Middle-Egypt trip : Part 3

9/12 : Hermopolis and Tuna el-Gebel

We went to Hermopolis in the morning. It had some scattered remains of temples, gates, houses of different periods, but mostly Graeco-Roman all over the place. Ilona gave us a cool assignment : find the remains, describe what they look like and date them! In pairs. Amy and I went off, accompanied by a policeman (you can’t shake them off in Middle-Egypt). He was extremely nice to Amy, helping her across the stingy bushes, and completely ignored me, leaving me to get stung by the bushes! Amy and I did the assignment pretty good : we dated everything correctly, were nearly always right about what the structures were for and could read quite some hieroglyphs! It gave us a self-esteem boost.

Then we visited Tuna el-Gebel. Ilona first showed us around the famous animal galleries. It was quite spooky : underground corridors and rooms, stacked with pottery, animal remains and mummified baboons. Then Steffie gave her presentation : the tomb of Petosiris. Boy, I’ve never seen anything like it. The walls of this tomb were full of reliefs, I didn’t know where to look first. Petosiris probably lived at the beginning of the Ptolemaic Period. His tomb has very Greek and even Persian influences. It was overwhelming, ugly and extremely beautiful at the same time.

At night Amy twirked for me and Kaz, and Kaz was impressed (which, if you know the guy, is impressive on its own! He’s never impressed!) I watched a Reese Witherspoon movie with Amy, called Just like heaven, and off to bed.

10/12 : Beni Hassan and Antinoopolis

After a weird dream about Alan Rickman showing me the way to the entrance of the London airport (guess it must be my fear of flying again, since within 2 weeks I’ll be on my plane home), we went to Beni Hassan. The tombs there were fantastic. They had wonderful wrestling scenes, offering scenes, feast scenes,... The colours were well preserved. I’m totally into the Middle Kingdom right now (although the Old Kingdom still has my slight preference).

Then we went to Antinoopolis, the city founded by Roman emperor Hadrian, after his loverboy Antinous drowned in the Nile. Elizabeth showed us around, because it has a lot of Coptic vandalism... sorry, Late Antique reuse. The site consisted of mounds filled with pottery sherds, everywhere you looked! We stepped on pottery sherds all the time! We found some real nice specimens.
To end the day we visited the remains of a Ramesside temple at Antinoopolis, which was beautiful. The sun was just going down, so I have some great pictures with the light just right. We decided to divide ourselves into groups according to our interests : Kenny, Cathelijne and Steffie the New Kingdom, me the Old and Middle Kingdom, Amy and Kaz every period, Ilona Early- Dynastic Period and Elizabeth Coptic trash. When Quentin was left over (he didn’t know which side to pick), he turned around to Elizabeth, saying : “I love the Late Antique Period. By the way, remember me if I ever apply for a job in the British Museum”. The hypocrite :p !

At night everyone went shopping, except for Kaz and me, because we were too tired. We spent the evening watching television (Zahi Hawas was talking in arabic about Obama!). When I was in the bathroom, the phone in my hotelroom rang, Kaz picked up and started laughing so much. Apparently someone asked : “Is this Ilona room?” 10 minutes later we knew what was going on : a guy stood at Ilona’s door with beer. Naughty Ilona!
When the rest returned from shopping, Quentin came in wearing a galabeya! With his beard, he looked like a real muslim!

11/12 : El-Hiba

On our last day we visited El-Hiba, where Sandra gave her presentation. It had remains from the Third Intermediate Period, like an enclosure wall with hieroglyphs stamped on them. I found a block bearing one of those stamps, and was very pleased with myself, that finally on the last day of our journey I actually found something. At Hiba the wind was so strong, Amy and Kaz had to hold me back from flying away off the rocks.
Then we went back to Cairo by bus, which took us several hours. We had one toilet stop, and all the girls spread into the mountains, it was a funny sight.

Back on 26th July street, we had some hard time saying goodbye to eachother. From now on the actual Cairo semester is done. We will spend the last 12 days working on our papers and kashkouls. The excursions, the fun, the visits and classes are over, which made us rather sad. When Kaz said “This is the end”, he nearly made Cathelijne cry.
Amy and I especially had such a hard time letting go of our Middle-Egypt trip (we slept every single night in the same hotel room), that I decided to come and sleep in her appartment. We talked until midnight.

Right now it’s Saturday evening (12/12), I’m sitting in Amy’s appartment typing my blog, she is working on her kashkoul, and the Jumping Sjeikh Choir (which is literally what it says : a choir of jumping sjeikhs) is on the television. I feel so grateful to have had this wonderful Middle-Egypt trip, and to have had all the previous trips in general (to the Delta, Alexandria and the Fayum). Now I need to gather my courage for the last week, to write my paper and finish my kashkoul. And then the eventual goodbye to everybody. But let’s not think of that yet.
Allahu Akhbar.