Day 8                    14 October 2021            Temple of Hathor at Dendera and Luxor Temple

 This morning we had a very early wake-up for our visit to the Temple of Hathor at Dendera, located in the town of Qena, about 40 miles north of Luxor.  We arrived at the Temple at 7:00 AM!  It is considered one of the best-preserved temple complexes in Egypt.  This temple, dedicated to Hathor, the goddess of maternal and family love, was built by the Romans and Greeks during the Ptolemaic era (circa AD 14-37) and also contains depictions and carvings of Cleopatra VII and her son (fathered by Julius Caesar).  Cleopatra is shown as a goddess of Isis to immortalize herself with Isis and proclaim her identity as a divine ruler.   The propylon or ornamental gate also includes carvings of Domitian and Trajan, Roman emperors who also ruled over Egypt after the death of Cleopatra.  Hathor is sometimes shown as a cow, but her most common depiction is of a woman wearing a headdress of cow horns and a sun disk.

 The temple complex contains birth houses (which honored the birth of a god or goddess), a Coptic church, the Hathor Temple, the Hypostyle Hall, and a sacred lake.  The outer walls of the hall were constructed with 24 columns each containing the face of Hathor on its four sides.  But, perhaps, the most striking feature of the Hall is its ceiling – an astronomical ceiling decorated with vultures, winged disks, the union between Hathor and Horus, and a symbolic chart of the two halves of the sky with both northern and southern constellations, the hours of day and night, the sun and the moon, and the symbols of the zodiac (known as Zodiac of Dendera) .  It was the Romans that introduced to Egyptians to the zodiac.  The slab containing the Zodiac of Dendera is only a copy – the original lies in the Louvre in Paris.

 After touring the complex, we returned to the ship for lunch.  In the afternoon the ship cruised back to Luxor.  We enjoyed the passing scenery of the every-day life along the Nile, including the farmers in their fields and women doing the laundry on the banks of the river.

 We arrived back in Luxor in the late afternoon and left for another highlight of our trip – a night visit to the Temple of Luxor, a large ancient Egyptian temple complex located on the east bank of the Nile River, adjacent to the town that bears its name.  Unlike most ancient temples, Luxor is not dedicated to god or a deified version of a deceased pharaoh.  It was built as a rejuvenation of kingship, and it is believed that this was where many of the Egyptian pharaohs were crowned.  Even Alexander the Great claimed he was crowned here, but there is no evidence he ever traveled south of Memphis which is 388 miles north of Luxor.  The temple was built by Amenhotep III (1390-52 BCE) but added to by Tutankhamun (1336-27 BCE) and Ramses II.  Even Alexander the Great is thought to have added to the Temple.  During the Roman era, the temple was not only a fortress, but the home of the Roman government in this area.

Guarding both sides of the Temple’s entrance are the two seated figures of Ramses II.  Made of pink granite and measuring 46 feet in height, it portrays Ramses wearing a traditional royal headdress.  Inside the hypostyle hall are 32 large carved columns, symbolically holding up the heavens.  On the floor around the base of the columns are carved phases of the moon.  The southernmost row is the new moon as there is nothing carved there while the next row shows the crescent moon and succeeding rows show the fuller phases of the moon.  Unfortunately, the last row showing the full moon has been covered over with paving blocks.  Also inside the temple are the seated figures of King Tut and his wife.  Within the temple are smaller chapels built by Amenhotep III and Alexander the Great.

 After Christianity replaced the pagan worship, a church and monastery were built, and later, with the arrival of Islam, the 13^th century Mosque of Abu el-Haggag was constructed and continues to be in use today.

The Temples of Luxor and Karnak served as a backdrop for one of Ancient Egypt’s most important festivals – the festival of Opet which honored the god Amun by conducting a religious procession along the Nile from Karnak to Luxor (as explained in my earlier blog on Karnak).  Tonight, we were able to get a closer view of the Avenue of the Sphinxes, although it is not yet open to the public.

 It was amazing to see the temple all lit up at night.  There was still a lot of activity around the temple as they are getting ready to celebrate the grand re-opening of the Avenue.

Today the Temple is surrounded by a busy modern city.  In the city is the early 20^th century Winter Palace Hotel.  It was here that Howard Carter announced the discovery of King Tut’s tomb and Agatha Christie wrote “Death on the Nile.”

 After our return to the ship and dinner we were entertained with a belly dancer.  While we think of Turkey and the Middle East as the origin of this type of dance, it was actually the Egyptians in the 18^th century that created this art form.  The performers, known as ghawazee (traveling dancers) used flowy costumes, clinking castanets, and deliberate movements to wow their viewers.  The twirling Egyptian (as I called him) kept taking another round bowl until he was holding 6 and still dizzily twirling around for about 5 minutes!  Now when you see the pictures of our belly dancer, you may thinking (as I was) – how long will it be before she pops out of her top.  We do not know the certain, but we think she did a quick turn around to fix her top during the dance!  On that note, I will end this blog.

 

Temple of Luxor

Propylon with carvings of Domitian and Trajan

On of the Birth Houses at Temple of Hathor

Temple of Hathor

Hypostyle Hall in Temple of Hathor

Ceiling in the Hypostyle Hall

Carvings of Hathor on the top of the columns

Ceiling in the Hypostyle Hall

Carvings on one of the columns

Beautiful ceiling inside the temple

Another picture of the ceiling

Intricate carvings on the wall of the temple

Zodiac ceiling in the Temple of Hathor

Ruins of the coptic church at the Temple

Luxor Temple at night - statues of Ramses II

Two statues of Ramses II guard the entrance
to the Temple

Hypostyle Hall inside Temple of Luxor

More statues inside the temple

Islamic mosque inside the temple

Luxor Temple at night with the moon

Inside the Luxor Temple

Hypostyle Hall

One of the chapels inside the Temple

Carvings on the wall of the Sancuary

Avenue of the Sphinxes

Belly Dancer

Belly Dance

She has no competition from us!

The Twirling Egyptian

The Twriling Egyptian with 3 baskets

And now with 5

And Finally with six!

The Electric Twirling Egyptian

The Twirling Egyptian

Sunset on the Nile

Statue of King Tut and his queen in
Luxor Temple

 Day 7          13 October 2021            A Day in the Life Of

Today we participated in one of OAT’s unique discovery sessions – a Day in the Life Of.  We spent the day with an Egyptian farm family, learning how they farm, the obstacles they encounter, helping with the chores, and enjoying a homemade lunch with them.  While the west side of the Nile is home to the ancient ruins of the Luxor and Karnack Temples and the Old Winter Palace Hotel, the east side is less developed and is home to subsistence farmers with homes built from mud bricks or concrete and surrounded by date palm, henna, and fruit trees.

We started the day by taking a motorboat across the river where we were met by the son of Ahmed al Azab, a farmer and local leader in this small farming village.  His son is 16 and speaks fluent English.  From the boat he took us on a tour of his village, pointing out the fields that are farmed, the local farm animals (cows, donkeys, and one camel), and some of the homes that the villagers live in.  He pointed out how high the water rose from the last flood and showed us remnants of the water still in some of the fields.  Now that the floods are over, the farmers have begun to cultivate their fields.  Our tour ended at his house where we met his father Ahmed.  Like his son, Ahmed spoke perfect English.  His son said his goodbyes as it was time for him to go to school.  He hopes one day to go to college in the US and we certainly hope he can achieve his dream.  Ahmed spoke about the house in which he and his family, his brothers and their families, and his mother all live.  His mother owns the house and he proudly showed off his handiwork in enlarging the house to accommodate all the people living there. 

He also told the story of his 95-year-old mother.  Her one wish was to travel to Mecca for the Haj pilgrimage (all muslins are asked to take at least one trip to Mecca, if they are able).  Ahmed volunteered to take his mother and she was so delighted that she asked 6 of her old friends to join them – probably a little more than Ahmed had bargained for.  But off they went, first taking a cruise to Saudi Arabia and then a bus to Mecca.  While at Mecca, Ahmed said that he lost contact with the seven elderly women and spent about 3 hours trying to find them.  All ended well, and they so enjoyed it that he took the group on another pilgrimage to Mecca.  But this time he asked the ladies to please wear an orange scarf so he could easily find them.

He then showed us some of the furniture that he makes using tools that his grandfather had used.  He does not use any nails, but rather punches holes in the wood strips with metal chisels and pushes other strips into the holes.  He uses his toes a lot to hole the wood strips (I probably would not have any toes left if I tried it!).  His furniture is beautiful and very comfortable.  He also showed us how he makes rope from the raffia fiber of the date palm tree.  Raffia fiber comes from the membrane on the underside of the date palm leaf.   Bill even tried his hand at making the rope and did a great job – now we have a piece of bark rope to add to our souvenirs.

We then followed Ahmed into his fields where he showed us how he planted his crops – onions, garlic, wheat, corn.  He also has mango and date palm trees.  Then, it was our turn to try our hand at planting.  It is hard work as they do not use any of the modern equipment that our farmers use.

By now we had worked up a big appetite, so we walked back to the house where his wife and mother had cooked a delicious lunch for us – rice, cooked vegetables, a delicious flatbread cooked in a dirt oven in the back of his house.  His mother even showed us how she ground the wheat using a 100-year-old millstone.  It was not easy turning the heavy stone around on top of the wheat.  For beverages, we had water and hibiscus tea.  The Egyptian think the hibiscus tea has many health benefits, but it does take a little getting used to and a little sugar.  While Americans generally enjoy a cold drink on a hot day, the Egyptians (wise as they are) know that a warm drink tricks the body into cooling off.

All too soon our visit was over.  This was one of the best discovery adventures that we have had.  This was not a tourist attraction, but hard-working, regular Egyptians.  Our host was very welcoming, and we enjoyed talking with him.  We also enjoyed his 3-year-old nephew who crashed our visit and amused us with his antics – fortunately Ahmed was close by when the little boy tried to pick up a sharp tool used for cutting.

We walked back to the Nile River where we all enjoyed a 45-minute sail aboard a felucca.  These wooden-hulled boats with a lateen, or triangular sail, are an icon on the river and we will see many of them as we cruise down to Aswan.  Our trip across the river included a sail by Luxor Temple, which we will visit tomorrow.

After we were all onboard again, our ship set sail for Qena.  We will actually be sailing back toward Cairo to reach Qena which is about 32 miles north of Luxor.  It was a lovely treat to sit on our balcony or take a quick dip in the pool and watch the scenery along the banks of the Nile and the busy activities on the river itself.

Dinner on board the ship culminated an absolutely wonderful and educational day.  This is how travel should be.

Our motorboat ride across the Nile

Local villagers mode of transportation

Carrying a load of dried corn stalks

Still flooded farming fields

Our host's 3-year-old nephew

Our host Ahmed

Our host's son leaving for school

Table built by Ahmed

An old knife used to cut the strips of wood

Punching holes in the strips of wood

Strips with the holes

Pushing strips through the holes to create a
lattice effect

Making wood from raffia fiber

Raffia fiber on the date palm tree

Bill making rope

The finished rope

Getting ready to plant onions

Grinding the wheat kernels into flour

Chair made by Ahmed

Felucca ride by Luxor Temple

Nefertiti in Luxor

Sailing along the Nile

Home along the Nile

Homes along the Nile

Fishing along the Nile

Swimming in the Nile

Small town along the Nile