Abydos and Dendera by King and Queen :-)
I’m on holidays and had to put an Alarm for 7:00 “ what a disgrace 😊” but I need to get breakfast before we leave for the day trip to Abydos and Dendera, which I was done with in few minutes and ready to go but Kasia and Bruno have not returned from the balloon trip so had to wait, probably they were learning to sing “I believe I can fly” as emergency instead of parachute. Hotel staff was not really happy as they and driver came to me every 5 minutes that car is ready and that I need to leave now. Eventually I told them that they booked the balloon trip for Kasia as well as this one last night, so that they should know when she is coming back and stop telling me that we should leave, before I will lose patience. At 8:30 Kasia and Bruno arrived and we were finally ready to leave, so we hopped into this brand new Chinese limousine branded “BYG” what probably was nickname for BIG 😊 and we hit the road. We had a bit of chat with driver who let us know that there is a lot of driving and that is why he needs to start early as well as he needed to apply for permit to leave town with us at local Police. This permit is important to have with details of our names and nationalities and it is handed over to police at first check point going out from Luxor together with his phone number and name ,which than was repeated at every checkpoint all day long. Since the road was long and we were not really had time to talk together with Kasia, we started a great conversation about the spiritual stuff and it was so interesting, that we did not know how the time went except when the driver told us that he will try to get dessert road what is short cut but apparently not allowed for tourist, we paid a bit of attention to the road. Luckily we passed the check point and were on dessert road straight as line it could be “something like the roads in States are ” so we immersed ourselves again in spiritual conversation about various topics until we were told that we are in Abydos. Before we get out of car we were reminded that we need to be back on time as there is security convoy going to Luxor which we need to make it as tourist are not allowed to go without protection anywhere in this region of Egypt. We even did not noticed that there was any convoy but when pointed on the way back we saw it. The car park itself is fenced off with armed security and all around the complex you see police with guns and I would say that they will not hesitate to use them if needed. Upon entering temple I met this lovely police man who showed me the famous hieroglyph with helicopter, submarine,tank, UFO or plane
and also told me to not pay anything to anyone within the temple grounds and find him if any issue arise at all. So nice and warm welcome I have to say. I was taken by surprise as usually the police is not so helpful but here they are and it is nice for change, as the usual police slogan “help and protect” is really what they do here, Thank You !
The temple itself is well decorated and there is restoration in process which was nice to see, as you can see clear line what is cleaned / restored and what is not at the ceiling, where on scaffolding restoration people were cleaning the painting of starry sky. The size is amazing and the fact that it was buried under 16 meters of sand and locals had houses on top, before it was discovered is funny but who knows what else is buried around Egypt. When you read about all the temples you actually know a lot about them and when you enter them you are much more in tune with what is all around you so maybe watch documentary before coming to Temple and then you will have better experience. The lower part of Osireion if I remember the name correctly was closed for access so all we could do is taking the photos from above, shame but hey it is what it is.
It was interesting to get up the steps to the back of the temple at roof level where all local kids crossed from one side to another apparently from schools as they were all dressed nicely and with bags on their backs. Obviously they could not resist to say “Hello, where you from” to any tourist passing until the security scorn them and send them away. It is strange, suddenly stand at roof level at back when front entrance is lower by approximately 50 to 60 meters, not exact measurement as we men try to convince ourselves that “15 cm is much more that it really is” 😊 but I hope that this height is in ballpark figures. So you actually see all open at the back of temple as much as the front is fenced off and without access for anyone except for whoever has ticket. Must be some sight when build in the old ages as if you could imagine nothing around it as it is now this is something like skyscraper in states if you see it first time.
Since the back is open to everyone and locals are freely crossing the sand dunes, there is a lot of AK47 around with security persons attached to them, who are walking up and down and shout on any tourist who wish to walk in different direction other than what is allowed. Later we were told by driver that this is because in past there were instances where tourists were killed by some local people who came down to town from mountains and apparently about 60 tourist were attacked in 1997 at Luxor Hatsepshut temple. Well the convoy suddenly sound as good idea and we were happy to eat all emergency food Kasia brought and shared with me, THANK YOU Kasia as otherwise I was nearly starting chewing the car seat front of me. Not that I do not like Chinese food but the plastic looking car seat from china even if only two weeks old is not really appetizing. The convoy started formation with one Toyota pickup with soldiers at front and one at back of three minivans and our car. There was also one local taxi with tourist and for some reason he was pulled on side at crossing and took out of convoy, hopefully they were o.k afterwards as the traffic stops when the convoy is going, no other traffic is allowed to move. We felt like VIP or presidents i.e. King and Queen. It is a bit surreal experience as if you see this in TV or movie it is a completely different feeling when suddenly you are part of it and really in the middle of the things. Nothing had happened for a few years, driver informed us as the army apparently is charged with keeping all in order by new president who took reins of the Egypt in his hands since change of government. Apparently after the change from Mubarak the place was a bit chaotic and there were bad things happened to people and tourist but with the new president and army / police in charge, the incidents stopped and all the problem groups were cleared out. Now is only the economic issue as everything is apparently more expensive that before, not sure what that means as really this is cheapest country I have been so far.
ABYDOS TEMPLE
On the road to Dendera without stop as this is not allowed we arrived there at 14:00 and were told that we have two options, either go with convoy at 16:00 or with the last one at 17:00 so we opted for the earlier option as we were really hungry and did not want to miss the last one in case it was cancelled. Water in the pack and quick step with good pace, we went to explore the temple. From what I saw so far, this was nicest temple for me.
DENDERA TEMPLE
The colors of paintings, size, location and architecture very beautiful and you can go to the roof, not the very top, where priests were in their days but still it is nice to see the huge and wide steps, what is left of them with the figures of pharaohs and deities walking up on them…
Lot to see but the highlight for me was when the local man “police or guide” gave me explanation of ceiling at roof what was dedicated to Osiris and Isis as I was trying to figure out the carving. It was goddess Nut who swallowed the sun every night and give birth in the morning but this one is different. This was Goddess Bes who was depicted as giving birth but you need to stand at various points to see it as there are depiction of nine people what representing nine months of pregnancy, also the swollen belly is from one point representing God Osiris face and from another point it is embryo and then there is Bes palm on which resting is disk with person inside what represent newly born. Had to be seen to understand but very amazing carving and if this will be cleaned / restored It could be easier recognized. Secondly the tombs underneath the temple are something to see and we were lucky that local person was there to open the cover let us in. I need to squeeze through small opening to get into tombs…
It was a very nice feeling, considering that I was under few hundred tons of rock and it was hot there but the energy was nice and I felt really good and in good spirit as I nearly laugh myself, what Kasia apparently did as she entered the tomb she start giggling. Energy is funny when you can feel it, you experience these temples on another level, not just visually but also spiritually.
Great carvings in narrow tombs where apparently Hathor and Osiris body parts rested as well as other tombs in the walls of various rooms as the man who opened the underground tomb told me that they are 12 of such tombs in this temple. There was the carving of famous “Light bulb” there in the underground tomb.
Also there is ladder to one of the burial tomb above ground what is one of those 12 and you can see the burial procession and casket carvings displayed on the walls. This was an beautiful temple and as one of the things what goddess Hathor was looking after was joy and love and therefore I felt joyful and happy so was Kasia and we had really enjoyed this trip, taking aside the fact that there was no time and place for lunch and had to literally run back to car as it was one minute to four. We hoped into the car nearly Tom Cruise style and the car started to move as apparently there was no convoy for 16:00 but our excellent driver explained to the army that we have to train to catch and that we have to go. Well private convoy only for us, King and Queen all the way to Luxor. The whole trip i.e rent a car with driver cost 1200 pounds which we split with Kasia on half so 600 each is not bad but I was a bit curious, however at the end I was so happy I went as we saw amazing things, talked to lovely driver and learn a bit about Egypt now and I could not asked for better company than Kasia. Only one downfall was that I should bought some food as reserve since not every town in Egypt is safe to be there as lone tourist and golden rule could be that when you need an individual transport, get your food supplies, lesson learned. Apparently there is no way to travel there on your own as no one will sell you ticket or take you in the bus but once someone went there on the train somehow and the policeman has to stay with the person at all the times, like personal bodyguard which I assume police did not like it too much. I have not attempted to try individual trip, so I would leave this experience for the rest of you to do so and let us know.
As we drove to Luxor the sunset was already in full swing at nice green countryside of Nile, which is something what really taken me by surprise as all you see is dessert, sand, stones all around. It was like when I was reading the old stories of Pharos and the fertile Nile floods.
On the way back we actually had some nice chat with the driver too as it is good to know what and how local people think. We discussed politics, economy and general topic of life and all. He said he is happy to talk but did not want disturb us in our conversation earlier. We approached the Luxor checkpoint where we were ticked of as returned tourist, so there is no need for search party and the permit was finally disposed of. Since we were starving driver dropped us off at the local El Zameer restaurant where they had a great falafel and not so great shawarma. Shawarma nothing special, lot of bread and little amount of meat in it as if the bread was vegetarian scared of meet but did not run fast enough to escape the meat. But Falafel was really lovely, yummy in the pita style bread with salad it was very refreshing and tasty. Good finish of the day and ready for a bed now.
