Our trip to Minia in Middle Egypt

Every time we get back from a trip like this, I ask myself why we don’t do it more often. The simple answer is, of course, because it’s a lot of hassle to organize, but really; there’s so much to see outside of Cairo, and whenever we go on trips, we feel enriched, uplifted and culturally wiser. It doesn’t matter that it took us sever hours instead of three hours to get there, because the desert highway is closed to people like us after dark due to security risks. It doesn’t matter that we returned home without our luggage because Courtney & I both assumed the other one had got it off the bus. It doesn’t matter that we had to rush by the baboon statues because our schedule was thrown off by the later arrival the day before, and it doesn’t matter that my ankles are the size of my thighs today, because it was all worth it.

(A lot of the below information is courtesy of our fantastic guide and trip organizer; a truly brilliant man, who fascinates everyone – especially the boys – with his extensive knowledge and contagious interest.)

Minia is one of the principal cities of “Middle Egypt.” It has only very recently opened up to tourists; as late as in the 1990’s it was an unsafe area to travel through, and still today we had to be accompanied by two security officers we brought from Cairo (one of which was an Egyptian government official) as well as escorted by military police at all times.

The soil in Minia is the richest agricultural soil in Egypt, and everywhere we looked, we saw farmers and their families – even the youngest members – tending to their fields and animals. It's always stunning to see the complete contrast between the desert and the cultivated land, so close to each other. From where the boys are standing in this picture we can see the green area behind us, but behind the boys is nothing but desert.

The first site we visited, Tell el-Amarna, was first excavated at the end of the nineteenth century, and is located on the east bank of the river about fifty kilometers south of Minia. We had to take a ferry boat across the Nile, and ended up riding a local ‘bus’ on the other side of the Nile. Tell el-Amarna is the location of Akhet-Aten, the sacred city that the Pharaoh Akhnaten established as his new royal residence and the center of the cult of the Sun-God Aten. The city was founded about 1375 BC, and had an urban life of only fifteen years. Upon the death of Akhnaten, the city was abandoned and the new king — Tutankhamun (son or nephew of Akhnaten) — and his court returned to Memphis and Luxor. This rapid rise and fall meant that few of the city's buildings were constructed of stone, and as a result the modern site offers no substantial monuments: no grand pylons, no stone columns, no inscribed walls, however because the desert quickly covered and preserved the extensive mud-brick foundations of the city's buildings, the site provides valuable information about the layout of a royal residence, and the organization of private houses and palaces. The famous bust of Nefertiti was found on this site.

Of the Northern Tombs, we visited, among others, the Tomb of Meri-Re I, who was a high priest of the cult of Aten. Wall paintings depict Akhnaten and his Great Wife Nefertiti, and although badly damaged due to mutilation after the death of Akhnaten, a chariot and rearing horse of the king are magnificently preserved. We also visited the Tomb of Ahmose, who held the title of "Fan-Bearer to the King" — a position of high rank at the royal court, and were able to visit the actual Royal Tomb, where supposedly Pharaoh Akhnaten and his Great Wife Nefertiti themselves were buried.

The ancient site of Hermopolis is located about fifty kilometers south of Minia. Hermopolis means ‘the City of Hermes’; the Greeks gave the site this name because it was the center of the cult of the Egyptian god Thoth, whom the Greeks equated with their own Hermes. Thoth was identified with two animals in particular; the Sacred Ibis (a bird that consumed insects which might otherwise have plagued agricultural fields, and that therefore became emblematic of the process of agriculture itself) and the baboon (whose human-like actions gave rise to a general belief in its intelligence). The center of the cult of Thoth was the great temple complex located in the heart of Hermopolis itself. Today the site of this temple is located a few kilometers northwest of the town of Mallawi in the midst of the modern village of Ashmunein. Indeed, of the pharaonic period proper there is very little to see, however two huge stone statues of baboons were recovered during the course of excavation, re-assembled, and erected near the entrance to the site. To the boys great delight we managed to swing by these baboons just as the sun was setting over the Nile, and they made for a great photo.

The main necropolis of Hermopolis was located in the desert on the western edge of the Nile Valley about ten kilometers from the city. The site of this cemetery is today called ‘Tounah al-Gabal,’ and most of the site consists of tombs and shrines of the Greco-Roman Period. We visited the tomb of Petosiris, a High Priest of the Cult of Thoth at Hermopolis during the reign of Ptolemy I, which dates to about 300 BC. The obvious Greek influence in the style and the wall paintings was especially interesting to see here. We also entered the Tomb of Isadora, a woman who died by drowning in the Nile in about 150 AD, which – to the boys’ great delight - contained her mummy.

In addition, we got to see the oldest preserved "saqiya"; a wooden waterwheel that involves a horizontal wheel turned by a water buffalo (or some other animal), which interlocked with a vertical wheel. (The turn of the horizontal wheel caused the vertical wheel to rotate and lift water from an underground well to the surface.) The well is now dry, and we even got to go down through a winding staircase to see the well closer. What the boys appreciated the most at this site however was what lay beneath the area of the temple of Thoth; the widespread network of corridors and underground passages where the mummified remains of the sacred ibises and baboons were interred. Thousands of these burials have been discovered here, and many still remained on site.

After such an extensive day, the boys & I just made it through showers and dinner at the hotel before going to sleep. Courtney went out for a while with the rest of the group (to the great disliking of our security officers), and had a coffee and a taste of shisha at a local bar.

The next day we headed off to visit Bani Hasan on the East side of the valley about 25 kilometers south of Minia. Along a wide ledge there are some thirty-nine tombs, most of them dating to the period of the Eleventh and Twelfth Dynasties. the view from these tombs was absolutely stunning! All of these tombs are cut directly into the face of the cliffs; most of the tombs are in poor condition, and only four were open to visitors. Most interesting here were all the wall paintings depicting the funerary games, including wrestling, as well as the false door in one of the tombs.

On the way back from these tombs we stopped by the cemetery of El-Minia, with many small domed tombs and chapels. At the top of the hill was another tomb that contained, to the boys’ great joy, a family of three geckos running back and forth across the ceiling. There’s also a baby step pyramid there, one of a series of seven similar structures throughout Egypt.

We drove home while it was still bright, accommodating our security officers request, and looking out through the bus window, I got to enjoy all those little sights – the small things that make this area additionally interesting; the contrasts and the simple but still rich life of the people here. A teenage boy, wearing a D&G shirt, riding a donkey. A man in a gallabeya, standing on the balcony of a house that seemingly dates to the time of the pyramids, surrounded by long clothes lines, talking on his cell phone. A large group of men standing around a crashed car, waving their arms, discussing loudly, or men walking hand in hand along the garbage covered streets on their way to the mosque. Women in burkhas, carrying large baskets of food on their heads, or doing the dishes or laundry on the banks of the Nile, right next to their children who, while playing in the same water, help wash the water buffalos off. Children herding cows, water buffaloes, sheep or goats, running along our bus, waving as we pass by. The little stores, selling everything from Pampers and Coke to vegetables, fruit and meat. Buildings that look like they’re either far from finished, or ready to fall apart at any moment – or both – surrounded by the most beautiful bougainvillea.

It was a great trip!