Egypt - Day 10 - 29 March 2019 - Luxor Museum, DInner with Achmed and his family

  Egypt - Day 10 - 29 March 2019 
       Luxor Museum
       Check into our new hotel - A Palace!
       Another boat trip across the Nile
       Lunch with a farmer and his family
       City tour by horse drawn carriage
       Dinner and a show at the Steinberger Nile Palace 

On the road to the Museum in Luxor, we passed this very nice sculpture in a roundabout. Appears to be new but don't know the story.

The Luxor museum is very nice and a handsome structure.
Hassan is not a fan of the front facade which completely occludes the magnificent view of the Nile from the inside of the building.

Looking downriver toward parking area

Looking upriver from entrance

The entire riverfront for quite a way has been turned into a beautiful promenade 

Just as we arrived, this group of runners came past. Not sure if it was a school group out for exercise or a race

Since we would be on our own inside, Hassan spent a few minutes prepping us

I happened to notice this apartment right next to the museum with Christian articles 

Including this relief of what appears to be "The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary"  It's got to be tough to be Christian in Egypt

This large hall greets the visitor and is quite beautiful 

FAIR WARNING! This museum is filled with statues! 

Lots of statues.  Believe it or not, I'm only sharing a select few! 

Scroll past (to hotel section) if you start to glaze over!

The center piece is this statue of Amenhotep III with the crocodile god Sobek

Theresa and Bob hang with King Akhenaton

Amenhotep III 

Another version of Amenhotep III

Amenemhat III in black marble

An unusual representation of one statue (Ramesses IV) presenting a small votive statue to the god Amun-Re

Granite statue of the god Amun and his wife the goddess Mut

King Tuthmosis III, warrior king. Beloved of Amun (god of Thebes) according to the inscription 

King Amenhotep IV with double crown
(Hassan called them the "champagne bottle upside down in the ice bucket" representing upper and lower Egypt respectively)

Pillar of Sesotris - depicted in the form of the god Osiris.
This pillar was one of a row in the Amun temple

Statue of King Thutmosis III - Youthful, confident

Three cartouches of King Thutmosis I and III
Hassan explained that kings often had two cartouches, one personal and one royal 

Entered a section devoted to the Egyptian army. 
These two back lit panels tell the story of conquest. 

The Egyptian army was well equipped and well trained, enabling regional dominance for centuries

This large model boat was interred with the king to serve him in the next life. It is decorated with the king as the war god Montu

Boats were equipped with rowers and sail.
Rowed downstream and sail upstream (oarsmen could not overcome the current of the Nile) 

King Amenhotep III - note the clenched fist

Mummy of King Ahmose. He was a warrior king in spite of his small size, suggesting he relied on skill and strategy  

King Amenhotep III being crowned by the god Amun-Re

Statue of Nebre, commander of the fortress Zawiet um el-Rakhem, built to protect the western kingdom of Ramesses II.
His staff is topped with the lion head of Sekhmet, goddess of war 

Paser was chief archer at fortress Tell Hibua in northeast Egypt, on the conquest route into Syria-Palestine 

Sekhmet, goddess of war, was portrayed with the head of a lion

This section of the museum dealt with burial customs

Funeral Stela were the "grave markers" of the day

This sarcophagus was ornately decorated 

This wall is maybe 40 feet long and illustrates the challenges of trying to piece together the hundreds of pieces of tiles in a site

An anthropoid coffin with the remains of a priest of Mnotu 

Then a section on the tools of the builders
Here plumb bob levels (still used today by builders throughout the world)

A wooden square and a cubit measuring stick.
Both are possible in a very low humidity environment where warpage and swelling is not a problem

This tiny statue was the "signature" of Senenmut, steward and architect of Hatshepsut

This stela or wall decoration uses a highly stylized fish to identify early Christians 

In 1989, they were doing some routine maintenance at Luxor temple when they stumbled on five statues (believed to have been buried during the Roman conversion of the area into a military camp). Eventually 26 statues were uncovered with many in excellent condition, but some being damaged prior to burial. Many are displayed here.

Horemheb kneels before the  god Atum

From the other side

Horemheb before the god Amun

the goddess Iunit

The goddess Hathor

And of course, our old friend Horus
(By the way, Egypt Airlines' magazine "Horus" had a good article about the legend of Horus. Horus means "Far Reaching." He battled Seth, god of upper Egypt over who wanted to succeed Osiris. Horus won and was named rightful king of all of Egypt)

Our hotel, Steinberger Nile Palace looks pretty nice from the street but nothing special.

But once you pass through the nicely appointed main lobby, you walk out into the stunning courtyard of a palace! 

On the far left side of the center courtyard is an Italian restaurant (where we would eat later)

On the far right side is a Lebanese restaurant and next to it, a dance floor where an evening show was promised 

On the far side of the grand courtyard is this wonderful "parlor" where we gathered 

Wonderful mural in the parlor . . . 

. . .  and fresh flowers!

A little further down is the breakfast area

They had a tremendous layout for breakfast

Our room was the first on our trip with a king bed!
The bedroom was very well appointed and spacious

The view from our balcony wasn't bad either!
(Yes, that's the Nile!)

Our room is at the top floor right just before the bend

I've swum in very low humidity and know that when you first get out of the water you freeze (due to rapid evaporation). 
So we didn't use the pool (here or on the ships).

A lot of cruise boat traffic!

A photo of our hotel taken from the boat during our noontime adventure!

We boarded another boat for a trip across the Nile

I loved the decorations on the boats! 

The boat was comfortable and ran well! 
No "Bumper Boats!" Hurrah!

But the "pier" on the other side was a little "basic" . . .

. . . so they rigged the gangplank 

I saw this boat, apparently full of trash, from our balcony and wondered where it was headed. 

We got our answer. Enterprising folks process the trash, recycling and composting.

We walked about 100 yards . . . 

. . . to a wonderful layout under a thatched sun shield 

We quickly populated the tables. We sat across from Weems and Candace, and Linda and Harry (L-R)

The date palm tree provided the sun shield as well as much more
. . . but I'm getting ahead of myself

This small table was built entirely from date palm . . .

. . . as our host Achmed told us . . .

. . . before he demonstrated its strength!

Achmed introduced his mother. He had recently escorted her and several others on a pilgrimage to Mecca

Food and drinks were wonderful!
Nothing complicated or complex. Basic farm style fare (although I expect they served us a lot more meat than the probably eat.)

Achmed's son demonstrated his English by giving us a short talk

Cousins were plentiful!

After lunch, Achmed demonstrated his skills working with the date palm. Here he "skins" and "squares" a green piece of wood

Next, he uses a hole punch to make several holes . . .

. . . spaced very evenly (just by eye)!

Next he cuts some dry wood

He shaves and trims the piece and inserts it into the hole. As the green piece dries, the joint will hold very tight without glue

He also demonstrated rope making from the date palm fiber (derived from the leaves, I think)

Next Achmed invited us to the back of the house where he houses livestock . . .

. . . and bakes the delicious pita bread we had at lunch

No one could guess the composition of the bread "pans" used for the curing of the dough - paper mache made from egg cartons! 

He spoke of a small store that his mother runs and this may be it behind the house

We stepped across the road to his farm. He has 4.5 acres and grows most of what they (and we) ate

We reluctantly re-boarded our boat to take us back across the river

Achmed and his family saw us off.

Back to the East bank and the hotel (and its concrete quay!)

After a short rest in the hotel, we were off again for a carriage ride through the streets of Luxor

Our driver was a young man with limited English
(but way better than my Arabic!)

Part of the transportation infrastructure are numerous minivans that pick up and drop off passengers in the middle of the street. 
Many (as many as 40%) Egyptian people (they appeared to be mainly "common folks") use these mini vans / micro buses.

They drive with the sliding door open.
They remind me of the Jeepneys in the Philippines (without the gaudy paint and statues!).

The train station

Our route took us through a long major market district

Quite a few shoppers, seemed to be mainly women

An occasional sign of a Christian presence 

Spices piled in bins!

Lots of fruit and vegetable stands

Smoke from roasting nuts

The sun set as we drove. Here we cross over the Avenue of the  Sphinxes that runs the mile and a half between Karnak and Luxor Temples

The back of this large Christian church sits right on the Avenue of Sphinxes and may be moved to accommodate the "beautification" of the Avenue (shades of Lady Bird!)

We proceeded in a line. We started first and were promised that these drivers would not race as they had done in Edfu, but somehow we ended up last to the cafe!  (We were pleased that our driver did not overwork his horse.)

Our driver paused on the bridge over the Avenue of the Sphinxes to let us take a photo

We arrive at a coffee shop cafe for a libation

Sitting in three rows at long tables - not exactly a taste of a local coffee cafe! But fun anyway.

Coleen shows Tim her frothy hibiscus fruit juice. (We were often greeted on the boats with hibiscus or guava juice.) 

The frothy "head" comes from a short spin in the blender

When I asked about a nearby water pipe, Hassan arranged to give us a demonstration. The tobacco is loaded in the top, lit, and the smoke is drawn through a pot of water. Hassan said the tobacco is much stronger and has quite a lot of nicotine but that the water "smoothed" the smoke.

Tourists? Us? Why would you think that?
Seriously, we've had the Purdue shoulder bags for quite a while.
They were a very convenient way to carry water, camera, whisper ear, and a jacket! Plus, it was a way to show the Old Gold & Black

We were on our own for supper. Bob had looked at the hotel's Italian restaurant's menu and discovered they had salmon (it was Friday, so we were abstaining from meat - even at the farmer's lunch) We both had the salmon with a nice sauce on a bed of pureed sweet potatoes. Total tab, including tip was just over $40!

From our table at the restaurant, we could see the dance show across the atrium

The dance troupe did several numbers and was good!

Then came the belly dancer.

She danced about 15 minutes

And at one point danced on the fountain in the center of the atrium (by this time we'd moved down to sit next to the fountain - I didn't need to zoom in for this picture!).
She danced around the tables and seemed quite interested in  Theresa and one other woman. Don't know if this was a social thing (not flirting with men in public) or a personal preference thing?

Stepped out on the patio to see that the West bank bluffs in the distance (where the tombs are) were lit by huge floodlights!  

Tomorrow:
           Fly to Cairo
           Find a church for mass!
           Lunch in a  beautiful park overlooking the Citadel