5th April 2013
Dig Sites Close for Summer 2013
Well, summer is upon us here in Luxor. Very few tourists now, no business for the local people. It has not been a good year for tourists There does not seem to be a solution to the many problems facing Egypt. Prices are for ever going up but there is no money for the people. A pack of six Cola went up from 25LE to 30LE, with many increases on other food products and of course benzene; still the never ending queues at stations. I really don't know how the people manage to cope.
The weather here now is very hot, the other day it was 39c (99f) and all this week it will be in the 90's/f. I know I have to now change my daily activities times with early morning trips as apposed to the middle of the days; I'm just not very good at getting up early. Evenings are very nice though where I can sit with a drink and watch the local life go pass. I find the Nubian Palace Cafe by the Memnon an especially nice place to relax and look at the lit up mountains over Qurna and towards Hatshepsut. It is a delightful place where Sari and Ahmed are the owners. I spend many a time just chatting with Sari, she is a lively lady.
All the dig sites are now closed for the summer. There are very many on the West Bank. Here are the latest photos of some of them.
Amenhotep III Mortuary Temple - Memnon
With Amenhotep III Mortuary Temple, all the new finds are covered in white sheets. They have done some great work this year on the South site with the rebuilding of many colossi, statues and monuments and on the North site they have built the basis where they will re-build two very large colossi. All the pieces have been removed from the North pit where the colossi pieces were found and the land levelled and returned to the owner.
Dig Sites Close for Summer 2013
Well, summer is upon us here in Luxor. Very few tourists now, no business for the local people. It has not been a good year for tourists There does not seem to be a solution to the many problems facing Egypt. Prices are for ever going up but there is no money for the people. A pack of six Cola went up from 25LE to 30LE, with many increases on other food products and of course benzene; still the never ending queues at stations. I really don't know how the people manage to cope.
The weather here now is very hot, the other day it was 39c (99f) and all this week it will be in the 90's/f. I know I have to now change my daily activities times with early morning trips as apposed to the middle of the days; I'm just not very good at getting up early. Evenings are very nice though where I can sit with a drink and watch the local life go pass. I find the Nubian Palace Cafe by the Memnon an especially nice place to relax and look at the lit up mountains over Qurna and towards Hatshepsut. It is a delightful place where Sari and Ahmed are the owners. I spend many a time just chatting with Sari, she is a lively lady.
All the dig sites are now closed for the summer. There are very many on the West Bank. Here are the latest photos of some of them.
Amenhotep III Mortuary Temple - Memnon
With Amenhotep III Mortuary Temple, all the new finds are covered in white sheets. They have done some great work this year on the South site with the rebuilding of many colossi, statues and monuments and on the North site they have built the basis where they will re-build two very large colossi. All the pieces have been removed from the North pit where the colossi pieces were found and the land levelled and returned to the owner.
The two Memnon Colossi have had a lot of work done to the basis of the statues in an attempt to make them more secure. This probably is a more busier place than most of the temples.
Tuthmosis III Temple - Sheik Abd El Qurna
At the Tuthmosis site I managed to take some pictures from a different angle and from the West. It is more impressive thought from the main road where they have completed some very nice reconstructing of mud brick walls and including part of the first Pylon on the other side of the road.
Amenhotep III Palace - Malqata
Good work done this year on the reconstructing of mud brick walls. In the photos you can see the sand that has been put around the existing wall for protection. Birket Habu is still an amazing place to find and pick up pieces of pottery, stamps, jewellery and so on.
Isis Temple - Deir El Shelwit
The photos I took show just how much the site has been cleaned and how large it is. Although the temple was supposed to open this year, they have been busy inside working on the restoration of walls. Perhaps it will open next year; I have been told that it is very nice inside. You can see that they have started building a visitors building for ticket purchases, toilets, and hopefully refreshments as the village of Deir el Shelwit has nothing to offer tourists.