trade.
(Lake Nasser)
(Luxor’s Mac Donald lit up at the river Nile embankment)
(Traditional feluccas sailing the Nile)
Why you ask, do you spend so many words on women pharaohs, who by the way wore during their formal moments all the paraphernalia of male pharaohs, such as the fake straight beard, the short kilt and crown, wrapping their breasts to hide their femininity. Hatshepsut even dropped the female ending of her name to Hatshepsu.
(President Mubarak started to build new towns in the desert
hoping to resettle people. Many of those are empty towns now along the road)
(View from Aswan Dam, South above, North below)
She is remembered for the obelisks, she had constructed which can be seen in the temple of Karnak. She ordered the construction of the largest obelisk ever to be built, which unfortunately cracked while still in the quarry. We visited that unfinished work that would have weighed 1100 tons.
(Queen Hatshepsu ordered the largest ever obelisk- 120 ft/36m high
and about 1100 tons n weight never left the quarry as it cracked there)
(The quarry is surrounded by today’s modern world encroaching on antiquity)
Her stepson who followed her as Pharaoh took up the military campaigning again and went into history as ruler of Egypt, Palestine and Syria.
He did not like his stepmother, because he went on a destruction and defacing rant of most of her images and statues.
(Could not resist: one plant flowering different colors on roadside)
(Night fall shot of mosque across the river)
Back to the trip itinerary, where Hatshepsu was the only female Pharaoh discussed by our guide.
(Goddess Hathor was the guardian of the valley where Queen Hatshepsu built her colonnaded mortuary temple and the Goddess features prominently on the grounds of the temple)
Let’s now highlight another major Pharaoh: Rameses II, and his favorite principal wife Nefertari (translation: beautiful companion) and his temples in Abu Simbel near present day Aswan. We reached that spot after an early rise and 2 and a half our bus trip. This Pharaoh reigned for 66 years from 1279 BC and died at age 90 or maybe age 91. The second longest reign in those 4000 years of Pharaohs. He fought many wars and lost a few, but you will not find any reference to that on the walls of the buildings we visited.
(A temple who’s name I forgot, but the lotus pillars are beautiful)
The story of Nefertari is, that she was most beloved by him, not easy by the way, when you have a few hundred wives. They were both tall for their time, he 5 1/2 ft and she 5 1/3 ft, but they were almost a head taller than the masses they reigned over. She married him at age 13 before he became Pharaoh when he was 15 years old. They had 5 children and went into the history books as a very happy couple.
(Outside of Luxor the sand dunes are impressive)
(The remains of the workers villages)
Rameses built her a temple in Abu Simbel where she is seated in front of the temple equal in size to him, an honor that has not befallen any wife among the 500 Pharaohs before and after her. She died too early in the 24th year of his 66 year reign.
(A view of a Nubian village)
To finish our tour of pharaohs we need to talk about Akhenaten married to the third most well known queen in history Nefertiti.
Akhenaten also called the heretic king, who in order to curb the growing power of priests in his time introduced the concept of monotheism, putting 80 percent or so of the priests out of business.
(A city view with lively conversations)
His time on the calendar of pharaohs is his crowning in the year 1363 BC. His father had been reigning a long time, creating a prosperous nation through international diplomacy, making Thebes the religious capital home to the state god Amun-Re. (A confusing fact that was added to my brain when reading up on this, that we now have also state gods in the mix.)
(Damages on the faces of kings often the result of new dynasties disliking past dynasties)
Akhenaten was crowned Amenhotep IV, meaning “Amun is Content”. Such an event requires the immediate start of building a new temple in the name of the king, but in the second year of building, sundisks showing his devotion to the sungod Aten are dotting the Karnak area and during this time he changes his name to Akhenaten.
(Taxis have ride options - different prices)
Now a few sundisks here and there is ok, as there are hundreds of gods to be worshipped. But when workmen are sent out to chisel away the signs of other gods and when worshipping the sun as sole provider of wonders that occur and in doing so diminishing the traditional roles of the other gods, then everybody knows, this is a nefarious business.
(Goddess Hathor on top of columns showing lotus and papyrus
capitals. Papyrus referring to the northern kingdom and lotus to
the southern kingdom)
In going a step further Aknenaten and his wife Nefertiti decide that they must built a new capital uncontaminated with other gods called Akhetaten.
(Coptic signs carved into a temple)
Unfortunately for this radical change is religion Akhenaten died in the 17th year of his reign and the succeeding regents reversed back to the traditional gods.
(Cross later also carved into a temple)
This Pharaoh and his wife Nefertiti were stricken of the record books of kings and queens and only the discovery of his new capital from under the desert sand brought his famous experiment back to the fore.
(Sobek the crocodile god)
Our guide often referenced him, reason why I bring him back to life here. It is postulated that Nefertiti became Pharaoh after her husbands death as she is seen in male clothing smiting Egypt’s enemies and riding a chariot as if she were King.
(The early visitors could inscribe their names without recourse)
We felt privileged to wander through the ruins of Egypt, having Dr Hawass lecture us, enjoying on board, for a change, also great food, having an excursion to a Nubian Village and having a few hours now and then to relax on the upper deck of our cruise ship with a beer.
(Evening view of the Nile)
But onwards we must go,there are new vistas to see, stories to listen to and cuisines to enjoy.
And for Sandee below: memories for you left every night by the room service staff: fresh towels.
May the pictures as always save my often incoherent ramblings about things I do not know much about.
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