The Valley of the Kings

A.M.S…
The morning of our second day at Luxor, we crossed the Nile just in front of the hotel; a 10 minute ferry ride, then drove for about ten miles to the so-called Valley of the Kings. The “valley” is mostly very barren desert, but not flat.

Here have been found the tombs of many Pharaohs; best known in our time is the tomb of Tutankhamun, discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter. We went down into the ground, perhaps 200 feet, to the location of Tutankhamun's tomb. Perhaps the tomb itself was not so remarkable as the wonderment of how in this vast desert it was ever discovered.

Only one gold mummy case, the chief one we surmise, was left in the tomb. The vast quantities of antiquities found here are on exhibition at the National Museum at Cairo. Later on we went there and saw these amazing exhibits.

The Many Sights of Cairo

A.M.S…
Among the sights in Cairo we saw were:

1. St. Sargius Church which is said to be the oldest church in Egypt and the location where the Holy Family lived during their flight to Egypt
2. Mohammad Ali Mosque. The largest of some 400 mosques in Cairo. The floor area of this mosque, all carpeted with oriental rugs, is perhaps twice the size of the upper level of the Grand Central Terminal in New York. It is illuminated by hundreds of electric lights, each enclosed in an approx. 12ins. diameter glass ball; these arranged in huge arcs completely lighting every point from the floor to the huge domes above it
3. Here the Muslims pray five times a day, kneeling toward Mecca. We were there when there was a Muslim “call to prayer” and saw them go through their elaborate prayer ritual. They stood upright silently for a time then knelt; then prostrate themselves, each position taking about 30 seconds. The entire sequence being repeated several times. Incidentally, the Mohammedan religion is some 500 years younger than Christianity
4. The National Museum - previously touched on in notes about Tutankhamun's tomb

Cairo's Bazaars

A.M.S…
From the Mohammad Ali mosque we drove through a simply unbelievable, utterly impossible, and somewhat frightening traffic jam to the local bazaars in certainly not the best section of Cairo. Our car, with a driver who never spoke English and the Dragomen who is our guide and does speak English, was at times completely surrounded by humanity, animals, push carts, people yelling at the same time to crowd through.

How we ever got to our destination we shall never understand. Finally, in the very midst of all this, our Dragoman told us we were near the “bazaar” we were heading for. We got out and were led by him through the smelly dregs of humans to a very small store.

We entered and wound down through narrow wooden stairs to a lower level where there were all kinds of merchandise to be seen; anything from leather hassocks to silk robes, to brass trays, to jewellery. In this setting it looked like a fantastically disorganised litter of junk.

The food was awful, in fact damned lousy; not because it was Egyptian but because it was badly prepared.

To any future traveller to Cairo who may read these notes we say: “Stay at the Nile Hilton if you want to, it's structurally the plushiest, but eat at the Shepheard or Semiramis”. Others in the Cairo tour stayed at the latter hotels and loved them - food included.

One Man's Litter is Another's Display as Treasure

A.M.S…
Later, we saw some of the same merchandise displayed artistically in an exclusive Nile Hilton shop, and it looked pretty nice. To me it was a grim experience; but I suppose it could be called “local colour”.

Of course, it was all in the interest of “culture”. We saw nothing we wanted; we bought nothing; all we wanted to do was leave. It turns out that this bazaar was a top shopping spot recommended by Cooks, Fielding, and columnist Othman. Not recommended by Staehle; aside from the fact that emotionally we were in no mood to leave any money or provide any solace financially to Mr. Nasser.

However, when you see hundreds of tourists swarming all over the place, making perfect jackasses of themselves, getting on camels, asking damn-fool questions, like one dear old lady asked the Dragoman: “What is the sex of the Sphinx?”, you feel like you're in a cross between Coney Island and a circus.

That night, however, we drove past the Pyramids in full moonlight to a desert entertainment. Here in the mystic setting of the moon and sand, all alone, silent and uncrowded, the Pyramids were an unforgettably beautiful sight!