On our first visit to Egypt in 1989 we made a tour starting in Cairo and taking in Luxor, Aswan and many points in between. In 2000 we were based in Luxor, staying at the wonderful Old Winter Palace, and made more visits to the sites on the west bank of the Nile as well as down river to to the marvellous temple at Dendera.

Part One describes our visits from Cairo to Abu Simbel apart from Luxor which is described in Part Two along with the complexes on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor.

Some of the gods:
Amun: god of Thebes
Atum:creator god of Heliopolis, identified with Re
Hathor: the cow goddess, wife to Horus
Horus: the falcon god, son of Isis and Osiris
Isis: wife of Osiris
Mut: wife of Amun
Nut: sky goddess, shown with arched body to form heaven
Osiris: god of the dead
Ptah: creator god of Memphis
Re: the great sun god of Heliopolis, often linked with other gods
Re-Harakhte: falcon-headed god, fusion of Re and Horus
Seth: brother and murderer of Osiris
Sobek: crocodile god

The legend of Isis and Osiris tells how, when his brother Seth killed Osiris, dismembered and scattered his body, Isis searched out the pieces and, putting them together, restored Osiris to life in the Underworld where he reigned.

 

Cairo

What remains of the ancient city of Heliopolis (very little by all accounts), city of the sun god, lie in north east Cairo

My abiding memories of Cairo are of dust and heat and galabiyya-clad men at pavement cafés. We didn't do any walking in the centre of the city so didn't get a chance to sample the coffee!

The traffic in Cairo is horrendous - particularly around the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities. The Museum is justly famous and stuffed full of treasures, including the famous Tutankhamun artefacts such as the fabulous gold mask and innumerable beds! It is a huge place and would, I think, take several days to see even a modest fraction of its contents.

We did not spend a great deal of time in Cairo and made only fleeting visits to mosques, bazaars and the Citadel which was begun in 1176 by Salah-el-Din and not completed to its present state until 700 years later.

The Pyramids at Giza and the Sphinx

We were very surprised to see how close the pyramids and the sphinx are to the city. Built around 2500BC the pyramids are a testament to the building skills of the ancient Egyptians and even with all the tourists around the pyramids are still an impressive sight. I particularly liked the view from a little way off setting the pyramids within the desert landscape.

The three major pyramids of the group are Cheops - 230m on each side and 137m high (originally 147m) , Chephren and Mycerinus. Close by are the so-called Pyramids of the Queens - for royal wives - and mastabas (a flat-topped sloping-sided slab) for royal princes and noblemen.

We climbed the interior of the Great Pyramid of Cheops - a difficult, steep confined space to begin with which opens out into the Great Gallery leading to the King's Chamber containing a stone sarcophagus.

 

 

The Sphinx - as can be seen in the picture - was undergoing renovations when we visited. It is carved from a natural outcrop of rock left in a stone quarry, 20m high in the shape of a lion with a man or god's head wearing the Royal Headdress. For much of its existence it has been buried to the neck in sand. The scaffolding was wooden poles lashed together.

Memphis

The ancient capital of the Old Kingdom (2680 BC - 2160 BC) Memphis was founded by the first king of a united Egypt, Menes, around 3000BC. Even during the period of the New Kingdom (1560 BC - 1080 BC) it rivaled Thebes (modern day Luxor) in grandeur. Because the principle building material was mud brick, however, little remains of this once splendid city.

In a modern building is housed a colossal statue of Ramesses II (below) - the 19th Dynasty pharaoh of great fame who ruled from 1279 to his death in 1213 BC. The statue is missing its legs but even so is 10m long.

Saqqara

The step pyramid of Zoser at Saqqara, in an atmospheric desert setting, is more evocative to me of ancient Egypt than the perhaps over-powering and tourist-swarming Great Pyramid complex. If you are lucky enough to visit when there are few people around it is much easier to imagine the ancient site and its development. The site is a vast necropolis, in use from its beginnings in the 3rd Dynasty through to the Ptolemaic Graeco-Roman period of around 200 BC.

Most building, certainly of domestic architecture, was of mud brick and therefore not designed to last. Early tomb builders built underground - occasionally using stone - but they also sometimes built low mud brick flat-topped buildings - called mastabas - above ground.

Around the time of the beginning of the Old Kingdom the idea of the ka developed - the indestructible vital force which only the pharaoh possessed. The construction of more durable tombs was thus required to forever house the eternal ka and the use of stone satisfied this need. In Zoser's reign (3rd Dynasty 2628 BC - 2609 BC) stone was employed with great sophistication at the mortuary complex at Saqqara.

This necropolis of beautiful chapels, halls and courts surrounded by a 10m wall was built entirely of stone and dominated by the first pyramid - the step pyramid - and tomb of Zoser.

Zoser's architect was Imhotep, also grand vizier and fulfilling numerous other important roles for the pharaoh. He first began the royal tomb as a traditional mastaba but in stone. This was twice enlarged before Imhotep was inspired to expand the building vertically with a series of successively smaller mastabas on top, thus creating the step pyramid shape.

The tradition to this point was to build tombs in a house-like arrangement of rooms and the step pyramid continues this tradition, but it seems that from this time on the tradition changes and the chambers beneath the Step Pyramid reflect a more domestic arrangement than will be found at any other temple or mortuary complex.

The Temple of Hathor at Dendera

Visiting Dendera in 2000 we began from Luxor in convoy with an armed guard, the Egyptians still being very sensitive after the attacks at the Temple of Hatshepsut. Travelling along the Nile and a canal for some way it was an experience to see local village life along the river bank: little girls in "western" dress running alongside the convoy laughing and waving, men and boys bouncing along on donkeys laden with vegetation, black-clad women striding along with loads on their heads - bundles of cloth, stacks of egg boxes against a backdrop of reed-fenced enclosures and mud brick buildings. At Quena most vehicles peeled off for Hurghada on the coast and we were left alone in our air-conditioned mini-bus with our guide and one other vehicle to cross the Nile to Dendera. When we arrived we were the only visitors with our guide - we couldn't believe our luck! 

Dendera is well-preserved and a most impressive temple site to visit being on the edge of the desert. Hathor, the city goddess, has the face of a cow with distinctive ears and she can be seen adorning the temple at the tops of columns, arches, and most obviously on the facade of the temple. Although a temple would have stood at this site for many centuries the current buildings date from the second century B.C., being Ptolomeic in origin, with decorations continuing into the Roman period.

The central doorway of the facade leads to the pronaos which at Dendera is a huge hypostyle hall. Amazingly well-preserved, this temple has intact ceilings, albeit blackened by the smoke of countless Roman fires. Regrettably many of the beautiful cow goddess faces have been hacked out by Christians but the hall is still a most impressive spectacle. Colour is still visible in the paintings on the ceiling which are of astronomical subjects including winged scarabs and sun disks and a magnificent depiction of Nut, the sky goddess, sending the sun out on its daily journey at the dawning of the day.

Throughout the halls numerous brown bats with translucent wings roost in the doorways. At the far end of the main building are the entrance to the crypts. I can't imagine how they accommodate large numbers of visitors but being on our own we were privileged to be able to visit the underground rooms, climbing down a rickety stair and through a narrow entrance to a passageway with wonderful inscriptions and decorations on the walls, including a beautiful Horus, the "husband" of Hathor. One of the annual festivals held in ancient times at Dendera was the journey of Hathor, in the form of a statue, upstream to visit Horus at the Temple of Edfu.

Another important annual festival involved carrying Hathor to the roof of the temple to absorb the sun's rays. We were able to climb the ceremonial staircase, decorated with images of the goddess being carried up to the roof and back down again. On the roof there are chapels and the ceiling of one room has a copy of a marvellous unique ancient zodiac ( the original is in the Louvre).

From the roof the surroundings of the temple can be seen - including "Cleopatra's Pool" actually a sacred lake - together with a marvellous view over the surrounding landscape.

The outer faces of the temple walls bear some wonderful carved figures, including Cleopatra with her son by Julius Caesar: Caesarian.

The complex has the remains of three Birth Houses (one is completely in ruins). These were important in establishing the pharaoh's relationship with the god Horus, and thus his divinity and right to rule, by a ritual association with the god's birth celebrated in the Birth House. One of the Birth Houses at Dendera shows Ptolomy born of the gods a descendant of Horus and therefore a true ruler of Egypt.

Dendera is magnificent and highly recommended.

The Temple of Horus at Edfu

Edfu, on the west bank of the Nile, lies mid-way between Luxor and Aswan. Only Karnak is larger than this sandstone Ptolomeic temple which was completed by the mid 1st century B.C.

 

Horus, the falcon-god, is one of the most important of ancient Egyptian deities. Legend relates that he defeated rebels in many battles along the Nile while the god Re-Harakhte, the king of the gods, was in Nubia. Amongst the rebels were the god Seth and his followers who returned in the form of crocodiles and hippopotomi. Horus drove them east to the borders of Egypt where he assumed the form of a winged solar disk which became the emblem of protection against evil and can be seen guarding the gateways to temples.

The layout of the temple is very similar to that at Dendera, the main difference being a large court at Edfu fronted by the pylon facade and with a beautifully carved colonnade on the three remaining sides. The walls behind the colonnade are elaborately carved and include depictions of the annual journey of Hathor to Edfu. In front of the far wall, the entrance to the pronaos, stands a fine statue of Horus

An unusual feature is the enclosing wall around the rear of the temple which creates a walkway. Among the carvings on the walls look for the killing of the rebels as crocodiles and hippopotomi.

The Temple of Horus and Sobek at Kom Ombo

25 miles north of Aswan, facing west to the Nile, this Ptolomeic/Roman temple stands on a low promontory. The northern part of the temple is dedicated to Horus and the southern to the crocodile god Sobek.

On the north section of the outer wall, in the north east corner, is a famous carving of Roman-era medical instruments (below).

The Temple of Isis at Philae

The Temple of Isis, on the Island of Philae, lay below the First Cataract at Aswan, the original dam built by the British at the end of the nineteenth century, and was for half the year flooded. When the High Dam at Aswan was built, 6 km up river, the temple was almost completely permanently submerged. When the waters partially receded it was subject to very destructive tidal-like forces. A decision was made to remove the temple, stone by stone, to the nearby island of Agilqiyyah and there re-erect it. The temple, seen on the approach by boat, is very atmospheric.

 

The Kiosk of Nectanebo I (378 - 360 B.C.) is the oldest remaining building in the complex, situated at the southern end of the island, although the original site was completely re-arranged in Roman times.

The Birth House, a feature of Ptolomeic temples, has carvings showing the childhood of the god Horus. Each pharaoh legitimised his dynasty by demonstrating descent from the god Horus, in a ritual association with the god's birth, celebrated in the Birth House.

On the west side of the central entrance of the first pylon is an inscription recording the visit of a Napoleonic expedition.

Aswan

North of the First Cataract of the Nile, and 210 km south of Luxor, lies Elephantine Island where an important trading centre was located as far back as 3000B.C. Aswan itself is thought to have been originally the market for this city and does not appear in texts until the 20th Dynasty (around 1100B.C.). To the south lie the stone quarries where an unfinished obelisk can still be seen.

5km south of Aswan is the old British Aswan Dam built between 1898 and 1902. A need for more power for industrial expansion and more land for cultivation to support Egypt's burgeoning population led to the construction of the High Dam a further 6km up river in the 1960s with Soviet help.

One of the most pleasant reasons for staying in Aswan is to sail on the Nile in a felucca and two sites are only reachable by boat. The Mausoleum of the Aga Khan is worth a visit for its clean lines and lovely situation on the west bank. Botanical Island boasts tropical, Asian and African plants and also makes for an enjoyable change of scenery. It is also known as Kitchener Island, as it was presented to him while he was Consul General of Egypt, and here he grew flowers brought from all over the Middle and Far East.

Abu Simbel

280km south of Aswan are the remarkable re-sited temples of Abu Simbel, originally placed at the southern borders of Egypt by Ramesses II to display the might of Egypt to travellers venturing north.

They were moved to the current site, alongside Lake Nasser, when threatened by the waters of the High Dam.

The two great temples are of Re-Harakhte, with its four colossi of Ramesses II on the facade, and the Temple of Hathor with six colossi of Ramesses and Nefertari, his favoured and much-loved wife.

The four colossi of Ramesses on the Temple of Re-Harakhte are 20m high and hugely impressive (below left). The interior of the temple includes a Hypostyle Hall with 10m high Ramesses figures and depictions on the walls of the Battle of Kadesh. At the far Sanctuary four seated figures are carved out of the rear wall: Ptah, god of Memphis, Amun, god of Thebes, the divinised Ramesses and Re-Harakhte.

Nefertari is identified with Hathor: wife to the sun god Re-Harakhte during his daily passage across the sky and mother to his rebirth. Thus the Temple of Hathor stands alongside the Temple of Re-Harakhte: the Pharaoh of all Egypt and his wife identify with the king of the gods and his wife.

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