A Petra-fying Experience

Today I had arranged for a private taxi to take me down to Petra from Amman. The journey is a good 3 hours long, so I decided to be up nice and early once more to maximise the day I had there. The journey to Petra is fairly uninspiring, as all you see for miles around you is desert (the Jordanian desert) with the occasional town/herd of camels thrown in. My driver was Samir, who could not speak great English, but seemed friendly enough (which is always good as I have to spend 6 hours cooped up with him).As we started getting near to Petra, the landscape started to change, and it was much more impressive, with miles of flat desert being replaced with mountains.

Finally we arrived, and I managed to get a lovely view of the town of Petra as we approached. There are two options for getting down to the ruins; you can walk, or you can take a horse/camel or donkey ride. I decided to walk down, as it would enable me to stop and take photos along the way.The ruins of Petra are in a siq. This is a canyon that has been created due to seismic shifts in the tectonic plates (earthquakes), the force of which ripped the stones in two. This has created a truly amazing path down to the ancient city, and I was snapping away furiously at everything along the way. The enclosed nature of the siqs does mean though that caution needs to be exercised if it looks like it is prone to rain there (which from my experience of the middle east can't be that often) as some of them can be prone to flash flooding because they are so narrow.

The journey down the siq was surprisingly long, I kept thinking we must be at the city by now, whenever i saw a bend in the path, thinking it would open up and reveal the city, but no, it just continued on and on. Along the way I met an Australian girl, Pippy, who was with an unofficial "guide", and we ended up walking around together. Single women touring in the middle east attract far more attention than single men, and i think she acquired Omar as a result of this attention. If I am honest, he seemed a bit put out that I was tagging along with them, preferring to have Pippy all to himself, and kept trying to get rid of me in subtle little ways, which was actually quite amusing.

A view looking back up the siq at some lazies using a horse!!

After what seemed like an interminably long walk, I rounded a corner and got a glimpse of the Treasury peeking back at me from the siq. This really was one of those hair standing on the back of your neck moments, and I stared in awe at the tiny sliver I could see from the siq. Ever since I was a young lad (many moons ago now) I remember seeing a picture of this place and wanting to go and visit it and here I was, all these years later, looking at it with my own eyes.

The first glimpse of the treasury from the siq. Hairs
were tingling at the back of my neck at this sight.....

A zoomed in view, trying to cut out the masses......

The money shot, the Treasury in all its glory!! Do you
notice the red tinge from the way that the sun hits it?

The treasury is absolutely gorgeous, it is an amazing sculptural feat by the Nabataeans (which is the name for the Bedouin tribes). The outer casing of the treasury is spectacular, but the inside of it is actually very bland, there is one room that is just square and unadorned in the same way. One thing that really struck me about the ancient city of Petra was that one day was never going to be enough time to visit everything in the area. There is a monastary which is about a 5km walk into the mountains, which would have been nice to see, but I only had 6 hours of visiting time, and I needed to cram in as much as possible.

We walked around the city, taking pictures of the scenic views as much as the buildings within, marvelling at the wonderful swirlling colours of the rock, and the tombs chiselled out of them. There is a courthouse (so Omar told us) up one of the mountainsides, so it was a pretty light trek up, and had a nice view of the city looking down. I can only imagine what the views were like from the High place of Sacrifice (another site in Petra, at the top of the mountain).

A view of part of Petra, all carved out of the mountainside - Impressive!

I completely lost track of time, until I started to feel hungry. My early start had meant that I had not had any breakfast, and it was now 1:30pm and I was famished. We sat and ate lunch, by which time, Pippy and Omar had decided to wander up to the monastery. I was due to meet my driver by 4pm for the journey home, and so I reluctantly left them (much to the relief of Omar) and started making my way back up to the top of the siq, taking pictures as I went.

The journey back up is one i can understand people taking donkeys and horses back up for, but these poor creatures do not look in the best of health and I was not keen on seeing the donkeys being whipped so that they would run uphill (in the baking sun), so I made the decision to walk it back. This also meant that I could get some photos coming back out of the siq too.

I took some more photos of the treasury as I walked past it again. It is quite interesting that at different times of the day it has a different hue to it. When i took photos of it in the morning it was rose red (Petra is actually nicknamed the Rose-red city), but when I returned, it was a golden colour. I lingered around here for some more shots before finally making the long journey back to the surface. I have to admit that by the end of the trek out of the siq, which had taken me about an hour, I was feeling pretty exhausted but at the same time I also felt quite exhilerated and even spent a few minutes haggling with a store owner over a rather tacky Petra hat and t-shirt.

The treasury is thronging with people all of the time,
so this shot is quite lucky. Notice the different colour?

Finally we started the long journey home. I was slowly nodding off, when Samir slammed on his breaks. Standing in the middle of the road was a group of camels, idly milling around. I have heard of humps in the road, but this was ridiculous! Still, I can understand why he braked like he did, as hitting a rabbit is one thing, but hitting a camel would have wiped out the car (they are bigger than a horse). The remainder of the journey was uneventful, the sun was setting and i was slowly nodding off in the car. We got home at about 8pm, which was not bad going, but it was a long day, and after showering and ordering room service, I was soon in bed and sound asleep.

When the sign said humps in the road for 50 yards,
I did not realise that it would be so literal................

I will add pictures later, i have taken almost one thousand, so sorting through them will take time, plus i was too tired to attempt this last night!

Memphis and Saqqara

Today I have booked myself on a tour of Memphis, the original capital of Egypt and Saqarra, another site just outside of Cairo which was pyramids. The Giza pyramids are the most famous purely because of the size of them, but there are many pyramids scattered along the Nile Valley, and these particular pyramids are some of the earliest known pyramids in Egypt, so it is interesting to go and see how the art of pyramid design began and was slowly perfected over the centuries.

Memphis is all much of a muchness, it is another temple dedicated to the God Ptah, who is the creator god of Egyptian mythology, that has been heavily ruined by people either taking the stones to use in other buildings, or by Macedonian conquerors (aka Alexander the Great) who wanted to crush the people’s belief in these gods and replace them with their own.

Token Sphinx shot at Memphis (not in Tennessee)

Still there was a very impressive statue of Ramses II in the little micro-museum they had on site. I say micro because i estimate that there were only about 10 exhibits in the whole place, this thing being so big it too up most of the room!

Ramses II statue that fills up the micro-Museum

After that, we moved on to the main visit of the day at Saqqara. There are a few pyramids here, but all are significantly smaller than their cousins at Giza (pronounced Geez-ay). The first pyramid we saw was the pyramid of Teti, which from the external shots looks just like a mound of sand in the middle of the desert, with a load of bricks scattered on the top.

No, not just a mound of sand, to the trained eye, this is a pyramid

Shot from the other side, this is the entrance to the pyramid of Teti

Sure enough though, we reached the entrance which led down into the ground and after a few metres walking, I was in the inner chamber of the pyramid. This one was actually much nicer than the ones in Giza for several reasons; it was less humid in there, it was less arduous a trek to reach this pharaohs tomb it was less crowded, and at the end of it there was actually something to see! Yes, this pyramids walls were covered with inscriptions and hieroglyphs, so it made it all the more worthwhile to visit. The sad thing with most of these monuments is that the sheer weight of traffic (which i freely admit i was adding to) is damaging them on an unprecedented scale. My tour guide explained that when he was younger, the roof of this chamber has a blue sky and yellow stars, but the years of accumulated sweat moistening the atmosphere in the place had slowly bleached all the colour of it which seems a real shame.

A quick note about the guides, they are not allowed into the pyramids, as the Egypt Tourist board (or whoever manages the sites), wants to keep the flow of tourists moving quickly through the place, and not getting held up with guides wittering on. Therefore what usually happens is several groups congregate outside the front of the entrance are quickly informed about what to look at, and then all rush to get in there first!

Across from the pyramid of Teti is some tombs to important figures in Egyptian culture at the time, but not worthy of a pyramid (which was reserved only for the pharaohs as far as i can tell). Usually high ranking officials, priests and the like would have tombs near to their kings, the plebs would be just thrown in the Nile for crocodiles to eat presumably.


Anyway, for our tour guide, I give ten out of ten for enthusiasm about his culture, as he delights in showing silly western tourists how Egyptians discovered/invented all manner of inventions thousands of years before the concept of “patent offices” had even been thought of. I have to question some of his interpretations of the pictures though. For example a man with some reeds tied around him was deemed by the guide to be the first example of a life jacket, whereas it looked to me (admittedly i have an untrained eye in such matters) as a man just carrying some reeds. That is an important thing to note, the guides are all good fun, but there are points where I think they tell a story, because it is more exciting, rather than just sticking to the facts. So, these days whenever i go out with a guide, i take a pinch of salt with me (and my lonely planet guide book).

This pyramid was closed to the public, no tomb raiding here.....

After this pyramid we moved on to what i would consider a more impressive structure, in that it looked like a pyramid!! It is called the Step pyramid and was erected in memory of Netjerikhet (Djoser for short). It has a slight Mayan feel to it, but the guide delighted in telling us that those pesky Mayans were only a glint in the milkman’s eye when this monument was being constructed.

Viscious guard dog at the entrance to the Step Pyramid,
he was off duty today though, as it is a national holiday

The step pyramid was designed and its building co-ordinated by a priest called Imhotep (people may remember this name from the film, The Mummy). Alas, to my disappointment, any ideas of a Hollywood style re-emergence of this 4,000 year old dinosaur were soon dispelled when the guide told us that many of the tombs were raided (not by Lara Croft) and the body was, in all likelihood, dumped in the Nile.

The Step Pyramid of Djoser

After a few minutes walking around (it never seems like i have enough time on these trips out) it was time to move on, and we were going to the most interesting place of the day – a carpet school. Yep, that is right they have sneakily added this one in. In truth, it was one of the few visits i have not seen before, so i popped in to get a demonstration on how they use a loom and how many knots are needed to make a square centimetre of fabric, which is all well and good, but i want to be looking at monuments, not haggling over carpets which I couldn’t possibly get into my suitcase anyway! So, after the demonstration i walked almost immediately out and started taking photos of some date trees. Dates grow everywhere around Cairo, and to my surprise, they come in a variety of colours; red, yellow, black are ones i have seen so far.

My sixth sense told me that a visit to a school/shop was looming....

Ok, I need to rush, as i have to get showered and ready for today's adventure - i am returning to the Pyramids at Giza and also going to the necropolis at Dahshur. I will add the photos to this when i get back.

Life of Luxor-y

At last! After days of treading water, things finally took shape yesterday, and I made it onto the flight bound for Luxor this morning. What this meant is that I had to be up at about 2:30am to make sure I got to the airport on time.

For the first time I felt that things were going my way; I had checked in successfully, been through the metal detectors and was on the bus getting ready to be taken to the plane, when suddenly a French chap walked up to me and said my name. Oh no! There is some problem which meant I had to get off the plane I thought. No, instead he handed me my wallet, which I had left on the counter when walking through the metal detector!! You could tell he thought I was some silly "rosbeef", as he patronisingly said I need to be careful here!!

Still, I took this as a sign of my fortunes turning, and it seemed to follow on as, when I landed at Luxor airport, my bag was the first to come out of the baggage reclaim!! So, I was almost back on schedule. I met with the rep who was waiting for me airport and drove me to the boat, where I signed in and dumped my bags, before running straight out onto a tour of the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, the Colossi of Memnon, and the Temple of Hatshepsut.

My home for the next 6 nights....i never thought i would see this....

OK, a weather update. The heat here is unlike anything I have ever felt before in my life. I thought that Cambodia was hot, but even that would seem cool compared to this. I am fairly sure that I would find walking on the surface of the sun cooler than touring these valleys. Even at 7am the heat was in the high 30s, and while it may be true that sitting in the shade means that you get some respite, there is very little shade here at all! Rest assured I am drinking more than enough water, I estimate I have drunk about 5 litres just touring.

The tour group i am with seems to be OK, a fairly friendly bunch, who are broken into two groups; those from Australia and those from England.

We arrived at the Valley of the Kings first, and as is expected at a tourist Mecca like this, the visitors have to run the gauntlet of a horde of locals trying to sell them everything from maps of the area, to authentic toenail scrapings from Tut Ankh Amun himself.

This scene at the Valley of the Kings was very bazaar.....

The shame about visiting these tombs is that no photography is allowed in there, under the presumption that it might damage the hieroglyphs, but my suspicion is it is more so they can sell you glossy brochures at ridiculously marked up prices. Once again our western sensibilities disadvantage us, as when the vendors put on the hard sell, we inevitably buckle and hand them loads of cash in order to get rid of them. The vendors are fully aware of this, and so once you are seen to cave in once, you just attract more hassle. Luckily I was exposed a bit to this in Cambodia, so I had a more steely determination than most, and moments after an American tourist paid E£50 (about £5 sterling) for a glossy brochure, I managed to haggle him down to E£20.

One thing I have not mentioned yet is something called "Baksheesh". It is a form of tipping, but on a much wider scale than in the west. For example, a chap helped me lift my luggage onto a trolley, I had to pay his a couple of Egyptian pounds for his trouble. A guard showed me something interesting on the wall in one of the temples....and I was another couple of pounds lighter in my wallet. However, this is an accepted way of life here, and a couple of pounds in Egyptian money is about 20p, so it is not a big deal, but it is the sheer frequency that adds up. Also, I always seem to have a dearth of pound notes, I am sure the Egyptian government have not printed enough, so I am stuck sometimes being unable to pay or paying 5 or 10 pounds, which is a lot!!

The Valley of the Kings visit incorporated seeing the Tombs of a couple of Ramseses (is that how you pluralise Ramses?!) which were quite interestingly decorated, but you will have to take my word for it. The Egyptians don’t miss a trick though and realise that, because of the fame surrounding the death mask, the tomb of Tut Ankh Amun will attract of lot of tourist interest, and so there is a separate charge for entering this tomb.

A rarity at The Valley of the Kings...no people in shot!

However, I was happy enough to shell out for this. It is a small tomb, but you can still see the stone sarcophagus and the wood sarcophagus that he was buried in. If the Egyptians believed he would awaken in the afterlife it does make me wonder why they locked him in a wooden coffin and then sealed him in stone one in which the lid must weigh at least 2 tonnes! At the other side of the tomb you could view the mummified remains of Tut Ankh Amun himself, which was quite special.

Tut Ankh Amun's entrance - oo-er!!

It reminds me that I need to go back to the Egyptian museum and see his death mask. I might possibly come back to the Valley of the Kings after the cruise as there are plenty more tombs to see, but we are on a punishing schedule to cram as much in as possible in a week.

After the Valley of the Kings, we “stopped off” by something called the alabaster village, which seems to be a local arrangement with the bus driver to filter tourists into the shops there. Still the demonstration on how they shape the stones was pretty good, and they were light hearted and friendly, so I was not too bothered – apart from the fact that I kept on singing “pure alabaster, genuine plaster” from the Mary Poppins tune “Portobello road”.

This sort of job can really grind you down....

We eventually moved on to the temple of Queen Hatshepsut, which is a massive temple carved out of the cliff face Petra-style! It was very impressive and pretty well preserved considering. The slight downside I was beginning to discover is that all of these locations are thronging with people, which makes it impossible to take a good photo without some numpty getting into the shot! Here I met an “unofficial” official, who put his hat on me and took my photo (more baksheesh....)

Hatshepsut's temple was pretty impressive, will be interesting to compare to Petra

Me looking like a daft Egypt....no laughing, i had to pay baksheesh for this!!

The penultimate visit of the day was to the Valley of the Queens, to see Queen Nefertiti’s (affectionately called Titty to the locals.) tomb, and also some other one, whose name I forget. By this point in the proceedings, the whole day had caught up with me, and the intense heat was making my eyes stream unheeded and were stinging to the point where I could hardly focus the camera. I hope I have not got sun burn of the eyeballs, as that is the one place I did not plaster with sun cream!

The Valley of the Queens - trust me! Every hole is a tomb

The final visit was to the Colossi of Memnon. I am not sure what I was expecting here, but I think it was something much bigger than what I saw. I know they say that size does not matter, but when it comes to stone statues, it really does! I suppose I had romantic images of something similar to the Colossus of Rhodes so, all in all, this was a trifle disappointing. Maybe they should be renamed to the Moderately-sized-stone-figures-of-Memnon. At least i was not the only one, it seemed the guide was not too impressed with these either, as after a couple of minutes he was ushering us back into the coach to head back to the boat. I for one was not sad to go.

The Minutia of Memnon....I was disappointed

As soon as I got back to the boat, I locked myself in my room and went to sleep (well earned), finally I feel that I can relax and start enjoying my time here. Also, i have finally got some pictures (to be added, as the internet connection is interminably slow!) which are more interesting that the departure lounges of Heathrow and Cairo airports!!