The West bank

After staying at the hotel on the East bank for 3 weeks, I finally checked out. I think they were sad to see me go (it’s getting towards the off season for tourists). I couldn’t find a taxi anywhere around, so I had to have the hotel call one for me. The taxi driver told me that he only got $8 of the $16 that I paid, which I believe. However when he said he only gets $2 of that $8 fare I accused him of lying. He has at least offered to take me to some obscure temple of Thoth (there aren’t any Thoth temples where he said, so I’m guessing it’s just an obscure temple and there is a picture of Thoth on it somewhere, or perhaps the name Thoth sounded good. He quoted $40 though which is far too much for a half day trip.

When I got to my hotel over on the West bank I wondered what I had been doing on the east bank for so long. Then I remembered that my hotel on the east bank was 1/3rd of the price. The hotel on the east bank at least had character, with Bob Marley posters and tapestries on every single floor, as well as the stairwell. It also has a Bob Marley rooftop garden, complete with hammock, a few small stereos, some day beds, and a lot of greenery. There is a marijuana theme throughout, but I didn’t once smell any, so I’m wondering if it was just a good advertizing ploy by the hotel. Nevertheless $5 per night for a room with it’s own bathroom which is spotlessly clean is a great deal. The best part of this new hotel is the remote controlled air conditioner I think. Next time I come to Egypt it is going to be during the winter!

Fortunately as soon as I got to the hotel and after I checked in they offered me lunch. This would be a lunch so large I couldn’t finish it. It actually tasted half decent as well. The only 2 restaurants in this area is this one, and the one at the hotel next door. I’ll have to try that one out later this evening. The whole reason I chose this hotel was that it is only half a block away from the ticket office. I didn’t want to stay at a hotel a long distance away where I would have to take a taxi all the way to the ticket office, then another taxi to the site I wanted. From here I can walk to the ticket office, as well as walk to most of the sites. I might even be able to find bicycle rental nearby if I look a bit. The only site I would need a taxi for is the valley of the kings and the start of the hike up Thoth hill, and the less taxis the better, especially when one has to haggle like crazy for a decent fare.

I have made two trips over to the West bank already... one was with a private guide to see two of the temples, as well as two tombs. The other trip was a visit to the valley of the kings. I still want to see several more temples on the west bank, want to hike up Thoth hill, want to head to the village of the workman, see several more tombs in the valley of the kings, and see the valley of the queens; so I figured staying here for a week or so was in order.

The hotel I’m staying in is literally right next to the Merinptah temple, so after heading over to the ticket office, I had to go check out the temple. It was hot as hell, or perhaps a bit hotter, and it was already 2pm (everything closes at 4pm around here), so I decided on just the one temple today. I will be heading out at 6am tomorrow so I don’t have to deal with the unbearable heat. Fortunately the walk was quite short and the temple was easy to find. If my hotel had a side door I could have walked right in lol. The Merinptah temple was built for one of Ramses II’s sons. It is modeled after Ramses II’s Ramesseum, but on a smaller scale. This temple is about half the size of that of the Rameseum, and it is unfortunately pretty much disintegrated.

There is the odd giant brick left, and remains of the odd statue still sitting where they were originally. There were a few important pieces found here in this temple, however it was decided that they were better suited over at the Cairo museum :P, thus leaving this temple not all that much more then a very large piece of rubble. For whatever reason, the nicest pieces of this temple are being stored underground in two different rooms, as well as in a roofed building. The underground wall pieces do have most of their colour intact; perhaps this is why they are kept underground, so that the sunlight doesn’t wear the colour off. There isn’t any surviving roof at all to this temple. I’m not entirely sure why, but one of the huge wall pieces is on display upside down. I mentioned this to the guard and he said something in acknowledgement but I’m not sure what. I know the Egyptologists that set the pieces in the rooms aren’t stupid, so there must have been a method to their upsidedown display.

There was a couple of jackal headed sphinxes laying around, but they were unfortunately much in disrepair, and finding one with both a head and a butt just wasn’t happening. There were many different pillar tops in the covered building, as well as the remains of a LOT of statues. Apparently Merinptah absconded with several statues of both pharaohs (changing the names on the cartouches of course), as well as jackal headed sphinxes. I guess if you are building a temple, and are a bit short on budget and statuary, and many other temples are closed anyways... why not grab a few spare statues.

Fortunately I had read the guidebook before I set out, and it had mentioned that this site had a museum. Since the temple was in such disrepair, I wanted to see a bit more. I asked the guard about the museum, and he said it was closed. I asked why, and insisted that it should be open. It was difficult to tell what he was saying, but I think it boiled down to the fact that the woman who runs that part of the site was napping and feeding her baby. I did manage to talk the guard into going to get her to open the museum though. I was told to come back in an hour, but the temple likely would have been closed then, and it would have been even hotter out!

The museum had some really nice pieces, even if it was the smallest museum I have seen to date. Unfortunately they wouldn’t let me take any photos inside of the museum. There were a couple of really nice jackal headed sphinxes which were mostly intact, some old pottery, some talismans, some jewellery, some old moulds for metalwork, pieces of temple walls, and of course statuary. The woman who had been woken up to come open the museum proceeded to yell at the guard who woke her up for the entire 15 minutes I was in there lol, so I at least gave them both a large tip (large for Egypt anyways).

After I left, there was a little girl who spoke excellent English selling little hand carved statues and pendants. I couldn’t talk her down all that much, so after getting some smaller change I headed back. Upon returning they invited me into the house and served me a nice cold lemonade. This time it was her brother who was selling the stuff. Fortunately though he showed me some items that his sister had not, so there was a better selection. Apparently their father carves the items and they sell them to the alabaster factories, as well as to tourists who wander by their house. They were selling several amulets, but most of them were a bit higher priced (even with haggling) then I would have liked. I did leave with a few items though including a tiny alabaster statue of Horus. The kid also showed me his computer, which looked to be brand new or close to it (apparently they are doing quite well in the carving business). He complained to me about how he only has dialup for the internet which is so slow. Apparently a kilometre or two away is where the DSL starts, which he wishes he had. This kid couldn’t have been more then 10 years old.

This reminds me of one thing about Egypt, while in North America child labour is appalling; over here in Egypt it’s pretty natural. Kids in general are trained very young in their parent’s profession. There is one boy in Cairo, not more then 12 years old who sells sunglasses and etc. on the side of the street at night for example. I have also seen kids with their fathers being taught how to operate the horse drawn carriages (as well as those kids who suddenly found one in Edfu), as well as being the ones who hunt up the customers for their fathers. There are also several boys who work helping tourists by being a guide, giving directions, showing a particular store and so on. They also of course get a commission from whatever store they take you into. I think most kids in Egypt work on the farms though. Fortunately many also do go to school, and their jobs are after school and on days off. It seems that English is taught very early in the school system here in Egypt, since kindergarten children will try to start a conversation with me.