Luxor

 

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Luxor

Luxor

Finally we arrive in Luxor and the boat docks at the corniche facing the Museum of Ancient Egyptian Art. The Luxor of today still harps back to the days of the Thebes pharaohs.

Finally we arrive in Luxor and the boat docks at the corniche facing the Museum of Ancient Egyptian Art. The Luxor of today still harps back to the days of the Thebes pharaohs.




A little gem, the Museum of Ancient Egyptian Art is an absolute prerequisite before visiting the surrounding temples. The statues are perfectly lit, so much so that they seem to have come out of the yesteryear’s night and allow one to imagine the wealth of the temples. Egyptian statuary reaches perfection here, passing from the cold, impersonal, timeless classicism of the Middle Kingdom to the expressionism of the New Kingdom where, under Amenhotep IV, the statues finally took on life, character and humanity. Luxor or Karnak, Karnak and Luxor; in which order should you do the visit? Well, the dilemma will soon be resolved as Luxor is closest to the boat and smaller and as the shadows get longer I choose to start here. Raised under Amenhotep III (14th century BC) and Ramesses II (13th century BC), the temple of Luxor was only used once a year when the statues of the Theban Gods were brought out of the temple of Amun in Karnak to celebrate the Opet Festival, the New Year celebrations. The procession would take the dromos, the long, triumphant path of a mile and a half, bordered, so they say, by 700 human-header sphinx, buried to a large degree under the new town.

The dromos reappears ??? To welcome visitors to the entrance of the site and to accompany them to the foot of the impressive column of Ramesses II (whose twin is in Paris) which is guarded by three of the pharaohs heavyweights. In 1980, France actually renounced the present given to them by Mohammed Ali in 1831, however it is still there! The vast court of Ramesses II is dominated by the minaret of the Abou el-Haggag mosque. I don’t know whether it’s an optical illusion, a mirage of history or the power of faith, but the mosque seems to be suspended in mid-air, held by the millennium-old columns in the form of papyrus. All over the walls, scenes recall the unwinding of the festival of Opet; the procession of the solar deity, the complicated and sumptuous ritual linked to this ceremony and the only moment of the year where the people could see the statues of the three Theban Gods Amun, Mut and Monthu. Unconsciously, my paces are heavy and hard on the stones and I suddenly realise why. In 1989, an American archaeology mission came to survey the foundations of the court of Amenhotep III and found there an underground cache enclosing 20 extraordinary statues. I was hoping to do the same by stamping my feet, dreaming of a hollow sound announcing secret rooms below filled with treasure that would suddenly shoot up from the ground. Ridiculous, I admit, but how was I supposed to resist?

How many extraordinary discoveries have been the fruit of pure chance? In the Bahariya Oasis a donkey gets his paw stuck in a hole and all of a sudden hundreds of mommies appear. In the Valley of Kings, a worker sweeps some rubble to one side and the steps of Tutankhamen’s tomb reappear from the unforgotten. The expectation is crazy and the game is intoxicating. The birth room of Amenophis III will seep away all these childish sentiments. On the walls the secret alchemy that presides over the birth of the pharaohs reveals itself. A pleiad of Gods is ??? Amun, Thoth, Taweret, Bes and Hathor are all present, but it is Khnum who is at the centre of everything. It is he who, on his potter‘s wheel, moulds the future pharaoh in clay, always and forever. The night falls uncovering another site. The lighting game has changed all perspective and uncovered details previously unnoticed. The metamorphoses are incredible. Another visit becomes imperative. On returning to the boat, the discussion is far removed from the Egyptian pantheon. I went by the souk and just like everyone else I succumbed to its temptation. I’m all proud of my bags of spices and my small glass dishes, all negotiated of course after much palaver and gambit. Cruel disillusion. «　How much?　», «　You’re crazy! I got them for much less! », «　You’ve got yourself ripped off again.　», «　Oh you poor thing. Next time come with me.　» These are only some examples of the high level cultural exchanges which would characterise most of my nights in Thebes. But what a laugh. The human soul is literally exposed in crucial instances such as these. There are those who border on apoplexy at having paid more for something than someone else, those who add insult to injury by saying «　Ha! So there!　», those who have bought everything «　cheaper than free　», those forward thinking people who take the opportunity to buy next Christmas’ presents, those who already know that they will get cheated and also those who are indifferent and go round irritating everyone by reminding them that all this effort is only saving them a few pence. ??? The competition begins!

Category : Egyptian Towns
items Date : 01/08/2009
Author of items : Senakht