Last few days have been a blur of Egyptyness. Aswan is famous for it's pinkish granite, so yesterday we visited a quarry. These Pharaoh-people didn't do much by halves. For example, the red pyramid (in Cairo, about a zillion miles from here) is made from Aswan granite. Talk about making life hard for yourself. When a Pharaoh wanted to get a whopping great obelisk created as a testament to why they should be allowed into the afterlife: Aswan granite. Now these big obelisks literally weigh up to 1000 tons and needed to be ported all the way up the Nile. Queen Hatshepsut decided she wanted an uber-obelisk, so set loads of minions to work bashing one out of the quarry. So far, I'm liking her work. They get it 75% carved - and I'm guessing 6 months of mincing around has gone into thus - and disaster strikes: crack. So it was left abandoned in the quarry. Given this this is the length of a jumbo (jet, not elephant!), it's quite something. It's also a very pretty shade. I could see it blending in beautifully in Dollywood.
We took a motorboat over to see Philae temple (that's pronounced "fillaaaaay", like how Americans order fillet steak) which again was v interesting. The Egyptians have been quite fickle with their gods, so as fashions change the uncool gods got scratched off temple-wall carvings. Philae temple was used as a Coptic (Christian) church, and some of the gods have been chiselled at so much they literally look like yeti! I was most amused at all the abominable snowmen and bigfoots. To get to the island we had to go past the British Dam, which - oddly enough - was built by (you got it) the British at the close of the 19th century. My great-great-etc-relative came over to work as a civil engineer on this project and then continued down to a life in South Africa, so I got to see a chunk of my history.
I got waylaid in a perfume shop, spent a bloody fortune on pure perfume oils - Ahmed plainly has a load of relatives that need supporting. I fell for Rose, Lotus, Lily of the Valley (obviously) and Myrrh. Please comment on my gentle veil of soft aroma next time you see me. Unless I'm having a myrrh-day, in which case you can make derogatory remarks re: Old Spice.
Today I was unceremoniously summoned my a tonal rendition of s0dding Greensleeves at 2.30am. I am not a fan of the early start but we had a 3 hour trip to Abu Simbel to commence at 3am. Ramses II knocked this temple up as a propaganda exercise to convince his subjects that he wasn't JUST pharaoh/king - he was god. Proper-god. P-retty impressive stuff. His favourite wife Nefertari (maybe, I'm almost finished the G+T now) had a temple next door which I think I preferred. Her favourite goddess had the face and body of a woman, and the ears of a cow. It's a sight to behold. Like some weird Scifi mutant. Cannot remember cow-woman-god's name.
GN trashed just about every rule in the world and bought me my Xmas present on Xmas day. 5 of us broke ranks and went to a jewellery store, and she bought me a tiny lapiz, turqoise and coral scarrab beetle with a miniture ankh on the underside - the very first charm for my new bracelet and believe it or not it's very pretty.
Sun is starting to set, and G+T is running low. Tomorrow we set sail.
X
2 comments:
Hello minghead!Hope the boat is going well, spunds like a fab holiday. How much longer?
I thought Myrrh was a funerary scent. I assume you will be more dead than usual after a heavy night if we notice you wearing this?
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