A VIP's Tour of Middle Egypt

“…the traveler on the Nile really sees the whole land of Egypt…through which the Nile has been scooping its way for uncounted cycles.” - Amelia Edwards, ‘A Thousand Miles Up the Nile’, 1876

After more than a week of touring the wonders of Luxor, we drove north to see the less visited areas of Middle Egypt. We arrived in El Minya, a large city along the Nile about 6pm to meet our guide. On the way, Zakaria, our Coptic driver and Amr, our Luxor guide, took us to a few monuments, including the 5th century church, the Red Monastery. This is one of the most important Byzantine churches and was built in the 5th Century. It has beautiful old paintings of Jesus and many saints. A woman who is helping restore this place, Dina, gave us a little talk about its history. Afterwards, we were invited into the small lunch room for a lunch of noodles and potatoes. 

"True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance." - Akhenaten, reigned 1351-1334 BCE 

Driving on the Desert Road...

The next day we drove to the heretic pharaoh's city. Akhenaten was a pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, about 1350 BCE. He did something that was never done before. He made the whole country change to a religion of just one god, the Aten, or sun disk. He got rid of all the other gods, closed the temples and shut down the priesthood. He also moved the capital of Egypt from Thebes a couple of hundred miles north, to Tel el Amarna. Within two years, an entire city was built, with huge temples, hundreds of houses and some tombs. But after 16 years, Akhenaten was dead and the new pharaoh, Tutankhamen, changed the religion back to the old gods and moved the city back to Thebes. Akhenaten's city was dismantled and all the stones were sent back to Thebes. 

Today there is very little left here except some amazing tombs, one of which is thought to be Akhenaten's, although his body, or the body of his wife, Nefertiti, has not been found. The carvings in some of the tombs are some of the best in Egypt and are more unusual, since they are of the "Amarna" style, a more realistic way of carving from this period. 

At the ticket office, a nice lady named Hayat made us a nice lunch of eggs, beans, cheese and salad. She also makes beautiful baskets and Amy bought three of them. 

Traveling in Middle Egypt is not like traveling in the more touristy areas. You need a police escort wherever you go. Sometimes it meant that Zak would stop at a police station and tell the police who we were and where we were going. Then a police car would dive us to the next province, where the same ritual would start again. But other times, when we had an actual itinerary, our guide had to call the police a week or more ahead of time so they knew we were coming. Then the police car would lead us all day to and from the different sites.   The government is very serious about this and especially for Americans. We truly felt like VIPs. 

"Surrounded by bodies, by heaps of mummies in all directions…the blackness of the wall, the faint light given by the candles or torches for want of air, the 

different objects that surround me, seeming to converse with each other, and the Arabs with the candles or torches in their hands, naked and covered with dust, themselves living mummies, absolutely formed a scene that cannot be described” - Giovanni Battista Belzoni, ‘Travels in Egypt and Nubia’, 1822

Next up was a site called Tuna el Gebel, on the other side of the river. This was an ancient pilgrimage place, where people would come to make offerings, which would mostly consist of mummified animals, such as cats, birds and even baboons. There is also a nice tomb here with many wonderful carvings, including the only known carving of a camel from ancient Egypt. 

We were staying in the city of El Minya and had a wonderful hotel right on the Nile, the Grand Aton. Our room looked out on the river. After we arrived back in the late afternoon, we decided to go for a walk along the corniche, which goes along the river. But the guards wouldn't let us off the grounds without a police escort...that's how serious they are here about security. 

"It is a place that strikes you into silence." - Amelia Edwards, 'A Thousand Miles Up The Nile', 1876

The next day we went to Beni Hassan, tombs from the 12th Dynasty in the Middle Kingdom, about 2000 BCE. There are about 35 tombs here, three of which are open. These aren't carved, as most nobles' tombs were painted. But the paintings are spectacular and show beautiful images of daily life.  One of the nobles was a general, so there are a lot of images of men wrestling and fighting with swords and arrows. Another of the Nobles liked wine and to fish and hunt and wanted to continue this in the afterlife. So there are many images of wine making and hunting, one image shows him hunting with a boomerang. 

From here we took the desert highway to the great city of Cairo, where we would spend the nest couple of days.