On our first night here, our guide asked us if we would like to go into town and we were definately keen. We went and walked through the late night market, which to us was late night, but to the people of Luxor, it is a normal pattern of life as they work around the heat of the day and do heaps in the early morning and then up until around 12 at night. It was hot and sticky and all around are the smells of tobacco, spices and the heat of animals and bodies.
We walked across a big square,dusty with sand and people and through the totally random traffic, with once again the horns bleating and people hanging off every surface of all type of vehicle. We we up some stairs with dappled light ahead and came to the grated doors of a Mosque. There were a number of people sitting in the open foyer, children, mothers and older men. As we removed our shoes, an older man stepped forward with a head scarf and placed it on my head. His demeanor was very gentle and guiding and I guess they don't have that many white visitors rocking up at 10 at night. We entered into the temple and the light was very subdued, the area was carpeted in rugs and the whole floor was a myriad of textured rugs. The old gentleman, in his long robes took us to some rock cut windows and pointed out for us to see and below, within their grounds were columns and statues from Ancient Egypt, dimly lit to show them and the surrounding grounds. It turns out that the Mosque was built quite a long time ago, on what was thought to be general land, but later turned out to be part of a temple area, covered in statues, hieroglypics, (its spelt wrong, I'll fix it later....my time is nearly up) and all manner of treasures. Their Mosque just overtook what was there, not even knowing what it was they were building on. The whole area is slowly being uncovered, but there are houses built on top of many of the remnants and the people who own them won't move. I asked how these amazing things came to be covered up, so that someone else could build on top of them and the answer was that across the centuries, people didn't value the old stuff, so the desert took it back, or silt from the river, covered it up. It has also been periodically ransacked by different Kings or attackers and much of it damaged, or broken apart.
They are still uncovering ancient artefacts and things of huge financial and historical value now and UNESCO have stepped in and are helping with the recovery and the repair. They are reassembling massive parts of the temples and the area they take up is huge, blocks and blocks of a city area sitting on top of all of that!
We walked across a big square,dusty with sand and people and through the totally random traffic, with once again the horns bleating and people hanging off every surface of all type of vehicle. We we up some stairs with dappled light ahead and came to the grated doors of a Mosque. There were a number of people sitting in the open foyer, children, mothers and older men. As we removed our shoes, an older man stepped forward with a head scarf and placed it on my head. His demeanor was very gentle and guiding and I guess they don't have that many white visitors rocking up at 10 at night. We entered into the temple and the light was very subdued, the area was carpeted in rugs and the whole floor was a myriad of textured rugs. The old gentleman, in his long robes took us to some rock cut windows and pointed out for us to see and below, within their grounds were columns and statues from Ancient Egypt, dimly lit to show them and the surrounding grounds. It turns out that the Mosque was built quite a long time ago, on what was thought to be general land, but later turned out to be part of a temple area, covered in statues, hieroglypics, (its spelt wrong, I'll fix it later....my time is nearly up) and all manner of treasures. Their Mosque just overtook what was there, not even knowing what it was they were building on. The whole area is slowly being uncovered, but there are houses built on top of many of the remnants and the people who own them won't move. I asked how these amazing things came to be covered up, so that someone else could build on top of them and the answer was that across the centuries, people didn't value the old stuff, so the desert took it back, or silt from the river, covered it up. It has also been periodically ransacked by different Kings or attackers and much of it damaged, or broken apart.
They are still uncovering ancient artefacts and things of huge financial and historical value now and UNESCO have stepped in and are helping with the recovery and the repair. They are reassembling massive parts of the temples and the area they take up is huge, blocks and blocks of a city area sitting on top of all of that!
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