Chasing Temples But Finding The Real Egypt

An Egyptian across me in the train

Sugarcane fields...gift of the Nile

After the frantic schedule of the previous day on the west bank there was to be no let up for the following day. The plan was to head north from Luxor along the Nile towards the town of Abydos before looping back to Luxor with a stopover at another town called Dendera.

Singing about his love...with a corn stub as mic

Outside the temple at Abydos

At these places lay two of the best preserved Egyptian temples. Moreover they were off the tourist circuit which meant they would be sans the hassle. Abydos was particularly far so I tried to find a group interested in going there so we could share the costs of the day trip. Unfortunately, that did not work out but seeking other tourists I ran into the owner of one hostel curiously called Bob Marley who invited me for coffee while he got some Sheesha (hookah) that are so ubiquitous in Egypt.

The temple of Seti I at Abydos

Hypostyle hall inside the temple

He was a real nice guy because although I did not stay at his place he was sympathetic to my cause. He reckoned that if I get a very early start I could do it by myself by taking local transports. He wrote down details on a piece of paper and wished me good luck.

First I had to catch the early morning train out of Luxor. Fortunately, The railway station was convenient located right in the center of town so it didn’t take me long to walk there from my hostel. Then I was to get down at the town of al-Bayana about 89kms from Luxor. Egypt’s railways much like most other countries around the world are the legacy of colonial masters and in this case it was the British. There’s little significant investment that’s gone into them since independence attested by the recent fatal train accident that got international media attention so the journey to al-Bayana would be a slow three hours.

Beautifully preserved painted bas relief carving

Anubis

I got a ticket in the second class and judging by the curiosity that I was to the locals in the coach, it seems as though only a small fraction of the thousands of tourists visiting Egypt each year use rail as their means of transport. The coach was dominated by a bunch of army men but all of them were very young at around 20-22 years. Although none were able to speak English, we managed to chat quite a bit over the course of the next couple hours.

Above: Example of shallow relief carving
Above Right: Example of bas relief carving

Osiris: God of the underworld with wife Isis

I learnt that they were posted in Luxor but were heading back to their villages for their holidays. It was quite fascinating to hear them rattle off the names of some of the most popular Indian Hindi film stars. This was not an isolated incident as I have found out that Amitabh Bachchan is wildly popular in Egypt. Infact his name became a sort of introductory icebreaker whenever an Egyptian learnt that I was Indian with the next question being if I knew him. The army kids as I would like to call them were quite a chirpy lot. They sang some Arabic songs and in return I had to subject them to my bad singing skills but they didn’t notice I guess since I got a good round of applause.

Pharaoh...Seti I i think

Seti I with his son (Ramses II) catching a bull for sacrifice

Perhaps it was the good time I was having or my incorrect interpretation of what was scribbled on the directions but I somehow ended up missing my stop at al-Bayana. The next stop was Sohag which was a further 46kms away. An hour and half later I bid goodbye to the folks in my coach and proceeded to find a public transport heading back to al-Bayana. Sohag was a decent size city but possibly does not see any tourist traffic and that explains why the people where laidback and friendly as they guided me towards the bus station from where I would take a minibus back to al-Bayana. As I got into al-Bayana, the driver of the minibus personally introduced me to the driver of another taxi that would take me from al-Bayana to the village of Abydos a further 11kms away.

Another depiction of Seti I with his son (Ramses II The Great) who is
just a kid here

Police and his ride!

The temple of Abydos was mundane from outside but the real charms were hidden inside in the shape of wonderfully well preserved bas relief paintings. The temples I had seen so far had great relief work but the color on them had faded; in Abydos they were fantastically well preserved. 

Kids at Abydos

He is showing me the pose
of Amitabh Bachchan :)

Being a temple dedicated to the cult of the god of underworld, Osiris, it had numerous depiction of this blue skinned god who is portrayed partially wrapped as a mummy along with his wife and sister Isis (weird?). After wandering in there for a while I got a tuk-tuk back to al-Bayana and the driver proudly pointed out that it was a Bajaj and was made in India. The Indian rickshaw has quite a monopoly in the Egyptian market and it’s a fascinating model of globalization that an Indian auto company has a monopoly all the way in North Africa. Ok, we are not talking of sophisticated engineering here but then it’s still a matter of pride.

The sugar cone guy

That's all i got to see of the temple at Dendera

Rally in support of President Mursi

Back at al-Bayana, I caught a train heading south towards the town of Qena and met some great Egyptians eager to interact with me but did not know a word of English. Throughout my travels I have seen it often but it still never ceases to amaze me how humans who cannot speak the same language can interact with just a little bit of patience and understanding.

Egyptian wedding with the bride all decked out

Among the several Egyptians I met that day, one was a shy individual who although initially hesitated to interact seemingly due to the language barrier gradually opened up. He was a small sugarcane farmer who made brown sugar cones similar to ice-cream cones and then travelled village to village to sell them in his little basket.

After disembarking from the train I was a little lost in a town I did not know and hardly anyone speaking anything other than Arabic. The sugar cone seller walked with me before he left his basket with a fellow seller and then walked me to the bus station and assisted me to get a minibus to Qena. All of a sudden, he waved goodbye, turned around and disappeared into the crowd just like that; so fast in fact that I could not give him baksheesh.

The eastern side of Karnak temple



Depiction of lion in shallow relief

As I write this, Egypt is a memory having already returned back to Liberia. Of all things in there, I detest most being hassled for a baksheesh. On the same token, I don’t have any regret from the whole of my journey in Egypt except one…not giving a baksheesh as my token of appreciation to the sugar cone seller. I am sure he did not expect it, nor does he miss it but it would have been nice to have helped a good man.

Example of bas relief on the walls of Karnak temple

After all the hoops I jumped through (I even took a bicycle with no breaks), I ended up being late by 10 minutes at the temple of Dendera. There were no regrets though as I set the day chasing temples but what I encountered was the real face of Egypt that most don’t often get to see; the army kids, the old man across me in the train who acted as a translator, the numerous people who guided me through the day and last but not the least, the sugar cone seller whose name I don’t even know.

Common Pharaonic depiction of defeating an enemy...in this case it's
the Persians or Hittites judging by their beard

Great hypostyle hall

From the impressively well laid out Qena I took a minibus back to Luxor and on it I met Michael, a Coptic Christian who spoke fluent English and Russian and was specializing in being a guide for Russian tourists in Egypt. I agreed to join him for tea later that night after supper and a good shower back at the hostel.

Back in Luxor, as I walked pass the train station I witnessed a big rally in support of President Mohamed Mursi. As I asked a fellow onlooker if it was ok to take pictures I was asked by one of the leaders of the rally to walk with him while he explained to me that the rally was in support of the president and his calls for changes to the Egyptian constitution.

Karnak Temple complex

Avenue of Rams overlooking the great court of the complex

Huge collonade

Kiosk of Taharqa...the black pharaoh

As the rally passed by, things immediately got back to normal; even an Egyptian wedding with music and singing on the streets went back as if nothing had happened.

Later than night I returned back to Michael’s shop for what would be my easiest conversation with an Egyptian. We spoke on various interesting topics including the life of the Coptic Christians who constitute about one tenth of Egypt’s population, thoughts on President Mursi’s new constitution and yes Kamasutra (yeah…that’s what I get for being from India :)

The only think that was left to do in Luxor now was visit the last and perhaps the more celebrated of Luxor’s Egyptian temples. The temple is a huge complex with extraordinary collection of temples, pylons, chapels obelisks, statues, and other religious sites that was constructed and expanded by several pharaohs over a period of over two millennia.

An Egyptian girl sitting in front
of one column in the
great hypostube hall

One individual from the Avenue of Rams at the
entrance of the temple

This was the second most visited places place in Egypt after the pyramids at Giza so I had to go there before the crowd. I convinced Eric to head there first thing the next morning even though it was tough to get up that early for a third day running after a pretty draining day before.

The temple complex was not very different from Luxor except that it was way larger; no wonder it’s on the top of the list of tourists who visit Egypt. It was wonderful to walk around this astounding temple complex in the morning light when there was hardly anybody there. By around 8:30am the tourists were starting to trickle in and it was flooding by 9:30am by which time we were done.

Next stop for me was back to Aswan while Eric was to continue towards Hurghada. I wished him well and then it was time to catch the train to Aswan. I had to see if my visa to Sudan was approved and there was the small matter of visiting Abu Simbel, the one thing I really wanted to visit in Egypt. More about it in my next blog.