Luxor and Aswan

Well, I'm just back from a week and a half long trip to Upper Egypt and Cairo.  Upper Egypt is actually southern Egypt, but the land is elevated higher in the South thus granting it its name.  One consequence of this is that the Nile flows from the South to the North.

In any case, so there we were.  It was the whole group of us - American students, our teachers, and Egyptian friends and colleagues.  We numbered about 50+ all in all.  Luxor and Aswan.  The place where more than a third of the World's ruins and ancient artifacts lies.  Yea, a third of them.  All in one place. I had always thought the Magic School Bus was something of a child's learning tool, on this trip though, it had never been more of a reality.

Here are some places we went:

• The Valley of the Kings.  This is where a whole bunch of kings over the passage of the centuries decided to inter their remains and create for themselves an everlasting kingdom in the afterlife.  Picture a valley of rocks hundreds of meters high.  The color green doesn't exist.  Who knows the last time rain graced this place?  The valley is long, kilometers probably.  At every turn there is a tomb.  A door leading into an underground passage way carved out of the rock leading to the decorated resting places dedicated to those who used to lie in them (most of the mummies and their belongings have either been stolen or taken to museums).  This is the valley where our boy Tut-ankh-amun lives.  The most widely known mummy and Egyptian pharaoh of them all, yet he did practically nothing during his rule and died young.  His fame came about because his tomb was the only found completely intact with all the belongings still present.
• al-Dier al-Bahari Temple.  This was confusing and in the middle of nowhere.  I don't remember much about it honestly.   
• Karnak Temple.  Absolutely awesome.  Huge.  The biggest one in Egypt if I'm not mistaken.  I have no idea how they hoisted their craft of carved and decorated rocks transformed into pillars, walls, and ceilings that big into their present places.  The complex itself is huge as well and its history spans centuries. 
• Luxor Temple.  Also really big.  The second or third largest in Egypt I think.  One reason these temples get so big is the kings desires for show and consolidation of power.  As one king dies and another takes over he might remove the name of the previous king and dedicate his monuments to himself.  On top of that he would build more structures to show his might and kingship.  And thus continued the shifting sands of lordly displays of power.  This is also where there is a statue (I'm writing this from memory, I hope I'm not wrong) of Tut-Ankh-Amun's father who tried to unite the polytheistic religion/worship of Egypt at that time around one god, Aten, and thus make Egypt monotheistic.  His efforts were a burden on the clergy whom thrived upon polytheism and the ban on the worship of Amun of lasted only a short while and was reversed under his son's short lived rule.  In fact, Tut-Ankh-Amun's name as given him by his father was Tut-Ankh-Aten.  When the young prince ascended the throne at the death of his father (was it assassination by the clergy?) he changed his name to what we know it as now (Amun being the head god of the other gods).
• Kom Ombo Temple.  They used to raise live crocodiles here in reverence of the Crocodile God.  It is dedicated to another deity as well.  It is also here where one of the rulers decided to portray himself larger than the main god effectively showing his deification of his own self.
• Edfu Temple.  Dedicated to the main god, Horace.  Some of these temples, such as this one, show an interesting play between the older polytheistic, pharaonic cultures and the rise of the Christian kingdom.  Much of the defacement (literally) of sculptures, engravings, and the such comes from Christian attempts at preventing worship other than theirs.
• Philae Temple.  Water levels rised and submerged about half of this temple before UNESCO undertook to move it to another nearby island.  
• Abu Simbil Temples.  Originally built far away from the heart of his empire, whatever pharaoh it was that built this giant thing aimed at a glorifying himself a little more than his people would have accepted at the time.  He also dedicated a separate hall to his favorite wife.  However the temple became completely covered in sand except for the very tip-top decorations (a row of baboons) and was largely forgotten until recovered again by the Italians.  Due to rising water levels from the Aswan Dam threatening the temple UNESCO completely moved the temple complex to its present complex.  It took a number of years.  That's probably due in part to the fact that Ramses II's (i.e.- "whatever pharaoh it was that built this thing") head weighed in at a whopping 25 tons.  

         Unesco gets a 99.5 out of a 100 for a near perfect undertaking in moving this large, complicated     complex and setting it up exactly as it was originally laid out.  The only problem is that the back room contains the statues of four gods, three of which see the sunlight shining in through the front door of the temple onto their faces twice a year on exactly the same dates each year.  When Unesco moved the temples they miscalculated (astronomy is harder than one thought?) and now the sun peeps its head in one day later than the original calculations.  So, presently, on Feb. 22 and Oct. 22 the statues get their yearly dosage of vitamin D.  The fourth statue is the god of the underworld so he doesn't get to tan.

The two solar dates refer to Ramses' birthday and his coronation day to become deified or ascend to the throne, I'm not certain.  Another tour guide said that it could possibly mean the spring and fall harvests.

Pretty fascinating stuff!

A big shout out goes to our tour guides who rocked the boat, tired themselves out for us, and taught us more about Egypt and Egyptians than we could have asked for.  

والله والله علاء الدين ومحمد ومحمد وميادة انا مش قادر اشكركم كفاية

I spent three days in Cairo after the trip...I hope to write about that next.