21:51
Small Talk:
More of pictures from my Egypt trip! Yeah, I knew you weren’t waiting for them with baited breath or anything. Still, there’s so many stories and pictures I want to show and share with you :D Tsudzukeru yo!
After a long nap, I woke up to a nice hot shower and a scrumptuous buffet dinner on board our cruise ship while still docked at Esna. After feeling satisfied, I decided to explore the ship a little bit so I climbed up to the top deck, where there’s a pool, plenty of beach chairs and an open air cafe. Since it was already nighttime and the winds are like razor-sharp cold, there weren’t that many people on the top deck.
However, I looked up and met with a beautiful cloudless sky littered with celestial light.
You seldom [if ever] get so much stars in a single shot here in Malaysia. We have plenty of clouds that obstruct our view, unlike Egypt’s clear blue skies [if you have noticed in previous photos]. This single shot is enough to explain how the Ancient Egyptians came to be such excellent astronomers.
I spent the rest of that night shooting the sky at various different exposures to see if I could get anything interesting, but the one up here is probably the best out of the ones I shot that night. If you must know, yes, I increased the brightness of the stars and gave them a ‘fake’ glow by Gaussian blurring.
The next morning, we rose early to continue with the second part of our tour of Luxor. It was interesting to see locals doing their morning activities - going to school, work, etc. I wondered if the foreigners who come and visit Malaysia feel the same way about us during the mornings. Our coaster arrived and we made a long journey to the other side of the Nile.
Before long, we arrived in East Luxor - the Lands of the Living. We saw even more plantations and farms and fields by the roadside. It’s amazing what the Ancient Egyptians came up for their irrigation system. They managed to draw huge volumes of water from the Nile and still manage to avoid major floods every time the Nile overflows during its annual inundation cycles.
We passed this food stall on our way. It looks somewhat similar to our own shabby mamak stalls we go to for breakfast and evening teh tarik. Even the behaviour of the patrons were somewhat the same. Somewhat, since many of them appear to speak with their arms flailing around as if their super loud voices weren’t convincing enough, hehe.
Our first stop were two gigantic statues, remains of a destroyed temple known as the Colossi of Memnon. They are, indeed, colossal in size. Apparently, these statues have an interesting history since their discovery. When they were found, one of these statues had a hole in its chest. What happenned was, every morning, as the wind blows through this hole, an eerie wailing sound can be heard coming from the statue - as if it was crying in agony and depression. Realising this fact, the Italians who discovered them named them after the mythical Greek character Memnon.
He was killed by Achilles at the Trojan War, and after that, his mother would be seen crying to the Gods every morning. This myth was what led to the naming of the two statues, despite them actually being guardians of the front gates to the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III - who has completely nothing to do with Memnon. When asked about this, our tourguide simply shrugged and said;
“What to do? They found and named it before we do.”
I wonder I why I never saw that coming.
Our next stop was another interesting location. We visited what was once the memorial temple to Ramses II - The Ramesseum. Sure enough, inside was full of Ramses - statues, biography, prayers. Although, the most interesting things were tales of his war campaigns.
This relief shows Ramses II on top of his chariot while - well, to put it bluntly - kicking ass. Make that kicking a LOT of asses.
Our guide explained that this campaign was the one that he was most proud of, that he decided to become kay-poh-chee about it to every single nook and cranny of Ancient Egypt. This relief shows the climax of the Second Battle of Kadesh. The story goes that he was in a war campaign against the Hittites, and along the way, caught two spies. These spies however, were well prepared for capture. When interrogated, they told Ramses that their army is still some 2 days journey away from the river Orontes - Ramses’ army’s next checkpoint.
With that knowledge, Ramses took two divisions with him, the Amun and Ra chariot squads. However, Ramses realised too late that the spies he captured had deceived him. He was leading the Amun squad behind the Re squad which was in the middle of crossing the Orontes when the Hittites and their allies ambushed and outnumbered them massively.
Before he knew it, the Re squad was almost completely decimated, while his own Amun squad was in total disarray. Refusing to submit defeat, he slung on his golden armor, got onto his chariot and leapt into the craze of battle. In desperation, he made a plea to the gods;
“O Amun Ra! I have been deceived! My men are being killed, my men are in confusion, and my voice would not reach them. O Amun Ra! I am alone in this sea of blood and bodies. O, Amun Ra! I have built temples in your name, I have erected obelisks in your honor. O Amun Ra! Are you not my Father, and am I not your Son? I am now alone, but are you not with me? Do you wish your greatest son to be defeated. You shall grant me the strength, and you shall win me this battle!”
With that cry, and in a fit of sheer holy rage, Ramses began trampling enemies under his chariot and slew every single thing that stood in his path. He practically went postal around the battlefield for quite a while and actually managed to hold his own against an ambush that consisted of several thousand chariots! However, it was not a battle won, as he barely escaped after the Ptah squad [the 3rd division] came to his rescue. The aftermath of this campaign was that neither side could decisively win the battle, and Ramses decided to sign a peace treaty with the Hittites - the first ever in the history of human civilisation.
Our next stop is another memorial temple - and this is one that many [if not all] Serious Sam fans would be familiar with :D More pictures in the second part!
The Egypt Travelogs Series:
- Cairo (The Great Pyramids)
- Road to Alexandria (Asfour Crystal Palace, Lion Park Animal Hospital)
- Alexandria (Qaitbay Citadel, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Montaza Palace Gardens)
- Return from Alexandria (Local fruits and produce)
- West Luxor (Temple of Karnak)
- East Luxor - Part One and Two (Colossi of Memnon, Ramesseum, Temple of Hatshepsut, Alabaster factory)
- The Nile - Part One and Two (Edfu Bazaar, Life along the along the Nile)
- Kom Ombo (The Twin Temples of Kom Ombo)
- Road to Abu Simbel (Shooting star, desert skies)
- Abu Simbel - (The Greater Temple of Abu Simbel)
- Aswan - (Unfinished Obelisk, Felluca ride)
Heatherly
08:11
Sweet picture of the stars (even if it has been enhanced). So few people think to take pictures of the night sky when they’re traveling.
Silencers: Glad you liked it :) It’s not that people don’t think of taking pictures of starry night skies. It’s a little tricky, actually and takes a bit more than just pointing the camera to the sky and pressing the shutter.