Ahoy, Matey!

 

While cold-ridden Squirrel slept, I joined Mohammed for a boat tour of the nearby islands and marshes of the Nile, which revealed Egyptian herons, ducks and geese, as well as a dwelling place of crocodiles. Lots of feluccas with their single, towering sails. We visited the same Nubian village where we stayed, now with time to take in the market, where I bought a Christmas present artwork for the Lad and some incense for yoga Sarah. We drank peppermint tea in a local house and returned, passing the Aga Khan house and mausoleum, the Cataract hotel made famous by Agatha Christie, and an ancient burial site.

After lunch where I finally ate the beloved Egyptian staple kocheri, we set sail and enjoyed a relaxing panorama of the green, pastoral shoreline, with papyrus, palms, cattle, and fishermen.

We arrived at our featured stop around 5, the brilliantly lit double temple of the crocodile god Sobeck and Horas, whose virtues are meant to counterbalance the croc deity’s menace. Once again, Mohammed led us through a throng and showed us hidden gems no one else knew about—a third century BC penis joke and a small bas-relief of the famous Cleopatra and her husband who built this Greco-Roman-Egyptian temple and included a hospital behind the inner sanctum for offerings. Here there were impressive carvings of women in labor among other medical iconography.

Another wonderful excursion in a golden glow, followed by a visit to a small museum devoted

exclusively to mummified crocodiles, several exceedingly long. Had cocktails on the lounge deck with Mohammed (who does not drink), and then dinner.

Most of the next day was spent sailing to Luxor, with a long delay waiting to pass through a lock along with at least ten other ships.  We spent time on the open air upper deck sipping tea and watching brave young villagers in tiny boats move around the passenger ships, tossing up items they’re trying to sell.

We arrived at the pier in Luxor at 6:30, giving us a perfect time to tour the immense Luxor temple, begun in the fourth century BC, lit up in dramatic fashion. The temple we visited is dedicated to Amon-Ra’s wife, Mut, a fertility deity and all around nice gal. Over a thousand sphinxes line a processional avenue leading to the temple, which greets the awe-struck visitor with towering, free-standing statues of the divine husband and wife, along with other gods, and a perfectly preserved obelisk.

Our favorite detail, however, is a small one most visitors miss: a painting on stone of the hyper-fertility god Amun-Mit, who is depicted standing on one leg, the other amputated by jealous husbands, with a monumental erection that never fails. The god’s member is blackened because women hoping to become pregnant touched it for good luck for millennia. What fun!

Our late dinner, following margaritas (oddly), featured an ice cream cake in the shape of the pyramids. This was followed by a belly dancer and an astonishing young whirling dervish whose spinning skirts defy gravity and belief.

The next day began early when Mohammed took us to the last and largest of the great temples we would visit under his guidance, Karnak, dedicated to 

Amun-Ra, the mightiest of all Egyptian gods, combining the sun, life, and rebirth. The temple covers over sixty acres with a long colonnade of lions, dozens of towering pillars with hieroglyphic carvings and still vivid colored images, and a spring fed purification pool. Each year Amur-Ra would travel to Mut’s temple for a five day erotic assignation called The Honeymoon Festival, which is still celebrated in Luxor.

Then came a special surprise courtesy of Mohammed, who seems to be widely respected and gets special perks. He took us to a tiny nearby shrine that is a holy of holies, dedicated to the goddess Sekmeht, associated with healing. The dark inner sanctum contains a statue of her with a female lion’s head, carved from a single block of black basalt. It is now part of a cult that believes touching the statue will promote miraculous cures.

Mohammed said he feels spiritual emanations here and at other sites. For example, he enjoined us to walk three times around a statue of a scarab beetle and make a wish, which we did. We shall see.

The divine temples are on the green east side of the Nile, while the barren Sahara of the west side is the place of death—the Valley of Kings, 62 royal gravesites tunneled hundreds of yards deep in the rock and sand, including Tut’s, discovered by Howard Carter in 1927. Under a brutal sun, Mohammed took us to four tombs, starting with Ramses  IV, vividly adorned with painted text and illustrations from the Book of the Dead detailing the

deceased’s ordeal of passage involving a boat journey from west to east.

Our next stop was the crypt of Merenpath, thought to be the pharaoh during the time of Moses and the Jewish captivity. Less decorative , but notable because the sarcophagus was too large to pass the sanctuary.

The most colorful tomb came next, the burial site of Ramses I, with exceptionally well preserved frescos, many depicting green skinned Osiris and Anubis in the underworld and the god Khephi with the head of a scarab beetle, symbol of resurrection. Quite stunning, and just 4,000 years old. Egypt truly alters your sense of time. 

Finally, we visited the iconic tomb of Hatshepsut, the only female pharaoh in the Valley, a woman who displaced a legitimate male heir to the throne by concocting a claim that she was the daughter of Amun-Ra, who impregnated her mother through her nose. An image in her tomb shows her arrayed as a male king receiving her authority from Amun-Ra, fully testifying to her grandiosity. Unusual hieroglyphs there include an owl and the spoons used to hold open the mouth of the deceased. 

Our last stop was to marvel at the Colossus of Memnon, carved from quartz over 4,000 years ago and unveiled just a few days before our arrival. Centuries later the clever Greeks claimed one of the statues was actually a representation of Agamemnon.

where Mohammed found
the mummies

On our way to the airport we saw the place where, as a boy, Mohammed found seven mummies on his family property. His destiny was clear!

Two close calls this day: first, our driver fell asleep in his van and left us stranded for a while in the Valley; second, Cairo Air "lost" Tycho’s suitcase when it became lodged in the bin of a transport vehicle. 

We settled into a luxury hotel near the airport that reminded us of what you might find in Boca Raton, all decorated for Christmas and with a pianist playing show tunes. We ate our last Egyptian food and got ready to rise obscenely early for our flight to Milan.