Temple of Hatchepsut - Deir el-Bahri

The Temple of Hatchepsut

Deir el-Bahri

The Temple of Hatchepsut is located in a magnificent setting - tucked up against the towering heights of the Libyan Cliffs. In Ancient times the stone flagged terraces were dotted with the shade from incense trees, brought back on the Queen's expedition to the mysterious land of Punt, somewhere on the east coast of Africa. The story of this historic journey is carved in colourful relief behind the colonnades of the upper terrace.

The Queen's historic journey to the Land of Punt

When we first saw the Temple of Hatchepsut in 1989 there was one statue of Hatchepsut standing by a column on the upper terrace. In its hey day there was a statue on every column but they were all broken up into little pieces by Christians, maybe, Muslims, maybe, or by souvenir hunters, most likely. By the year 2009 there are nine statues standing proud, all rebuilt from fragments, and eventually all of the statues will be rebuilt. Some of the heads are already in place on plinths, awaiting the bodies.

The Queen's heads waiting for their new bodies.

Some of the reliefs in the temple still have fairly vivid colours and there is many a decent photo to be taken. located in a magnificent setting - tucked up against the towering heights of the Libyan Cliffs. In Ancient times the stone flagged terraces were dotted with the shade from incense trees, brought back on the Queen's expedition to the mysterious land of Punt, somewhere on the

Hatchepsut Picture Show

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The Chapel of Anubis

Anubis and Apuat - Twin Guardians of the Summer and Winter Solstice.

The Chapel of Anubis is unique in the whole of Egypt. There isn't another one and just why Queen Hatchepsut should chose to honour the Jackal-headed guardian of the burial grounds is known only to her. The main task of Anubis was to balance the heart of the dead person against the weight of the white feather of Maat, the goddess of truth. Should the heart be heavier than the feather the deceased was devoured by the green crocodile monster Ammit. In recent years, very quietly, the chapel has become a shrine to people who have lost their dogs to the Grim Reaper. Small tuffs of dog hair can be seen in the cracks of the plaster, left there by their beloved owners, in fond remembrance. Lots of tuffs of hair have already been plastered into the walls as the renovation work was carried out on the chapel.
If it brings peace of mind to the bereaved - then so be it.

For Samantha my special friend (and Toby, Teddy and Lady)

For my special friend

I lost a special friend today, the kind you can't replace,
and looking at her empty bed, I still can see her face.

I see the endless energy, the sparkling puppy eyes,
Not the tired, fragile friend, I had to bid goodbye.

It will truly be a struggle, I don't know how I'll face the day,
I have to let her go - I know, But in my heart she'll stay.

I know she's watching over me, She's with me when I cry,
So with one last kiss upon her head, I told my friend goodbye.

Anubis - Guardian of the Cemetery

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WARNING

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The Luxor Massacre

         Mention should be made of the Luxor Massacre which took place on the 17 November 1997, at Deir el-Bahri.   The attack was instigated by exiled Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya ("The Islamic Group") leaders attempting to undermine the July 1997 "Non-violence Initiative", an effort to end an Islamist terrorist campaign that had killed hundreds of Egyptians and foreigners since 1992.

Specifically, Ayman Zawahiri of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (later of al-Qaida), Mustafa Hamza, the new emir of the Islamic Group, and Rifai Ahmed Taha, the military leader of the Islamic Group, all hoped a massive terror attack would devastate the Egyptian economy and provoke the government into repression that would kill the initiative and strengthen support for anti-government terrorism. In effect the attack branded the terrorists as barbaric outcasts.

     In the mid-morning attack, terrorists from the Islamic Group and Jihad Talaat al-Fath ("Holy War of the Vanguard of the Conquest") massacred 63 people at the Deir el-Bahri. The six assailants were armed with automatic firearms and knives, and disguised as members of the security forces. They descended on the Temple of Hatchepsut at around 08:45. With the tourists trapped inside the temple, the killing went on systematically for 45 minutes. Victims being hacked apart and dismembered to prevent them entering Heaven. The dead included a five-year-old British child and four Japanese couples on their honeymoons.
     The attackers then hijacked a bus, but ran into a checkpoint of armed Egyptian tourist police and military forces. One of the terrorists was wounded in the shootout and the rest fled into the hills where their bodies were found in a cave, apparently having committed suicide together, although my friends tell me they were all shot by security forces.

     Four Egyptians were killed, three of them police officers and one of them a tour guide. A total of 59 foreign tourists were killed: 36 Swiss, 10 Japanese, 6 British, 4 Germans, 1 French, 2 Colombian, and a dual-national Bulgarian/British. 12 Swiss, 2Japanese, 2 Germans, 1 French, and 9 Egyptians were wounded.

      Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak partly blamed the United Kingdom for the attacks after that country had granted political asylum to Egyptian terrorist leaders. I understand that London is still the terrorist capital of the world and several of the terrorists named here are still living on state benefits at our expense, and we are not allowed to deport them because it would infringe on their human rights.
       After the event Mubarak replaced his Interior Minister, General Hassan al-Alfi, with General Habib al-Adly. The tourist industry – in Egypt in general and in Luxor in particular – was seriously affected by the resultant slump in visitors and remained depressed until sinking even lower with the Al-Qaida attacks in the eastern United States in 2001.
     The massacre, however, marked a decisive drop in Islamist terrorists' fortunes in Egypt by turning Egyptian public opinion overwhelmingly against them. Organizers and supporters of the attack reacted with denial. The day after the attack, Islamic Group leader Rifai Taha claimed the attackers intended only to take the tourists hostage, despite the evidence of the immediate and systematic nature of the slaughter. Others denied Islamist involvement completely. Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman blamed Israelis for the killings, and Ayman Zawahiri maintained the Egyptian police had done it.
     The terrorist groups lost the population's support and had nowhere to seek refuge or establish bases of operations in Egypt. Although 1,200 people, many of them foreign visitors or residents but also many hundreds of Egyptians themselves, were killed by terrorist attacks in the preceding years, terrorist activity in Luxor has completely ceased, though there are still attacks by Islamic militants in Cairo and the Red Sea resorts.

My personal view

    My Muslim friend Mohamed was commandeered to pick up the severed arms and body parts of the many butchered victims. An ex-Israeli war veteran he still hasn't fully recovered from his ordeal at Deir el-Bahri and he still has recurrent nightmares. Thankfully he got a transfer to Saudi Arabia for the next 12 months but I certainly missed the best "fixer" in the whole of Egypt.

    My Muslim friend Abd had a successful jewellery shop in Luxor but when the insurance companies refused to insure any visitors to Egypt the airlines wouldn't carry non insured passengers, so tourism, and his business ceased, overnight.

    When I got to see him again I commented that I was pleased to see that he still had his shop. "No," he said, "the bank owns it now." Well, you still have your gold stock. "No," he said, "the bank owns it now." Embarrassed I asked about the welfare of his wife and child. "Gone," he said, "I couldn't support her so she divorced me." That is the Egyptian way. The Egyptians are a resilient people, and when I last saw Abd in 2009 we took him out to dinner, at the Lantern Restaurant, but this time he was accompanied by his new wife and a new baby girl.     Needless to say, the inhabitants of Luxor have no love for Islamic terrorists. At this moment in time it is very safe here. There are more armed security guards with sub machine guns than grains of sand in the desert, but they are very discreet and unobtrusive.

     I would willingly walk the dark back streets of Luxor of an evening because I feel much safer there than I do in my home town in Britain. I would never walk the back streets of my home town of an evening because we have a lot more terrorists in my Yorkshire home town than they do in Luxor. God dammit, there are places in my home town I wouldn't walk in even if it was broad daylight. There are no-go areas in Britain, but most people in Britain don't know of them.

   Bulgaria is also much safer than modern day Britain. Strange world isn't it?

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I included this because I wanted to give you a proper overall view of the place but now it is time to move on to the Valley of the Kings. After all, this whole region is dedicated to the memory of the deceased.

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