May 27, 2003

May 27, 2003
Luxor

Ali waits for us 24/7 on the street in front of our hotel room. Evertime we go down to the bar to have a snack and we look out the window he is there looking back up at us. Eid, the guy who runs the bar says he's always asking when we're going to come out. EVERYTIME we leave the hotel he is there and he follows us around. I would be irritated if he wasn't so cute. I took some pictures of him today for a painting.

We're taking a tour with a real Egyptologist named Mahmoud Abdullah aka Sunshine of the west bank in Luxor. We will see the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens and the Temple of Hatchepsut. I am so excited ! I have really wanted someone to talk to about the art and architecture and so far most tour guides don't know very much or their English isn't very good. Our bus is air conditioned too ! Hurray ! First time so far ! We just passed some sunflowers that were about 9 feet tall ! We also passed a store called Isis Spices and Osirus Papyrus. Laaaaaame...

Notes from Sunshine's lectures today:

Ancient Egyptians didn't use fish in their offerings to the Gods because of this story: When Seth cut his brother Osirus in 42 pieces and spread them across Egypt, Osirus' wife Isis was able to only find 41. Yes, I think you can guess which one the missing piece was. Apparently it was eaten by a fish. She sewed him back together and made him a new penis out of clay. Clever girl.
Bit of lame trivia: The defaced figures I saw at Kom Ombo and other places were a result of Christians moving into the tombs and temples and defacing the art because it scared them.
For paint, the ancient Egyptians used ground up semi-prescious stones like lapis, turquoise, jade and agate mixed with gum arabic and egg.

In the Valley of the Queens, in the tomb of Amen Khopshef there was a mummified fetus. How goth. It was really cool looking. You couldnt tell if there was any cloth on it or not, as the whole thing was all white and flakey. Yum. Was really dumb and didn't bring my camera. It would have been the coolest picture.