EGYPT: FROM THE VALLEY OF THE QUEENS TO THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW OF ???

Returning to my journal written during my travels in Egypt,  August, 1964 . . .

The erstwhile guide kept assuring us that 'the donkeys know the way.' Apparently the guide didn't! Some assurance. He insisted we go by (NOT buy) the Colossus of Menon -- we could have cared less at that point. It was the last thing we wanted to see. We were almost falling off the donkeys, this time from the sun -- the only time in our journey throughout the Middle East that we were suffering from sunstroke.


All the people we saw along the way were walking toward the railroad tracks, because the freight train was due in very shortly. We sat in the men's coffee house (don't know why they allowed us in) where they ate filth, and apparently so did we [and here I quote from my journal word for word, as I have been doing all along.] The men wanted to know how much money a Mexican peso was worth. . . We took the boat back and we were never so happy to see our two clean neat European-looking conductors waiting for us on the other side of the Nile. They took us in the carriage to the hotel where we were informed that we would have to go to the passport authority at seven o'clock that evening. (We had failed to have our passports stamped in Cairo when we first arrived -- hence the trouble.) Luckily, we were told by our conductor friends not to say that we had stayed with friends in Egypt, for they (our Coptic friends in Alexandria) would then be liable to a fifty pound fine and six months in jail.

Not particularly worried about the imminent trip to the passport authorities, we continued our tour and went to the Karnak Temple (pictured above).


Just too much of that for the day. The sacred lake with fungus and mud and no water and lots of Colossus and ankh (a cross with a loop at the top, also known as the Key of the Nile. ...) which we saw everywhere and a honey bee [see yesterday's blog] and all the hieroglyphics.

Ceiling Heiroglyphics: Ankh (the Key of Life) & honey bees, at the Temple of Amun, Karnak (Luxor), Egypt - Source of Above Photos: Internet

We decided not to go to the Temple of Luxor.

We went back to the hotel and took a shower and a 15 minute nap, and then two men belonging to the hotel rounded us up to go to the police. They practically barged into our rooms, and insisted that we go then and there. [Luckily we were dressed.] We finally went, walking through the streets of Luxor, a guard on each side, feeling like prisoners, not knowing what lay in store for us. We were sure these men were leading us to some dark alley, which they did . . . then up some stairs . . .