The pandemic had a deep impact on our lives. For us, it canceled plans for tours and personal adventure tours and it took a toll on our well-being. You can imagine how anxious we were after the lockdown had been lifted from most countries and we started planning our next adventure. This time it would be Egypt, the land of pharaohs and amazing pyramids and temples. This was a long overdue trip, originally planned in 2010 but postponed by the 2011 Arab Spring events.
We knew about Egyptian monuments from both scientific and pseudo-scientific sources especially the so-called Orion constellation map created by the three Giza pyramids and the solsticial alignments at Giza (summer sunset) and Karnak (winter sunrise). As a university senior lecturer I can only take my time off in certain periods of the year, the winter holidays being a perfect opportunity to explore and witness astronomical alignments around the solstice. You can already imagine our target: the mighty temple in Karnak, dedicated to the Sun god Ra. All the rest (pyramids, Upper Egypt temples, Nile cruise) were just bonuses. We tried to combine pleasure with relaxation but due to the long journey, we got little of the former 😒.
The tour
We arrived in Egypt on the 17th in the afternoon and departed on the 24th evening. From our original schedule we decided to skip the pyramid light show (some friends we made along the way told us there was really nothing special about it) and the visit to the bazaar (I have seen the one in Istanbul and Simina is not into negotiating and buying stuff). Instead, we added a half-day trip to Dashur on our last day to see the Red Pyramid and the Bent Pyramid.
Our tour started in Cairo with a visit to Giza and Saqqara, then continued to Aswan and Luxor, and finally back to Cairo and Dashur. Including international travel, tips, meals that were not included, and some souvenirs, our trip ended up at over $4K. Souvenirs are overpriced especially in the places the guides take tourists but I understand them as they get a share of the sales. Prices for most things like papyruses, oils, jewelry, and sculptures, are ridiculously high even for western tourists and the negotiation is a joke game but we sometimes let ourselves get fooled. If you really want one that will gather dust and be forgotten in a corner of your home, you can get cheaper ones made in China in bazaars, hotels, and the airport. Egypt is a poor and corrupt country where everyone wants to make money from baksheesh so be prepared to spend lots of money. The tip is the salary, and the salary is the tip as they say there. Anyways, the guides are fantastic, even if sometimes they do not know or mix some information (for instance one told us that Roman emperor Trajan lived in the 3rd century AD instead of the 1st) but that is of little importance, nobody really remembers all the details. You are there for the experience!
The pyramids are breathtaking. They are over 4000 years old but have no match in the world, and we’ve seen a few places. I particularly liked the interior of the Red Pyramid which was more impressive than Khufu’s. Exploring their interior is like going to the gym. Being a tall guy I had to walk like a dwarf for hundreds of meters which resulted into muscle fever for several days after that. As a piece of advice, just don’t underestimate the conditions inside the pyramid, especially if you suffer from claustrophobia or you don’t handle very well the excess of heat combined with low oxygen level. Make sure you have enough water and proper clothing, and set your own pace.
The temples and tombs are living books, covered with scenes and ancient texts. My favorite one, aside from Karnak, is Edfu Temple in Luxor. The paintings and hieroglyphs are marvelous, still bearing original colors.
But let’s go back to our temple
As the Karnak temple was dedicated to Ra, the temple should have some connection to the Sun, and in most cases, this is represented by archaeoastronomical alignments. In fact, the temple exhibits other symbols as well, such as immense obelisks (symbols for the rebirth) which were probably used in relation to the weak winter Sun that starts to grow strong again after reaching the lowest point during the solstice.
The temple’s East-West axis is oriented so that the winter solstice Sun aligns perfectly with the East Gate forming an image of the akhet hieroglyph 𓈌 (Sun between two mountains – an image also created during the summer winter sunset at Giza when the Sun as seen from the Sphinx sets between the two great pyramids, the name of the largest – Khufu – being translated as the Horizon of the God Ra as our guide had explained us).
Our guide from Aswan was surprised by our wish to see the sunrise on December 21 and told us about the balloon flights which we kindly rejected as the interesting things were about to happen on the ground instead! He knew about the special event but didn’t know it would happen on the day we planned our visit. Imagine his surprise a day before. Ours as well, as some from the cruise boat were chasing the same event. We started early by leaving our cruise boat around 5:30 AM planning to be there at 5:45 after a short drive. The authorities open the Temple early during the winter solstice to allow visitors to witness the alignment. It normally opens at 6:00. They offer a small ceremony with young people holding colored flags and playing Vangelis’ music (Monastery of La Rabida) with some audio text (in Arabic and English) overlayed in the background. While the sunrise is at about 6:20 it only appears from behind the left wall at around 6:40, so even if you are late you can still catch it.
To our surprise, some guides were telling their clients to go and visit instead of waiting. Other visitors thought that the Sun’s reflection on the high-altitude clouds was the sunrise, or that the Sun would not be visible. This says a lot about the general public understanding of astronomical phenomena as casual as a sunrise.
For us, such events are pure owe and unique. I have witnessed lots of sunrises, some on top of cold mountain peaks eagerly awaiting the warmth of the Sun. These experiences truly change you. Each is unique as every sunrise or sunset is different.
What made this unique is the sheer size of the temple, which if you do not see it yourself you cannot grasp. It is built for giants, and what giants the pharaohs were!
I usually film these events (read more on our post here) but this time I wanted to livestream it on my Youtube channel. Egyptian Internet and my phone camera are not good but you can watch the entire event.
Of course, Simina got the better images (see above) and I managed to compile a short video and post it online. Lots of information in it as well explaining the alignment and some existing theories.
While exploring the temple we also came across some interesting numerals on the southern wall of Hatshepsut’s temple and in a room inside Tuthmosis III’s temple.
What’s next?
I would have enjoyed visiting another great location, the 9500 years old Nabta Playa and the place from where the Egyptian civilization probably originated at a time when Sahara was greener. To our surprise, the possible stone calendar and other megaliths were transported and installed in the western garden of the Nubian Museum in Aswan. This happened back in 2007 but we only read about it after our trip there! What a pity.
In addition, we would like to see the illumination of the pharaoh, sun god Ra, and Ra Hor Akti in Abu Simbel on October 22 and February 20. These dates marked not the birth and death of Ramesses II but the start of the Peret (Winter) and Shemu (Growing) seasons in the Egyptian calendar. The other one is Akhet (Inundation) which marks the start of the year (summer solstice or heliacal rise of Sirius).
Finally, the equinox sunset or perhaps the summer solstice sunset as seen from the Sphinx is also on our list but summer in Egypt is unbearable so perhaps we’ll skip the solstice😁.
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