The Return to Egypt 2019, Luxor Temple, Some Serious Bargaining in the Souk., and I Learn A New Word!

If you were paying attention back in 2017 you will know that I gave Luxor Temple a miss as I wanted to go to the museum and it wasn't on the 7 night cruise itinerary... This time I am going there.

Luxor Temple has an interesting history, several Pharoahs added bits here and there, and excavations starting in the 19th century continued well into the second half of the 20th century, quite a lot of it was buried in rubble from more recent constructions around it, and indeed the Abu Haggag mosque still occupies part of the site, the mosque was originally a Christian church in Roman times, so, according to your guide Luxor temple is just about the oldest place on earth that has been used continuously for the last 3000+ years.

They will also tell you that originally there were two obelisks at the entrance, but the right hand one is now in Paris....

While it might not be the ''ultimate'' temple, I think Luxor is an essential visit even if you don't go anywhere else! 

 Not so many pictures as I don't want to spoil the fun for any body else visiting, but this this is the Abu Haggag mosque, and the main entrance with the missing obelisk....

There are several statues of Ramesses II, he seemed to think quite a lot of himself,

 When you get around the back there is a nice collection of ''spare parts'' from various other places which are quite interesting in their own way as you can see the changes in architecture over time.

 The ''Sphinx Way'' connects Luxor to Karnak, and although the entrance to the Souk is almost opposite Luxor Temple I decide to take a walk towards Karnak and then double back down the other side of the Sphinx Way....

There is a bit of a ''discussion'' going on at the moment because there is a Christian Church built on top of one side of the way and they seem a bit dis-inclined to move it. I am sure it will get sorted out in the end....

Getting back towards the Souk I spot two foreign ladies that I have seen several times on the West Bank, they have seemingly just got off the public ferry, and they have shopping baskets on wheels with them... They actually stop and say hello to me and I ask if they are on holidays. One of them is Dutch and has lived here for some years, the other is English and comes here for four months during the winter, which kind of settles the question about foreigners living here!

Nearing the Souk I get hassled once again be the horse and carriage men who really are getting over the top, a passerby, seeing my dilemma as I have four of them talking to me at once comes to the rescue and shouts at them and they disperse... He asks me if I want a guide as he is an ''official guide'' and flashes a very formal looking plastic ''pass'' at me, except that I have seen one before, so I politely decline, and let him know that I happen to know that he is no such thing as that card is his National ID card. (Egyptian ID cards, by the way, show the holder's religion. How wrong is that in this day and age??).

Entering the Souk by a side entrance, I find this gentleman ready to show me his wares.... 

 His name is Mohammed, which comes as no great surprise. Mohammed fancies his chance as the debonair man about town and has taken a fancy to my ''Howard Carter'' hat.( Actually it's  a real Panama from Bolivia, but that is a whole different blog). To be honest when he put it on and had a quick strut up and down outside his shop he looked like a cross between Charlie Chaplin and Hercule Poirot, bless him.

Mohammed has a lot of things in his shop, some of them very nice, and a lot of them very dusty, but I go ooh and aah in the right place so he is happy. I have worked in a tourist shop in Greece during the summer season and I could tell him that he would be far better off getting rid of three quarters of the stuff and having a few ''nice'' pieces on display, but Egyptian merchandising skills being what they are it would fall on deaf ears.

 You can pick up some really nice ''ethnic'' materials by the metre if you are into that sort of thing... But I am after a few things for myself and others. I spot some really nice cotton ''scarves'' with tasselled fringes which can be used as a scarf or even a keffiyah I suppose. The man wants EG£250 each for them and we finally settle on EG£250 for three of them. 


Moving on to one of the ''spice shops'', I get my ''Egyptian'' tea, and somebody has asked me to get them some ''moghat'', I have to show them a screenshot of the entry on Wikipedia before the understand what I want, but it is expensive, (I had a feeling it might be.....), eventually we settle on EG£160 for 300 grams of the stuff, but only because I spent EG£100 on saffron you understand.


I also find a shop that has some very nice little wooden boxes, made from olive wood and very similar to the ones that you can buy in Greece, except these are only about GB£2.50 whereas the ones in Greece are about 20 quid.... I take two of them.

Leaving the Souk there is a smell that I can only say is a bit like somebody burning dry leaves mixed with damp grass cuttings on an autumn day, if you get my drift.... This appears to emanate from a gentleman sitting on a doorstep behind a stall selling some of the tackiest jewellery I have ever seen, and which I happen to know comes from The Phillipines. He insists that I come and sit with him, and he even gets his mobile out and orders me coffee from the shop across the road.... He is as high as a kite to be blunt.... But it was an excellent ploy because I end up buying three necklaces of the brazen hussy type which require an expansive decollete for best effect...... 

Stopping for a coffee I find myself the other side of a fence from a man selling strawberries...... After sampling several I buy half a kilo, I think he was hoping that I would buy the entire stock, and then who shows up but the ''official guide'' who rescued me from the carriage drivers.... Even he cannot really explain quite why Lady Diana should be associated with WiFi but he does give me a useful word to use in place of ''la shukran'' to get rid of carriage drivers,  which doesn't really cut the mustard most of the time but works with waiters when they offer you something you don't want.

And the word is ''KHALAS''... The KH is pronounced a bit like the Greek letter H, like a 'ch' at the back of the mouth.... It means ''Enough!'' in a rather abrupt way, but having tried it afterwards a couple of times it does work, although possibly it is because the hearer is more taken-a-back by an Englishman knowing such a word!

I found out later that you can also say ''Shu!!'' which basically means ''What?'', like you would say to somebody hovering around trying to talk to you when you are trying to deal with other things, and my favourite, ''Astaghfarullah'', which is what you can say repeatedly to ask forgiveness from Allah.... I suppose it is a bit like saying ''For Chrissake'' or ''Lord help me'' with your head in your hand...