Seeking Sekhmet

As a postscript to my recent trip to Egypt I headed over to the British Museum this weekend to see what was on display in the galleries that tied in to my visit to Luxor, particularly hoping to see some of the many Sekhmet statues that were once to be found at the Temple of Mut.

There were five particularly fine statues of Sekhmet on display in the Egyptian galleries, proving quite a draw for the many families. Someone commented that she looked rather cute, which doesn’t quite square with the explanation nearby telling how she nearly obliterated mankind for conspiring against her father’s rule! This group of statues of the lion goddess came from the Temple of Mut at Karnak (dated to 1390-1352 BC).

Besides the Sekhmet statues there were a few surprises in store. First up, the head and arm of a statue of Amenhotep III from the Temple of Mut (dated to about 1390-1352 BC). I had seen the body of the statue lying down at the Temple of Mut but just assumed that the head had been lost, rather than in London!

The head of a statue of Amenhotep III that once flanked a doorway in the Temple of Mut – now in the British Museum

The body of a statue of Amenhotep III that once flanked a doorway in the Temple of Mut – now presented lying down in Mut Precinct, Karnak

The second surprise was the upper part of a colossal seated statue of Ramesses II (dated to around 1279-1213 BC) which stands at the entrance to the hypostyle hall at the Ramesseum on the West Bank. I had seen the lower part of the statue on my visit to the site and once again had assumed that the remainder of the statue had been lost or destroyed. It’s good that it survives, even if it is a long way from home. A helpful digital reconstruction on the display board nearby shows how the upper part fits together with the part of the statue that remains in Luxor.

It was fascinating to see how the collection at the British Museum fits into the picture. I thought that the field of blocks at many of the sites felt like a three dimensional jigsaw puzzle, but now I understand that the truth is even more complex with some of those jigsaw pieces scattered across the world.

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Day trip to Dendara

The unexpected highlight of my short stay in Egypt was a day trip to the Temple of Hathor at Dendara, around 70km north of Luxor. It is a beautifully decorated and largely intact temple from the late Pharaonic period, constructed in 125 BC and then added to over a period of 250 years. The later additions came from the beginnings of Egypt’s time as a part of the Roman Empire, so you get some fascinating crossovers here. The temple was eventually buried in the sands until the 19th century.

The Temple of Hathor at Dendara

Travel restrictions apply in this area, due to longstanding security issues across Middle Egypt. I had to supply a copy of my passport ahead of the trip so that my tour company could register our journey. Along the way we were stopped at a handful of police checkpoints, where the permission was checked and the details of our car entered into a ledger. I did not experience the police convoys or escorts that some past visitors have reported.

The journey north was not exactly speedy with a fair amount of traffic around and what seemed like an endless succession of speedbumps, but it was far from dull. Our route took us along the east bank up to Qus, where we crossed the Nile to switch to the Eastern Desert Road. On the way back we stuck to the green corridor surrounding the Nile, with no desert excursion. The drive took around one and a quarter hours in each direction.

My visit had coincided with the sugar cane harvest so the fields were filled with workers bringing the crop in and stacking it in railway wagons to await collection. An extensive narrow gauge network runs alongside the fields and through the towns, criss-crossing the road at various points. I counted five small green and yellow Egyptian made diesel shunters stationary along the route, but failed to see any sugar cane trains in motion. You can get an idea of the type of operation from some footage on youtube from ten years ago.

A view back towards the Roman Mammisi (birth house) at Dendara

On arrival we set off on a tour of the temple and the buildings that surround it. This one is built in Graeco-Roman style, but inside it conforms to expectations – a series of hypostyle halls leading to a sanctuary. Unlike many other temples, you can explore almost every part of this one – whether that be down a tight staircase and onto my knees to get through a very low opening into one of the previously concealed crypts or up the incredibly decorated staircases to the rooftop chapels.

The complex history of the site is apparent from the outset. The site is entered through a heavily robbed Roman gateway and the pathway to the main temple buildings sees you pass a Roman mammisi and the remains of a Christian basilica. As you get closer to the outer hypostyle hall with its 24 columns, each with four faces of the goddess Hathor, you can begin to see the degree of destruction carried out by the early Christians, who have mutilated every face and a good deal more of the decoration.

The Roman aspect of the site is hard to miss – the outer walls of the temple include a famous representation of Cleopatra with her son Caesarion, while images of the Roman emperors Tiberius and Claudius can be seen on the outer screen walls. There is an image of Nero playing at pharaoh on the interior walls of the outer hypostyle hall. At the back of the complex you can find the Temple of Isis, built by the Emperor Augustus.

Cleopatra and her son Caesarion (the only known biological son of Julius Caesar)

The outer hypostyle immediately impresses, despite its defaced images of Hathor. The columns and wall decorations are quite simply breathtaking in their own right but then you look up and see what is regarded as the finest and best preserved temple ceiling in Egypt, which provides a colourful representation of the ancient skies. This includes the goddess of the sky stretching across the length of the hall; a little fleet of 18 ships representing the passage of the year; 12 sacred ships, ridden by the gods, representing the hours of daylight; the signs of the Egyptian zodiac and much more. I spent ages staring upwards trying to absorb as much as I could.

There was once an even more astonishing representation of those skies in the second chapel of Osiris, at rooftop level, but today we have to settle for a plaster cast. The highly prized original, known as the Dendara zodiac, was extracted using saws and explosives by a French engineer commissioned by an antiques dealer in Paris. An act seen by many as an ‘archaeological heist‘ and pure vandalism by others. Today, it can be found in the Louvre.

Beyond the outer hypostyle hall we explored the inner hypostyle hall and the various chambers that sprang off it (including a library, perfume preparation area and treasury); the hall of offerings; the hall of the gods; the new year chapel; and the sanctuary. All of these are incredibly decorated with symbols that match the purpose of the chamber you are in (some even retain a hint of their original colours). I guess we spent an hour and a half wandering round before starting our journey back to Luxor, but you could easily spend so much longer doing this place justice.

Inside the Outer Hypostyle Hall of the Temple at Dendara

My guide talked me through much of the imagery that you can see on the walls, highlighting details I would certainly have missed – such as the empty cartouches that show the temple builders hedging their bets in the shaky stability of the Ptolemaic era. I picked up quite a bit more from a terrific guidebook on sale in the shops just after the visitor centre: ‘The House of Hathor: A guide to Dendara Temple’ by Ian Portman (ISBN 977-5089-81-6). There is so much to take in and you need every bit of help you can to make sure you don’t miss anything!

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Tombs of the Nobles

I struggled to find out much about the Tombs of the Nobles before my visit, but this turned out to be pretty straightforward. My taxi parked up at the entrance and from the start you can see a series of silvery signs pointing you in the right direction for an assortment of tombs.

As I made my way around the area I found that the guardians of one site would call out to their mates at the next, effectively handing you over to their care, making it even easier to work out where you are going. I started with the tomb of Sennofer and then worked my way across. There were only a handful of visitors and one small group wandering around the tombs when I visited.

Tombs among the foothills

The landscape is more dramatic here, with over 400 tombs dotted across the hillside, of which only a small number are open to visitors. Archaeologists are still discovering more tombs across the hillside and on my visit I saw a human chain of helpers bringing bucketloads of debris from a freshly excavated tomb to a waiting truck.

The variety of tombs is quite astonishing – both in interior decoration and how easily accessed they are. Unlike the royal tombs in the Valley of Kings and the Valley of Queens you get a better insight here to everyday life in ancient Thebes, with everything from scenes of farming/hunting to new army recruits getting haircuts. The tombs even had a couple of depictions of cats – one curled up asleep as a snake approaches (eek) and another chasing birds.

The tombs that were open when I visited included those of Amenemipet (TT41), Userhat (TT51), Nakht (TT52), Ramose (TT55), Userhat (TT56), Khaemhat (TT57), Menna (TT69), Sennofer (TT96), Rekhmire (TT100), Neferrenpet (TT178) and Djehutimose (TT295). I managed to see all of these before I ran out of time, but there were definitely more that I could have seen. I couldn’t say how many as I never saw any signs listing what was open.

I think the Tomb chapel of the scribe Menna was my favourite with lovely details, such as the falcon-headed god Horus weighing the heart of the dead on a balance against a gold ingot, but it’s a close run thing with the the tomb of Sennofer with its grapevine covered ceiling and colourful wall decorations. It’s well worth the effort of the slightly awkward steep staircase down to the entrance and into Sennofer’s tomb, should you have any hesitation!

Although there is no visitor centre here, there were folk wandering around selling guidebooks. Tickets are not sold on the site – for that you need to go to the centralised antiquities inspectorate ticket office on the west bank. As I was visiting with a Luxor Pass that wasn’t an issue for me, though my taxi driver said he was was well versed in the process and usually offers to drive folk to the ticket office at the start of the day.

Descending to a trio of tombs

The advice to get more small change for tips was most valuable here. I found that the guardians are waiting to open up for visitors at most tombs, but will then insist on showing you round and to be fair, they do ensure that you don’t miss anything. I never seemed to have enough small change left, though you will usually find that these guardians have plenty of cash and will happily offer to provide change to guarantee a tip!

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Sightseeing on the West Bank

The marvels of ancient Thebes, the capital of Egypt’s New Kingdom, present quite a challenge for anyone planning an exhaustive tour. Although the sights are spread out over a relatively modest distance, the sheer quantity and quality of sights means that you need a fair number of days to work your way round and do the place any kind of justice.

Over two days I managed to visit the Valley of the Kings (11 tombs); Hatshepsut Temple; Valley of the Queens (4 tombs); Deir-El-Medina, the worker’s village (3 tombs); Medinet Habu; the Colossi of Memnon; Howard Carter’s House; the Ramesseum; and the Tombs of the Nobles (11 tombs). It was all of such high quality that there’s not much I would cut, were I armed with hindsight, except perhaps Howard Carter’s House and even that had a certain curiosity value with its attempted recreation of Tutankhamun’s tomb.

Valley of the Kings

To illustrate just how much more you could do… sights I didn’t get to included the remaining open Tombs of the Nobles; the Temple of Seti I; the Tomb of Ay; the Assasif Tombs; and the Tombs of Roy and Shuroy. However, there’s only so much you can do each day without getting information overload! It is telling that there are also many more sights not open to visitors, where archaeological work is continuing.

I thought it was simply astonishing to descend into every tomb and find something completely different to the last one you entered. I can’t really explain it, but I rediscovered some kind of childlike glee and excitement each time. If it induces that feeling in a visitor, I can only imagine what the archaeologists must have felt uncovering this for the first time.

Highlights

Plenty has been written about the sights here, so I won’t bore you with too much excruciating detail. Apart from anything else, this is a place that has to be seen rather than described or photographed. I have selected just a few of my personal highlights.

All of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings were wonderful, but the tombs of Rameses V and Rameses VI, with ceiling decorated to show the Book of the Day and the Book of the Night, and Sety I, with its incredible painted reliefs, were pretty special. However, the most remarkable tomb of them all was undoubtedly that of Nefertari in the Valley of the Queens with its vibrant painted scenes.

Inside the tomb of Rameses V/VI (KV9) in the Valley of the Kings

The battle scenes shown in the reliefs of the Ramesseum and Medinet Habu were particularly fascinating, as was the story of the expedition to Punt (modern day Somalia) to gather myrrh trees at Hatshepsut Temple.

Practical information

The temples on the East Bank were amazing, but nothing prepared me for quite how much I would enjoy the tombs on the West Bank. I gather that some folk hurtle round in one or two days, which baffles me. In my opinion, it is really worth spending the time to properly explore the sights here.

How did I arrange my two days visiting the sights on the West Bank? On the first day I took an organised tour covering the top sights and then hired the services of a taxi for six and half hours on the second day, allowing me to mop up some of the remaining sights. I followed the pattern that most visitors adopt, travelling out to the west bank early in the morning and returning to my hotel in mid-afternoon. The hotels are quite used to this and the two I stayed in had handily adopted early start times for breakfast to accommodate this.

I thoroughly recommend the Earthtrekkers guides to Egypt, which helped me tremendously with my planning.

How much difference does a guide make? I’ve seen arguments waged in both directions. The guides can’t enter the tombs with you, so all they can do is prepare you for what you will see at each site. However, at more open sights like Medinet Habu and Hatshepsut Temple they make an incredible difference in explaining the significance of the decoration, the history they record (from Somalian expeditions to gruesome method of counting the number of defeated enemy soldiers) and the power struggles they reveal.

I went in with very little knowledge, but my guide graciously gave me a crash course in Egyptian history as I started at the Valley of the Kings so I could understand how everything fitted together and carefully explained enough of the symbolism so you could understand a little of what you were looking at. However, if you came on your own, each tomb does have a helpful diagram showing the layout and the highlights to look out for. At other sites it varies – the information boards at the Ramesseum were plentiful and really good, whereas I didn’t see any at Medinet Habu.

Why do I rate the Luxor Pass over ordinary tickets? I was especially glad to have purchased the Luxor Premium Pass as this massively simplified the ticketing process and allowed me to see more. The best example of how this works is the Valley of the Kings. An ordinary ticket allows you to visit three tombs out of the eight regular tombs open to visitors in the valley, with the option to pay extra to see three special tombs. The Luxor Pass removes that restriction and allows you to visit all 8 regular tombs that are open, while the Premium Pass allows you to visit all 8 regular tombs that are open and all three of the special tombs.

The entrance to the tomb of Nefertari

If you are buying tickets individually the costs soon mount up on the West Bank, not least because pricing here is being used as a way of limiting the numbers to the special tombs to aid preservation. For example, in the Valley of the Queens access to Nefertari’s tomb will set you back 1,400 Egyptian Pounds (approximately £70 GBP) for 10 minutes access. Overall, I calculated that the cost of buying the tickets to all the sights I visited individually would have cost around £250 GBP compared to the cost of £150 GBP for the Luxor Premium Pass.

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Sightseeing on the East Bank

The marvels of the East Bank have been drawing tourists since ancient times and it’s not hard to see why when you are confronted with the colossal ruins of the Luxor and Karnak Temples, connected by the restored 3km long avenue of sphinxes. The temples are eminently walkable, with the Luxor Temple located in the city centre, just a few minutes walk from the Winter Palace. Karnak Temple is a bit further out, but still only a half hour walk away.

Luxor Temple and the Avenue of Sphinxes

My introduction to the marvels of ancient Thebes came at the Luxor temple, built by pharaohs Amenhotep III and Ramses II. It’s a smaller site than Karnak, so perfect for a first introduction to the spectacle of New Kingdom pharaohs. It’s a fascinating site which astounds from the moment you walk up to the 24 metre tall 1st pylon, with six colossal statues (two seated, four standing).

Luxor Temple at sunset

I worked my way through the great court, along the colonnade and into the sun court – then set off exploring the chambers and the array of architectural blocks set out in open space beyond, a bit like a giant three dimensional jigsaw puzzle. In the evening I took in a different perspective from the roadside as the golden hour before sunset helped the temple to glow.

The spread of artefacts from the Egyptian archaeological sites over the centuries is a theme that comes up time and again. It is apparent at Luxor Temple straight away with only one of the pair of pink granite obelisks still standing at the entrance. The other was re-located to the Place de la Concorde in Paris in the nineteenth century. Other Frenchmen have left their mark on the site in a different way, notably the poet Rimbaud, whose graffiti can still be seen etched into the temple walls to this day.

Rimbaud’s addition to Luxor Temple

The restored view of the avenue of sphinxes looks splendid, but there has been some controversy in recent years as re-creating this effect involved the demolition of a great many buildings that had built up around and on top of the site, including the historically significant Tawfiq Pasha Andraos Palace (1897).

It has clearly always been a challenge to handle the build up around the site. The view that we have of the Luxor Temple today is in itself clearer than it would have been for many centuries – the Romans built a fort around the temple and later the modern town encroached within the part-buried temple complex. One fascinating survivor is the 14th century mosque, built in one of the courts.

Karnak Temple

Karnak Temple opens at 6 o’clock and I had been told that an early start would be advisable, before the tour buses from Hurghada arrive. The advice was spot on – I arrived at half past seven and the car park in front of the visitor centre was completely deserted. Once inside I found that there were just two other tourists besides myself and the numbers didn’t increase by more than a handful until hundreds of tourists poured into the site just after 10 o’clock.

The vast temple complex at Karnak is an astonishing sight, built up over a 1,500 year period by pharaoh after pharaoh. It’s one of those places that looks impressive in the guidebooks, but is even more jawdropping when you actually stand in the courtyard in front of these colossal statues and the incredibly tall, decorated, columns of the great hypostyle hall. It oozes splendour even in its damaged and exposed state so the mind boggles at what it must have been like in its heyday. Restoration is ongoing, with one section around the eighth pylon closed on my visit.

It’s not a place to hurtle around – better to take your time to wander the 2sq km site and absorb the detail. The richness of the reliefs is quite extraordinary and there is so much that can easily be missed. It’s all there, from battles led by the Pharoahs on horse drawn chariots to intricate scenes of rituals attended by the falcon-headed god Horus and the jackal-headed god Anubis. It’s hard to find a column or wall that doesn’t have a fascinating story to tell.

The gate of Ptolemy Euergetes at Karnak

Once you move away from the buildings at the centre of the Temple of Amun there is plenty more to see in this sprawling site, but most visitors seemed to stick to the centre, missing out on splendours like the gate of Ptolemy Euergetes. The guards at the gate seemed quite surprised to see anyone wander through, so I don’t get the sense that’s it a well trodden path. It’s a pity because just beyond the gate is another marvel – the Temple of Mut.

I can absolutely recommend the early start. It was extraordinary being able to walk around the temple complex with no-one else around. I also made a second visit later in the day, while on my way to the Temple of Mut, and found that the soft afternoon light illuminated a different set of reliefs than I had seen in the morning so I stayed longer than expected. I was glad to have seen the complex at different times of the day to get the most out of my visits and spent over five hours here in total.

Mut Precinct

The Mut Precinct, including the Temple of Mut and Temple of Ramesses III, is entered from a spur off the avenue of sphinxes and through a wooden gate that is usually kept locked. I found the simplest route to be to walk through Karnak Temple, out of the gate of Ptolemy Euergetes, and then take a left turn from the avenue of sphinxes after a short distance.

Although it is open to anyone with a ticket you won’t easily be able to avoid a guide here, not least because they hold the keys to the gate! However, I must admit that it is a less obvious site so it was handy at times to have things pointed out and be steered in the right direction. For a start, I probably wouldn’t have picked out the overgrown path round the sacred lake to the Ramesses III without the help of the guide (or followed it past the howling dogs who regard it as their territory!).

Temple of Mut

It was a pleasure to be able to wander this site as it was only opened relatively recently, in 2014, after being closed for 40 years. We owe our understanding of the site, it’s current arrangement and the pathways to walk around it, to the work of Brooklyn Museum and John Hopkins University. My guide was keen to make sure I saw and took pictures of everything there was to see in the precinct.

One of the main attractions is the number of appearances by the lioness-headed warrior goddess Sekhmet at this site. There were over 700 statues of Sekhmet here at one time, many brought here from other temples. Those that remain look incredible as it is, but the effect of hundreds in one place must have been extraordinary.

A line up of statues of Sekhmet inside the Temple of Mut

One surprising conclusion from my visit was that I need to visit the British Museum when I get back home. It didn’t take me long to realise that plenty of statues and archaeological finds from the temple at Karnak have ended up in London, but I was surprised to discover that the largest collection of seated and standing statues of Sekhmet outside Egypt (around 30 statues) is to be found at the British Museum. Most of these were recovered from the Temple of Mut.

Luxor Museum

The small but wonderful collection of statues and other artifacts in the Luxor Museum makes this a great place to visit. However, the opening hours are a little strange – the museum opens for the morning, closes for most of the afternoon, then re-opens in the evening. Among the impressive display of exhibits is a striking statue of the military commander Nebre holding a staff of office topped by the head of Sekhmet.

I almost made the mistake of missing the newest gallery in the museum, accessed by a side-door near the entrance, which is dedicated to the remarkable collection of 24 near perfect statues known as the Luxor Temple cachette, discovered while workmen were collecting earth samples in 1989. It’s well worth visiting the museum to see this extraordinary gallery.

Practical advice

I thoroughly recommend purchasing a Luxor Pass, which gets you into most attractions on the East and West Bank with the added benefit of simplifying entry (many sites on the West Bank don’t sell tickets at the entrance, requiring you to go to a central office to purchase tickets for the day), overcoming limitations on the number of sites you can visit (for example, regular tickets at the Valley of Kings limit you to three tomb visits out of the eight regular tombs usually open) and allowing repeat visits.

The Luxor Pass might seem pricey at 100 US dollars (regular version) and 200 US dollars (premium version), but it more than repaid that value in four days of sightseeing at Luxor. You need to bring a passport photo and a couple of photocopies of your passport as well. As with most things in Egypt, a tip to to the chap processing the ticket was expected. I picked mine up at Karnak Temple, where a special office in the visitor centre is set aside for Luxor Pass purchases.

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The Winter Palace

The Winter Palace is without doubt, the best known hotel in Luxor, located in a prominent position at the heart of the city, with rooms overlooking the Nile on one side and a wonderful private garden on the other.

The hotel was purpose-built to the specifications of Thomas Cook, working with two Cairo hoteliers, to meet the growing demand for longer stays in the warm climes of Upper Egypt – not in 1886 as the hotel website claims, but in 1907 as explained in a post on the Grand Hotels of Egypt and On the Nile blog. It was luxurious enough in its time that it attracted both celebrities and royalty, though it’s biggest moment of fame came when Howard Carter announced the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun from there in 1922.

The Winter Palace

Today, the hotel retains an air of faded colonial grandeur that is rather charming in its own way. Unusually wide corridors, grand staircases, quirky lifts with manual doors and magnificent public rooms all contribute to an amazing first impression. A bar created in the old library, decorated with stained glass, has a particularly special ambiance. It is not hard to imagine Agatha Christie making one of her many visits here.

All of this is rather splendid, but step through the doors onto the back terrace and you can’t help but be astonished by the spectacular gardens that unfold before you, complete with fountains and a pool. The luscious green space seemed well utilised by the local birdlife and a small group of flamingoes that the hotel has rescued. The gardens are reason enough to choose this hotel over the others in the city I reckon.

As Egypt was one of the most open destinations when I booked (no pre-flight testing or arrival testing required) it was no surprise that many hotels were heavily booked up. On top of that my visit coincided with the end of the Luxor African Film Festival and some other big events in the region. The result was that I had split my stay in Luxor between two hotels. I booked one of the few rooms left in the Winter Palace and was very pleasantly surprised to discover that my modest room had been upgraded to a suite.

I ended up staying in the Howard Carter Suite, which is a part of the larger Opera Suite. The Opera Suite comprises three rooms – a lounge with a balcony and two bedrooms, which can be split into two separate rooms when the full suite is not required (the living room has lockable doors that lead into each bedroom). On this occasion I had the use of the lounge and one of the bedrooms, connected to a small ante-room and a separate bathroom with a view towards Luxor Temple. The door into the room was twice my height! It was all very grand.

Lounge in the Howard Carter Suite

To be honest, I don’t need much space when I travel alone but I thoroughly enjoyed the unusual experience. The air conditioned room was certainly a welcome respite from the 35 degree heat outside. Thank you to all the staff at the Winter Palace for a delightful stay.

If you are staying at The Winter Palace it is worth making a stop off at the small arcade of shops in front of the hotel which includes, Gaddis & Co., the oldest bookshop and souvenir shop in Luxor, which opened in 1907. The range of books, maps and postcards was the best I saw on my travels and very fairly priced. The absence of the hassle that you can experience in other shops was most welcome.

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