Dan Jackson - Manifest Photography

After breakfast on The Melodie I walked up to the corniche near where our boat is moored. Saw a tour group I had befriended catching a bus back to Luxor train station then back to Cairo. One of the Australian women gave me a big hug and said “you really are a blouse.” A few days earlier her daughter Michelle had called me a “big girl’s blouse” which is Aussie slang for wimp. I retorted by calling her a “wet toque” which isn’t Canadian slang for anything. They all piled onto their bus and I walked over to my van parked a few feet away.

Our mini van pulled into a small tightly secured parking lot that serves as a caravan assembly area. Our guard boarded discreetly and sat at the front while we waited for the rest of the vehicles to arrive. My guide has so far done a good job of getting me to most locations well before the throngs of tourists. Caravans are supposedly safer but they have caused me some grief. I had hoped to photograph the graneries I’ve read about that surround the Temple at Abydos but the caravan stops for no one. If I want to shoot them I will need my own security detail, guide and driver. I’ll probably have to make do with of the small graneries I shot at the Citadel Sala Al’ Hade’en just outside of Cairo.

You cannot enter any temple without an Egyptologist. Guides are not even allowed at most of the smaller archeological sites without one. My Egyptologist for Edfu and Dandera was a handsome guy in his early 30’s. He wore prayer beads around his wrist and I caught him praying quietly to himself from time to time. I’ve forgotten his name in Arabic but it translates into English as “Shooting Star.” He seemed friendly but introverted and stern. I didn’t mind his serious disposition though. I was especially interested in these temples for my book and, so far, the other Egyptologists acted as though they were obligated to be entertaining first, informative second.

We passed through some small villages along the route. Little kids came running up to wave at the busses. I asked Shooting Star how often he travels through here and he said every day. I asked if the kids come running up and wave each time and he shrugged his shoulders “It’s something fun for them.” When we arrived he mentioned that if anyone got lost they would find our driver smoking shisha and waved his hand dismissively in the direction of a small shack at the side of the road.

I have been looking forward to visiting Abydos more than any other temple. It is impressive and, of the dozen or so I’ve visited, probably my favourite. It isn’t grand like Karnak or pretty like Philae but it is informative, detailed and remarkably well preserved. It’s roof is still intact which makes photography difficult but moody, dramatic and mysterious. Permission to use my tripod seems to be left to the whim of the antiquity guards or Allah or both. No luck today. Abydos is a remarkable place with many rooms each with a specific function. Carved into the walls of one of the corridors are Pharaonic cartouches that serve as a chronology of all the Pharaohs that had come to power leading up to Seti I who commissioned it’s construction and his son Ramses II who expanded on it. There are a few omissions though; Hatshepsut who usurped control from her nephew and Akhenaten who was considered a heretic for abandoning polytheism.

I asked Shooting Star if ancient Egyptian building design had influenced modern Islamic architecture. I noted that the tours emphasize visits to ancient sites but seldom include tours of mosques. I’d like to see a tour themed around the evolution of Egyptian architecture -from ancient monuments to modern Islamic design. Shooting Star missed my point a bit and appeared pleased that I took an interest in visiting mosques. He offered to take me on a tour of some in town and pointed out that I would be welcomed if I just wandered in on my own. “Just remember to take your shoes off” he reminded me cheerfully.