Aimless wanderings in the Egyptian heartland. Part Eleven and final- The last few hours
The first question one would ask… is why you took so long in writing the last part of this travelogue… almost a year.
This last part, I believe, would forever separate me from the memories of Egypt. Perhaps, it would be the last time I would be writing about my travels in Egypt… yeah… may be I have to complete the travelogue about Sinai Camel Trek… I also went to Aswan and Abu Simble… just before leaving for India… but then Aswan/Abu Simble was a package tour… so plastic, that I wouldn’t ever write a single word about it… and Sinai Camel Trek is something best said in pictures… there is hardly any narrative… but an eerie landscape… a night under the sky… a Bedouin like existence for 4 days. Still some day, I will have imagination enough to write about it…
The moment I entered Abydos… I received a phone call… Daughter of the East was dead… fallen to the intolerant world around…
Benazir Bhutto meant a lot of things to me… a childhood crush that forced me to read her autobiography “Daughter of the East” when I was only 13 year old… an object of hate for she headed Pakistan, which always schemed against my motherland… an object of sympathy for she was hounded by her opponents… and object of respite that we are unlike Pakistan.
Something snapped within me… I realized that the circuit was over… and that life would never be the same again… how do you react to this kind of a news… perhaps the same way when I heard that a suicide bomber had killed Rajiv Gandhi… it is the end of the road of hope…
Ancient Egyptians followed not one religion but a series of different religions… they were basically animist… more of sun worshippers… one cult lead to another… another lead to another… the last great cult was the cult of Osiris, the God of afterlife… and father of Horus, the Sun-God …thereafter, ancient Egyptian religion was replaced by Orthodox Christianity. Abydos was the great pilgrimage of the Osiris cult… a cult which believed that Abydos was the centre of all creation. Abydos is where the kings of Osiris cult came to die and be mummified and prepare themselves for an afterlife.
One of the most remarkable aspects of the Abydos temple is its grand entrance… equaling in a way… the magic of Hatepshut Temple entrance in Luxor… however, the backdrop of Hatepshut is dramatic and surreal… Abydos is earthier.
The temple perhaps represents the pinnacle of Pharaonic religion… for it has not one but seven different sanctuaries… dedicated to different Gods of different cults… the Horus, the Isis, the Seti…etc. etc.
My mind was wandering… I could not relish the place as much I relished Dendera… though definitely the place was better kept, touristy and grander than Dendera… the few things that I could remember were the good relief works within the temple… which I could relish at my own pace without being reminded about its beauty…
One well kept secret… that a guide told me some months ago in Luxor… was to look out for UFOs of Abydos… one of the relief in the inner hall of Abydos bears an uncanny resemblance to a UFO… I searched for it… however, could not locate it… (Later I found references about it on the World Wide Web, too)
Near the main temple is a huge water tank… with strange looking boulders placed in between… I was told that it was a dummy tomb… perhaps a model of what after life would look like… I didn’t bother to explore it further…
I was famished… had a four-egg omlette… I could see a few foreigners at Abydos… and was told that Abydos is oft visited by package tourists from Luxor… who give Dendera a slip…
My next step was supposed to be Assiyut, which is the third largest city of Egypt… not a great tourist spot… however… a laid back and full of warmth… from there a road took me back to Cairo… and other to south west towards Kharga… (I had earlier been to Kharga… not so memorable… but Kharga was enroute to Baris… an isolated oasis… romantically named after Paris… Arabs don’t have a “P” sound and replace it with “B” sound)… I decided to go to Assiyut and proceed to Cairo.
Assiyut is famous for a Coptic Convent of Holy Virgin… which was visited by the Holy family… and Gezirat Mooz… (The banana island, which, I am told, is a wonderful place to picnic)….
The day was even worse… while riding a taxi from Abydos to Assiyut I received a call from India… my Nani (maternal grandmother) was hospitalized… it was the last straw… I decided to head back to Cairo…
The journey to Cairo was Herculean… I couldn’t get a ticket for train… the bus was late… it broke down in the middle of nowhere… and the journey that would have taken 3 hours… took 8 hours…
Just before the dawn, I reached Cairo… after all these days Cairo was looking beautiful… the city victorious… there was a special charm to the city in these pre-dawn hours…
Perhaps this is the last blog on Egypt… I need to move in life… that Egypt is a part of my life… is a fact… and more so that one day I will go back to Egypt with Vidhu and Kinshuk (my sons)… and show them all …
I am told that influx of tourist have destroyed the simplicity in Luxor and Aswan and Siwa… and hope that the simplicity of Al Qasr remains to be felt by my sons… that such a place does exist on earth… which is so uncomplicated… and warm…
Egypt… I owe you one thing… you have rekindled a fire in me… to be a globe trotter and not just an India trotter.
This last part, I believe, would forever separate me from the memories of Egypt. Perhaps, it would be the last time I would be writing about my travels in Egypt… yeah… may be I have to complete the travelogue about Sinai Camel Trek… I also went to Aswan and Abu Simble… just before leaving for India… but then Aswan/Abu Simble was a package tour… so plastic, that I wouldn’t ever write a single word about it… and Sinai Camel Trek is something best said in pictures… there is hardly any narrative… but an eerie landscape… a night under the sky… a Bedouin like existence for 4 days. Still some day, I will have imagination enough to write about it…
The moment I entered Abydos… I received a phone call… Daughter of the East was dead… fallen to the intolerant world around…
Benazir Bhutto meant a lot of things to me… a childhood crush that forced me to read her autobiography “Daughter of the East” when I was only 13 year old… an object of hate for she headed Pakistan, which always schemed against my motherland… an object of sympathy for she was hounded by her opponents… and object of respite that we are unlike Pakistan.
Something snapped within me… I realized that the circuit was over… and that life would never be the same again… how do you react to this kind of a news… perhaps the same way when I heard that a suicide bomber had killed Rajiv Gandhi… it is the end of the road of hope…
Ancient Egyptians followed not one religion but a series of different religions… they were basically animist… more of sun worshippers… one cult lead to another… another lead to another… the last great cult was the cult of Osiris, the God of afterlife… and father of Horus, the Sun-God …thereafter, ancient Egyptian religion was replaced by Orthodox Christianity. Abydos was the great pilgrimage of the Osiris cult… a cult which believed that Abydos was the centre of all creation. Abydos is where the kings of Osiris cult came to die and be mummified and prepare themselves for an afterlife.
One of the most remarkable aspects of the Abydos temple is its grand entrance… equaling in a way… the magic of Hatepshut Temple entrance in Luxor… however, the backdrop of Hatepshut is dramatic and surreal… Abydos is earthier.
The temple perhaps represents the pinnacle of Pharaonic religion… for it has not one but seven different sanctuaries… dedicated to different Gods of different cults… the Horus, the Isis, the Seti…etc. etc.
My mind was wandering… I could not relish the place as much I relished Dendera… though definitely the place was better kept, touristy and grander than Dendera… the few things that I could remember were the good relief works within the temple… which I could relish at my own pace without being reminded about its beauty…
One well kept secret… that a guide told me some months ago in Luxor… was to look out for UFOs of Abydos… one of the relief in the inner hall of Abydos bears an uncanny resemblance to a UFO… I searched for it… however, could not locate it… (Later I found references about it on the World Wide Web, too)
Near the main temple is a huge water tank… with strange looking boulders placed in between… I was told that it was a dummy tomb… perhaps a model of what after life would look like… I didn’t bother to explore it further…
I was famished… had a four-egg omlette… I could see a few foreigners at Abydos… and was told that Abydos is oft visited by package tourists from Luxor… who give Dendera a slip…
My next step was supposed to be Assiyut, which is the third largest city of Egypt… not a great tourist spot… however… a laid back and full of warmth… from there a road took me back to Cairo… and other to south west towards Kharga… (I had earlier been to Kharga… not so memorable… but Kharga was enroute to Baris… an isolated oasis… romantically named after Paris… Arabs don’t have a “P” sound and replace it with “B” sound)… I decided to go to Assiyut and proceed to Cairo.
Assiyut is famous for a Coptic Convent of Holy Virgin… which was visited by the Holy family… and Gezirat Mooz… (The banana island, which, I am told, is a wonderful place to picnic)….
The day was even worse… while riding a taxi from Abydos to Assiyut I received a call from India… my Nani (maternal grandmother) was hospitalized… it was the last straw… I decided to head back to Cairo…
The journey to Cairo was Herculean… I couldn’t get a ticket for train… the bus was late… it broke down in the middle of nowhere… and the journey that would have taken 3 hours… took 8 hours…
Just before the dawn, I reached Cairo… after all these days Cairo was looking beautiful… the city victorious… there was a special charm to the city in these pre-dawn hours…
Perhaps this is the last blog on Egypt… I need to move in life… that Egypt is a part of my life… is a fact… and more so that one day I will go back to Egypt with Vidhu and Kinshuk (my sons)… and show them all …
I am told that influx of tourist have destroyed the simplicity in Luxor and Aswan and Siwa… and hope that the simplicity of Al Qasr remains to be felt by my sons… that such a place does exist on earth… which is so uncomplicated… and warm…
Egypt… I owe you one thing… you have rekindled a fire in me… to be a globe trotter and not just an India trotter.
2 comments:
Just wondering when I can join you for a travel..Eastern Ghats or may be Egypt ??
Very soon Subrat... very soon
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