Wednesday 2/27/08

Last night marked another sleepless one for myself, which was most unfortunate because I feel like it really did take away from how much I could have really absorbed and enjoyed my day at the West Bank. However, as I mentioned to Dan this morning, at least with the West Bank being the land of the dead, I seemed to fit in well with my zombie like state of mind. Again I took a lot of pictures, but the internet/blogspot is being really touchy about uploading my photos right now. I have a full description of the Luxor trip documented, and about half of Karnak written up, so as soon as I can attach the images those entries will be available. I really put a lot of time into editting all of my photos and writing out descriptions of them...even to the point that I used in text citations! Seriously, they are like mini reports so I hope everyone enjoys them, not that I expect you to read everything, just scope out what you think looks cool.

Back to what I was saying....so I only slept for about an hour last night, and then I got up to have breakfast and head down to the site where I was introduced to Kaneawi, my driver for the day. His english was pretty good and he asked me a lot of questions. We went to the ferry and sailed across the Nile. There were about 5 or 6 hot air balloons scattered across the skyline. Kaneawi said that he used to work on the hot air balloons...at least I think that is what he said. The trip across the Nile is really short, only about 10 minutes. Once we docked he drove me back into the high cliffs, the same place where I visited the Valley of the Kings. I really wasn't sure what his duties to me were for that day, but a lot of the sites are really spread out across the landscape. Usually people travel in huge tour busses. He was quite sweet and had already planned out, what seemed to me a pretty good agenda. He would drop me off at a site, park, and wait for me to come back before driving me elsewhere. We started at Deir el Bahri, home of Queen Hatepshut's Mortuary Temple. Recall that Queen Hatepshut is one of the more well known instances where a woman held the throne over Egypt. Though famous for this title, she was probably not the only woman that assumed the role of pharaoh in Egypt. It is really amusing...when walking around temples and sites, Egyptians will always approach women with information about Hatepshut...they will show you where she is depicted in reliefs and hieroglyphs and really play on the hype of a dynastic feminism...not that I really mind or anything, I think Hatepshut was pretty badass too. However, I was kind of disappointed with her Mortuary Temple...I know a lot of it was destroyed and most of what you see is restoration, but I still had high hopes...again, lots of hype. The images against the high cliff backdrop though, are phenomenal. It was a completely alternative way to visually command and overpower the viewer that deterred from the previous trends in pyramid construction. I was really excited to see the birth collonade (actually I have found that any room where there are birthing scenes throughout all temples and reliefs really intrigue me...which is ironic because i hate babies). The Birth Collonade for Hatepshut was particularly important in representing her justified royal and divine right to rule. Since women were not allowed rule as Pharaohs, Hatepshut had to prove divine origin to legitimize her position. Additionally in her reliefs, she is depicted as male. As I said, i was really excited to see these images, but they were just really difficult to make out and I really just couldn't connect with the story and history the way i wanted to.

After Hatepshut's Temple at Deir el Bahri, I went to the Tombs of the Nobles. So the other day I had visited tombs of the New Kingdom Kings when I visite the Valley of the Kings. Visiting the Tombs of the Nobles was a superb way of comparing afterlife preparations between the royal kings and the elite who worked for them. I really enjoyed the Tombs of the Nobles, not only because they were just rich in color and structure, and all very different, but also, no other tourists were there. It was just me and who ever was overseeing the tomb at the time. Because it was just me (and because I had extra money) I was able to take pictures when normally people aren't allowed to...but that is not all i got to do. Allow me to backtrack. So this morning after breakfast Richard hands me something. It is a headband with a big ole light on it. A lot of times I just take things and figure out what I'm supposed to do with them later. So later comes, and I enter the Tomb of Userhet, scribe for Amenhotep II. By now this is the third tomb I've seen, and I'm kind of getting ADD about it, so I just kind of glance around. I peak around to the blocked off tomb shaft. Jokingly I ask if there's a mummy in there. Usually all mummies and such are removed, either having been looted some time in the past, or are on display at the Cairo Museum. So you can imagine my surprise when the guard tells me yes. I tell him I don't believe him and the next thing I know, he's removing the chain that blocks the entry. He asks me if I have a light...without missing a beat i bust out the headlight that richard had given me. The next thing I know, I am literally army crawling through the underground passage ways of Userhet's tomb. Heat hangs on me as I continue to inch over the dirt and rubble. The space is narrow, extremely narrow...think of it from this perspective. I love this stuff...haha i totally "dig" it...I'm not claustraphobic at all, and dead bodies don't bother me...and even I was seriously considering turning around and foregoing this experience. It was that difficult for even me to handle at the time, so if any of those things get to you, this could have been your nightmare turned reality. It was a good 3 minute journey into the underground, which as you can imagine seemed much longer and then there it was...the dismantled mummy of Userhet. The linen wrappings undone and charred black. The skull looking straight up at us and the pelvis to the right. The tomb of Userhet had been burned by the Coptics. All of the items were removed from the tomb, but because the mummy had been taken apart and burned, apparently the museums had no use or interest in it. Where the body was located was not the original resting place however, We moved further to where the sarcophagus would have been and there was the intact spine, sternum and vertebra. It was absolutely unreal. So yeah..that probably goes down as one of the most awesome things I've done.

After that, I really didn't know what could top it, and true probably nothing could, but I did continue to be impressed with everything else I saw today. I went and visited the site of Deir el Medina, which is a worker's town kind of similar in function and idea to the site at Giza that my thesis research was based on. Also here is temple, which from far away just does not seem very impressive, basically just ruin...but I actually adored it once I was inside. Kamil mentions that most visitors skip over it because it does not seem nearly as lavish or magnificent compared to Luxor and Karnak and others, but that such a choice is most unfortunate. I would have to agree and am very glad that I chose to go see it (I too almost passed when I saw the lil hike involved). Rich in history, this temple encompasses both trends in Egyptian and Greccoroman style. Again when the internet isn't being a pain, I will post images.

So even though I continue to be pleasantly surprised..(you know at some point you start thinking, you've seen one, you've seen them all, or that your brain simply does not have any more room to really appreciate any other ancient monument, image, or artifact) I am really thinking I want to just stop for the day. Had I been with other people I think I would have been even more antsy and counting down the time until we could leave. But since I was by myself, I was better able to self check and gather my patience...and boy is it a good thing I did, because the next thing I visited is probably my favorite that I have seen in Egypt so far. Seriously...I wish I could have photgraphed every inch of this place, and even then I could not even come close to giving you a glimpse that does it justice. I was in awe. If you are in Egypt, and you ask me what I think you absolutely must see, I will say, "Do not leave until you have seen the Mortuary Temple of Ramses II, or the Ramasseum." I will definitely detail, at length, all the images once i can post them...hell maybe I will even do an entire entry on it by itself. The place was just COVERED in inscriptions and large (LARGE) scale reliefs. I just tried to look for a virtual tour of it online, but couldn't find one, but if there was one I would post it. Haha sorry this entry must just seem like a big tease...

The Ramasseum was my last stop and then I went with Kaneawi to his village to see his house and his wife. He lived in a mudbrick house where some rooms had open roofs, while others were covered. It was along a small canal with a vast farm of the greenest land behind it. I don't see this kind of green in the United States ever...but I haven't really been to many farmlands throughout it either. He invited me in to have tea. He showed me around his home, showing me pictures from his wedding album. His wife had just finished making soup and it was offered to me. Now...this is where I started to go into a foreigner's dizzy. First of all, I'm a vegetarian...but I also know that turning down food would have been an extremely insulting gesture...or to even begin to complain or be picky about food in such a poor area of the world, and such a poor area of this country, would have been dispicable on my part, so meat or no meat, I was going to eat it. But, nonetheless, I do ask how its made...naturally, rural Egypt soup making is not done by purchasing stock at the store so the first answer I hear is, "Oh you boil the water...." Water Water, oh crap, I''m thinking. I remember earlier, kaneawi point out to me how they got their water, via a man and a donkey-pulled, wagon carrying a huge metal apparatus resembling a gas tank. Not to mention, there is not a single bottle of water in this home. At the dig site, all you see are boxes and boxes of bottled water...but of course, people cannot afford to use bottled water ( I probably couldn't either if the water wasn't safe for me in the U.S.!). And if you grew up on the local water, the bacteria is not a problem...however for me, and anyone else who doesn't live in Egypt, it would be, which is why when you travel to places like Egypt, or Mexico etc, you aren't supposed to drink the water. I had no idea what to do...do I turn down this soup, and the tea I know is to follow, because the water could make me really sick? Do I disrespect this man who has spent the entire day driving me around, talking with me, befriending me...Of course I know the answer...the answer is no. The answer is eat the soup, drink the tea, tell the story whether it turns out ugly or not. Well, I do try and leave as much of the water broth as I can, to which Kaneawi says, "Oh make sure you drink this part, it's the best." Bottoms up. I do it. I did it...and I'll let you know if I'm puking my brains out two days from now. Later when I came home and told Richard, he assured me that I would probably be fine and that I did the right thing.

Once we finished tea and talking, Kaneawi brought me back to the ferry and I sailed home. I took a shower, and then a much needed nap. Afterwards, i decided to walk to the store to get some pop/soda/coke. There were no cold ones, but the store merchant said he would get some, so i sat in the store and talked with some of the other men in there about my inability to speak arabic. I had them help me with pronounciation until he came back. At first he tried to scam me on the proper amount of change and I refused to leave the store until given what was owed to me. He finally did, and then I went back to the hotel and practiced more arabic with the hotel clerk.

Then i came up stairs and started writing! Now I am going to go get some dinner. Upon my return I will retry with the pictures.

A note to my family: not that I expect e-mails everyday or anything, but KEEP ME POSTED ON THINGS TOO. Ahem...me reading Janel's ambiguous away message about the hospital inspired an onslaught of fear and worry, and even though I know she's okay, that's not very fair! I want to know things that are happening there too...that goes with everyone. Let me know what is happening, AS IT HAPPENS, in your lives, back in the states.


(as always, i abstain from proofreading)