Yalla bina Cannabis, yalla
Medinet Habou
24 November 2006
Our last full day in Egypt was going to be fairly busy and a first for JJ and I - we were going off on a long donkey ride.
My insides were much better after a night of rest and breakfast didn't cause any problems, I wasn't certain about the effects that bouncing up and down on a donkey would have, but we would see.
Our initial objective this morning - apart from staying on the donkey - was a temple on the west bank at Medinet Habou. We caught our launch across to the far side and there searched out the donkey park.
We all sort of huddled around whilst the attendants sorted out who looked most suited to which donkey. Mine turned out to be a grey and a sturdy wee feller, though he did tend to pull to the right a wee bit. Not knowing much about donkeys I put that down to a soft tyre.
Mina named his donkey Cannabis after the donkey in Asterix and Cleopatra. I was so glad when he was the first to fall off, it made me feel much more secure. He wasn't long though in leaping back on again and setting off on the trot, portable phone in hand, crying Yalla Bina Cannabis, which is pretty close to Hi Ho Silver and away.
We were all a bit self conscious trotting through the town and the first stop sign was interesting - we all managed to do so. As soon as the road was more or less clear, Cannabis set out in front and the rest of us fell in behind. I think that all the donkeys knew exactly where they were going.
Once out of the town and into the countryside our donkeys seemed to take turns in trotting along and then breaking into a canter pushing their way through all the others. Jean-Jacques's grey seemed to want to head off out into the middle of the road whilst mine was a kerb crawler leaving me to duck the branches of the trees planted at the side of the road.
We arrived in the village of Medinet Habou and parked our donkeys at the side of the restaurant where we were going to eat. We then moseyed on down to our tables. Getting off the donkey was not a problem but the first few paces on terra firma were awkward. No wonder John Wayne walked like that.
We had an excellent meal at the restaurant with a couple of spicy dishes. It is good to see that cling film has arrived in Egypt and salads etc always arrived well protected. A couple of us had stomach troubles but nothing too serious and I was already feeling a lot more solid than 24 hours previously.
The standard of cuisine must be pretty good because there were some famous French archaeologists passing the time at the tables next to us.
The god Anubis on one of the columns
The reason we were there was directly opposite the restaurant - the mortuary temple of Ramses III.
As I have already mentioned the pharaohs moved their mortal remains to the Valley of the Kings in order to evade the pillaging that had taken place in the south. They still needed to carry out the rites though and to this end they created mortuary temples away from the burial site.
The temple is a little bit off the beaten track from the hordes of tourists and we agreed with Mina that it was wonderful to have the place almost to ourselves.
Jean-Jacques and I had already visited Ramses III tomb and were aware that he had been a great warrior pharaoh. His temple showed the standard: enemies, beating living daylights, for the use of; but in characters far deeper than any we had seen up until now.
In places JJ could put his hand right into the carvings they were so deep.
On the outer walls were carvings of all the tribes that Ramses had subdued, their different shaped heads and hair styles well in evidence.
Inside the temple the colours have remained intact. If you were never certain that the temples were completely painted this is the place to come to be convinced. In a hundred years or so it will all be gone, weathered away by the elements, but for the moment it remains resplendent.
In theory you cannot visit all of the smaller chambers but as with everything in Egypt baksheesh not only works, it seems to be expected.
You could be forgiven for thinking that they put up the barriers to make sure that you pay the attendants to have them opened, as opposed to turning round and walking away.
Once finished with our visit we gathered up our donkeys and set off again on the lonesome trail.
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