The first night we had a meal together at a favourite place called The King's Head, but this was not dedicated to an English king but a great take-off using the enigmatic pharaoh, Akenaten. We had a lovely evening and a great opportunity to catch up on our news and get to know Bernard, Lynda's brother who lives in Mykonos. Sadly, Angie didn't join us as she was feeling out of sorts and the journey had knocked her for six!
The first day of the RAMASES itinerary was one of acclimatisation. We wandered into town and saw all the improvements they were making around town particularly in the area of Luxor Temple and the Bazaar.
They are making wonderful progress excavating the Avenue of Sphinxes between the Temple and Karnak. I feel sure it will look most impressive once it is completed.
It was lovely to be with our old friends again and most evening we spent in the company of Angie, Veronica, Lynda and Bernard. Some of the others joined us from time to time and we had some brilliant times together.
One thing for certain was that we had very many enjoyable hours with them all.
The following day we drove to El-Toud, a village located 20 kilometers south of Luxor. In the centre of the village are the remains of a temple dedicated to the god Montu.
These were excavated in 1934 by a French archeological team. In 1936 the French Egyptologist Dr. Bison De La Roque found 4 boxes of copper with the cartouch of the pharaoh Ahmenhotep of the 12th Dynasty. Tuthmosis III established part of the temple and the god Montu in his sacred barque is shown in a nice relief.
There were many broken stones carefully arranged by today's archeologists which showed some typical scenes of fine quality and there were some unusual carvings which intriqued me, as I had not seen their like in Egypt before.
This reminds me of sculptures I've seen in South America.
On leaving the site we were able to get some super pictures of life in an Egyptian village.
All mod coms - well, maybe! This guy looks content with his lot.
The following day was to be a rest day on the itinerary and it fortunately coincided with our 40th Wedding Anniversary.
No comments:
Post a Comment