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Egyptian dream
Sep. 18th, 2007 12:01 amThis evening I fell asleep on the couch, and dreamt of Egypt and my last visit in 2002. (since then I haven't travelled very much, preferring to save for THINGS instead...such as my mac)
I usually travelled alone but had accomodation, guides etc carefully worked out in advance.
On that visit I had for myself a double cabin on the SS Iman, and when I boarded (after staying awhile in Cairo and flying to Luxor) she was moored alongside the Temple. My cabin, however looked over onto the West Bank and the road to The Valley Of The Kings. It was January and I intended spending my birthday alone there (and did, tho surprisingly when I got back on board that evening, a party had been arranged).
Once we'd finally sailed across a VERY choppy Nile on a felucca, (and when THAT ran aground on a turtleback, a river police-boat) my guide Shadi fetched the horses that had been hired for us (decent sized 15 hh, not the usual arab ponies the boys go racing on) and we rode out past little black clad groups of desert 'police' with AK47's (and occasional US 'Mikey Stoner' MK60s), the aftermath of the Luxor tourist massacre and 9/11.
NB there were almost NO tourists in Egypt at all, which is another reason I travelled there at that time...it was IDEAL. The militia was edgy tho...they fired above my head for taking photos too near an armoured car outside Luxor airport. There MAY have been an impromptu interrogation going on inside; I saw lots of arabs pulled into them, and felt pretty useless.
Anyway, my dream tonight was about a cordonned-off shaft that I peered down into from the main shaft of Tomb KV9 ( 20th dynasty, of both Ramesses V and VI). This roughly hewn shaft runs off at a sharp angle and had previously been concealed by a plastered brick wall.
It fascinated me enough to spend a good five minutes staring down into it and at the patchy hieroglyphs on its sides, whilst the tomb of two pharoahs lay just ahead. I did duck under the ropes and go down some way but there was no light at all and I was aware of pitfalls both ancient and new (including the lurking official who is always around somewhere).
It was almost like hypnosis. I was far enough down to be completely dependent on the small lamps, yet close enough to hear Shadi--who stayed above ground with an armed guard--very distantly shouting Y'allah bea? (my spelling) asking me if I was ready to go yet, (with Allah's blessing of course) .
That long black tunnel I looked down and along, was utterly mesmeric; I remember the rough markings on its walls, visible before they disappeared into inky blackness, and the smell of the ancient limestone.
I am not sure if it led down to the antechambers for tomb KV12 (of an ANONYMOUS Egyptian), only that below were deeper regions that have played with my imagination ever since.
As soon as I awoke tonight this, in so many words, is the thought that came straight to the front of my mind.....
Mask of gold...tap it lightly;
a trickle of dry bones
falls away, behind
Well I don't 'do' poetry but that seems like a nutshell {sic} analogy for the Leveller that is death, and the uselessness of gilding it.
funerary mask of Tuyu
funerary mask of Amenemope
Valley of the Kings, West Thebes
photographs from Google...haven't bothered scanning mine, but people are welcome to see them if I bring 'em along sometime
I usually travelled alone but had accomodation, guides etc carefully worked out in advance.
On that visit I had for myself a double cabin on the SS Iman, and when I boarded (after staying awhile in Cairo and flying to Luxor) she was moored alongside the Temple. My cabin, however looked over onto the West Bank and the road to The Valley Of The Kings. It was January and I intended spending my birthday alone there (and did, tho surprisingly when I got back on board that evening, a party had been arranged).
Once we'd finally sailed across a VERY choppy Nile on a felucca, (and when THAT ran aground on a turtleback, a river police-boat) my guide Shadi fetched the horses that had been hired for us (decent sized 15 hh, not the usual arab ponies the boys go racing on) and we rode out past little black clad groups of desert 'police' with AK47's (and occasional US 'Mikey Stoner' MK60s), the aftermath of the Luxor tourist massacre and 9/11.
NB there were almost NO tourists in Egypt at all, which is another reason I travelled there at that time...it was IDEAL. The militia was edgy tho...they fired above my head for taking photos too near an armoured car outside Luxor airport. There MAY have been an impromptu interrogation going on inside; I saw lots of arabs pulled into them, and felt pretty useless.
Anyway, my dream tonight was about a cordonned-off shaft that I peered down into from the main shaft of Tomb KV9 ( 20th dynasty, of both Ramesses V and VI). This roughly hewn shaft runs off at a sharp angle and had previously been concealed by a plastered brick wall.
It fascinated me enough to spend a good five minutes staring down into it and at the patchy hieroglyphs on its sides, whilst the tomb of two pharoahs lay just ahead. I did duck under the ropes and go down some way but there was no light at all and I was aware of pitfalls both ancient and new (including the lurking official who is always around somewhere).
It was almost like hypnosis. I was far enough down to be completely dependent on the small lamps, yet close enough to hear Shadi--who stayed above ground with an armed guard--very distantly shouting Y'allah bea? (my spelling) asking me if I was ready to go yet, (with Allah's blessing of course) .
That long black tunnel I looked down and along, was utterly mesmeric; I remember the rough markings on its walls, visible before they disappeared into inky blackness, and the smell of the ancient limestone.
I am not sure if it led down to the antechambers for tomb KV12 (of an ANONYMOUS Egyptian), only that below were deeper regions that have played with my imagination ever since.
As soon as I awoke tonight this, in so many words, is the thought that came straight to the front of my mind.....
Mask of gold...tap it lightly;
a trickle of dry bones
falls away, behind
Well I don't 'do' poetry but that seems like a nutshell {sic} analogy for the Leveller that is death, and the uselessness of gilding it.
funerary mask of Tuyu
funerary mask of Amenemope
Valley of the Kings, West Thebes
photographs from Google...haven't bothered scanning mine, but people are welcome to see them if I bring 'em along sometime
