24 December 2019 - 5 January 2020

• 24-25 Dec 2019 - Christmas in Abydos

• 26 Dec 2019 (98.7 km, 61.3 mi) - Abydos to Qena

• 27 Dec 2019 (65 km, 40.4 mi) - Qena to Luxor

• 28-29 Dec 2019 - Temples and Tombs of Luxor

• 30 Dec 2019 (xx km, xx mi) - Luxor to Edfu

• 31 Dec 2019-4 Jan 2020 - Temples of Aswan

It’s nearly impossible to get your head around the full scope of ancient Egyptian history. Everything about it is just so much bigger in scale than our other reference points for civilizations. For starters, there were 170 pharaohs from 32 dynasties spanning three golden ages and nearly 3,400 years. That’s a lot of history. The Roman Empire only lasted a scant 1,163 years - barely a third as long. So keeping track of the historical relationships between the various ages and dynasties, let alone the individual pharaohs, can be a challenge. 

Then there are the gods, which play a huge role in Egyptian art and architecture. It helps to have some idea of who they were and what they represented when viewing the decorated walls of temples and tombs. But Egypt was, of course, a polytheistic society. So, there are quite a few gods to get to know. And there were often regionally important gods worshiped alongside the nationally promoted gods - who sometimes shared many of the same traits.

Complicating things further, various gods would emerge in prominence, then fade away to be supplanted by (or merged with) other gods with the same, or very similar characteristics. We managed to learn just enough of the basics about the biggest, most frequently represented gods, so that we could make some sense of the fascinating imagery in Egyptian art. But beyond that, the rest of the gods just marched past us in the endless parade of ritualized paintings, looking interesting.

Egyptian God of the Afterlife in the Season of Rebirth

We spent Christmas in Abydos, Egypt, the main center of worship for Osiris, the god who ruled over death, resurrection and eternal life. The central myth of Osiris includes his death at the hands of his brother, Set, who chopped him into many pieces. His beloved wife, the goddess Isis, searched until she found all the pieces she could, then patched him back together and revived him to life, through the magical beating of her wings. 

Yet because he had died, Osiris was no longer allowed to rule among the living. So the council of gods decided to give him lordship over the underworld. But Osiris was a benevolent god, so he was not feared in death. On the contrary, although he judged souls after their death, he was believed to be lenient, giving people the benefit of the doubt if their lives had been, on balance, more good than bad. He was also seen as a teacher, who taught the first Egyptians about morality, culture and the practice of agriculture. Pharaohs considered Osiris to be their spiritual father, and it was widely believed that when they died, their souls would be united with Osiris in eternal life.

We visited two temples dedicated to Osiris, both of which were built by pharaohs who lived around 3,200 years ago. Abydos is not on the major tourist circuit, so there were very few other visitors. We had the place almost to ourselves which was wonderful. With a little bit of advance research, we were able to understand some of the paintings, and their significance as we walked around. For us, that was just as good, or even better than having a guide. 

It seemed fitting to visit the temples of Osiris around Christmastime, with their emphasis on the resurrection of a benevolent god who welcomes good souls in the afterlife. The details of the ancient Egyptian myths may seem odd, but the larger themes are strikingly familiar.

The Grandeur of Thebes, Capital of the New Kingdom 

If there’s one place that stands out for being the heartland of ancient Egypt, it would probably be Luxor, formerly known as Thebes. It first became the capital of a united Egypt in 2130 BC, and served off-and-on as the political and religious center of power for more than 1,400 years. Here, the great temples of Luxor and Karnak were built, rebuilt, expanded and embellished by a long series of golden-age pharaohs and powerful priests. These temples were the domain of the living, while across the Nile, the rocky, desert mountains are honeycombed with tunnels devoted to the dead kings, queens and nobles. 

Our first encounter with Luxor’s monuments came the evening we arrived in town. We were actually on the hunt for a new bolt for my front pannier rack. It seems that the endless speed bumps, potholes and frequently lumpy road conditions in Egypt finally took a toll on the rack. The bolt that holds the top part of the rack to the front fork was gone, presumably laying somewhere on the side of an Egyptian highway. That was not a good thing, because the bolt was specially designed by our Ortlieb supplier, with a custom spacer to precisely fit the rack to a Surly Long-haul Trucker frame. Although we didn’t have another of the custom spacers in our bag of spare parts, we did have some other spacers that, when combined, looked like they would be just about the right size. 

So, we actually got the top bolt fixed with parts we had on hand. But then, as we were tightening other bolts to make sure they wouldn’t meet the same fate of falling out, one of the bolts on a lower connecting point broke. Darn. That was a longer bolt, and this time we didn’t have a spare long enough to replace it. So we identified a bike shop in the city, and set off to see if we could get a longer bolt.

Anyway... our walk across the city led us right to the Luxor Temple. In fact, you could say the temple got in our way. Because back in Luxor’s heyday, the temple was connected to another major temple by the Avenue of the Sphinxes - a 3 km (1.5 mi) ceremonial road that was once lined with 1,350 sphinx statues. It still cuts a 2.5 km line through Luxor, with only two road crossings connecting the city on opposite sides. As a result, we walked in a big arc around the Avenue and the Luxor Temple on our way to the bike shop. It’s quite a sight, because it contains many of the elements that can be found in the most magnificent Egyptian ruins: gigantic stone columns, an obelisk, colossal statues, and carvings on the walls. Subsequent religions sought to co-opt the site, so it also contains the remains of a Coptic church as well as a still-functioning mosque.

We visited several other major sights from the days of the pharaohs in Thebes, including the Karnak Temple (located at the other end of the Avenue of the Sphinxes), the Valley of the Kings (where Middle and New Kingdom pharaohs were buried), the Tombs of the Nobles (where wealthy, but non-royal leaders were buried), and the Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. 

The Karnak Temple is even bigger and more monumental than the Luxor Temple. It’s dedicated to the god Amun-Ra, the most important deity worshiped in Thebes. It has more enormous columns, multiple obelisks, porticos, courtyards and its own avenue of approach that is lined with ram-headed sphinxes (representing Amun-Ra).

Amun-Ra was believed to be the creator of all things and was considered to be the king of the gods, similar to Zeus in Greek mythology. More than 30 pharaohs contributed to the building of the Temple of Karnak over the centuries, and there was no master plan - so it definitely feels a bit haphazard in its layout. You just have to take in the fascinating details of each section, without trying to think of the whole thing as one unit. Because even after thousands of years, the Karnak Temple still holds the title of the largest religious complex ever constructed. 

Ramses II used imagery at many temples, including Karnak, to promote legends of his military prowess. Several walls depict him vanquishing foes.

Death and Eternal Life on the West Bank of the Nile

While the eastern shores of Thebes were dedicated to the needs of the living, the western side was the realm of the deceased. We hired a car and driver to take us there, for a visit to some of the most fascinating tombs ever devised.

The Valley of the Kings was impressive. You take a short tram ride up into a rocky, desert, cul de sac, bordered by steep slopes.

Entering each tomb involves a steep walk down a slope into the mortuary chambers, which usually have multiple rooms and niches - that originally would have been filled with treasures fit for a king, as well as food and tools that would be useful to anyone hoping to live forever. The pathways are large, and decorated from floor to ceiling, including on the ceiling itself.

As a general rule, the images depict the dead pharaoh in various scenes with the gods, being transported in his mortuary boat to the afterlife, and participating in religious rituals. The entrances to the tombs are lined with text from holy manuscripts that help provide guidance to the dead pharaoh’s soul so he can successfully make the perilous journey to the land of Osiris.

Virtually all of the treasures originally placed in the tombs, including the bodies of the pharaohs, are gone now - either in museums or lost in the mists of time. But some of the tombs still contain the giant, granite, outer sarcophagus which once held the pharaoh’s remains.

Next we visited the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut. Hatshepsut was one of the few queens of Egypt to rule independently as a pharaoh, and she was a prolific builder of temples. She also ruled for longer, and had more of a historical impact than any of the other queen-pharaohs that preceded her. The art in her mortuary temple depicts important scenes from her life, in addition to the usual ritual paintings with gods. Of particular note are images depicting a famous trading expedition that she sponsored to foreign lands. Some of the treasures that the traders brought back to Egypt were the aromatic resins frankincense and myrrh, which became popular fragrances in Egyptian perfumes and makeup. She had 31 myrrh trees planted on the temple grounds. Hatshepsut was not actually buried in her mortuary temple. Her tomb lies in the Valley of the Kings.

Our final stop was the Tombs of the Nobles, where more than 400 high-ranking men and their families were buried. It’s not set back in a protective valley the same way as the pharaohs’ tombs. In fact, these tombs are rather exposed on a west-facing mountainside. And the tombs themselves are very different in character from the royal tombs. For example, the entrances tend to be quite constrained, with descents through narrow, rough-hewn passages and low ceilings (causing both of us to have to stoop down). Inside, the images are not carved into the walls, but simply painted onto the stone. And they overwhelmingly depict scenes that evoke the daily lives of the deceased (rather than ritualized images with gods).

We visited the tombs of two nobles:  Rekhmire and Sennefer. Sennefer was a mayor of Thebes. His tomb is noteworthy for it’s emphasis on the agricultural elements of his job. It’s most famous for having a roof painted to look like an arbor covered with grape vines, laden with bunches of grapes. A lot of the stuff on the walls shows agricultural scenes as well. 

Rekhmire was a vizier for one of the pharaohs (basically, the very important job of running the country). The images depicted in his tomb are almost all devoted to showing people from foreign lands bringing tribute to the vizier, on behalf of the pharaoh. There are piles of gifts, including gold, fruits, meats, and live animals like a giraffe, baboon, and monkeys. There are also scenes of craftsmen at work, including some guys polishing a pharaoh’s statue.

Ringing in the New Year in Aswan

Located close to Egypt’s southern border, Aswan has a different feel than the other big cities that harbor ancient monuments. It’s a place where fast-paced Egyptian culture starts to blend with more laid-back Nubian ways of life. Quarries within the city were once the source of the gorgeous red granite used in a lot of Egyptian temples and sculpture.

We spent the New Year’s holiday in Aswan and visited the most famous quarry, where you can see something called the Unfinished Obelisk. Queen Hatshepsut had commissioned the obelisk as part of a set of three she wanted to erect at the Karnak Temple in Thebes. This was going to be the biggest, heaviest obelisk ever - a third bigger than any other obelisk that was ever actually built. But - oops - it cracked right down the middle when they were trying to extract it from the bedrock. So they built the other two, and left this one laying in the ground were it cracked. Now, 3,500 years later, we can stand at the edge of the quarry and marvel at the audacity it took to want to chisel something that big from the stone, and haul all 1,200 tons of it 250 km to Luxor.

Keeping with the theme of Egyptian ingenuity, we also checked out a device called the Nilometer. Located on a river island near Aswan, it was built by late-kingdom Egyptians to measure the height of the Nile River during flood stages. The Nilometer is basically a walled stairwell cut down to the river, that would fill up with water as the Nile flooded. Along one wall of the stairwell, precisely calibrated marks showed how high the water rose.

In the ages way before satellite imagery, this gave them a quick snapshot of how much flooding took place. They used the information to predict the potential success of the upcoming agricultural season. There was even a mark to show the optimal level of flooding (e.g., enough to avoid famine, but not so much that it would damage a lot of floodplain infrastructure).

The ancient Egyptians built multiple Nilometers. But the one on Elephantine Island near Aswan was particularly important, because it was located the farthest upstream - providing the earliest readings on the quality of a year’s flood. Being able to predict the harvest based on flood levels was actually part of the mystique of the ancient Egyptian priests. It was also of immense practical significance, because the pharaohs used flood information to estimate annual economic productivity, and set the amount of tax to be collected each year.

Leaving the Land of the Pharaohs

Exploring the treasures of ancient Egypt was a memorable, and fascinating way to spend the holidays. But now we’re ready for the next chapter. From Aswan, we will board a ferry to Sudan, and leave the land of the Egyptian Pharaohs behind.

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