EGYPT'S PAST GLORIES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 77, 13 July 1942, Page 4

EGYPT'S PAST GLORIES

Continuing Avith Gnr Bert Norman's narrative of his trip through, the Avonders of the upper Nile Ave present a further extract.

Next morning after breakfast we were taken across the Nile to where taxis or rather old cars were; wait* ing for us. These cars driven by the local Gypo's took us right back in to the hills along a rugged valley to the tombs of the Kings. These proved extremely interesting some of them being in the sides of cliffs while others are well down in the: bowels of the earth. They of course were made 3000 or 4000 years ago and are hewn out of solid rock. The size of one will give you an idea of them. It is 300 ft down in the earth, -300 ft long and 15ft both high, and wide. All the walls have been smoothed off and are covered with drawings which tell the story of the life of the king. They are built in the form of a passage with the actual burial place at the extreme end. Among those Ave visited was to tomb of King Tut-ankh-Amon which naturally was of great interest to us as Ave all remembered Professor Carter discoA r ering it a few years ago. From there Ave Avent to the Valley of the Queens Avhere there are dozens of tombs on a smaller scale but the figures etc. on the walls are in an even better state etc. Then to tlie Ramescum AA hich is a huge ruined series of buildings etc. of limestone and also really Avorth seeing. From there to the Collossi of Memrnon being lavo huge limestone monuments of enormous proportions. They are set out in the middle of a plain and are represented by tAA r o figures | of humans in a sitting position on a throne. They stand "about 80 feet high and are built out of a solid block of stone. Behind is the remains of an old temple but it is flatened to the ground noAv.. We visited a lot more places but I guess this is about the most interesting. We Avere provided by the hotel Avith a luncheon basket which at dinner time Ave sure enjoyed. About 6 avc returned to the hotel for a clean up for dinner.

After dinner on the Friday night our guide came round and took us down to the town to a native ceremony. We were A T ery lucky to lie in Luxor at this time as it was the time of the festival of the celebration of the birthday of Mohammed. This is what we went to. It was held in the street and when we arrived at about 10 p.m. the show was in full swing. There was singing and chanting, speeches, dancing and the natives generally let themselves go. They had seats arranged for those not actually takn ing part in the ceremony and when we arrived some of them got up and. offered us their seats. As we were the only whites there in the middle of a real native ceremony where they sure let themselves go and it being late at night it certainly was a queer and weird experience. We stayed until about midnight and naturally were the objects of a cer<-. tain amount of euroisity by the na-* tives as by what the guide said they very seldom had European visitors at these ceremonies. Just before we left we were introduced to the chief who had one of his servants bring us some native hot spiced drink. For a start we were a bit dicky of it but the guide said it Avas alright so in we went and it was corker. In fact we all finished up j by having three glasses each and are still alive and well. We • then retired back to the hotel to bed as we had to be up early next morning to catch the train to Asswan. We were up at 5.30 had an early breakfast and were taken by garrie to the station to catch the train for Asswan where we arived at 10.,30 a.m. We were met there by another guide who took us by car first to the granite quarries from where all the granite had come to build the stat-> ues obelisks etc. in Luxor 140 miles away. To think that it had been rafted down the Nile in huge solid lumps 3000 or 4000 years ago seems impossible. There is an obelisk still there partly hewn out of the solid granite and there it has been lying all these years. It is 150 long and about 10ft square at 'one end and. 3ft square at the other. From there we were taken to the Asswan dam six miles away. This is a marvellous piece of engineering, being a mile and a half acrosis\ and 200 ft high and about 00ft wide. The lake that the dammed water makes goes back into the back country for 250 miles and is used lor all types of boats for transport etc. We were lucky enough to get permission to drive right across the top of the dam. Permission for this is rather hard to get.

There's a STEELO Store right near your door. STEELO cleans pots andr pans.