Dr. Hauken in Egypt - October 2011

This expedition started as normal in Cairo - at Hotel Windsor - but after a dramatic prelude. I was going to leave Rome for Egypt on Sunday 9.10. Due to problems at Cairo international airport the plain from Egypt never arrived in Rome - no explanation was given from Egyptair - and we could not reach our destination before a plain arrived Monday morning. A new ticket was called for, with Alitalia this time, and we spent the night at Fiumicino Hilton, where the evening news could report disturbances in Cairo, several Christians being killed.

On landing next afternoon it turned out that the attention was being diverted from this unhappy incident by the execution of the man who killed Christians in Alexandria last December. It was now six months since our last visit - in March - and we hoped that everything would work as well this time. At Windsor everything was as normal - except the lack of visitors. But things were less normal around the famous tourist sights as it turned out. At the Giza pyramids, both entrances, the service was less than satisfactory - so bad in fact that we had to go from the one to the other in order to be treated as normal human beings, visitors from abroad being handled like cattle. At the Saqqara entrance the ticket office was empty: instead an old man with a long beard, studying the Koran, sat at a table with something which looked like a pad of tickets, and refused to talk anything but Arabic - after Mubarak no English! we were told. It turned out that all the newly opened tombs, including the Serapeion, were not open after all - our information from international media were not correct.

Someting had gone from bad to worse since our last visit in March, just weeks after the revolution of January 25. We spent the next day in Old Cairo collecting information for our new book, a travel account of the New Testament world. The American University bookshop worked as normal, but visitors were few. The Grand Bazar - Khan el- Halili - was also empty of foreign visitors. The same went for the Museum and the Citadel. The looters of the Museum had robbed the new and large bookshop, accordingly it was now closed. They evidently believed that the many modern copies of old art were genuine historical artifacts. It was however impossible to obtain information on this topic, since the guards told us, again and again, that after Mubarak no English!

In Luxor things turned out to be much worse than in March. There was a free chase of tourists by sellers, taxi-drivers, caleche-drivers, felucca captains and general fortune-seekers that was enervating. The presence of police was substantial, but they did not see or hear; tourist-police was invisible, if it still existed. To cross the Nile by the public Ferry became a bit of an ordeal due to impoverished tourist-traders who needed you to save their lives. Once on the West bank everything became more smooth. It was as easy as before to find a functional bike - and you could enjoy the antiquities almost as happily as during earlier visits. But my good and faithful assistant - Saber Khodary - insisted on coming with me every day, from morning to evening, due to the many bad people that seemed to have emerged from their usual invisibility and now could enjoy freedom from interference from the authorities.

As it turned out our two weeks in Luxor became quite fruitful. Besides adding to our existing photo-gallery from old sites like Karnak, it turned out to be possible to visit the inner chambers of the temples of Khonsu, of Ptah and Montu. Old places were visited for new purposes, like KV and QV and WV. The tombs in the Asasif were inspected anew, as was the beautiful temple at Deir-el-Medina (where the process of cleaning the cells was finished, with very good result). By car we added Qus and Armant to our list of historical sights, and went to El Kab and Esna for more work with the camera. The small Bazaar in Luxor suffered from the same lack of foreign visitors as the other places. In fact, it became necessary to avoid going through this otherwise attractive bazaar, and follow the road outside on our way to the hotel. The people of Luxor enjoyed their newly won freedom by excelling in noise and bad behaviour. Nobody seemed to care anymore. The city was dirtier than ever before. At the same time the undercurrent atmosphere was uneasy and at times a little sinister.

On Sundays the Mass at the little Fransiscan church worked as normal, with a plethora of old and new languishes being used by the same people as every year. The tourists were few and far between. An expedition to the oasis of Dakhla was a pleasant surprise in every way. An imposing hotel on a high point near the mountains gave a fitting frame for the adventure. Here is much to see from old times: tombs, temples, cities, etc. The 4th dynasty mastabas at Balat was very rewarding, as was the beautiful small temple at Deir el-Hagar. Alas the Roman tombs at El-Mozawaka were closed for restoration and awaited opening at the same time as the small adjacent museum was finished. The ruins of the Kellis village are more numerous than we expected. The oasis is vast and consists of many villages, most of them clean and spacious. We met a few egyptologists from Britain and I could give them our homepage address, though this is still in the stage of being created.

On the way back to Luxor we took time to visit the excellent museum at Kharga, where so many of the finds from Dakhla are stored. The curator spoke excellent English and was very welcoming. A week in Cairo concluded this trip. The great pyramid was once more visited, and it was memorable since we were the only visitors at that moment and the interior to ourselves for as long as we wanted. But the expedition to Fayum was a failure: our driver could not find the ancient sites - nor the pyramid of el-Lahun - in spite of a good map and much advice from the locals. Otherwise Cairo was a pleasant experience, as always. A few days after the return to Norway protesters started to fill the Tahrir Square again - and all was back to January 25.