2006 Egypt

27 December 2006, Wednesday; Marsam Hotel, Luxor, LE130 (incl)

Happy birthday, Charlie.

We awoke fairly early despite, or perhaps because of, a late night and rock-hard mattresses and pillows.

Breakfasted at the Marsam, hired bikes next door (LE10 each per day), bought tickets on the corner to Deir-el-Medina, and cycled up and round behind the hill to visit our first site on Luxor’s West Bank.

Situated here is the Workers’ Village, a Ptolemaic-era temple and two small workers’ tombs.

The village, one of the rare urban structures remaining from Pharaonic Egypt, housed the workers who excavated and decorated the royal tombs in the Valleys of the Kings and Queens. About 400 people lived here in 70m2 homes comprising several rooms, a roof patio and a basement. They were built of sun-dried mudbrick and plastered inside with stucco made of gypsum, limestone and crushed straw and painted white. The roofs were of palm wood planks, the floors of stone – in some the grooves made by opening and closing the wooden doors still show (apparently). The workers lived in enforced isolation (the tomb locations being secret) and were paid in food and beer.

In their spare time they built and decorated tombs for themselves. We visited two of these and were blown away by the detail and richness and quality of the art. Most of which is still perfectly coloured. The Tomb of Inherka (Foreman of the Lord of the Two Lands in the Place of Truth) from the 19th Dynasty and the Tomb of Sennedjem (Servant in the Place of Truth) from the 20th Dynasty.

The little temple was quite charming with superb art and hieroglyphs. In a later incarnation it was converted to a Christian Monastery, but was originally built between 221 and 116BC. It is surrounded by a mudbrick wall almost 2000 years old. Astonishing.

We had planned to cycle to the station on the East Bank to book our tickets to Aswan, and then on to Karnak Temple.

By the time I reached the ferry 3km away on my rickety shocking pink bicycle – no gears, of course, and an old-fashioned broad saddle covered in a floral fabric – I was getting anxious about cycling on the busier East Bank. So we tied our bikes up at the ferry stop and local micro-bussed and walked to the station (which in fact was closer than we had thought). A new building not quite completed. And booked first class tickets for the 31st.

By the time we found our way to Karnak (having walked for ages and finally given up and taken a calêche – horse and buggy), I was feeling really tired and the weather was turning ugly – very cold and very windy, raising blustery dust and dimming the sun (no good for photographing one of Luxor’s premier sites).

We retired instead to a restaurant near the temple and spent some time there – eating a super meal, drinking a birthday beer, diary writing, relaxing.

And then decided to call it a day and head “home”. Where we dined on soup and spaghetti bolognaise – delicious!