Travels with Selkit - 6

OCTOBER 6th, 2024:

At 7 am sharp, driver Mohammed turns up at the resort. We start off immediately in his car. Within minutes, we hit the north-bound highway and the facade of Hatshepsut temple makes a brief appearance to the left. Very soon, we are out in the bright barrenness of the Sahara.

The highway, just like desi ones, often breaks down into gravel or shrinks to half its width and progress is anything but smooth; but wherever possible, Mohammed really has a go, touching speeds of 140 kmph plus. Within an hour, we take an eastward (Nile-ward) diversion and reenter civilization. These parts remind me of interior Kathiawad - flat terrain, dusty and poorly surfaced roads, traffic featuring autorickshaws and 'sakat rickshaws' (a contraption git by patching a cart onto a mobike). We are now in the Dendara Archeological Area.

Here is a proper Egyptian temple (dedicated primarily to Hathor) built by European immigrants turned rulers. Till this trip, I never knew the extent to which the Ptolemies and Romans bought into the local customs and beliefs; it certainly looks quite unlikely that it was all pure political stunt. A pictorial run thru:

Corinthian-like columns stand around in all their Grecianness:

This lion-snake image was repeated many times on a wall - and nowhere else:

Some serious heraldry - crowned serpents, a 'globe-toting' Hathor and what not...

Interior of the temple:

Here is Ra's barque in its voyage across the zodiac:

The sun being devoured and delivered by Nut:

The rear wall of the temple: At the far left are Cleopatra and her son Caesarion shown worshipping Egyptian gods:

If the Romans could be so syncretic n broadminded towards Egyptian religion and cults, why did they try so goddam hard to stamp out Christianity - and were anything but nice to the Jews? Maybe it's got plenty to do with the seeming (but utter) incompatibility between monotheism and polytheism!
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Dendara to Abydos is another 70 or so kilometers. Once again, most of the drive is along the desert highway which alternates between the smooth and the awful.

By midday, we are in front of the Seti I temple (mainly from 1300 BC) at Abydos. Abydos was a very sacred site from deep antiquity and has strong associations with the god Osiris - and his multiple deaths and revivals. The temple here *seems* the richest of them all in sheer number and variety of surviving murals. The basic design is the usual one with a big pillared hall leading into the core sanctuary - the latter here features six or seven receding 'chapels'.

As usual, every inch is illustrated; I presume it is Seti who is shown interacting with divinities - a couple of the reliefs show him as the beloved child of Hathor and perhaps his own earthly mother. The sheer variety of the rituals illustrated in amazing.

Here is a hopefully representative selection - I can't even begin to visualize how the temple would have looked in its fully painted up form 3000+ years ago:

The pharaoh does proper puja (flower offering) to Ptah

... and offers liqour to a bestial divinity

It appears the Egyps thought of a blue skinned god a good millennium before us - the deity is Amun who turned blue post the Amarna style was introduced during Akhenaton's time.

The setting up of a djed pillar:

The image of squatting Hapi is new to me. It might well be a signature Abydos motif (later, I am to see a coffee table book on Abydos with this avatar of Hapi on its cover). Ramses, as a young prince, running after a bull with dad Seti is yet another interesting image.
and here is another curious(to me) image: a god worshipping another god. Yet another concept one sees in Indian iconography:

Right behind the Abydos temple, there used to be a temple of Osiris. Only foundations remain:

I ask a guard about the temple of Ramses II that I have heard is somewhere around. He says: "come!" and leads me to a locked up edifice that seems to be in considerably poorer physical shape than Seti. "One minute!" he says and disappears. I wait with some apprehension.

The guard reappears with another chap who opens the lock of the temple. "Come in!" commands the guard and enters. I have no choice but to follow. Over the next half hour or so, he leads me around the temple under the glaring sun and even manages some descriptions. At the end of it all, he doesn't ask for any money and seems very happy with the 50 pounds I offer.

Here is Ramses at Abydos. The temple is in ruins. Most of the paint has worn off from the murals that remain. But Ramses being Ramses, things remain interesting. I don't recall seeing scenes from the battle of Kadesh here; maybe there never were, maybe they are gone.

Before starting on our return journey, I pause near a fruitseller and pick up two bananas. I pay him a 20 pound note. He returns the dough to me and says something in seeming annoyance. Not comprehending, I call Mohammed over to help. The fruitseller says something aloud to him and turning to me says conclusively but not unpleasantly: "No english, Go!". Mohammed tells me "we go now!" and walks off. I follow, utterly puzzled. Back in the car, Mohammed explains: "he has no change for the money you gave. So he gave two bananas free!"

Mohammed seems in a hurry to be back home and really steps on the pedal. The desert rushes by in a blaze of white heat and we are back in the suburbs of Luxor west bank by 3.30. I ask to be dropped at the ferry.
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I don't have much of an idea what to do next but am utterly famished. So I get across and walk along a road parallel to the waterfront hoping to find some eating place. I see Umm Kalthum in this avatar in a shop and pause to take a pic (I can't remember any Indian popular artist thus celebrated):

A certain 'Hotel Oasis Palace' materializes and I look in.

The decor inside seems Victorian or Edwardian. All sorts of antique pieces and pics decorate the wall. The prices seem reassuringly moderate. 'King Farouk lentil soup' catches my eye and am pleasantly surprised to receive some spicy hot dal that goes very well with garlic bread.

For me, King Farouk is the most familiar 20th century Egyptian, more familiar than even Nasser let alone Naguib Mahfouz or Umm Kulthum. Credit for that goes to S K Pottekkat (*)

I ask the waiter about Farouk. He says: "he was our king. We love him!" and points at a picture on the wall of him and a lady.

"The lady ... must be Nariman Sadek!" I remark. "How do you know her name?" the waiter asks. "She is very famous in India" - I lie.

I scan the menu and ask: "koshari is not listed here. Do you serve it?"

"Not now. But if you come tomorrow, we can give you..." says the waiter.

"Sure. I will try to come for lunch; maybe a late lunch!"
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(*) I wasn't even a teenager when I first read 'Cleopatrayude nattil' a travelog by Pottekkat about Egypt. One entire section is devoted to Farouk and his adventures (well, escapades ought to be the right word). An absolute womanizer, the much married king catches sight of the beauty Nariman Sadek in a Cairo market, has his minions stalk her and find out that she is engaged to a certain young diplomat by name Zaki, gets her family to call off the engagement and marries her. But the 1952 coup deposes Farouk and he flees to Europe with his family. The marriage breaks up and the king soon dies of a heart attack in Rome. Pottekkat is silent on what happened thereafter to Nariman but Wiki says she remarried twice and lived in comfort and seclusion in Cairo till her death in 2005.