Post Revolution

Two years have passed now since I have last written and so much has happened. A year ago almost exactly, I came back to Abydos, Egypt for my third season. I was expecting the typical, a short 3 month season, walking the desert floor, mapping and reducing my carbon footprint. Little to my knowledge was I going to be part of a Revolution that would change the country of Egypt forever. After only being in Egypt three weeks and in Abydos for only two weeks I was extracted out of the country. It was a very stressful, frightening and sad time for me and for my colleagues, my friends. It was an experience I will never forget and will always hold in my heart.

Now, I have returned and am so anxious to be here, to learn, to smell and to be part of it...

It has only been two days here in Abydos, but it seems like I never left. The flight here to Egypt was longer than ever as I sat and awaited my landing. I had no idea what to expect, what to want, or how to feel. I arrived Thursday afternoon, was stuck in the airport for a very long time and finally reached our hotel around 4:00 pm in the afternoon. I quickly showered and left to the souk! The souk is a large street market full of shops, spices and PEOPLE. In route to the souk we passed by Tahrir Square. I am not too sure what I was expecting, but i was slightly disappointed. The view was simple. Some people standing in and around tents. Life resumed and the streets were littered with people in route to where ever they were going. I was one of these people, in a taxi, taking pictures and headed out to shop. I felt as if the joke was on me. I was convinced I should have been scared and should have kept a distance from Tahrir, but good thing I do not listen to what I read or to what people tell me.

Before our taxi even dropped us off there I could smell the scent of cumin and saffron blowing through the narrow streets. Immediately I was anxious!

Currently, I am in Abydos, working. I anxiously await to see what the week has in store for me, for all of us!

Count down, Final Days in the Abydos desert

The days counted down. A mix of emotion filled my soul every time I took an inhale of dirty, intoxicating Egyptian air. Anxious to find "civilization" again, but sad to leave a place dear to my heart with people I will never forget and look forward to meeting again.


Above and below are beautiful pieces drawn by one of the most talented artists I have yet to meet, Maria. I was privileged enough to watch her work and to photograph her final pieces of art. These are artifacts found during this field season.

The last week in Abydos, work was coming to an end and all excavations were stopped. It was a time for the excavators to finalize their work by mapping, cleaning and ending photography. In doing so I was able to capture what seems to be the perfect pictures of the season. Nobody was around and the desert was still. Picturesque....to say the least. This is what I bring home with me in my mind and in my heart.













These two photographs below are in our courtyard. The courtyard is showered in baskets containing artifacts and in this case mummified animal bits and bone. The second photo is a mummified dog head. Look closely and you can see the profile, nose and eyes. This represents Egypt all wrapped up together in several baskets...




Aren't they precious? These two adorable creatures are the offspring of a black, long haired kitty we have named "fluffy". Their father is "Obama", a promiscuous black and white short haired kitty who goes after anything and everything. He is a cutie though. "Fluffy" left our compound and moved into the Quftis house. The Quftis help to run and manage our archaeological work in Abydos. They live in a tiny home approximately 100 meters northeast of our compound. Here, "fluffy" and her kittens live with the several Quftis learning the ropes on keeping the mice, bugs and sometime horned-viper snakes out of the house.





The second to the last day we were in Abydos Magda and I took a short walk to the Quftis house to sit and visit with Quftis Ramadan and Ahmed (not pictured) and the Reiss Ibrahim (smoking the sheesha). It was a great visit including sheesha and tea. Thanks to Ahmed I was able to acquire these photos.....It was a sad goodbye.

Life in Abydos

I know I have posted about work and life here, but I captured such great photos recently and feel that if I do not share these, people are missing out on the experience and Abydos.

The pictures are of the sunset while being at the Shunet el Zebib, the sunset from the village market place, and the sunset driving home from work at the market place. The other photos are from Beni Mansur, taken out of the window while traveling very quickly in a Taxi through the narrow, dirt paved, trash lined streets painted with people.

Luxor: Part II

Besides the many temples and tourist attractions, there exists a humbling everyday lifestyle. I was able to capture some of this on camel back, in a taxi, by boat and on foot. The first photos, of Hajj art are beautiful depictions and written descriptions of ones travel to Mecca. This artwork can be seen almost everywhere I have traveled in Egypt thus far. "Just the little artwork or drawings Egyptians use in big cities and small villages outside their homes to represent that a relative has undertaken the pilgrimage to Mecca"(http://www.flickriver.com/photos/lastavatar/3538952363/).

Some of the photos just represent the most basic things. I took a felucca ride up the nile to Banana Island and was able to walk through banana groves and on the way I captured local fisherman working on their daily catch and water buffalo (jamoose)grazing along the rich river side.

Also part of egyptian life is cramming the smallest truck one can find with as many things, animals or humans one can think of. In this case I was in a Taxi and came across three large camels shoved in the bed of this tiny truck. They looked adorable and were very curious! The other photo of the camel was along the side of the road where the camel was carrying one of the many daily loads of sugar cane from the farm. Impressive!

Lastly, I end this blog with a gorgeous photo of the Luxor temple. Every night the temple is lit up and can be seen for as far as the eye can see along the korneesh. I love this picture!

Luxor Holiday; Site visits

Half way through our work schedule, which is around 1 month of work we get a small break. So we went to Luxor, which is approximately a 2.5 hour drive south of Abydos. The nile separates the east(modern town) and west banks in Luxor. The east bank has the Temple of Luxor and the Temple at Karnak and on the west bank the temples of Deir al-Bahri and Medinat Habu, the Colossi of Memnon and the Valley of the Kings. Luxor today is comprised of ancient Theben antiquities and tourists by the bus loads.I had decided and was content with spending only one day out of a total of four days visiting temples and ruins. Allowing myself to thoroughly enjoy a slow paced day, with minimal hassel, visiting ruins of choice. Enjoying the lack of pressure to see everything (which is impossible) and great company!

Colossi of Memnon
The first Temple I visited was the Colossi of Memnon. The two large, 1000 ton statues are the first monument one sees on the West bank. These statues were once part of the largest temple ever built in Egypt, Amenhotep III's memorial temple. Sadly, all that remains now are the towering two statues.
















Ramesseum
Continuing past the Colossi approximately 2-3 kilometers I then visited the "memorial temple" the Ramesseum (a funerary complex) built for Ramses II. The temple was called "the Temple of Millions of Years of User-Maat-Ra" by Ramses II. The temple is mostly in ruins but still stands great. On first arrival the 29 columns of the great hypostyle hall are still standing and visible as well as the the great arched storerooms surrounding the ruins to the north and northwest.





























































































































The Temple of Seti I
Was built by Seti who also built the Seti temple in Abydos, which happens to be one of my favorite. The temple is in ruins and was hit hard after torrential rain and flooding in 1994. The temple was not so impressive, but gladly the site guards escorted us on to the roof of the temple to capture the picturesque view of the west bank. There are few visitors so the site guards were a bit generous with us! Sadly, hardly any photos came out except for this one of Andy and I on the roof. Shortly after I manged my way down with the help of the guard.

















The Temple of Edfu

This temple is known as the Temple of Horus at Edfu, is situated high above the nile flood plain, therefore the temple is almost completely preserved. It was originally the cult center of the falcon god Horus of Behdet, but today Ptolomaic ruins is what remains. The temple is a car drive south of Luxor approximately 1.5 hours. Here the landscape changes some. The stratigraphy and the rock changes from limestone to sandstone. The Nubian influence found throughout southern Egypt is noted around here.

Walking into the ruin is breath taking. The pylon in the entrance stands 36 meters high and is embellished with reliefs of Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos and the entrance is guarded with two granite statues of Horus. Throughout the outer walls of the temple (Passage of victory) there are beautuful reliefs standing just as tall as the entrance pylon. Inside, columns greet you as you enter, as well as hall after hall, relief after relief. Just splendid. This was one of my favorite visits!!!