Day 22 / Last Day – Cairo

Well, today is the last day of my trip. We are chillaxin and just going to the museum.  This museum was built in 1902 and has over 120,000 items. During the 2011 revolution it was broken into and two mummies were reportedly destroyed. Alexei tells me there is a lot of great stuff there, but, that the building is getting old and there is a plan to build a new one.  He says it is crowded, dark and just…old.  

I thought it was perfect!

We weren’t allowed to take pictures, so I am inserting pictures from Wikipedia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a lot of stuff! We went into the display for King Tutankhamun and saw his gold mask and that was cool. But, I really felt an impact when I saw a statue of Akhenaten. I don’t have a picture of it, but, here is another one:

Akhenaten was originally named Amenhotep IV and ruled Egypt for about 17 years. He died around 1336 BC.  For many years he was called the “Heretic Pharaoh” and was all but lost from history.

Akhenaten believed in Aten who he declared was a universal deity,  the ALL-encompassing Creator, and the only God. The symbolic representation of Aten is a rayed solar disc, in which the rays are commonly depicted as ending in hands. A sort of “hieroglyphic footnote” that accompanied the symbol stated that the symbol was only “a representation of something that, by its very nature as some time – transcending creation, cannot be fully or adequately represented by any one part of that creation”.

Some modern historians say that Akhenaten was the original monotheistic ruler, appearing almost two centuries before the first archaeological and written evidence of Judaism and Israelite culture.

Some liken aspects of Akhenaten’s relationship with the Aten to the relationship of Jesus with God. Akhenaten referred to himself as the son of the sole god:  “Thine only son that came forth from thy body”; “Thy son who came forth from thy limbs”; “thy child’, etc.  He placed a heavy emphasis on the heavenly father and son relationship. This close relationship between father and son meant that only the king truly knew the heart of his father and that the father listened to his son’s prayers.

 

 As you can imagine, the traditional priesthood did not like this. During his reign, Akhenaten embarked upon a wide scale erasure of the traditional god’s names. He shifted funding away from the traditional temples.  Eventually, he moved the royal court out of Thebes/Luxor and into Armana, a new city he built for the Aten. The priests were not happy at all.

For many years people believed Akhenaten neglected Egypt’s foreign affairs in favor of his internal reforms.  But the recent discovery of Armana in the 19^th century by Flinders Petrie and the finding of the Armana corpus of 380 + letters showed that Akhenaten was, indeed, involved in the affairs of Egypt. He appears to have tended more toward diplomacy than war. That sounds good to me, but, I wonder how his Generals felt about it.

Akhenaten changed the style of art during his reign, encouraging a more naturalistic representation of life by adding a sense of action and movement. Significantly, and for the only time in the history of Egyptian royal art, Akhenaton’s’ family were shown taking part in naturalistic activities, caught in mid-action, and showing affection. By contrast, in the traditional art form, a pharaoh’s divine nature was expressed by repose, even immobility.

 

 A lot of discussion continues with regard to Akhenaton’s physical appearance.  I read some almost scornful comments that his body was effeminate and misshapen, so different from the athletic norm in the portrayal of pharaohs.

 

 There have been discussions that he could have had various genetic abnormalities that would have caused the physical attributes of being taller than average, a long, thin face, long curved spider –like fingers, sunken chest, larger breasts, sagging stomach, thick thighs, spindly calves, etc.

There is also a discussion that the body-shape depicted relates to some form of religious symbolism because the god Aten was referred to as “the mother and father of all humankind”. It is suggested that Akhenaten was made to look androgynous in artwork as a symbol of the androgyny of the god; and, that the art would depict a symbolic gathering of all the attributes of a creator god with multiple life-giving functions. The bottom line is – we don’t know if he really looked this way or not, and if he did, why? If it was real, I think it is cool that he didn’t try to hide who he was.

Akhenaten’s primary wife was Nefertiti. He is also the father of Tutankhaten whose mother was Akhenaton’s biological sister.  

When Akhenaten died he was briefly succeeded by two others that lasted only a couple of years each. Finally, he was succeeded by his son Tutankhaten who by that time had re-aligned with the priests and renamed himself Tutankhamun, the famous boy king.  The capital was moved back to Thebes/Luxor.   Eventually, King Horemheb tried to erase all traces of Atenism and the pharaohs associated with it which is why Akhenaten and Armana virtually disappeared until that 19^th century discovery. 

It reminds me of Hatshepsut and how you just cannot keep a good thing down. I felt a connection with Akhenaten and I liked reading his “Great Hymn to the Aten”. But I liked even more a couple of the attributes he ascribed to Aten on his monuments:  “Thy beams of light embrace the lands… and thou bindest them with thy love.” I loved reading the book: Akhenaten – Dweller in Truth, by Naguib Mahfouz. I don’t know how much of that book is based upon truth or is fiction. For me, romanticism or just wishful thinking, I like to think of Akhenaten as the first monotheistic ruler who tried to live and rule in Light and Love.

  Ahh, it’s the last night in Egypt. We had dinner at a nice restaurant and then walked around downtown Cairo visiting shops. We grabbed some ice cream cones and in the night headed back to our hotel. I walked through the busy nighttime traffic in Tahrir Square and as I reached Alexei on the other side of the street, I found him grinning at me.

“You are not even aware of how you nonchalantly, while eating ice cream, just meandered through that busy traffic as if you have been doing it all your life.”

“Hmm, I guess now I know how to ‘walk like an Egyptian’!”

 I am going to stop this tale of my Mid -East trip now with one last picture of that first night in Tahrir Square when I began my trip. I am grateful I got to travel when I did and meet so many wonderful people. A lot of strife and struggle is still happening in the Mid – East and it is spreading, I know. This picture reminds me of the celebration and joy after the revolution; and the continued efforts to bring the Light of Love and Freedom into the dawn of a new tomorrow.

 

The end.  🙂

Day 21 – Giza & Cairo

Today we are going to Giza. I can hardly believe it. I never had imagined I would ever actually see the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Thanks to Alexei, here I am!

The Giza Necropolis has three main pyramids: The pyramids of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure as well as a complex of several other smaller pyramids and buildings. I love this picture showing the past and the present together:

The Great Pyramid of Giza was built as a tomb for the Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops in Greek). It is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis and was finished around 2560 BCE. It was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years. It used to be covered by casing stones and had a smooth outer surface, but most all of that is gone and what you see now is the underlying core structure. It is also missing its pyramidion or capstone.

 (picture from Wikipedia)

Some people believed that the pyramid was built by slaves but modern discoveries say it wasn’t.  One source says it was built over a 20 year period by two groups of 100,000 skilled workers who were then divided into smaller groups of 20,000. Another source says the people worked on it for three months of each year during the annual flooding of the Nile when it was impossible to farm the land and they were unemployed.  Maybe they are talking about the same people, but, I don’t know. 

The Great Pyramid is the only pyramid in Egypt known to have both ascending and descending passages. The Descending Passage appears to go to a lower chamber that wasn’t finished. The Ascending Passage, of course, goes to the King’s Chamber and has a Horizontal Passage that goes off to the Queen’s Chamber.

(Picture from Wikipedia)

Today, tourists enter the pyramid via the Robber’s Tunnel. This was a tunnel dug by workmen employed by Caliph al-Ma’mun around 820 AD. But hey, he wasn’t the first one to go a- thieving.

(Picture from Wikipedia)

I am determined to go all the way into this pyramid. It felt okay as we traveled up the Ascending Passage; but, when we got to this one place where, after climbing about four steep stairs, the passage divided into two elevated walkways, I started to feel just a leetle bit cramped. I think this is the part called the Grand Gallery. See it on the map above and here is a picture:

 

 (Picture from Wikipedia)

Still, I was okay because it was just so cool to be here. When we got to the King’s Chamber, I don’t remember that there was a lot to see besides the sarcophagus. Coming back down the passage is when I started feeling  uncomfortable. I am pretty sure it is because I was matching other tourist’s fears and then mine were magnified by our combined energy.  I really had to blow my matching fears, choose Love and get a grip. I tried to help one woman who was beginning to come unglued by claustrophobia, but she had to make a break out of that place pronto! Another lady had tears in her eyes as her friends encouraged her to keep going.

Finally, we made it out and I was glad to know I had done it. Right then a young boy, maybe age 12ish came up to me to hand me something.

“No thank you”. I said. I didn’t want to buy anything right then.

“No, no, gift, gift.” He said.

“I don’t believe you, I am not interested in buying anything now.”

“Gift, gift!” He insisted.

“Really…okay then.” I took it with a smile.

Then he held out his hand for baksheesh.

O My God, I am so damned gullible. This was my last baksheesh straw. My button was pushed.

“You said this was a gift. You lied. I can’t fucking believe I bought that shit!”

He just gave me the sad face.

I gave him a couple of US dollars. He took it and made another face, handing it back and wanting Egyptian pounds instead.

“Dude, these dollars are more than the pounds you would get!” I took back the dollars and started to give him some pounds, then… I lost it and snarled, “Here take it back, I don’t want this gift. It’s bullshit.” In my anger I thrust his gift, the pounds, and somehow even the dollars back into his hands just as a camel rider told the boy to leave me alone. The kid made out very well.

But, for me, the baksheesh thing had finally penetrated my armor and I had to deal with what was bugging me about it.  I had to explore why it was pushing my buttons. Okay Linda, what is it? Process, use your tools.  The begging in Mexico never bothered you, why would this? Begging is upfront, it’s clean and honest. You know what is going on. This isn’t. I never know whether an action or a kindness is freely given or if I am expected to give money in return. It isn’t honest. Okay, where do I match that; do I do it too? I thought I had already learned the value of giving and receiving unconditionally. I have learned it. I practice it. That isn’t it; there is something more, what is it? Review: pretty much everyone who has asked me for baksheesh was trying to do a job, a service, to make money even when I didn’t want their offering.

Ahh, my book; is that what this is about? 

I wrote a book, two books even, that I see as a service, but I also hope to receive money for them. I guess I don’t know how to reconcile that. I gave away hundreds of my first book because I thought it was so important for people to have the information. I am even putting it on Twitter now, but, I cannot afford to continue giving away my first book,  nor any of the second book; and, yes, I would like to make enough money that I could retire or cut back work at the hospital.  I am not entrepreneurial. I am in conflict.

I need an attitude adjustment and a perceptual tweak.

Suddenly, I remembered a patient/acquaintance I once had named Darcy Rezac who wrote a book entitled: The Frog and Prince: Secrets of Positive Networking to Change Your Life. The message it had was, “What can I do for you?” 

In other words, “How can the job/service/item I am offering help you?” DUDE, I can wrap my head and heart around that! Yeah, I even already have a job providing a service as an RN. It is upfront that I get paid for that. I don’t have a conflict about it; it’s my job.

Linda, so is your writing. Okay, I get it. Now I can be upfront about it. I am offering my knowledge and experience as a critical care nurse in the form of two books that I know have information that can be of help to people; AND, I get paid each time someone buys a book. It’s my job and I love it!

Thanks to all of you folks who asked me for baksheesh and kept pushing til I could come to this realization.

Darcy, I think I finally got it! Thanks so much for your book as well as yours, Gail’s, and Judy’s wisdom.

All of that I worked out as we headed toward our camel ride tour. We had already paid for it, but my camel driver asked for more… of course he did. This time it didn’t bug me. I calmly made a choice and gave him a little more.

  

 This is my third trip on a camel and my driver suddenly gave me the reigns to do my own steering! Very cool.

 

 

When the camel tour was done we walked around to see the Great Sphinx of Giza.

  

The Great Sphinx – The Terrifying One – is a statue of a human head with a lion’s body.  It is the largest monolith statue in the world and the oldest known monumental sculpture. It is believed to have been built during the reign of Pharaoh Khafra (2558 – 2532 BCE). Really that is about all that is known, as basic facts about it are still being debated.

  

 

Well, that was it for our trip to Giza. We headed back to Cairo and planned to go to the American University Bookstore just down the street from our hotel. I wanted to get the book about Akhenaten, by Naguib Mahfouz

Ahhh, it is Friday and the weekly demonstration is starting on Tahrir Square below our rooms.

 

  

 We decide to go for a walk before we go to the bookstore.

 

 The vibe is not the same as before when the people were celebrating. Now, they are trying to keep the movement alive and debating about how the new government should be.  Still, people are glad to see us and are friendly.  Noelle got her hand painted.

 

We walked around to see the artwork:

 

 

 

 

Eventually, we headed to the bookstore. As we approached the stairs to the subway, I saw a man sitting down on the short wall at the top of the stairs. In just a flash, his legs went up in the air, his body fell backward and down. I heard a loud crack when he hit the ground.

“NO!” I yelled. “DID YOU SEE THAT?”

Noelle and Alexei had looked up at my yell then ran down the stairs. I quickly followed.

 

Most of the man’s body was lying on the ground floor on his back. His left leg from the thigh down was lying on the first stair. When I got there Noelle and Alexei had already checked for breathing and a pulse. Of course, he was unconscious. Blood was pooling around his head. It was commute time now and people were crowding around us. I knelt down between the man’s legs and put my hand on his chest. His breathing was getting shallow and I couldn’t see it, but I could feel it.  Noelle was keeping people away from him as we did not want to move him and create more problems.

I stood up and said to someone, “We need an ambulance. You know wooo –wooo.” I tried to simulate a siren.  He ran off up the stairs. A business man in a suit holding a briefcase came down the stairs by me.

“How is he doing?”

“I think he may die.”

“I think so too.” He replied and walked off.

 I could see the man’s breathing was becoming irregular and he was using effort to inhale. Maybe he’s herniating his brain. I knelt down again. Now I could see blood was pooling in his mouth and blocking his airway.

“Shit, he can’t breathe, we need to turn him.”

“What do you want to do, Linda?” Alexei asked.

“I want to turn him.”

Keeping my eyes peeled on the man, I stated to the crowd, “I need plastic gloves!”

A handkerchief came into my line of sight.

“No, gloves!”

A package of Kleenex came into my view.

“No, gloves!” I repeated.

A small blue plastic bag was there.

“Ok.”

I put my hands and forearms into the bag, moved around to the man’s head and kneeling just outside the growing pool of blood, I bent over and stabilized his head and neck by putting my hands on his shoulders and his head between my forearms.  Alexei and Noelle grasped his body in the appropriate places so that we could roll him like a log, keeping his spine and neck in alignment to prevent damage.

“Okay, on the count of three. One, two, three.”

We successfully turned him to his right side away from the stairs. The blood poured out of his mouth. 

I waited.

He sucked in a big breath and kept breathing.

Whew!

Someone slid a small back pack toward me to put under his head.

“It will get all bloody.”

“it’s okay.”

“You speak English?”  I asked a young woman. She nodded yes.

“Please tell everyone, we are ER and ICU nurses from America. We know what we are doing. We have to keep him on his side so the blood doesn’t block his airway and we have to keep his spine straight to prevent paralysis. She told everyone and also informed me that an ambulance was on the way.

A man came down the steps to us. He had a stethoscope and tried to turn the victim to his back so he could examine him.

Noelle yelled, “NO!”

So he reached over the man’s body and listened to his heart, then left.

We waited.

I tried to feel his scalp for a source of bleeding, but I couldn’t find one. Blood just kept pouring out of his mouth. My back was screaming from bending over. I finally had to slide the backpack under the man’s head. It was a perfect fit and kept him in good alignment. Just as I straightened up, the medic showed up. Via the young woman’s translations, I was trying to give him a report of the mechanism of injury and all that we had seen and done.  He didn’t seem to pay any attention and appeared to be assessing the situation for himself. Noelle was pantomiming putting a cervical collar on the man’s neck for stabilization and the medic nodded.  Alexei stood up with me.

“What now?”

“We need to back off and let him do his thing.”

Someone handed me some Kleenex to wipe the blood off of me as I took off the blue bag. Too late, it was mostly dried up. I opted for returning to our hotel across the street instead of going to the bookstore. As we left, people reached out to touch us and gave their thanks.

We got back to the hotel and Noelle went off to Skype her parents. I went to clean up and Alexei disappeared. I marveled at how strangely calm I was; no drama, no trauma. Good, I like that in me. I went to say hi to Noelle’s parents and Alexei came to us.

“I watched from my room with the binoculars. They just took him away on a backboard and with the C- collar on. They weren’t doing CPR so I guess he is alive.”

Okay then. On that note, I went to bed.

Day 19 – 20 Cairo

It is late afternoon of day 19 in Aswan and we are headed to the train station for the overnight train to Cairo. Originally, we had planned to cruise the Nile up to Cairo, but, we wanted to spend an extra day in that city so we are taking a faster transport to get there. I am excited because I have never been on an extended train ride, let alone an overnight one.

 As we pulled our suitcases into the station we heard, “Noelle, Noelle!”

What the heck?!

OMG, the professor and the boys are taking the train too! They quickly mob us, once again asking for pictures. I think it is cute as hell, but, Noelle is so over it.

We said our goodbyes and found our way to the overnight car and our rooms.

 

But, before the train is ready to leave, Noelle hops off to go buy some snacks from a vendor in the station. When she gets back, she is flushed and embarrassed.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“I was afraid I had taken too long and that the train would leave so I started running back. As I ran, the men in the station stood up and started clapping!”

Ahh, Noelle, you and your girls are so entertaining. I still laugh about it today.

That evening, I was hoping to party a bit, to celebrate our trip so far, but, we could not get back to where the professor and the boys were – a fact that Noelle was happy about. So we went to the lounge instead; but dang, they did not serve alcohol. Thank goodness Alexei had brought a bottle of Limoncella from Italy for just such a celebration!  Mmm lemon and vodka.

 

Okay, party over, time for bed. Noelle gets the top bunk cuz I know I will have to pee in the night.

 

 

I was right; I had to pee in the night. Now that was a little adventure all in itself: dimly lit bathroom, a toilet with a hole in the floor, the wind blowing upward as the tracks whiz by while I am whizzing – o yeah, memorable! Then I couldn’t find my room in the dark!! Fortunately at that moment we were passing some town that had lights on and as they flashed through the windows I tried several locked doors until I found my own.

Please, God, no more peeing tonight!

Pee free, we made it to Cairo in the morning and headed back to our hotel on Tahrir square. Our hotel is the building on the left just past the green bus.  The tent city is gone from across the street. I am bummed because no one is there now.

 

 I am sorry that Noelle will not get to meet all of those people. I heard there are continuing demonstrations on Friday nights, so we shall see what that is like tomorrow.

Here is the view from Alexei’s hotel room window. That pink building is the museum and there is the burned admin building too.

 

Very cool.

We are going to visit pyramids at Saqqara and Dahshur today.

Do you remember when I wrote about Hatshepsut and the Valley of the Kings in Luxor? Well, that was the big burial place for the pharaohs of the New Kingdom. During the Old Kingdom time – 3^rd millennium BCE- the capital of Egypt was in Memphis just south of Cairo. The ancient Egyptian name for this city is of course different, but, I am not really sure what it is because I have found two different names, so I will just call it by its latest name, Memphis. The big burial place during this time was the strip from Giza to Dahshur and it has been designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 1979. And, before you start wondering, I am pretty sure Elvis is not buried there. Bad joke, sorry.

It was fun to take the taxi ride out to Saqqara and Dahshur because we were out of the city and into smaller villages. This is something we had not really done much of during our trip.

 

The camel gets a ride:

 

 Saqqara is a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt with numerous pyramids.

 

 (Picture from Wikipedia)

The most famous pyramid there is the Step Pyramid, built for the burial of Pharaoh Djoser, by his vizier, Imhotep. It is known as the oldest, large scale cut stone building in history. (The oldest un-cut stone pyramid is in the city of Caral, Peru.)

 

Once again, as we toured the complex, the local guides were quieted when they heard Alexei teaching us about what we were seeing.  Even still, they tried to let us take forbidden pictures or go into places we weren’t supposed to go, all for baksheesh.

Here is the Roofed Colonnade corridor of the hypostyle hall:

 

 (Picture from Wikipedia)

 While Noelle rested, Alexei took me to the north side of the pyramid where the temple of the serdab is. I didn’t get what he was saying until now as I am writing about it. The serdab is a small enclosed structure that houses the “ka statue”. The king’s ka is the part of his soul that was believed to inhabit the statue in order to benefit from daily ceremonies. Anyway, as we came to the spot, Alexei told me to look into this hole in a wall and this is what I saw:

 

Here is a better picture from Wikipedia:

 

 (Picture from Wikipedia)

 Cool, huh?

I think this next one is of the Great Trench that surrounded Djoser’s complex, but I am not sure.  It looks more like a great path to me.

 

We could have spent a lot more time here, but the wind and the guides were making it a little difficult, so we took off for Dahshur.

Dahshur is a little further south than Saqqara.  It is mostly known for several pyramids including two that are among the oldest, largest and best preserved in Egypt – the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid, both constructed during the reign of Pharaoh Sneferu (2613 -2589).

The Bent Pyramid is unique and is believed to represent a transitional form between step – sided and smooth sided pyramids.  Archeologists believe that the original angle of the pyramid was too steep and was becoming unstable so the builders decreased the angle to finish it and this gives it the bent look.

 

While Alexei took a closer look, these guards ask to take mine and Noelle’s picture:

 

 

 We were used to this by now, but, they wanted baksheesh. Dang, I am sorry, but, the baksheesh thing was getting irritating. When I was in Mexico, I budgeted money to give to beggars and street performers, but this baksheesh didn’t feel like that. It wasn’t the same as freely giving. However, I didn’t have time to process these feelings and just took our camera and left.

Next stop was the Red Pyramid named for the reddish color of its stones. Originally the stones had been covered by white Tura limestone, but during the Middle Ages, these were removed to use on buildings in Cairo. The Red Pyramid is the largest of the three major pyramids in Dahshur and also the third largest Egyptian pyramid after those in Giza. It is also believed to be the world’s first successful attempt to build a “true” smooth-sided pyramid.

 

 We planned to go inside this pyramid and began the climb up to the entrance. When we finally got there, a pleasant man gave us some flashlights to use, but he didn’t ask us for baksheesh and that was nice too. We started walking down into the pyramid and about ten steps in I stopped.

“Uhm, you guys go on ahead. I’ll wait here.”

Alexei just kept going without even a look back. Noelle looked but kept going.

I sat down on a step and examined my feelings. Maybe I am scared, I don’t know; but, it did not feel right in here to me.

After about another 50 steps, Noelle stopped too and sat down.

 

Our intrepid, Alexei, went all the way, hollering back to us the things we were missing seeing until we couldn’t hear anymore.  This is a picture of the main burial chamber from Wikipedia:

 (Picture from Wikipedia)

 That’s okay, I was glad when he returned and we walked out of there.

 

I have one more picture of a pyramid that we did not see, but, I found it on Wikipedia and I think it is an interesting example of how using the right materials makes all the difference. This is the Black Pyramid, one of the five remaining pyramids of the original eleven at Dahshur. It was built in the Middle Kingdom time of 2055 -1650. It had been made of mud brick and clay instead of stone, then encased in limestone.

 (Picture from Wikipedia)

Well, that’s it on these pyramids.  We headed back to Cairo and to shopping at the Khan el-Khalili souk. I can’t wait.

The Khan el-Khalili souk dates back to 1382 when the Emir Djaharks el-Khalili built a large caravanserai there. A caravanserai is a sort of hotel for traders, and usually the focal point for economic activity. The caravanserai is still there although we did not see it. For readers of Nobel Prize laureate, Naguib Mahfouz, the Khan is the place of his novel, Midaq Alley. The Khan has also been the site of a couple of terrorists’ attacks.

For me, the Kahn was huge, bustling with new and old magnificently interesting sights; the buildings, the people, the wares.  We saw only a tiny bit of this old bazaar. I could have spent a couple of days just walking around this place. 

 

 

 (Picture from Wikipedia)

 

 

 (Picture from Wikipedia)

 

 

 

I loved it.  It was here that I finally got the balls up to bargain and I won! Well, to be honest, I sent Alexei back with my final offer.  I couldn’t go because the lady that had re- done Noelle’s henna walked by, saw mine and was so irritated with the original work, she make me sit down and “get it done right!”

 

She was right. It kept the memory alive long after I got back home. I loved it!

note

sorry, the pic from David Roberts won’t come through.

Linda

Day 18 & 19 – Aswan

We are going to Aswan today, but before I get into that, I want to tell you about our last night in Luxor.

Do you remember my comment about how the people of Luxor seemed desperate, not living, but, just trying to exist? I wished I could see people in their more natural settings. Well I did. This last night in Luxor we went to the square outside of the Luxor Temple and it was filled with families. There were Mothers and Fathers with their babies and little ones; teen age boys exuberantly playing soccer; toddler boys trying to kick a soccer ball that came up to their knees; vendors selling refreshments and balloons.  It was such a relaxed, pleasant time.

Then there were horns honking as a large group of motorcyclists noisily drove down the street. They rode with two to three guys on a bike and no helmets. I could tell they were celebrating something. Later as I walked, alone, back to my hotel, I saw them all parked outside of a photo shop.  I stopped to talk with them and found that their friends were getting married.  The wedding party was inside to get the pictures done. 

The evening was fun, it was alive, and I was happy to be able to share in it.  That night, I received an email from my friend, Nadia, who works in the same hospital I work in.  She is from Luxor and had given me her family’s contact info for emergencies. Now she said her family would like to meet me. I would have loved that too, but, it was too late. I am grateful for this insightful night in Luxor.

Okay, back to today!  We are taking a train from Luxor to Aswan.   Aswan was the ancient Egyptian’s gateway to Africa. Now, it lies just below the Aswan High Dam and Lake Nasser. It is the smallest of the three major cities along the Nile and has a large population of Nubian people who were relocated when building of the dam flooded their homelands. The High Dam was built in the 1960 -70’s because the Low Dam was not high enough. There is a lot of political history with the building of the High Dam which I am not going into here. Aswan is also home to many of the granite quarries from which most of the Obelisks were built. There is a lot to see here and I know we will only be seeing a fraction of it.

 The hotel we had planned on staying at didn’t exist anymore. Our ever resourceful Alexei scoured the travel guide during the train ride then while we waited at the train station in Aswan, he found a hotel for us.  Here is our view:

 

 Perfect!

Yes, it still had the tiny bathroom, but what the hey, it was clean.  Yes the lobby was on the second floor, but by this time, I was strong enough to carry my luggage up the first stairs myself. Yes, it had one of those tiny elevators that began at lobby level, but at least it was there and it worked.  I loved it!

We all agreed that the first thing we wanted to do was to rent a felucca and go sail on the Nile.

 

I don’t know, maybe it was this sail ride as my introduction to Aswan, but, I felt so much more relaxed in this city. We would only be here a couple of days, yet, I wished we could stay longer to see the entire city and to visit the surrounding areas.

That evening we headed out to have sheesha and tea at the market.  Noelle and I actually smoked a little that night to the delight of three men sitting next to us. One was in the honey bee business, one was a banker and one was a history professor.  The beekeeper spoke just a minimum amount of English, but somehow, we were able to communicate. They took pictures of us with them.  I know they were delighted with Noelle and her girls.

The next day, we went touring. First up was the Unfinished Obelisk which is the largest known ancient obelisk. If finished it would have been about 137 feet and weighed about 1200 tons. It was found in the quarry in 2005. The cool thing about seeing this is how you can get an insight into ancient Egyptian stone working techniques.  You can see the marks from the worker’s tools and the line markings that they followed.  They were carving this stone right out of the bedrock, but cracks appeared in the granite and the project was abandoned. I am neither a stone mason nor an engineer, but, when I look at this, I don’t see how there wouldn’t be cracks. The length and angle of the obelisk just looks like there would be too much stress on it.

 

 

(Picture from Wikipedia)

 (Picture from Wikipedia)

You can also find rock carvings and remains in this open air museum and archeological site where most of the famous obelisks were worked.  Before the tour we watched an interesting video of the site.

We left the obelisks and headed to the Temple of Philae. Philae is actually a plural word that refers to two small islands in the Nile – Philae and Agilkia.  These islands were centers of commerce between Egypt and Nubia (Ethiopia), but, their main feature was their architect. Monuments and temples from the late Egyptian Pharonic periods through the Greek Ptolemaic to the Roman times of the Caesars’ can be found here. The principal deity here was Isis. It was the last pagan temple to exist in the Mediterranean world when it was closed in the 6^th century and Philae became the seat of the Christian religion. The temple was made into a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary until Muslim invaders closed it in the 7^th century.

In 1902 the Low Dam was completed on the Nile River.  Its height was increased twice. Many of the ancient landmarks including the temple complex at Philae were getting flooded. So, in 1960,  Egypt and UNESCO began a massive project to save the buildings. First they built two rows of steel plates that held sand to block the water; residual water was pumped away from the buildings. Then they cleaned and measured the monuments with photogammetry, a method that enables the exact reconstruction of the original size of the building blocks used by the ancient builders. Then they dismantled the buildings, transported them to the higher ground on Agilkia Island and reconstructed the monuments. Awesome!

When we arrived at the dock on the mainland there were MANY small boats vying to ferry us to the island. Alexei made a deal with one and we found ourselves on a very small, twitchy motor boat, hoping we wouldn’t end up swimming.

I could see a small island ahead of us and  I could see beautiful golden light radiating into the sky like a huge halo.  It was coming from something behind the island. I heard a voice saying, “I love your intention to love. I love the love you are bringing to my island.”  I was filled with Love and Joy.

I turned to Alexei and asked, “Do you see that beautiful light?”

Of course he just grinned and shook his head no.

“Whose island is this? Who are we going to see?  What temple?”

“Mainly it is Isis.”

“Isis?”

“Isis was the first daughter of the god of the Earth and the goddess of the sky. She was married to her brother, Osiris who was killed by his jealous brother, Set. One version of the myth is where Set, along with the Queen of Ethiopia, conspired with 72 accomplices to plot the assassination of Osiris. Set fooled Osiris into getting into a box, which Set then shut, sealed with lead, and threw into the Nile. Isis, searched for his remains until she finally found him embedded in a tree trunk, which was holding up the roof of a palace in Byblos on the Phoenician coast. She managed to remove the coffin and open it, but Osiris was already dead. She used a spell learned from her father and brought him back to life so he could impregnate her. Afterwards, he died again and she hid his body in the desert. Months later, she gave birth to Horus. While she raised Horus, Set was hunting one night and came across the body of Osiris. Enraged, he tore the body into fourteen pieces and scattered them throughout the land. Isis gathered up all the parts of the body, less the phallus (which was eaten by a catfish) and bandaged them together for a proper burial. The gods were impressed by the devotion of Isis and resurrected Osiris as the god of the underworld. Because of his death and resurrection, Osiris is associated with the flooding and retreating of the Nile and thus with the crops along the Nile valley.  Osiris is the god of the underworld, a merciful judge of the dead and the grantor of life, re-birth and regeneration. Isis is the goddess of love.”

Hmmm, well I am feeling a whole lot of love right now. As we motored toward the island, I had an image of a woman placing her forehead against mine.  She wanted to give me her knowledge and experience. I wanted it, but, I wouldn’t take it in like this.  I insisted she give it to Love and I would receive it all from there. You know, that is what I trust.  She was cool with that and the image faded away.

Since I have been home, I don’t feel any more knowledgeable or experienced which is kind of a bummer.  When I googled “Isis”, I found this comment: “Isis was a goddess in ancient Egypt whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world.  She was worshipped as the ideal mother, wife, matron of nature and magic. She was the friend of slaves, sinners, artisans, and the downtrodden; she also listened to the prayers of the wealthy, maidens, aristocrats and rulers. Isis worship was concerned about the acquisition of knowledge since knowledge could only be attained from the gifts of the gods. Worship of Isis did not include a messianic view but it did provide a relationship with the divine that was not stopped by death.” 

“Hey, Isis love, if you are listening, I did not refuse your gift, I just need it to come through Love.”

Isis is still worshipped in our times. Apparently there is a Temple of Isis in Los Angeles, in northern California, in Ireland and a whole Federation of Isis. They say that Isis asks only that our “spark of divinity within” be allowed to thrive, to grow, to become strong, and that we become more purely an expression of our own divine spirit.

Hey, I’m down with that! No wonder I like Isis!

Our boat came to the dock and, as I stepped onto the island, I felt an immense sense of peace and love. O my gosh, I really love it here.

 

 

 

The grand entrance to Nubian Temple of Isis   is where we began walking.  Below is a drawing of the same area done by David Roberts in the 1800’s:

 

(Picture from David Roberts)

 Here is a view looking out from an opening in the colonnade area back to the little island :

 

I was feeling so good here. Alexei found a carving of Isis:

 

Here is a drawing of the inside of the temple from the 1800’s Description de L’Egypte:

 

(Picture from Wikipedia)

 Beautiful, isn’t it?

Suddenly, I heard a voice yelling, “Noelle, Noelle!!”  I knew this was not in my head.  We turned around and there, in his black full length robes was the professor from the sheesha place.  He excitedly came running up to us and gave us hugs. Behind him were a couple of other men and a whole bunch of teen age boys…his students! Immediately, everyone wanted pictures…mostly with Noelle and her girls:).

 

It was fun for awhile, but, Noelle was getting a bit irritated because it was very distracting from our tour of the temple complex. I enjoyed it, but, she was right, I found it took me out of my wonderful, loving, spiritual connection and brought me back into present time teenage, male hormones. We did continue to tour and the Island was beautiful, but, I don’t remember it all anymore partially due to the boys constantly coming up to have pictures taken with us.

 

 

 This is Trajan’s Kiosk, built by Roman Emperor Trajan:

 I know we went inside of other temples, but I don’t remember much cuz the boys were there too.

 Our visit to Philae had come to an end.  I would love to visit it again.

 

 At the dock, the boys were there to send us off with a lot of yelling and smiles.

They were very cute. I told Noelle that she and her girls did a lot for international relations. I don’t think she thought it was funny.

After a quick stop at our hotel, we took a long, peaceful, lazy felucca sail on the Nile again. Ahhhh!

 

 

 This time, we went down past Elephantine Island then came back to it and stopped at the back end of a Nubian village near a hostel like hotel:

 

 We were not in the tourist area and that was too bad because all we did was walk in between the houses and couldn’t find our way to the main streets.  We did meet a bunch of little children who squealed with delight when they asked Alexei his name and he replied, “Ismi, MacMoud.”  I don’t get why that just kills everyone. Back at the hostel hotel, Noelle and I received our first henna tattoos:

 

Would you believe it? Our time in Aswan has come to an end. Now, I know it was much too short a time to spend here.  Tonight, we are taking an overnight train to Cairo.  

Day 16 and 17 – Luxor cont. Karnak

Today we are going to Karnak. Karnak is a huge open air museum and the largest ancient religious site in the world. It is the main place of worship for the Theban triad of gods: Amun-Re, his consort Mut, and their son, Montu or Khonsu; or something like that.  Yes, the alternate names of the gods and the evolutions of their aspects can be very confusing to me. It is way more complex than what I am presenting here, believe me.

Karnak is a complex of temples, chapels, pylons and other buildings.  Ancient temples were considered to be the residences of the gods. The Temple was a closed compound, open only to the priests and the pharaoh. The public could only enter the courtyard.

 What is so cool about Karnak is that the construction of all these things took place over a couple of thousand years beginning in the Middle Kingdom (2040-1640 BC) and ending with Cleopatra in the Ptolemaic Times (Greek rule of Egypt 305 – 30 BC) when the Romans took over. Approximately 30 different pharaohs contributed to the buildings making Karnak attain a size, complexity and diversity not seen anywhere else.

 

 (1914 by Cornell University – from Wikipedia)

Karnak is divided into four parts: the Precinct of Amun-Re, the Precinct of Mut, the Precinct of Montu( Khonsu) and the dismantled Temple of Amenhotep IV.  Only Amun-Re’s precinct is open to the public at this time.

 

Below is the sacred lake where the priests would do purifications and during festivals, images of the gods would travel across the lake in boats. This sacred lake is the largest known sacred lake.

 

 (Picture from Wikipedia)

Next is the great Hypostyle Hall built by Seti I. The roof is gone but the hall covers 50,000 sq feet. It has 134 columns in 16 rows. The two middle rows are about 36 feet high. It was a forest of columns.

 

(Picture from Wikipedia)

(1838 Lithograph by David Roberts – from Wikipedia)

 

It was in here that I first saw in my mind an old, tired looking man sitting at a table writing something down.

He said, “I am weary.”

“What are you doing?”

“Taking care of business, of course.”

“What business are you taking care of?”

“God business, except I have no more power. No one believes in me anymore. I am an unused deity.”

“What does that mean? If you are God, you are God, right?”

He sighed, “No, Linda. I am a created deity; I have no power except that which my followers projected onto me. They gave me their own power and then put their faith in me to tell them what to do.  It is useful because  when they act in the name of god, they are not responsible for the success or failure of the action, rather, the outcome is god’s will. Also, when believing they are acting out god’s will, people will allow their power to expand exponentially and they can achieve things they never could if they believed they were acting only for their own will.”

“Why?”

“People are not comfortable acknowledging their personal power so most of them deny it exists. Mostly they are afraid of how their weak, unwise egos would use it, so they give it away to gods and other images of power and then let themselves be told what to do.”

“So, what do I believe in then?”

“You already know the answer to this, Linda.  You told it to Ramses. Believe in your SELF.  You are an expression and manifestation of Love, Linda. When you are in communication with your Inner Voice and align your Linda- self with your God-self and Source in Love then you are One. Then instead of using power to create for the ego, you use it to create for Love. You don’t have to be afraid of acknowledging yourself anymore.”

And then he was gone in a burst of light. Just like that.

Holy Moly, I don’t know about this one, I don’t feel very powerful. I have my own issue that I can’t seem to get over, i.e. overeating.  Maybe I have given my power to this.  I don’t know, I have to think about all of this, but not right now cuz I am still checking out Karnak.

We headed back into the “Holy of Holies”, the sanctuary where the priest performed sacred rituals and the king would commune with the god, Amun. By the way, I read that the word “amen” said at the end of a prayer, is a direct reference to the god Amun who was also called Amen and Amon.

 

 (Picture from Wikipedia)

 This is the Ptolemaic gateway in front of the Temple of Khonsu (Montu):

 

 (Picture from Wikipedia)

 Hatshepsut restored the original Precinct of Mut, the ancient Egyptian mother goddess. She had twin obelisks erected at the entrance to the temple. One fell and the other is still standing as the tallest surviving ancient obelisk on Earth.

 

(Precinct of Mut -Picture from Wikipedia)

(Picture by Steve F.E. Cameron- from Wikipedia)

This is the statue of the sacred scarab which represents the god Khepri, the reborn sun at dawn. The scarab is a dung beetle that lays its eggs in a dung ball which it then pushes around with its feet. The eggs would benefit from the protection and the warmth of the dung.  The image of the larvae coming out of the dung ball became the symbol of rebirth; the dung ball became the symbol of the sun rising up into the sky; and the dung beetle pushing the dung ball became the symbol of the sun traversing the sky each day.  The local guides say that if you walk around this statue seven times you will never again have love problems. There were people doing it!

 

(Picture by Steve F.E. Cameron- from Wikipedia)

 We stopped at a snack bar for a break and found that a cat had kittens and one of the grounds keepers was fishing for little fishes that she could eat. This entranced Alexei.  He loves animals.

 

After this nice interlude we decided to go back to the hotel. There is still so much to see at Karnak, but, we were weary. On our way down the path that led out of the complex, Alexei was talking, but I could hear a wailing sound.  I thought it might be a baby crying in the village about a 1/4/ mile away.

Noelle stopped walking and asked, “What’s that sound?”

Immediately, Alexei stopped talking and like a hound dog began to track the sound.

In my mind the thought came, “NO! Don’t go look, what will we do with what we find? We are on vacation in a foreign country, what do we do?”

OMG! Where did that come from? That kind of fear thought is so not me.

Is it?

But, before I could start berating myself for having it, my Inner Voice said, “Calm down and observe.”

I became very neutral and almost in a detached space as I watched   this experience unfold before us.

Alexei walked into the huge, sandy, undeveloped area between Karnak and the village.  About 100 yards into it, I could see him bend down and the wailing stopped.  He came back carrying a small puppy that lay contentedly on his forearm. It had been left out in the sun. 

Right away, Alexei and Noelle were trying to figure out how to smuggle the puppy back into the hotel. Alexei was making plans to take her home with him to live with his two other dogs; and, “Hey, where can we find some milk?”.

 They found some milk at a tourist shop and we took a taxi back to the hotel. They went inside while I went to the ATM.  When I came back to Alexei’s room the little girl had been washed in cool water, taken some sips of mild and was now resting in a blue towel Alexei had brought from home.  I went over to check her energy.  It was very strong to my senses.

Noelle said, “Look, Linda’s giving her a healing.”

“No, I’m not. Her energy is strong, she could make it.  I am asking Love to take care of her and for whatever is best.”

Alexei said, “That is her name then – Karnak Inshallah”

Inshallah means “God willing”.

We had to run some errands. I don’t remember where I went, but Alexei and Noelle had to go to the ATM and somehow they got into a conversation with the healer guy who had tried to help Noelle when she had fallen before. This guy keeps popping up! I wish I had taken time to meet him. He offered to take care of Karnak Inshallah and  to make sure she got good care.

That made me aware that no matter where I am or what situation I am in, I can rely on Love. I don’t need to feel the fear of “what to do”; instead, just choose Love, act, and follow Love’s guidance.  I thought I had already learned that when I took care of Bella as related by her story in my book. I guess I still need more learnin’.

When we got back to the hotel, we found that Karnak Inshallah had died. It was a somber moment for all of us. 

The next day, by himself, Alexei took Karnak Inshallah over to the west bank of the Nile. He found a beautiful, peaceful place to bury her.

 

 

 

Rest in peace little Karnak Inshallah.

Day 15 Luxor cont. Balloon, Valley of the Kings, etc.

YAY!!! We are going on a hot air balloon trip today.  Noelle is feeling better which is good because we have to get up early. We will be taking a water taxi, as usual, to get to the west bank.  Here is a picture of the water taxis during the daytime. Usually, we would climb through one after the other until we got to the one we had contracted with, but,

this time, we are on a balloon tour and it’s dark so thank goodness the taxi is right at the dock!  And, hey, there is breakfast!!. Look at Alexei in his jalibeya (man dress) and keffiyeh (turban). Whenever he was dressed in this local outfit, people would ask his name and he would reply, “Ismi, Macmoud.”  They would always delightfully crack up. I don’t know why, but it was fun to watch.

 

I have wanted to go on a hot air balloon ride for a very long time. I tried to do it in Sedona, Arizona, but the wind wasn’t right and they cancelled it.  This one is a go and I am like a kid…so excited!

 

 

Up, up and away we go!!!

 

There is Deir el-Bahri with Hatshepsut’s temple (in the bend of the cliffs) in both pictures along with various other tombs:

 

 When we went to Hatshepsut’s temple yesterday we  passed a village that Alexei said had been filled with people including  children on his last visit. In fact, we had brought a bunch of pens for the kids because they love receiving them. But, now the village is empty. Apparently the government is planning on creating a huge kind of “theme park” that will link the various archeological sites and so the people had to move. Here is the empty village from yesterday:

 

Here is another village.  I am not sure if this one has people still in it.

 

Thank goodness for the Nile River and the irrigation channels that come from it. I am not sure what the wall is for. I don’t think it can keep out desert storms!

 

All too soon the ride was done.  I am happy I finally got to do a balloon ride and what a great place to do it. Another check off of the ‘ol bucket list!  

 

 Next, we are going to the Valley of the Kings.

Back in the old, old days, i.e. the Old Kingdom (2000’s to 3000’s BCE), pyramids  were built in which to bury the pharaohs as we shall see later in Giza. But, after the pyramids of the Old and Middle Kingdoms were plundered, the pharaohs of the New Kingdom (1500’s to 1000’s BCE),  went underground in a valley on the west bank of the Nile.  In 1979 the Valley of the Kings became a World Heritage Site. Over 60 tombs are here, ranging from simple pits to a complex tomb with 120 chambers. It is in this valley that the tomb of King Tutankhamun was found.

 

 (Northern view of valley – Picture from Wikipedia

 Below is a one dimensional map of the tombs. 

 

 I wish I could have taken a picture of the huge, three dimensional, map model I saw in the museum site at the V of K.  It showed the tunneled corridors descending into various depths and ending in tombs and how some corridors took off of other corridors.  I could really grasp the enormity of what had been accomplished by looking at this format.  However, we were not allowed cameras, so all of the following pictures are from other sources. There are a lot more pictures you can see on line if you do a google search, but, they have copyrights, so I am not using them here.

 

(Picture of area around KV62 from Wikipedia)

 

 (Picture of entrance to Horemheb’s tomb from Wikipedia)

 

(Picture by Crystalinks.com)

Not all of the tombs are open to visitors and many are open only on a rotating basis. We decided to not see King Tut’s tomb because, one,  we would be seeing his stuff at the Cairo museum; and, two, the fee to his tomb was three times the amount of others. So, we decided to go to Ramses III and to Merenptah’s tombs.

As we entered Ramses’ tomb, suddenly, in my mind, a monstrous face appeared.  I think it was trying to scare me.  I started laughing, “Hmm, what the heck are you doing? That doesn’t scare me.” It squinted its eyes at me and then disappeared. 

 Noelle glanced back at me and gave me the “eye”; she knew something was going on in my head. 

I don’t remember a lot about what I saw in the tomb, because the spirit kept distracting me by showing me how cool he was. He would point out various pictures of himself and his deeds and say, “See, see.”  

I have only one picture from Wikipedia.

 

 Finally, I said, “You are a dead king being remembered through decaying ruins. Is that what you want? Is that all you are?”

“What do you mean, is that all I am?”

“You’re stuck in who you used to be. Wouldn’t you like to come into present time and explore who you could be now? All this other stuff already happened.  Yeah it’s cool for me to visit; but dude, you been there, you done that. Have you stopped living? I don’t think so – you are here, I am talking to you. You are still alive, but WHO ARE YOU NOW!?”

Woah, that caught his attention.  He disappeared for a little bit, then returned.

“What happens if I leave here?”

“I don’t know for sure. Don’t you have your beliefs about becoming one with Osiris and Ra? Aren’t you supposed to go through a bunch of challenges and perils in the underworld, then come out on top and be immortal?”

He gave me a wry look and replied, “Well that hasn’t happened. So now what?”

“I don’t know for sure.”

“You sent Hatshepsut off into a white light.”

“No, Hatshepsut saw a white light and chose to go into it. A lot of my patients do this too; I thought it might be a Christian cultural thing, but maybe not. I don’t try to explore the afterlife too much because I want to be able to flow with my patients’ belief systems and allow Love to guide them to find Truth for themselves in their own time and in whatever way is best for them.  After all, who am I? I don’t know what the Truth is. I believe in Love and I just keep following my path in Love, learning as I go, helping as I can. I do think that my self- identity as Linda is just a small part of who I really am. Linda, the “mini me” is only a character the “bigger me” is playing in this reality right now. I think that when I allow my consciousness to expand, I become the “greater me”, part of the One – the Source, and that there is no end to my beingness. It is all a matter of which viewpoint I am seeing myself from at any given moment.  As I change my viewpoint from the Source, and my perspective compartmentalizes while descending through filters of beliefs and life experiences I eventually percieve life through the mind of “mini me”, Linda. Then through this character, Linda, I experience myself in a variety of relationships with all the parts of the reality I am in. Through my relationships with all, I get to explore myself, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. I get to experiment with different aspects and combinations of myself to further my evolution as a creative being. It can be fun, it can be scary, but it’s all good. To me, the worse thing I could do is to get stuck trying to hold onto something that doesn’t serve my evolution now. Stuck because of fear.  I have scared  myself in the past – scared by what I created and then scared of how my fearful reactions created more scary stuff; but, I have since chosen to trust Love and to allow Love to guide my choices. Now I am more able to act rather than react. Now I can trust and enjoy living, exploring and expressing myself. I choose Love and when those times come that Love leads me to my next step – I take it.”

Well, that was a mouthload, Linda!

He stared at me, then got a little smile on his face.  A white light appeared before us. I turned to look at it. When I looked back there he was in full regalia sitting upon a huge white horse. He yelled, the horse reared, and they charged into the light.  I heard his voice floating back to me, “I will be back!”

“Well okay then.”

Hmm, that was quite the interchange.  I continued to explore Ramses’ tomb and then, as we were heading out, I saw a white light off to my right.  There was this hunky dude, in a T-shirt, jeans and bare feet.  He smiled, “I think I’m gonna like me in this now.” Then he and the light were gone.

Oh, baby, yeah; I have no doubt you are gonna have fun!

I started laughing again and Noelle said, “Okay, who are you talking to inside that head of yours?”

I just shook my head.

We left Ramses’ tomb and headed to Merenptah’s. In my head, I heard a voice say, “So you got rid of Ramses.”

“No I didn’t.  He made a choice.”

“I heard the whole thing and I saw the whole thing with Hatshepsut too.”

I stopped walking and stared at him, “Okay, so what are you going to do?”

He grinned.  A white doorway appeared. He straightened his shoulders and regally went through it.

I looked around and, just like my experience at Monte Alban, little white lights shot off into the sky.

Now both Noelle and Alexei are looking at me. “What’s going on?” Noelle asks.

“They’re leaving.” I said.

Alexei said, “Linda if you send  all of them away, what’s going to be left?”

“I’m not sending them, they are choosing to go.” I defended. I thought to myself, “What’s left? Beautiful ruins  of historical achievments for us to learn from, admire,  and enjoy.”

Such as Merenptah’s  sarcophagus.

 

(Picture from Wikipedia)

 We left the Valley of the Kings and took a water taxi back to the east bank. This time Alexei got to steer!

 

 Next stop is the hotel and then the Luxor museum. We took a buggy ride and Alexei got to drive this too.

 

 The museum was very cool to visit. I liked it. It was opened in 1975 and had great displays.  It prides itself upon the quality of their artifacts and the uncluttered way they are displayed.  But, Alexei said, “Wait until you see the museum in Cairo!” 

(Picture from Wikipedia)

 (Picture by rosegirl)

(Hathor – picture from Wikipedia)

We headed back via the same carriage and Alexei drove again. Noelle calls this my Mother Teresa look. Whaddya  think? If only I was haf as good as she was.

 

 

 I want to comment here about how much the economy is hurting due to lack of tourists.  Despite our telling this carriage driver we did not want to ride back from the museum he waited almost two hours for us to finish our visit and then talked us into taking the ride again. These people are desperate for tourists. I felt it so strongly at Luxor in particular. In the Souk (markets) where we were headed to next, I could feel the desperate need to sell stuff. I have been to markets in poor places and have bought from very aggressive sellers, but, the feeling here in Luxor was different.  Also, the little “baksheesh” (tip) was everywhere!  With any little help a person gave to me, they expected baksheesh.  One guy kept hounding us to tell him what we were looking for so he could take us to the right shops.  We told him no and then ignored him as he followed us.  When we did stop at a shop, he told the seller there that he had brought us and wanted baksheesh from him.  Over the days I became aware of how I stopped asking for help and was even trying to not  look like I might need help, because I didn’t want to deal with it. It was weird because this kind of stuff doesn’t usually bother me.  It came to a head later, in Giza. Another lesson for me.

 I also felt like people were not living and that they were just trying to exist. I had emailed my sister with this concern.  The energy was so low.  I really wanted to see people outside of the markets and in their natural home life, but, I wasn’t sure that would happen. I did see a small family reunion in the hotel lobby. Everyone was happy to see each other, but still, the energy seemed so tired.

We planned to spend the rest of the day “souking”; first though, a trip to our favorite ATM.  To get there we had to go through the “tourist’s market” where we had been many times already.  This time though, Noelle fell. The men all around us jumped to their feet, ready to help.  One of the shopkeepers came running and offered an oil to put on her tender ankle. Embarrassed, Noelle struggled to her feet and brushed away all of the attention.  I noticed the guy though. I had seen his shop many times but had never gone in. Now, I realized he was a healer and that he had some kind of healing agent he was trying to get her to use. How funny that I am just now noticing him.  Nevertheless, we left in a hurry. 

Noelle felt okay and thought she could still go souking. The following pictures are of the markets.  There are different types of markets from those for tourists to the ones locals shop from.  Pretty much anything you want you will find in the souks. A little disclaimer here – it is entirely possible I have mixed up pictures of markets from  Luxor and Aswan, sorry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Ahh, sugarcane juice, Alexei’s favorite:

 

 Falafel and Hummus, I think:

 

And shawarma for me, of course!

 

Then there is the sheesha – the water pipe smoking. This is mostly a man thing. In fact, I don’t think I saw any woman who was not a tourist, smoking a pipe.   Alexei loved to have his sheesha and tea. I tried the pipe once and inhaled- big mistake for me; I am a singer, smoking messes up my vocal chords. Thereafter no more inhaling, if I smoked at all.   Noelle would smoke now and then; but mostly, we had the tea.

Well, it has been a long day. Noelle managed to souk while gimping around on her ankle. Tomorrow we head out to Karnak. So, one last sheesha ‘n tea, please.  

 

 

Day 14 – Luxor cont. – Hatshepsut, Ramses III, etc.

Noelle is sick in bed today. Bummer! She says she will be okay and just needs to sleep.

Alexei and I are continuing with our plan which is to visit his “girl” Hatshepsut’s temple on the west Nile at Deir el-Bahri.

Hatshepsut was one cool chick depending upon whose point of view you take. I think it’s cool that although someone tried to erase her from history, the laugh is on them. Part of her history is still debated, but, I am going to tell you what I have gleaned from various sources including Wikipedia and a National Geographic article by Chip Brown.

 (Picture from Wikipedia)

Hatshepsut is said to be the first great woman in recorded history, paving the way for other great women such as Cleopatra, Catherine the Great and Elizabeth I.  She took the position of pharaoh and reigned for 22 years. While being successful in warfare in her early reign she is generally considered to be a pharaoh who began a long peaceful era in Egypt; re-establishing lost trading relationships and bringing great wealth to Egypt. She was one of the most prolific builders in ancient Egypt.  Her building projects raised the bar of ancient Egyptian architecture to such a level it would not have a rival for another 1000 years. She sent out an expedition to the land of Punt (possibly current Ethiopia and Somalia) which brought back, among other things, 31 live myrrh trees. This is the first recorded attempt to transplant foreign trees.

 

(Picture from Wikipedia)

While women had a high status in ancient Egypt, a woman pharaoh was a very rare thing. Why she did it, no one really knows. Depending upon whose point of view you read, Hatshepsut was either a wicked, crafty, step-mother or she was a very intelligent, unique woman and a skillful political leader.

Hatshepsut was the daughter of Thutmose and his Great Royal Wife, Queen Ahmose. While Thutmose had been married into the royal line, his wife Ahmose is considered to be of the blood royal. Unfortunately, they only conceived a girl. Eventually, Thutmose produced a son by another queen and named him  Thutmose II. It is he who actually inherited the crown because, yeah, he was male.

Following a common method of fortifying royal lineages, Hatshepsut married her half-brother Thutmose II. They had a daughter. Once again, that was a problem because kingship was not supposed to be passed down to daughters. Religious beliefs said that women were not adequate enough to handle the role. So, Thutmose II had a son by a lesser wife and named him Thutmose III. Unfortunately, “T -2” died shortly later and left a son too young to rule. In this scenario it was normal for the queen to step in as a regent, handling political affairs, while the little guy grew up and learned the ropes.

Hatshepsut did not do that.  Why? No one knows for sure. After initially acting like a typical regent, Hatshepsut began taking on kingly functions like making offerings to the Gods and ordering obelisks built. Soon, she just assumed the role of “king” of Egypt and relegated her step-son to second-in-command.  Was she the evil step-mom or was she a skilled politician? Remember, Egyptians believed the pharaohs were divine; but, her brother/husband, Thutmose II, was the offspring of an adopted king and therefore his son, Thutmose III was not of royal blood. Only Hatshepsut was a true blue blood and had a biological link to divine royalty. Wisely or shrewdly, when Hatshepsut’s husband had died she did not call herself the King’s Wife, rather, she took the title, God’s Wife of Amun. This way she was not just the daughter of a king, nor just the wife of a king – she was the wife of a God and, dude, she could sure as heck be a pharaoh. The chick was smart!

Oh yeah, this has all the makings of a good soap opera.

In her written texts she made no secret that she was a woman; the suffixes of words referring to her had the female endings. But, as the years went by she seems to have decided it was easier to have her likeness depicted as a male king, using the traditional male pharaoh’s headdress, kilt and false beard.

 

(Picture from Wikipedia)

 She also created a fable that said the god Amun had come to her mother in the form of her father Thutmose and that Hatshepsut was Amun’s daughter. The oracle of Amun proclaimed that it was the will of Amun that Hatshepsut be pharaoh.

It must have been an effective media strategy that helped her to be accepted by the masses and the religious leaders because it seems no one disputed her “pharaoh-ness”. However, after her death, some someone tried to erase her from history.  For a long while it was thought her step-son, Thutmose III, was trying to get back at a “step-mommy dearest”; but, why would he? In addition to being Egypt’s most successful general –known as the Napoleon of Egypt- he was also an acclaimed athlete, author, historian, botanist, and architect. What would his beef be? Did he hold onto a twenty year resentment and then rebel after her death?

 Was it his son, Amenhotep II, who worried that his lack of “royal blood” would question his right to be pharaoh?  

 Was it an attempt to erase the fact that a woman had been equal to or better than a man at being a pharaoh?

 No one knows the answers at this time. At any rate, the random, sporadic erasures took her name (cartouche) and her image out of the public eye.  At her Deir el-Bahri temple numerous of her statues were torn down and smashed or disfigured before being buried in a pit. At Karnak there was an attempt to wall up her obelisks. Amenhotep II actually began usurping many of her accomplishments claiming them as his own.

 

          The statue on the left is supposed to look like the one on the right.

 This erasure of Hatshepsut almost caused her to disappear from Egypt’s archaeological and written records. Fortunately, when 19^th century Egyptologists started to interpret the texts on the Deir el-Bahri temple walls their translations were making no sense due to the conflicts between the pictures of two seemingly male kings and the feminine endings of the nouns and verbs being used in the texts. It was in the non-public recesses of temples, etc. that her identity as pharaoh was found.

 In 1903 archaeologist Howard Carter found Hatshepsut’s sarcophagus in the 20^th tomb in the Valley of the Kings (KV20), but, it was empty. No one knew if her mummy had survived or where it could be.

 Carter made another discovery in a tomb close by. KV60 was a minor structure whose entrance was found inside the corridor of another tomb called KV19.  Inside KV60 were two naked mummies, one who was found in a coffin and the other was lying amidst rags on the floor. The one in the coffin was thought to have been Hatshepsut’s nurse and was taken to the Egyptian museum. The other one was left on the floor of the tomb where it had been found.

 Over the years, Egyptologists lost track of the entrance to KV60 and the mummy on the floor effectively disappeared.

 In 1989 Donald Ryan came to explore several small undecorated tombs, including KV60.  He arrived too late his first day to do any real work and so just decided to stroll around the site. He wandered over to the entrance of KV19 and for the heck of it, hoping the entrance to KV60 would be nearby, he began sweeping the corridor. 

 He found a crack in the rock! A stone hatch revealed a set of stairs and a week later he entered the lost tomb. He found the naked female mummy lying in a mess of rags, but there was still nothing to say she was Hatshepsut.

 Two decades later CAT scan tests done on four unidentified female mummies were still inconclusive. But then a wooden box engraved with Hatshepsut’s cartouche (name) was scanned.  In it was found to be her liver and a tooth with part of its root missing. The jaw images of the four mummies were re-examined and right there in the mummy from KV60 was a root with no tooth! They were measured and it was a match! It is not 100% proof, but pretty close that this denuded mummy found lying on the floor on top of rags was Hatshepsut. Now she is enshrined in one of the Royal Mummy Rooms at the Cairo Egyptian Museum.

This chick could not be kept down!  I like her.

 Despite the prevailing beliefs, Hatshepsut proved that a woman was as capable as a man to successfully create and rule over a prosperous Egypt.

  No wonder Alexei loves Hatshepsut! He is excited to visit her temple today.

  We took a water taxi over to the west bank then rented bicycles to go to Deir el-Bahri.  It is near the entrance to the Valley of the Kings which came into existence because of all the pharaohs who later chose to associate their complexes with the grandeur of Hatshepsut’s.

When we got to Deir el-Bahri and I saw the temple in the distance, I have to say I was disappointed.  What is so special about this construction?  It looks like so many other administrative type buildings.  Then it occurred to me, yeah Linda, but this one was built first! This building is a colonnaded structure that was built nearly 1000 years before the Parthenon!

 It is called Djeser-Djeseru and it sits atop a series of terraces that used to have wonderful gardens.

 

 

 

 aerial view

 As we began our tour of the temple, one of the local “guides” came to talk to us, but, he soon backed away as he listened to Alexei’s obviously knowledgeable lecture. It was the first, but not the last time I would hear   the locals call Alexei, “Doctor”.  Unfortunately, I can’t remember most of the lecture, but, I will show you some pictures. I have added contrast lighting to the pictures so you can see them easier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 We did take some time out for me to mediate here. I tucked myself into a small shaded recess and said “Hello” in my mind. Once again, I could hear the woman’s voice from last night.

 “I appreciate that people come to my temple and that I am remembered for what I have done, but, it isn’t enough. I want to be relevant! I can’t be that by hanging around here. I am moving on now. I am letting go of what I was and will see what I can become. Thank you for helping me take this step.”  And then she was gone.

Hmm, I wonder what this means or how it will manifest? I thought  the Egyptian belief was that the soul would move on; why would she be stuck here? I don’t know.

I wonder am I resting upon my laurels, my past? Am I relevant in my present? Is it time to take a step into the new me, whatever that is? In my book I ask the question, “What would a Linda created by Love be like?” Is this my new step? Whatever my step is, I am ready.  In my mind I see me at a precipice and like Indiana Jones, I step off.  Here I am, Love, ready to be my full potential in whatever way serves Love best for the highest good.

We left Hatshepsut’s temple and visited some small private tombs of nobles. One was the tomb of Ramose

When we entered the tomb I felt love.  There was picture on a wall of Ramose and his wife and I told Alexei that I thought they must have loved each other a lot because I was feeling so much love in this tomb.

 

 I liked being in this tomb. A lot of the pictures on the walls looked more like real people in everyday life settings. There was more color. The whole feeling of the place was so different. 

While writing this post I googled this tomb and found that Ramose had been a governor and vizier to Akhenaten.  He was one of the earliest converts from worshipping the traditional polytheistic Egyptian gods, of whom Amun was supreme, to following Akhenaten’s worship of one god, Aten, the light of the sun. His tomb reflects the period between the two faiths and the change of artwork in the Armana period going from the traditional unpainted stylized reliefs to more of a painted realistic/naturalistic style.  

 

 

I didn’t know this then, it just felt good to me in that tomb.

We went on to visit the tomb of Menna who had been a scribe. Artwork here showed the daily life of the working people.

 

 

Next we went to Medinet Habu  a complex of various temples including that of Ramses III which is considered to be the best preserved mortuary temple. Alexei says Ramses III is my “boy” because of my reaction to the temple. What can I say; the feeling was just so different, so self – aggrandizing male! These walls did not contain the delicately carved or painted scenes I had already seen that day.  No, these walls were carved for permanence. “Nobody is gonna be erasing me!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whatever Ramses intention, I am grateful because the artwork was really beautiful in places and I didn’t have to squint my eyes to see it!

 

 

Ramses III was the last great pharaoh and although he protected Egypt through wars with the Libyans and then the Sea Peoples, history in the Middle East was changing. 

 

This was the time of the Trojan War, the fall of Mycenae- ancient Greece, and the beginning of its dark ages.  It was the end of the Bronze age and the beginning of the Iron Age but Egypt had no sources of ore and fell upon economic hard times. The first known labor strike in recorded history happened during Ramses’ reign. Also, a lot of infighting began, again, between the northern and southern sections of Egypt. The priesthood became very powerful and eventually took control of the government. There was a conspiracy in Ramses’ Harem to poison him due to two of his wives competing over whose son would be the successor.  Although the main conspirators were all found and punished, it isn’t really known if Ramses died from the poison or a snake bite.

Dude, you just never know what is gonna bring you down, do you?

Day 13 – Sharm to Luxor

Bright, early, and in anticipation, we are on our way to the Sharm airport for a quick hop over to Luxor. Unfortunately, when we got there we found that, since the revolution, all flights from Sharm to Luxor had been cancelled.  We have had these paid tickets for months and none of us had received any notice about this.  Plus, they wanted us to pay for a new flight to Cairo and then arrange a flight from there to Luxor!

Ay-yi-yi,  the shit shed down on Sharm that morning. Luckily for me, I was assigned by my Buds to watch the baggage while they went to have a chat with the airline manager.  I heard later that Noelle “went off” on him; and I have seen Alexei in his righteous indignation before, so I know that the manager was getting the “what for” done to him!  In addition, apparently we were not the only unhappy campers.  There were two other women whose flight had been cancelled and they were letting him have it too!

The last call was sounding overhead when the manager, Alexei and Noelle returned to me.  We scurried onto the flight at the very last minute.   Guess what? We did not have to pay extra. 

When we got to Cairo, we went to the ticket agent and Alexei explained our situation.  Our bags were set aside and Alexei was sent to speak to someone. When he returned, we were sent to our flight and, once again, we did not have to pay anything more than we had already paid.

Whew!

Okay, now I don’t know how you, dear reader, would have handled all of this, but, it sent me down a little rabbit hole in my mind.  I remember how Lee, my deceased husband, could get righteously angry and make things happen.  I remember how much I loved watching Dixie Carter’s character, Julia Sugarbaker, on “Designing Women” give someone those eloquent dress downs on TV. My friends, Carolyn and Frank, don’t allow people to take advantage of them. All of these people stand up to what they perceive as “wrongs” being done to them and they say, “No! This is unacceptable!”

I have a hard time doing that for myself!  I have a hard time making a scene, getting righteously angry or exploding and demanding things be done differently.  Am I just a wimp?  I know I have done this for my siblings and for my patients in the past. I don’t think I have done it for myself very much; and, I don’t think I have been doing this for my patients very much recently either.  I used to be such an aggressive then assertive patient advocate, but, recently, I have changed.  If you have read my book you know this. I have been trusting that whatever is best is what is happening. I have been rolling with the punches, going with the flow and trusting Love. I have asked for guidance and watched for when I should say a word or take an action that would promote the highest good. But, as I watched the effectiveness of a good melt down and righteous anger, I wondered if I should start being more like that again. I really didn’t know.  So, I asked Noelle about it. 

“When you go off on someone It seems very effective in getting what you want.  How do you feel about it afterward? Do you feel successful?”

“No, I feel like shit.  I don’t like getting that worked up and losing it.  I regret it and feel bad about myself for days.”

Well, dang, I didn’t expect that answer.

I still don’t know for sure. When I got back from this Mid East trip I found I had a $1200 phone bill from Verizon for data usage on my cell phone. I called and told them I had followed all of their instructions about turning off the “roaming” and shouldn’t have this charge. They told me I had not been charged at all when I had used the Wi-FY in the Mid East, rather, all of the charges were from my overnight layovers in Amsterdam, where the rules were different.

Okay, Linda, do you get righteous and yell at this girl on the phone? Do you insist on speaking to her supervisor and yell at her? Do you ask for guidance from Love and trust the highest good and that whatever is best is what will happen? Make a choice, dude, cuz now is the time!

I chose Love and said, “I followed the pre trip instructions to the letter and it is unacceptable for you to charge me.” I didn’t yell, instead, I thanked the girl for her help.  She took it upon herself to help as much as could be done.  In the end, I had to pay $600 dollars and I am grateful I had the money to pay it. But, part of me still wonders if I wimped out. I bet Alexei would have had no charges by the time he was done.

 Also, I do notice that, lately, I have become more assertive again in my patient care.  But, it is not from my righteous ego thinking that I know what is best; rather, I am still choosing Love and the highest good. I do my best to advocate all that I can.  If I find it is not working then I let go and trust Love to know the bigger picture and that whatever is best will happen.

Okay, whatever; back to the trip! 

We made it to our hotel in Luxor where Noelle took a quick look at the bathroom and sighed.  Yeah, it was a li’l ‘un again. But what a great location we were in! The Nile, the Luxor Temple, and the Avenue of Sphynxes were right outside!

 

 

Luxor is the site of the ancient city of Thebes, the great capital of Egypt during the New Kingdom era and the “glorious” city of the god Amon-Ra. Its importance started as early as the 11^th Dynasty (2000’s BC) and it grew into a thriving city, renowned for its high social status, luxury, wisdom, art, religious, and political importance.  During the time of the 18^th dynasty (1500’s BC) through the 20^th Dynasty (1000’s BC), the city had become the major political, religious and military capital of Egypt. This time period is called the New Kingdom of the Egyptian Empire. Among other things it is the time period of Moses and the pharaohs;  of Queen Hatshepsut (Alexei’s favorite) who is considered to be one of the most successful pharaohs and who reigned longer than any other woman of an indigenous dynasty; Amenhotep III who was pharaoh when Egypt was at the peak of her artistic and international power; Akhenaten who refused the traditional Egyptian polytheism and practiced monotheistic worship of a one true god named Aten; the well known King Tutankhamun; and Ramses III second pharaoh in the 20^th dynasty who is considered to be the last great New Kingdom king to wield any substantial authority over Egypt.  His reign is believed to have been from 1186 to 1155 BC.  Trying to date dynasties is still somewhat controversial, so I am giving you only the approximate dates.

 Despite the decline of political and military importance and moving the capital of Egypt to other cities, Thebes remained the religious capital of Egypt. The main god of the city was Amon, who was worshipped along with his wife the goddess Mut, and their son Khonsu, the god of the moon. As Thebes had risen to importance through the years, so did their god. He became linked to the sun god Ra, becoming the new “king of gods” and was called Amon-Ra. His temple at Karnak just north of Thebes was the most important temple of Egyptian antiquity. Thebes remained a site of spirituality and attracted numerous Christian monks in the Roman Empire who established monasteries amidst several ancient monuments including the temple of Hatshepsut.

There are lots and lots of temples, tombs, and ruins to see here and I know we will not be able to get to all of them on this visit.  On this first day, though, our hotel is just a block away from the Temple of Luxor and so off we go to see it.

The earliest parts of the Temple still standing are the chapels built by Hatshepsut. The main part of the temple was built by Amenhotep III with a later addition by Ramses II. There are also some chapels built by Tuthmosis III and Alexander the Great. During the Roman era, the temple was a legionary fortress and the home of the Roman government in that area.

If Alexei or Noelle will read this blog, maybe, they can identify some pictures!

 

 

 

This Obelisk is one of two built by Ramses II. The other one was given, in exchange for a clock that doesn’t work, to King Louis V and stands in the Concorde Square in Paris.

 

 

Alexei tried to teach me a lot of things, but honestly, my brain couldn’t hold them.  I was amazed at his level of information including his ability to read hieroglyphics.

 

 

 

 This mosque was built on top of the temple when it was buried under 20’ of sand.

 

 This is the court of Amenhotep III.

 This is toward the back of the Temple.

 I was enjoying seeing all of this, but, my favorite times were these:

 

 

Sorry for the blurriness. 

I also loved the temple at night.

 

(Picture by Noelle Meluskey)

The blue of the night reminded me so much of the blue water at the Blue Hole in Dahab.  At a certain point, they were the exact same color. As above, so below.

The Avenue of the Sphynxes looks cool in this shot too. This avenue  originally went from Luxor Temple to Karnak.

 

(picture by Noelle Meluskey)

It was a wonderful first time introduction to the ancients of Egypt, however, in my mind there was a little more going on. When we first began to walk toward the temple, I could hear a woman talking to me in my mind. Her voice came from across the Nile and was centered at Hatshepsut’s Temple.

“I need you to come here to see me.”

“I am coming tomorrow. What is happening with you?”

“I don’t know what the wise thing is to do. I have been staying here for thousands of years, waiting for the time I will rise again.  I am wondering if this is a mistake.”

Suddenly, I could hear a male’s voice coming from Luxor Temple.

“Do not give up.  We have waited this long, we can wait longer.  Our time will come again. We are from the Gods, we will return.”

The woman said, “What for?  We are irrelevant now and have been for some time. Whether I am here or not doesn’t matter. These people come to see our buildings and to learn about us, but, we do not factor in their lives anymore. I don’t want to be nothing. I am feeling like it is a mistake to stay here longer.”

I can see she is becoming a little distraught. “What do you want?”

“I don’t want to be stuck and that is how I feel.  I am a woman of action. I have been doing nothing for so long now.  I am thinking my beliefs have been wrong.  I want to move on.”

The man yelled, “If you give up on the Gods you will be nothing!”

I asked her, “What do you say to that?”

“Perhaps it is true, but, what I am experiencing now is “nothing”.  I don’t want to let fear of the unknown keep me stuck here. It is possible that if I take the chance and leave I may have an opportunity to create a new me, a new self.  I don’t know, but I have seen your mind and the things you have been doing with people; I want to you to help me move on.”

She’s seen my mind?? Hmm, okay, that’s a first, but it’s cool.

“Can you let go of your beliefs and perceptions and open yourself to another way of perceiving?”

“Yes, I am ready.”

It was easy to take her through a brief visualization and statement of intent to see things in a different way. She was soooo ready.  As I watched, she just let go, became a light and zoomed off into light. I heard her voice on the wind, saying, “Thank you.”

Well dang, Linda, you’re doing it again. You know there’s a lot of old spirits who have intended to hang around here, you gonna be talking to all of them? Nope, just the ones who talk to me first.

I am on vacation.

Day 12 – Mount Sinai and Sharm el-Sheikh

Actually, it is 1100 pm on day 11.  We are getting ready for our journey to climb to the top of Mt. Sinai in order to be there for the sunrise!

Mount Sinai is also known in Arabic as Jabal Musa meaning Moses’ Mountain. According to Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition this is the mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments. Many thousands of people have made the pilgrimage to its summit and I want to be one of them.

Mount Sinai is 7507 feet. Pilgrims usually begin at St. Catherine’s Monastery which is at an elevation of about 5084 feet. Then they can choose between two of the main approaches to the summit. The most direct route is the 3,750 “Steps of Penitence”.  This steep path consists of steps that were literally carved out of the rock by monks.  You don’t need mountain climbing equipment just strong thighs!  This route can take 45 minutes to three hours depending upon your pace.  Much as I would love to take it, I know there is no way I will be doing this route!.

The other route is a wide winding path that can take the average hiker maybe 2.5 hours. This path does not take you to the summit though,  you will still have to climb up the last 750 stairs to get to the top.  This is the route I am planning to take.  I have been training for it by using the treadmill at level 15 and, also, doing the Stairmaster.

On the summit of the mountain there is a mosque which is still prayed in by Muslims today. There is also a Greek Orthodox chapel that was built upon the ruins of a 16^th century church.  The chapel, which is not open to the public, is said to enclose the rock from which God made the Tablets of the Law.  Also at the top is “Moses’ Cave” where Moses waited to receive the Ten Commandments.

We met our van in Dahab then drove around to pick up other pilgrims. Our van was filled with maybe ten people as we began our two hour drive to St. Catherine’s Monastery.  When we arrived I saw  a lot of people, but, as it was nighttime,  I couldn’t tell how many.  I think at least 75 maybe over 100.  This is a picture of us waiting to go. 

It is already cold and we still have to get to the top.  We were warned to dress in layers because the walk would warm us up and perspiration would wet our clothes which would then get cold at the top when we were resting.  I have lots of layers on but I am already cold.

We were divided into groups that would be led by local guides. Our guide’s name was Sala.  And we are off!

I see there are camels and I am really happy.  I know I said I had been training for this hike, but, after the climb from St. George’s Monastery and the hiking done in Petra, I am not sure I can make it to the top of this mountain.  It has never been important to me to make it to the exact top; I just want to make it up Moses’ Mountain.

Okay, yeah; about ¼ of a mile into the hike, I am already breathless.  We haven’t even begun to climb yet. Sala can hear my breathing and asks me if I want to take a camel.  There is no getting my ego around it; yeah I need one.  He contracted with a handler and got me a camel whose name is Michael Jackson!

 

 It turns out Noelle is having a difficult time with the hike too and Sala recommends she take a camel, but, Noelle is afraid of horses and is having a really hard time saying yes.  Alexei, who has taken a vow of silence for this pilgrimage, is gesturing to Noelle to take the camel ride.  My brave friend finally agrees, cuz dude, she really has no choice.  Her camel’s name is Whiskey.

  

 We took off with me in front, then Noelle, and then our awesome Alexei walking silently behind her.  Noelle was really afraid and trying hard to cope.  I could hear her talking behind me and her voice had changed; it sounded like a little girl’s voice as she asked, “Does it mean he is happy when he wags his tail?” Both of the camel handlers were soothing and reassuring her all was okay.

I said, “Noelle, you are very brave.  You’re doing really well.”

Still in that little voice she said, “Alexei, if you’re okay just clap your hands.”  He clapped.

In a few more minutes she asked, “Is Whiskey tired, does he need a nap?” The handlers just kept a steady reassuring patter with her.  They were great.

As we rode, I tuned out everything behind me because I was awestruck and wanted to be immersed in the Ansel Adam’s picture I found myself in.

The night was crystal clear. The moon and stars above me were so close I literally reached out my hand towards them.  I did feel I could almost tickle them. They were so white and so bright as they shone upon the mountain creating a grey scale from white to black that was so sharp every crag, nook and cranny was defined in the mountain’s face and in the rocks around me. My heart seemed to expand inside of my chest as it reached out to the scene surrounding me.  I let go of my saddle’s pommel and  spread my arms out wide to embrace the whole scenario.  How immensely beautiful!  I am so happy that I rode the camel up Moses’ Mountain because it allowed me to be aware of this incredible experience instead of being only aware of the struggle to climb.  I know that there can be value in the struggle I take in the challenging paths of my life; but now, I am also aware of the awesome value in allowing myself to be carried and supported on the paths of my life. I wonder how much can I allow Love/God to carry and support me?  Is that a wrong thing to allow?  I have always felt I was supposed to do life on my own, take responsibility, take control, be self determining, be a self made successful person.  Cool, I don’t see anything wrong with that, but now, I wonder what wonders and beauty would I experience in life if I let go of all that and let myself float in Love’s flow. Is that okay?  Is that what’s best? Is that what God would want for me, if I allowed myself to hear the answer? In the glory of this spectacularly beautiful, glorious ride, I am thinking maybe the answer is, “yes”!

Even riding the camel, it was a long, yet immensely satisfying ride up to the rest stop before the last 750 steps. It could have been almost three hours.  How interesting that I never did check my watch. Truly, time seemed to have lost importance to me.  We got to the rest stop before the hikers. 

 

Alexei had taken a vow of silence which by now you know is a very big challenge for him.  His mouth may have been silent but his mind was not:

 

 That’s me, meditating in the corner.

Soon the hiker’s caught up with us. The couple from Japan told us we had been smart to take the camels. But now, it was time to say goodbye to Michael Jackson and Whiskey because we were about to climb the stairs. I don’t know what time it was, just that it was still dark. I climbed about 10 steps and had to sit down.  OH MY GOD, I can hardly breathe! How in the heck am I gonna make it up?  Suddenly, Sala was there with me.  He took me by the hand and began pulling me up the stairs.  I still had to stop every 10 to 15 steps, but he was there to give me his hand.  Noelle had to stop at the same time and she had her own person helping her.  I think it may have been, Omar, another pilgrim. I noticed other people resting along the way too, but, it was me who was really having problems.  At one point, I found my legs shaking and almost unable to stand.  That is when Sala folded my arm into his arm and using his body he helped me to stand.  He held my body against his as he literally lifted and pushed me up the steps a few at a time.  Thank God for Sala; truly, thank you God.

Finally we reached the last rest stop.

 

  I was wiped.  I knew I had pushed my body over a line.

 

There were only 100 steps left, but, I wasn’t going to do them.  I had always known I wouldn’t make it to the top and it was never important to me to do it.  I just wanted to be up on Moses’ Mountain and here I was; I was content.

The others continued on without me. Here are pictures from the top!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Noelle and Omar:

 

Prior to the revolution, Omar had never really felt connected to his country.  But, he had been directly involved with protecting his family and protesting during the revolution.  Now, he says he feels he is a part of every grain of sand. “Now, this land belongs to me, to my people.  Now, I have a home and I have freedom!”

Alexei and the flag:

 

 

 Meanwhile, I had been resting, but, I wanted to see the sunrise too.  I stepped out of the hut to see what I could see which was not much because it was still dark. Next thing I knew, Sala was there. 

“Are you going to go to the top?” He asked me

“No, I’m good here.”

He pointed to the top of a very large rock outcropping and asked, “Will you climb up there with me?”

I stared at him a moment and replied, “Sure.”

He bounded up this “rock” while I slowly crawled up on all fours.  When I got to the top, I crawled to the edge and looked out.  I could see the valley below me and the peaks of the other mountain tops around and below me. When I leaned out far enough I could see south, but, it was kind of scary to be leaning out that far so I came back in a foot and sat down with my back against the face of the mountain.  If I turned my head to the right, I would see the sunrise.  Straight ahead, my view was north over the mountain peaks. Turning left, I could look down  onto the rest stop.

I was freezing despite all of my layers and Sala went back down to get me a camel blanket which he then tucked under and around me. Mmmm, it was nice and warm.  Then he left me there all by myself.

Ahhh this was great, this was perfect.  Here I am on Moses’ Mountain sitting all by myself in a place of peace.  I started meditating.  Every now and then I opened my eyes, turning my head to the right to see if the sunrise was happening.  Then I went back to meditating.  I was trying to experience the love I had expected to feel up there, but, I couldn’t feel it.  It felt like there was a clamp on my heart or a stone on my chest.  I can’t explain it. I could tell the energy was not flowing.  I used all of my tools, but, I couldn’t seem to get it going.  I opened my eyes one more time, turned my head, and I saw the sunrise.  It was cool and I was happy to see it, but I wanted to feel the love. I closed my eyes again. Nope, not feeling it.

Okay, that’s okay Linda because you can create the love instead.  In my mind I whispered, “I love you Love/God” and I sent love into the heavens.  Then I whispered, “I love you planet.” and I sent an energy ray of love to the north and imagined it circling the Earth and coming back.  I sent a ray to the east, then south, then west.  Then I felt and imagined myself as a bright ball of Love and sent rays in all directions at the same time, seeing it surrounding and infusing all of life on the planet with love.  Now, I was totally feeling the love.  I opened my eyes and this is what I saw in front of me:

 

Ahhhh, how awesome!  Thank you, Love.

I continued to meditate and bask in Love.  Then, I heard footsteps and Sala was there to collect me. I asked to take his picture and he did different poses to show me his best side.  🙂 

I could see people were coming down from the summit, so I got up and went down my rock with Sala.  He asked me if I wanted to take a Camel down and I said no.  Dang, I had to ride up; there was no way I wasn’t walking down!

I met Alexei, Noelle and the rest of our group and we all started down the steps.  Going down the steps was no picnic for me and, yikes, in the daylight I could see that some of these steps were a little scary.  Pretty soon, I was one of the last people descending.  I began to notice that Omar was kind of hanging around me, stopping every now and then to take pictures.  I didn’t know if he was watching out for me or what so I asked him, “Are going slow to take pictures or to take care of me?”

He smiled sheepishly, “Both.”  What a sweety!

Finally, I made it down to the path where the group was waiting.  Alexei wanted to take the “stairs of penitence” the rest of the way down, but Sala, using a lot of hand gestures as if Alexei was deaf, discouraged it.  Since Alexei was still silent, he could not argue the point.  So we began walking down the path. The camel handlers kept offering me a ride saying it was a long way down, but, I was determined to walk.  The switchback path was fine in most places and not hard to walk, but, they were right it was going to be a long walk.

 

This picture is the only shaded section there was.

 

Pretty soon I could not see anyone ahead or behind me anymore.  Hmmm, here I am on Mount Sinai in the Sinai desert all by myself.  Yeah, yeah, I know, but it’s okay, I’m okay, in fact it feels kind of cool.  I kept walking and, after a bit, I heard someone whistle.  I looked up the mountain and a few switchbacks back, I could see Noelle and Alexei.  I guess she had been stopping to take pictures.  Cool, I kept walking because I knew they would catch up with me and I didn’t want to slow them down.

I rounded another switchback  and saw a woman sitting on the ground with a man standing over her.  As I approached, I could see her knee was bleeding. 

“What happened?”  I inquired.

“I fell on my knee and it won’t stop bleeding.”  I saw several blood soaked tissues on the ground.

I knelt down, took away the tissue on her knee and saw a gash about a ½  inch wide and maybe an 1/16th  inch deep.  It was still bleeding, so I put heavier direct pressure on it. 

“My name is Linda, I am a nurse. My two friends who are nurses will be here in a few minutes.  So don’t worry.”  I held pressure another minute and saw the bleeding had stopped.  I put a wad of tissue on it, wrapped her scarf tightly aroundthe tissue and her knee just to stabilize it, then rolled her pant leg down.  By this time Alexei and Noelle had arrived.  I helped the woman stand up but she felt faint and had to sit down again. I checked her heart rate which was okay, then determined she wasn’t diabetic, but I was still a bit concerned.

“Honey, you should take a camel back.”  I scanned the lower path for the camels and could just make them out in the distance.

“No, I am okay; I just get faint at the sight of blood.”

I poured some water on her head and neck then helped her up again.  This time she tried a step, stumbled and felt faint again. 

“You are definitely taking a camel!” I insisted.

Alexei was already rushing down the path, trying to get help.  I could not see the camels anymore.  They were gone.  What the heck do I do now?  We are on a mountain in the desert.  We need help to get her out.  All I could think of was to give her my water, tell her to rest, tell her friend to stand over her to create some shade for her, and to take off his jacket before he got too hot.  Then Noelle and I hurried down to find help too.  Fortunately, a couple of switchbacks further down, Sala was waiting to make sure his group was descending okay.  Alexei had broken his vow of silence to tell him the problem and Sala had yelled at someone further down the path, who yelled at someone else, who yelled at someone else until eventually, hopefully, the call would reach a camel handler. 

Meanwhile, Sala was staring at Alexei. “I thought you couldn’t talk!?”

It was so funny as Alexei explained his vow. Now that he was talking again, I asked him what his coolest experience had been.

“I had left you and was looking for the last set of stairs to the summit. I couldn’t find them. I couldn’t find my way.  I knew I wasn’t lost, but, I couldn’t find my path.  Then I turned around and my path was right there before me. It had always been there; I just needed to look in the right direction.”

Our eyes locked and we both understood what he was saying.  I hugged him. “That was a beautiful revelation, sweety.”

It was time to move along and we started down the path, but, Sala pointed out a shortcut across the switchbacks and said we could go that way faster.

Not sure if this was a good idea because now it was very rocky and uneven.  I fell and hit my knee; but, didn’t even check it and just kept going. I fell again. I soon realized that I was dehydrated and beginning to “hit the wall”.  I’d hit the wall once before when training for a marathon so I knew my symptoms.  It was confirmed a few minutes later when I pooped in my pants. I could see the monastery ahead; it looked so close but was really still far away.  I lost track of how many times I fell.  Thank goodness for Alexei and Noelle teasing me and keeping it light.  I didn’t tell them then about the pooping.

Alexei yelled, “Look, there’s a camel heading up the mountain!” 

Great, she was going to be okay.

Finally, we were at St. Catherine’s Monastery. Noelle and I made a beeline for the bathrooms then to the store for water. Alexei took off to see the monastery.  I really wanted to go, but, I was pooped, uh, literally.

St. Catherine’s’ Monastery is an Orthodox Christian church and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is reported to be one of the oldest working Christian monasteries in the world. Originally, Helena, the mother of King Constantine had had a chapel built around the bush the monks believe is the original Burning Bush where God spoke with Moses. It was called the Chapel of the Burning Bush.  A monastic community grew around the chapel and then in 542 AD the Emperor Justinian I built a fortress- like basilica around it all to protect the monks and the bush from raiders.  This was called the Church of the Transfiguration in memory of the transfiguration of Jesus in the presence of Moses and Elijah on sacred Mt. Tabor.  The official name of the monastery is The Sacred and Imperial Monastery of the God-Trodden Mount of Sinai. It is commonly known as St Catherine’s Monastery.  According to tradition, the Christian, Catherine of Alexandria, became a martyr when the Roman emperor Maximus killed her for criticizing him for worshiping pagan idols.  Apparently he tried to kill her on the “wheel”, but failed so then he had her beheaded. It is said that the angels took her remains to Mt. Sinai where in the year 800 the monks found them.

The monastery preserves the second largest collection of early codices and manuscripts in the world. Only the Vatican Library has more.  It houses many irreplaceable works of art including the best collection of early icons to be found in the world. It also has copies of the famous document, the Achtiname, in which Muhammad bestowed his protection upon the monastery; the monks living under Islamic rule as well as the pilgrims on their way to the monastery; he also gave them freedom of worship and movement; freedom to appoint their own judges; to own and maintain their own property; exemption from military service and taxes; and, the right to have protection in war. There is  a Fatimid mosque built within the walls but it was never used because it is not correctly oriented towards Mecca.

I can’t believe I am too tired to see this place.  Thank goodness for Wikipedia and Alexei’s pictures.

 

 (Picture by Wikipedia)

 

 

 

 

 After I rested a bit, I was determined to at least see the Burning Bush and dragged my butt the full length of the grounds to go see it.

 

It was cool to see it.  I wish I wasn’t so tired.  I would have like to spend more time visiting, but not only was I too tired, it was time to meet our van and get back to Dahab.  I kind of spaced out on the van and then in the rush to get out, I left behind my Bedouin head dress.  I was really bummed about that and Alexei said I could buy one anywhere, but no, it would not be the same, so, I never did.

It was time to say goodbye to Dahab, get in our taxi and drive a few hours to Sharm el-Sheikh.

Sharm el-Sheikh is the administrative hub of Egypt’s South Sinai Governorate.  It is also called the “City of Peace” due to the large number of peace conferences that have been held there.  It happens to be where the deposed President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt was hanging out when he resigned.  It was also a big resort place.  It is noted for having the deadliest terrorist action in Egypt when in 2005 it was attacked by an extremist Islamist organization aiming at Egypt’s tourist industry.  

To us, it meant sharing a room overnight at a nice hotel while on our way to Luxor. Originally, I had planned on getting my massage there, but honestly, I am so glad I experienced the Turkish bath with Cutey Pie in Petra instead.  All I remember about Sharm is that it was resort like, I reluctantly did some walking in a market, had a good dinner, and then I went to bed around 6 pm.  

Nightey night!