Hot Air and Views

The Temple of Hatshepsut

Views from Hot Air Balloon

What the heck am I doing up so early? It's dark and I had hit my best sleep. I am in a boat with seventeen others, heading out from our cruise boat in a motor boat and on to some field in Luxor.

It's hot-air balloon time. We rise with the warm current, 17 of us stuffed into four standing compartments and I watch the sun rise over the Nile. Over the haze of modern Luxor, I can see ancient Thebes shimmer and come alive for that one instant where the powerful sun-god Ra appears to establish his mastery over the earth.



But the sounds of Luxor waft up. Prayers and shouts and music and Ra is defeated yet again.



The heat from the balloon is well...hot. It is called a hot air balloon after all. And we float noiselessly over the Valley of the Kings.



And I see the temple of Hatshepsut rise up from the desert. Almost as if it is part of the desert.



A temple of a usurper, a woman who invented the story of her divine birth, where her mother was impregnated by the spirit of the great Amun-Ra. So she had to rule, not her stepson Tuthmoses III. A woman who did not call herself queen but a pharoah, a King of Egypt. A king because she was the son of Amun-Ra, not his daughter. A woman defined not so much by what she was but what she was not. And all the more powerful for it. She ruled for 27 years before her death.



Hatshepsut whose name was all but expunged by those who came after her. For never should a usurper be honored. But clues were left behind and the son of another pharaoah who treasured history left a trail to her in ancient hieroglyphs. History does not die. It can only be forgotten for a while. Hidden away until it chooses to come to light.



They said she was not mummified--the most horrible thing for an ancient Egyptian king--so that she would not be re-born. So that she would truly die and so that her soul would not ever ascend to the paradise of Osiris.



But then a lone tooth fit perfectly into an empty spot in an unidentified mummy's mouth and what was once the body of a 45-60 year obese female with bad teeth and hair was confirmed as the mummy of that most unusual pharaoah, Hatshepsut.




This happened just a few weeks before I leaned down from my balloon and saw her temple rising from the harsh sands of Egypt. Do kings remain kings forever?

Pyramids of Giza

The first night we were in Egypt we stayed at the Mena House (the hunting lodge of one of the Egyptian kings) now run by the Oberoi. We had dinner at the outdoor, poolside barbecue place. They brought us hot Egyptian flat bread from the oven and the kebabs were succulent.

But right in front of my eyes, almost close enough to touch I could see it. More than 3000 years old, watching the decline of yet another day, insignificant for them, the great pyramid of Giza.

The light faded gently and I watched as the night absorbed the triangular form into itself. But since I knew where they were, if I stared into the darkness I could just make out a perfect pyramid, where the stars did not shine, where the night was just a shade darker, just a little more intense.

I finished my dinner in the shade of times past and I was humbled.

Flying over Ramses II

Temple of Ramses II from plane (Abu Simbell)

Ramses II was probably the greatest Pharoah of Egypt. The third pharoah of the 19th dynasty, he ruled for 67 years, subjugated and assimilated the nubians, the people of the sea and others. He had 150 children and his wife (probably also his sister, yes, icky but true) Nefertary was the only queen who had a temple built in her honor, right next to the great temple of Ramses II himself in Abu Simbell. His next favorite queen was (ick again) his own daughter with Nefertary who he is said to have married because she so resembled his beloved. He also is said to have married three other of his daughters.


All the incest and begetting aside, Ramses was quite a remarkable ruler and a spectacular man who won many battles (the famous Battle of Kadesh among them) and built amazing structures that stand even today.

He also inspired Shelley to write Ozymandias, one of his most famous short poems. One of the statues of Ramses II at his great temple fell during an earthquake in antiquity, which some say, led Shelley to mock the king thus:

"I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert.
Near them on the sand,Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away."

Ramses II might have the last laugh though. His monuments survive more than 2000 years later and so, in some ways does he. His mummy lies in quiet repose at the Egyptian museum in Cairo. Ramses II might not have wanted to be gawked at by strangers but...at least we all know who he is as we look at him in awe. I stared at his silky white hair, stained yellow by the mummification process and I closed my eyes for a moment to imagine how he must have been, millenia ago, magnificent king before whom all bowed. I flexed my knees to accord him that royal respect before leaving the room.

Ramses II attained his quest for eternal life in a way. How many of us will be able to do that?

All I can is say I flew over Ramses II and tried to look into his soul.

I went all the way to Egypt and all I got was this lousy chest infection

Yes, I'm back. Days earlier. It's amazing how quickly a vacation loses its luster when you're struggling to breathe and burning up in a fever. I think I have the Egyptian plague...maybe not since it does seem to be responding to antibiotics.

We were lucky enough to be able to leave earlier than planned. So...once I am feeling better, I'll regale you with tales from Egypt.

Hello my friend....how's about a felucca ride? I give you best Egyptian price...

Ok...from Cairo to Aswan to Abu Simbell, back to Aswan and on to Luxor (stopping at Kom Ombo and Edfu in between) before returning (tomorrow) back to Cairo...it's beautiful. And of yes....insanely, absolutely HOT! I am burning up. What's the hieroglyph for air conditioning?

Anyway...will be blogging (and responding to tags) when I return to Geneve.