Saturday: We headed out early early for Middle Egypt. We drove south for a few hours and stopped at Beni Suef to see their museum. It was a nice museum too, with some very beautiful pieces. Then we drove south for a few more hours to see Tihna el-Gebel, the ancient city of Akoris. (Ever notice how adding the phrase "the ancient city of" makes ANY city name sound mysterious and noble?) It was VERY cool.
At the center was a mountain in the shape of a lion with a temple carved into it. We climbed the mountain to reach another chapel tucked away high on the cliffs. We climbed into tombs, so many tombs cut into the rock (I found a really nice one with columns and offering table and false door and everything.) We walked along a tiny path with nothing to our left but rock and nothing to our right but air, to gaze upon the huge faces of the gods carved on the side of the cliff. Very Lovecraftian. Very very very cool.
Nothing to soothe a broken heart like scaling treacherous desert peaks, along paths that would test the courage of the bravest of men, the wind in your hair, the sun setting in the Nile, to gaze at last upon the awesome and terrible visage of gods long dead, and afterwards delving into their forgotten temples with crumbling columns and tenebrous altars filled with the shrieks of unseen creatures and the soft suffocating smell of ancient dust and unbreathed air. Still, I miss you Koos.
Which brings me to today. We woke up ENTIRELY too early and headed out to Meir. This was one of the top 5 coolest sites we've seen so far. Argh, amazing. We walked up the mountain and straight into an Old Kingdom tomb (Pepiankh Kem or as we call him, Happy Kem) fully decorated and GORGEOUS. I mean, really very very amazing. The paint is still beautifully preserved in most of the tomb, and every available space is filled with pictures and writing. There's one room that wasn't finished, and is just line drawings. But even these are some of the most beautiful pictures Egypt has to offer. I could have spent hours in this tomb going over every detail. We got to dive into a burial chamber, though sadly one for a woman, which means, not decorated. When I get back to Cairo, Facebook will be flooded with pictures. :-)
We saw a few other tombs as well, and they were also very nice, though not quite as large or as beautifully preserved as Pepiankh's tomb. We had a great time in one (though I can't remember if it was Senbi son of Akhhotep, or Senbi father of Akhhotep, or Akhhotep himself, or what) because it had so many strange depictions. The hunting scene, for example, showed giraffes (pretty rare in Egyptian art) and deer with antlers, and awful scenes of dogs chasing various animals, and even one of a dog eating a baby (deer, maybe?) as it's being born!! And the foreign cow herd who is show emaciated, with a goatee and an afro (Newman, he actually sorta looks like you.) There were also places where the work hadn't been finished, so you could still see the grids and the line drawings and such. Awesome.
Then we popped across the Nile (the Nile valley is amazing. We drove for half an hour or so to get from Meir to the Nile, and then walked from the Nile to the next site!) to Quseir el-Amarna. The coolest part of this site was taking the ferry boat across the Nile, and the modern Islamic cemetery at the foot of the hills with the ancient tombs. The view from the top was also amazing. I made one of our Egyptian guides laugh by reading "Allahu akbar" (God is the greatest) on one of the tombs. He thought it was SO funny that an American could read Allahu Akbar, and he told the other guides, and then every time he saw me he'd say "Allahu Akbar." :-p
And now we're at our hotel in Asyut. Tomorrow is another early morning, and I'm already looking forward to breakfast. Tonight in the restaurant I ordered stuffed grape leaves and got FRIED LIVER, OH GAG. :-P The others made sure I didn't go hungry, but I could have had a more fulfilling meal. Next time I'm just gonna order the spaghetti. :-P
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