Out and About on the Mountain

Up on the Mountain

el-Quorn

The Sanctuary of Ptah, Patron of Craftsmen, and Meretseger, Goddess of the Western Mountains

   The walk up and over the mountain is quite a challenge as there is a point approaching the summit where a twenty foot high cliff has to be climbed, but providing you take plenty of bottled water and treat the sun with respect there is usually no problem. Even in winter the sun is very hot and unforgiving.

    Let's start from Deir el-Median, taking the path to the left of Sennedjem's Tomb and just head upwards. The first place to visit is the Sanctuary of Ptah, the patron of craftsmen, and Meretseger, the goddess of the Western Mountains, depicted as a cobra with a crown, or a woman-headed cobra.

Representations of Meretseger, the Goddess of the Western Mountains

   Now, the only problem here is that the Sanctuary is tucked away out of sight under the west side of the path and most people only see it after they have passed it, and are a long way up the climb, looking back the way they came.

Looking back towards the Sanctuary of Ptah and Meretseger

Continuing onwards, it is best to ignore the obvious path up the mountain and go through the pass to the ruins of the rest house village where the workers in the Valley used to retreat to in the evening to get away from the unbearable heat of the Valley of the Kings. While looking for pottery shards here I stumbled upon countless thousands of beautiful tiny fossil shells lying about in the dust. I had my companion collect lots of these "legal" souvenirs.

Collecting fossils in the ruins of the Hill Pass Village



There is a large cliff face overhanging the village which gives welcome shade before heading up the mountain trail to the summit. In the old days there was an unobstructed path, except for having to climb the cliff face, but nowadays one has to check in at the guard house, situated in a commanding position from which security guards can view the whole Theban complex.

The Theban Pyramid Mountain

Valley of the Kings from the path to the Western Valley

    From the summit one can head across the top of the Valley of the Kings towards the lesser well known and hardly visited Western Valley, where only one Pharaoh is buried, so they say? The advantage for people like myself who like finding things is that the place is littered with "goodies". Not just small shards of pottery but huge water jars and beautiful fossil shells as big as a fist can be found everywhere.

   Unfortunately there is not much to see - tomb wise. Soon I got back to the entrance to the valley and Mohamed was waiting for me in his taxi. I can not stress enough the advantage of having Egyptian friends who speak excellent English and know everybody that you need to know, as this gets you into places that are off the tourist map.

   One of the things that strikes the first time visitor to the mountains is that they are not the yellow or brown earth colour that one would expect but they are almost black in places. This is caused by a surface layer of shiny black flints, or chert nodules, which come in a vast array of the most amazing shapes and designs, all natural, although some are hard to believe that they have not been carved by the hand of man. These gems have been left behind as the limestone bedrock has eroded over millions of years. One nodule I found had concentric rings like the planet Saturn, with a convenient natural hole at the top which enabled it to be hung up as a "witch stone" for good luck. Another, about an inch tall could almost be mistaken for a necklace charm. The slopes are littered with such things.

But I am pleased to say that, sometimes, very rarely, one can come across flints that have been worked by man, and one prized addition to my collection of finds came from the slopes of the mountain above the Valley of the Kings, in the region of the KV 5 tomb.

   This is a half worked flint arrowhead, abandoned before it was finished. Why? was it deemed not suitable? Was the maker disturbed in his task by something that warranted flight, like a lion perhaps, which roamed the desert in those days? Another mystery, but a treasured snapshot in time from an era, probably before the Valley was used as a burial ground for the kings of Egypt, and another example of .. it's all there if you look for it.

   An easier walk is directly from Deir el-Medina, passing above Deir el-Bahri and ending at Hatchepsut's Temple, or starting at Hatchepsut's Temple and going over the cliffs to the Valley of the Kings. You can't really get lost because there are dozens of souvenir vendors on the route, trying to earn a bob or two from the tourists, who will show you the way. Please buy something off them, it's the only money these people can earn, and at least they are making an effort.

Mountains Picture Show

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       Coming back to the Nile valley I have added a couple of thumbnails of some interesting items that you should be able to see if you ask your taxi driver. There are plenty of smaller temples off the beaten track that are well worth the effort, if only for the quiet and solitude, and a glimpse of the real village life in Egypt. Something like the ox-driven water wheel, unchanged from ancient times, because it works, why fix it?   One may also encounter a camel train on the banks of the Nile, usually made up of tourists these days, however there is an authentic camel market at Daraw, near Aswan, where the real Bedouin hang out, with thousands of camels for sale and not a white face to be seen, and there is a camel market, of sorts, in Luxor Town.
There are some very fine examples of classic earthquake damage to local buildings to remind you that this country is subject to earthquakes which have destroyed many a temple and monument of an indestructible pharaoh. The largest statue in Egypt, the 900 tonne monument of Ramesses the Great in the Ramesseum at Luxor lies on its side as a testament to the power of nature over man and there is nothing like standing in the ear'ole of Ramesses to know one's place.
   No doubt you will come across something as yet unknown to me. I wish you well in your adventures ... oh and before we go ... one last thing. I have seen tourists bathing in the river Nile, because of the belief that if you bathe in the magical Nile you will return to Egypt. Believe me, if you bathe in the Nile you are liable to catch something that only lurks in the dark recesses of a horror story. Apart from being the life blood of Egypt the Nile is also it's one and only sewerage outlet, and it has been picking up "nasties" for a thousand miles, just waiting for the foolhardy to swallow, or to get inside you in other ways, these bugs are not fussy, one way or the other, it's all the same to them.
   After your hot dusty mountain walk - please use the Hotel Swimming Pool or you may bring home a souvenir best left in Egypt.

Young tourists playing Russian Roulette by swimming in the River Nile - they just don't know it.

   While we over on the West Bank and not too tired from our hike over the mountain we may as well have a look at Hatchepsut's Temple, the unique work of one of Ancient Egypt's most illustrious Pharaohs, who was also a woman.

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