Mogamara

Part of the excitement of traveling is learning new customs and eating new foods. Along with that comes the addition of new words and phrases from the host country. If enough time is spent, the list of new vocabulary words increases exponentially. Eventually, words can be combined into phrases, and with enough practice, phrases will become coherent sentences.

I was worried that with my limited experience trying to learn new languages, I would have a tough time during this trip. I imagined I would pick up a few words, but nothing helpful. "Thank you." "No." "Yes." Simple words.

But on the contrary, I have learned much more than that. Most of them coming in the past four days.

I learned an important word this weekend.

These last few days the excavation has been on vacation. It is eid, and everyone goes on vacation. Because we are in a predominantly Muslim nation, our work also ceases. We do employ many Egyptians, and they get the time off. Without them, we cannot do our own work, so let's all have a few days off.

Our director decided to spend the vacation in a more meaningful way, not just slacking around the house doing nothing. Or letting each of us to plan our own trip and go off alone. Instead, we were given the choice to take a bus to the site of Amarna, an important new kingdom location. I am not an Egyptologist, so I knew less about this place than everyone else on the team, but I was still excited to go.

Early Thursday morning, October 25, we all boarded a chartered bus. And we took off. We had our eyes set on Minya, a city near the site of Amarna. But first, we had a small detour.

Beni Hassan.

Carved into the mountain side are a series of tombs constructed in the Middle Kingdom. They are absolutely gorgeous inside. We climbed the steep stairs in the hot sun, and climbed into tombs that were beautifully carved inside. Most of the tombs still exist intact. Some sections are missing. Some columns are no longer there. There are some ceiling decorations.

Unfortunately, we were closely watched, so I was not able to take any photographs inside the tombs. But a simple Google search will send the reader to better images than I could take of the wrestlers, the animals, the people depicted.

Fortunately, I am surrounded by Egyptologists who know a thing or two. I was able to ask questions and listen in on others' questions and learn more about the site, what it meant and why it was done in particular ways. Why that motif? Why that thing? What are they doing there?

Some questions they had answers to. Some they did not. So it goes.

After this trip, we rode off to Minya, found our hotel, and relaxed for the evening. First stop, the pool. It had  been a long time since I swam. It was not hot anymore at night, and the water was cold. But it felt good. I stayed there until dinner time, where the bus driver tried to friend a few of us and taught me a few words. And had a beer with me.

After dinner, I posed for a picture. The hotel staff yelled at me for it. I don't understand their gripe.

The next day we had more planned. On the bus again and we rode off through small towns on our way to Amarna. We got lost, but it made for an entertaining journey. Teenage boys danced for us when we were stuck. I danced back. They were embarrassed, and stopped dancing. 

We rode the bus onto a ferry. I posed like the Karate Kid. Our police escorts did a fabulous job of warding off the children who wanted to chat with us. They still harassed us. 

Finally at the site, I met an Argentinian and Spaniard and Brazilian who were attending the field school. I countered with my Peruvian (not a real Peruvian), a Mexican (who struggles with the Spanish language), and the Chilean. They told me about their work. A teammate posed as different column types.

Again on the bus, we finally arrived at Amarna, a New Kingdom site that is unlike all others. It was where Nefertiti's bust was found. There were more tombs to explore.

We walked across a desert, a few times. We entered more tombs. I had my lunch on the desert floor in front of our bus.

Here I do my best job getting thousands of year old dust on my shirt

The tombs at Amarna are also amazing. Wonderful columns inside. Some great preservation. Crypts to enter and climb down. Bats to meet and have fly past my head. Security to avoid in order to take pictures.

We did not enter every tomb, but enough to be impressed. But our day was not done.

We crossed the desert. A nice leisurely walk.

I was introduced to the Egyptian symbol for horizon. And why this location may have been (or was) important.

We saw the worker's town. Small houses, all square. All facing the same direction. With no water except for what was brought in on donkeys. They had pigs. And made textiles. Sounded more like the projects or trailer park than anything great.

Across more desert, to the main site. 

Dr. Hans points to where the Nefertiti bust was found.

Dr. Hans and Dr. Willeke re-enact the finding of the Nefertiti bust.

During our long walk, we lost a member of the group to either heat exhaustion or food poisoning or something. But she was not on our project, so we moved on.

At the end, I saw the temple area.

Very sweaty, we board the bus. Time to go back to the hotel for a swim.

But that was not in the cards for me. We return to the Amarna camp, to drop off two people and me. While the rest of the group would go to the hotel, and have more planned for the next day, I had an adventure waiting for me. One team member had business to do in the south. She invited her one friend, and I somehow was also invited along. Not one to refuse an adventure, I gladly tagged along.

We waited at the Amarna camp where I chatted a long time with the excavation photographer. He even showed me his dirigible for aerial photography. He gave us a tour of their spectacular house.

Towards the end of the evening, just before he broke out the gin, our next ride appeared. The two team members and I, plus their friend, and a driver, piled into a small car. Cramped in the back seat, we rode off to Dar Salam, near Sohaag.

Four to five long hours.

We spoke.

I looked out the window.

I took some photographs.

I learned some new words. I sat still for a long time.

It was all part of the adventure. On some really horrible roads.

That night, we arrived in our host's hometown. He was accosted by his close friends, a family of Copts. They loved him. They learned to love Jennifer (true name hidden as she is not aware she is being spoken about). They ignored me. Either I was not Christian enough for them, or not fluent in Arabic enough, or not young and female enough. But they were loud and boisterous. 

Our night ended at our host's home. He saw his brothers and his mother and his sister and the goats and sheep and chickens and geese. They tried speaking to me and being great hosts. After a while, I opened up and had a good time with them. Then I was told it was past 1am, and we all had to get to sleep.

I was happy to have a place to sleep. 

My hosts were great, and every single one of them treated me nicely. They fed me. I bathed. I slept. They did more.

The next morning the neighborhood children descended upon me. "What's your name?" (the first English sentence any good Egyptian child learns). "Do you watch WWE?" "What is your mobile number? Can I have it?" "Take my picture!" "Now I sit so close to you I am on your lap." "What is it you are writing in your journal? Nevermind, I will stick my face in it and read it myself."

But the children taught me a lot of words. I learned more words in two days than I have in four weeks here. To them, and my hosts, I owe so much.

We eased into the day, then made our way to Abydos (three of us plus two of our hosts). 

We started by jumping on the back of a pick up truck. 

In town, we got into a cab that took us to the ferry.

But we opted for no ferry. Instead, we hired a rowboat to take us across.

A rowboat....to cross the Nile River.

We were surprised the boat did not sink. We were surprised we weren't drinking the water. We were disgusted when one of them did.

We were even more disturbed when on the other bank, we saw men paint their boats, and throw their paint cans and lids into the river.

Our next leg of the journey found us on mini-taxis (three-wheeled covered wagons). A quick ride to the bigger taxis.

Eventually we did manage to Abydos. And an amazing site it is. Just the temple of Seti is amazing.

The preservation at the site is tremendous. The amount of material to look at just there is enough to keep a body busy for years. But we had to see more. Most of it is not accessible to visitors, but one of the people I traveled with had a friend on site, so we got to see more of it. Out of respect to them and their ongoing work, I will not post pictures of their site. But I will post pictures of the surrounding view and other buildings at the site.

We crossed more deserts. We walked a long way. I suffered from dehydration. The views were breath-taking.

A whole day was spent at the site. We walked out, grabbed a taxi and made off to Sohaag. Two of us had to get to Cairo, but had no plans to do so. At Sohaag, we find that no trains will be leaving the town for over a week. Our options became either hiring a car, which is about 8 hours driving, or fly. Phone calls were made, Internet was checked, we had some trouble. But we still planned for the next day. The adventure was still not over.

Early Sunday morning, the two of us leaving made off with one of our hosts and his nephew. From car to micro-bus to taxis to more buses, we wind up in Dandara, home to a Ptolemaic temple.

Again, the levels of preservation were astounding.

What was supposed to be an hour turned into 2-3. I don't even know how long we were there, but it was a long time and worth it. We got to the roof. We went into the "crypts." We saw every room. We saw the ancient Zodiac chart.

Again, this is another site we could spend years in, but we had hosts who needed to eat and eventually get home. So we go into Qena, find food, find microbuses (even one that wouldn't take foreigners but wound up taking us anyways), and go our separate ways.

Next stop, Luxor.

While at Dandara, we find a flight to Cairo from Luxor. We have a way home. Or more importantly, a way back to work.

An hour or so is spent in Luxor. We do not go into the temple, but walk around it. Along the way we run into an Irishman who offers the advice to trust no one. We obliged.

With time to kill, and carriage drivers to avoid, we walk into a McDonald's (at my teammate's request).

For anyone wondering what I do, McDonald's has it represented pretty well

After an hour there, we negotiate our way to the airport, catch our flight and get to Cairo.

My adventure is not done yet. Tomorrow, after I eventually get some sleep, I will catch a ride to Fayum. I have a driver, and it may be a straight shot with an uneventful story. So be it. But something interesting could come of it. I just ride the wave and see where it takes me, what it shows me. It is all part of my adventure. A collection of stories I will someday share with friends and family.