August 2, 2016 Karima
No one can tell us the temperature, but we know it is unbearably hot and humid. Our room is a thick walled, brick domed space that retains heat like an oven. We have commandeered 2 fans which, running non stop, keep us somewhat comfortable. The AC unit in nearly useless. Now that we have been here 24 hours, the room is cooling down a little….or maybe we are just getting used to the conditions. Our 22 room motel style Rest House wrapped around a pleasant garden would be an enjoyable outdoor experience if it were any time between October and March. Now, only a meager staff is here and we are the only unlucky guests. With sleeping pills and laying on top of the bed with no covering and the fans blowing, we were able to sleep.
Jebel Barkal, the home of the god Amun
This morning we were up at 5:30 to meet Abdel and climb Jebel Barkal (“holy mountain” in Arabic), a large limestone butte next to our hotel, to watch the sunrise from the top. It is considered holy and believed to be the home of the god Amun, the “Throne of two lands”, Egypt and Nubia. The mountain, with some imagination, is shaped like a pharaoh’s crown including the double headed cobra. We did the hike. The air was not too hot and the hike up took about 20 minutes, but the sky was overcast, so we saw no sunrise. We could see the town of Karima, our Rest House, the Temple of Amun and remains of an ancient palace. The best part of the climb was the slide down the sandy side of the mountain. Mortada was waiting for us at the bottom to take us back to the Rest House for breakfast.
Then we headed for the nearby Tangasi Tuesday Souk, specializing in animals, particularly goats, sheep and camels. Mostly, groups of men stand around talking. I was the only woman in sight. An hour in the climbing heat was enough. Am sure it would have been interesting if we could speak Arabic. Mark acted like he knew about the price of beef in the states.
Back in the car and preferring it to the outdoors, we drove to the royal Kushite cemetery called El Kurru. We were able to enter only one tomb, that of a Kushite king of the 25th Dynasty, Tamwetamani, who died in 653BC. The tomb chamber, at the bottom of a long wide staircase, is empty, but the wall paintings are still beautiful and very accessible, unlike tombs in the Valley of the Kings. The cemetery guardian, willingly opened the tomb for us.
Painting of the last black Nubian Pharaoh in his burial chamber at El Kurt
Tamwetamani was the sixth and last of the black Kushite kings. In the outer chamber he is painted with dark red skin wearing the kushite cap with the royal cobra and being led to his burial. In the inner chamber he is flanked by the protective goddesses Isis and Nepthys. The ceilings are painted with blue stars. The hieroglyphics are also colorful and clear. He was the nephew of a more famous king, Taharqa, who is mentioned in the bible and expanded the territory of Kush from the confluence of the Nile to Lebanon, Palestine and all of Egypt. He later lost Egypt in battle with the Assyrians. We walked around looking at the collapsed remains of other tombs until we got too hot.
Last stop before lunch was a petrified forest. We got out of the car for only a few minutes to have a look at a couple of huge stone logs. One petrified log is as good as another, I say. We reached sneaked a tiny piece of wood-stone. Shhhh!
Back in our room at 2pm, we cooled down and napped as we are still recovering from jet lag. At 4:30 we were awakened by thunder and rain. I looked out the door to see a dark, dusty sky with wind and bursts of rain. Very strange. Supposedly it never rains here. Regardless, at 5pm we went out again to see the Temples of Amon and his consort, Mut at the base of Jebel Barkal on the opposite side of the butte from the Rest House. Fortunately, the rain stopped. Not much left of Amun’s place, which is considered holy by both Nubians and Egyptians, who both added to the temple over time. There were parts of columns standing and the platform upon which stood Amon’s statue. Nearby was the small temple to Mut. Much more interesting, it was built, as a womb, into the mountain, directly under the phallic pinnacle of Amun’s mountain. Bes, a protector of women in childbirth, guards the entrance to the tomb. As it was inside the mountain, the chamber, although empty, had retained its lovely base relief images. Again the work was all Egyptian in style.
On the west side of Jebel Barkal, is a collection of intact 3rd century BC, Nubian pyramids, the best preserved in Sudan, we are told. They are steeper (72 degrees) and much smaller than Egyptian Pyramids (45 degrees). If the weather was clear, they would make a nice photograph.
By dinnertime, the air had actually cooled down a bit and we were able to sit on the veranda. Would have been close to perfect if we could have had a real drink.
Now Mark is asleep, as I write. Unfortunately we have lost our internet connection and are unable to access the blog, let alone download photos or send anything to you. The staff think it is the rainy weather causing the internet failure. (This message was sent 2 days later. Our internet access is intermittent at best.)
Adventures with Julia 