A few of my personal photographs of Egypt !

          Follow this link back to my  HOME  PAGE  and e-mail me at  gavin.egypt@ukonline.co.uk
                         
                                
                                           
                             
                                          Scenes at the Temple of Edfu and Horus

                                                      
                         Abydos                               Luxor                                  Karnak

                                              
                          Esneh                           Kom Ombo                            Philae            

                                                         
                                                      Temple scenes at Philae

                          The following images, thanks to my friend George, from Edinburgh 

                                                                                                        
                        At Luxor                       George,Hatshepsut's                At Philae

                                              
                         Kom Ombo                      Reliefs,Edfu                Valley of the Kings
            
                                  The following images, thanks to my Egyptologist friend,
                                                     Allen, from Pennsylvania

                                                    
                      Pompey's Pillar                    Ramses II                         Saqquara

                                                       
                                       Myself at Luxor                             Allen in Cairo while on a dig

                               OBSERVATIONS ON EGYPTIAN LIFE  by Anne Midgley

"It is a question whether those who go to Egypt for only two or three weeks and live in hotels ever see the real Orient life or character. They meet too many of their own race and language, and not enough of the natives. In the hotels they live as they do in Europe or America, and the Egyptian ways must be to them no more than an Oriental drop scene in a theatre of modern manners. It is impossible to acquire a good knowledge of the Cairo people unless one has a house among them,with native servants and away from the caravansaries.
       The charm of Eastern life is only found among the people and in living like the people, and that cannot be done in a hasty, flying visit. Their docility and gentleness, their ignorance and dirt, their good humour and childishness combined, are delightful to recall in other lands, among other people and under different skies. 
       A few months' residence there is a fascinating as a hashish dream. The country grows on one."                           Jeremiah Lynch, 1889

          I haven't tried hashish or lived with the Egyptians but I have spent time with them and agree wholeheartedly with Jeremiah's observations.
          I spent five weeks working with them on an excavation and loved to listen to their idle chatter at breakfast whilst they ate tomatoes, spring onions, fuul (beans) and home baked bread, just as their ancestors had done. For excavating the ancient adze was used and rubbish was removed from the tomb with leather baskets - it was like stepping back in time.                                            
        I have visited quite a few homes, the majority being made of mud brick just as they had been in Pharonic times. I have known Hassan, an Antiquities driver, since 1986, and could recommend him to anyone wanting to visit sites on the West Bank, Luxor, as a reliable, pleasant, knowledgable driver. His full name is Hassan Ibrahim Abu El Hagag , and his taxi is No 752. Please feel free to phone during your stay in Luxor and be assured of the best of attention at all times! His phone number is 095 313551 Being an Antiquities driver he knows all the sites and could help you visit some of the lesser known ones. His family is a traditional one with Hassan the well respected head of not just his immediate but of his extended family. His wife, Zanab, stays at home to look after him and their two daughters. The eldest has already married at the age of 15 and left home and will have had a baby since I last saw her. She left school at 14 to help her mother in the home. They live on the first floor which consists of kitchen, living room, landing (also used for storage and drying clothes ), and Hassan's bedroom. Zanab and the girls sleep in the sitting room at night and the seats become their beds. There is no plumbing and water is carried in from outside. Zanab has very basic kitchen equipment and washes up squatting on the floor with a big metal bowl of water. They are a proud family. Visiting Hassan's is like going back in time apart from the old television which is put on for my entertainment and is usually 1960s American programmes! I have been in homes with earth floors with the donkey tethered inside and chickens running about, other homes with a water pump outside and the cow in the yard with the ducks and hens. But times are changing. 

       Since writing this article Hassan and his family have moved to a new house built on the same site with mod. cons. like running water, etc.  This is an improvement for the family and much easier for Zanab. (31.7.04.).

  
                                                      
                   Mohamed's Family            Shoeshine Boy                 Hassan's Family

     Another friend, Mohamed, who worked on the excavation as foreman, and now works at his father's shop, has a house built of red brick (Nile mud is now scarce because of the high dam and the lack of inundations). He has a sitting room and separate bedrooms with beds and wardrobes and plumbing for running water and flushing toilets, and the floors are tiled. He has two daughters and the eldest is having extra English tuition so it is unlikely she is just meant to help at home. Very modern by Egyptian standards and now the trend. The people of Gurna are being moved out of their ancestral homes set below the Theban cliffs and moved to a modern new village, the authorities think they have been robbing the tombs for far too long! 
      Their outlook on life is totally different to ours and they can be very frustrating with their "in sha'allaah" attitude which allows them to be late and let you down because it is the will of God and they can pester you till you are sick to death of them but on such a way that you cannot be cross for long. Their language barrier does not help, but a few words of Arabic soon makes you their friend rather than the tourist who has money to spend and then they can not do enough for you. I've even had backsheesh given back to me!
       I think life is hard for the average Egyptian. The men and boys pestering you to buy their wares have often done a morning job or been to school before spending the afternoon and evening in the shop. I know people who work at the airport and in the Tourist office in the morning and in the tourist shop for the rest of the day. The cheeky teenager has been to school and is working in the shop to save for the next two years schooling at a cost of E£5,000 (about £1,000) and the little boy wanting you to buy the obelisk as you leave the boat on the West bank is trying to support his family. Yet they are happy and contented. It is lovely that the children are so delighted with the one present they received at the end of Ramadan. The little boy's face lights up with joy at the pen you give him and even grown men are excited if you have a bag of sweets. It is so refreshing after the materialism of home.      
      My visits to Egypt have been enriched by knowing them, Anne Midgley, October 1997.

The above article was written before the Luxor massacre. I was really upset about what happened there and I hope that the tourists are now returning to Egypt, particularly Luxor,and that life has not been too hard for the locals who rely on tourism for their livelihoods  - Anne.


                    MY RECENT VISIT TO THE DEIR EL BAHRI CACHE by Anne Midgley

        I first went to Egypt in 1986 on a Study tour at the end of my Certificate Course at Manchester University with Dr Rosalie David. I fell in love with it ! We visited all the major sites in our 16 days there from as far North as Tanis in the Delta to as far South as Abu Simbel, almost 1,000 miles, like Amelia Edwards. Luxor is my favourite place, and still is.
        I try to visit somewhere new to me on my trips to Luxor so when I went with the Manchester Ancient Egypt Society in February this year I wondered what this might be. I had been lucky that on my visit with the Society for the Study of Ancient Egypt in February last year I had seen ten "new tombs". These newly opened tombs included Nefertari and Ay's tombs and the lovely group of Nobles' tombs at Khoka.
        The visit with the Society this year to Chicago House was one of these "new" experiences and to hear Dr. Ray Johnson go into such detail about the deterioration of the monuments and their methods of recording the inscriptions through a combination of photography and drawing was certainly the highlight of my first week. It was a very interesting visit. The second week I managed to get to the temple of Mut at Karnak for the first time, which I enjoyed, with its many black granite statues of the lioness goddess Sekhmet.

                                                
                      Theban Cliffs                   At Sekhmet Statue               At Chicago House
    
        This second week's highlight, though, has to be my visit to the site of the Deir el Bahri cache (DB 320) in its wonderfully peaceful and dramatic setting, well hidden at the foot of the Theban cliffs. I set off from the car park in front of Hatshepsut's Temple with my friend, Hassan, who I had asked to show me the site. We walked up the small valley off to the left of the car park and on reaching the bottom of the cliffs we headed to the right. I couldn't see the shaft leading down to the burial chamber till we actually went behind the boulder hiding it and I realised it was not a place one could just stumble upon. I sat for half an hour by the shaft thinking about the events that had occurred at this very spot. In about 1,000BC there was the removal of some of the Royal mummies from the Valley of the Kings to this site for safe keeping.
         Such famous Pharaohs as Amosis 1, Tuthmosis 1, 11, and 111, Amenophis 1, Seti 1, Ramesses 11 and 111 had passed this very spot. This tomb had been the resting place of more than 50 Kings, Queens, lesser Royals and nobles. Once down the shaft they had remained safe until 1871 when the local Abd el Rassul brothers found them and started robbing the tomb. These thefts were traced to the brothers by the authorities and they were taken to the tomb by one of the brothers in 1881. The mummies were again moved to safety, and after almost 3,000 years they again passed the very spot where I sat. One by one they were taken from this burial place down to the Nile and then by steamboat to Cairo. Sitting there and thinking about these events and the vast time span I also wondered how the tomb had ever been found by the Rassuls ( a straying goat being one story ). It was a wonderful experience being there. I hope to go with the Manchester Ancient Egypt Society to Cairo and another first for me will be to see the Royal Mummies and I will be able to look into the faces of some of these wonderful Pharaohs. I will look forward to that day.                            Anne Midgley, April 1997.
                
The Chicago House is the Egyptian base of the Oriental Institute's Epigraphic Survey Team and Dr Johnson is the Director. - Anne   

February 99 
                     I felt very safe indeed in Egypt this trip. There was security everywhere but it was easy to accept and reassuring. Most of the time the sites were quiet because there were not too many tourists. Unfortunatley, the majority of tourists there, particularly in Luxor, were using the big tour companies and travelling on coaches or mini-buses. They were being taken over the bridge across the Nile which had opened about a year ago and already the local tourist ferry had stopped. They are not using the local taxies, boats and shops and are being told not to. The bulk of the money is now going to the big companies and not the locals. There are so many taxis and boats not being used and the shops are empty of buyers.  The local people are so welcoming and so very pleased to see you there as a tourist.   -    Anne