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Chris Naunton

Egyptologist

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#delta_deserts THANK YOU! Thanks for coming along on this extension of the #virtualnilecruise idea which has taken us around the Delta and Western Desert. A few of you have asked for a photo of me so here I am looking shifty in the middle of ‘The Carpet’ in 2014. Many of the photos I’ve posted over the last month or so were taken during trips with @ancientworldtours or @the_egypt_exploration_society so a big thank you to both and in particular to AWT’s resident expert guide @mohamedmedhatsaadali , to the EES’ @essamnag678, and of course to our drivers. And thanks to all those of you who were on one or more of these trips, and to all of you have followed this little virtual journey. I can’t wait to get back and perhaps I’ll see some of you there one day!

#egyptologyvslockdsown day 30: Dush. Our last day folks… Taking its name from the nearby village, this Roman fort is built on an earlier, Ptolemaic, or possibly even Persian, enclosure. The fort is surrounded by the town of Kysis and lies next to a temple built in stone by the Emperor Domitian, enlarged by Trajan and decorated by Hadrian. Its hieroglyphic inscriptions suggest it was dedicated to Osiris, but Greek additions suggest it to came to be used for the worship of Serapis (an Egyptian-Greek hybrid of Osiris, Apis and Zeus) and Isis. A cache of gold and other precious items was found here by French excavators in 1989. The hilltop site commands perhaps the finest views across the desert plains we have seen on this trip - and they won’t have changed since Roman soldiers were stationed here - and the grey skies when I was there only made them more dramatic. These are some of my favourite photos… We finish the day in Luxor where we conclude our trip. The penultimate image shows the full extent of our journey (thanks Google Maps!) - 30 days through the Delta and Deserts, to add to 50 in the Nile Valley last year, all in all 80 Days Around Egypt & Sudan. Thanks for coming along! Time for a beer as the sun goes down…

#delta_deserts day 29: Qasr el-Labekha. Another roman fortress and settlement, this one set into a wadi at the crossroads of two caravan routes. The fort itself has walls of 12m height and is square in plan with four round towers at the corners. We happened to be there at the same time as an Egyptian film crew making a documentary about the region - ‘New Valley’ (Wadi el-Gedida). I was interviewed inside the fortress with @medhatsaadali translating the questions from Arabic into English and my answers back the other way, and then the presenter had to ride around the desert on a quad bike. He looked pretty unhappy about it but my group were delighted to have a go (me included)! It’s also a very beautiful place to watch the sun go down…

#delta_deserts day 28: Qasr el-Ghueita. Another fortified settlement this one perched spectacularly on a sandy hilltop. The settlement here was famous for its wine, the quality of the grapes being mentioned in faraway Theban tombs. The innermost parts of the temple - dedicated to the Theban triad: Amun, Mut and Khonsu - date to the reign of Darius I of the 27th dynasty (who we also met at Hibis two days ago) while the forectour and columned hall were built by Ptolemy III. The remains of a Roman town whose residents must have enjoyed the spectacular vies across the desert plains from this high vantage point, are scattered around the temple

#delta_deserts day 27: Qasr el-Zayan. A fortified settlement and associated temple of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, its Greek name was Tchonemyris which derives from an older Egyptian name meaning ‘the Great Well’. This water-source was the reason for the occupation of the area and would have provided travllers with a good reason to stop here and perhaps spend the night. The dome-covered well itself is still visible within the temple enclosure. The temple was dedicated to Amun of Hibis whose name ‘Amenibis’ appears at the start of a dedicatory inscription in Greek mentioning the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius above the monumental entrance to the temple proper.

#delta_deserts day 26: Hibis Temple. A rare example of a temple of the 26th - 27th Dynasty hence the cartouche of Darius I (IntrwS), the Persian Emperor and Twenty-seventh Dynasty pharaoh. Dedicated to a local form of Amun - (who dwells) in Hibis, perhaps the most striking element of the decoration is an image of falcon-headed Seth defeating the serpent Apep which has drawn comparisons with the image of St George and the dragon.

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Recent Posts

George Hart – In Fond Memory
The Lost ‘Baths of Cleopatra’
The Foreigner as Scapegoat: Lessons from Ancient Egypt and Today
Decolonising, Egyptology & the dirty little secret
Questions of National Identity. In response to, and support of, a recent EES seminar

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