DAY 14 NOBLE TOMBS
SYNOPSIS: A morning spent at the Noble Tombs and an afternoon spent preparing for a few days on the Nile.
Captain Abdullah from Baba Dool’s house took me in his Katya to the Noble Tombs, an ancient burial ground on the West Bank. A steep climb takes you up to about thirty tombs, most of which by now have crumbled or are in varying states of dilapidation. But about a handful are accessible. I had two useless guides, but you can’t shake them, as they are in it for the “bakshish” – the obligatory tip. So I endured their company. One told me the name of the tomb owner and the other held up a lamp for me to see better even though the tombs were lit by perfectly adequate neon lights.
The quality of the few remaining reliefs is mediocre, but three things were interesting: First, there was an area where Christians later set up a chapel for prayer still had some Coptic frescoes left. Copts are the Egyptian Christians which make up about 10 percent of the population to this day. Their art and liturgy are distinct. I had hoped to see a lot of Coptic churches this time in the Cairo area, but that remains to be seen. Second, there was a relief of a man who obviously had injured a leg – he repeatedly was shown on a crutch – I found this kind of realism and self-deprecation enjoyable over the tendency to idealize and stylize which is more common in Egyptian art of the higher echelons. And finally, the guides told me that burials in these tombs happened in baskets! Huh? I have never heard anything like this. As proof they pulled out several baskets full of bones. Something does not add up. This would indicate secondary burials – first the corpse has to be picked clean or rot down to the bones, before burial in baskets is possible. Are these later burials intruding into earlier tombs? We could not communicate about this issue as the guide’s English and my Arabic was mutually non-existent. I guess, there is some follow-up work to be done.
One the way back I hitched a ride with a young guy from Minnesota. Interesting character; he had a dream last year that he was supposed to be in Egypt this year and here he is! On a spiritual quest. I recruited him as the third (or fourth) passenger on a boat I want to take down stream – that means up North. For me to go by myself with two Egyptian guys on a big boat is first of all culturally inappropriate, but it is also expensive and boring. So, over the last two days, I have been recruiting strangers. That is, foreigners who walk around in Aswan. So far, I found a Czech guy and a British guy and now the American. Looks like we will be an interesting bunch.
And this means, that I will have fun, floating down the Nile for the next three days, experiencing the old Egyptian way of transportation in a feluka. On the way I hope to observe some wildlife, see the temples of Kom Ombo and Edfu, and if we are lucky a camel market.
You won't hear from me in a while, but no worries. The country is calm, the weather is good, the captain reliable, and the boat well maintained. Now, I will have to do laundry, buy food, and get ready for the trip.
I will connect again when I can.