ANCIENT EGYPT: We’re Baaack, and Ready to Raid (visit) some Tombs!

It’s finally time to dust off the passports and dig out the money belts, because we are headed overseas soon, to visit EGYPT.

Now if you’re curious as to how important an Egypt trip is to our travel goals, just read this old post, one of my first. (Travel: Well, Why Not?) Third time’s the charm, we hope, since two prior trips have been cancelled because, well, you know.

Strange times to be travelling, so we’re putting ourselves in the care of our old friend, Gate 1 Travel, who shepherded us through Thailand a few years back. We chose the Thailand trip because 1) Gate 1’s prices are easy on the travel budget, and 2) Thailand isn’t far from Japan, where we had to catch a cruise ship home over the Bering Sea. That was our first ‘epic journey’ and I must say, in retrospect, what were we thinking? It was fabulous, though, and our Thailand guide Ranee will live forever in our hearts, for all she taught us about her country and its people.

We’ll be on one of Gate 1’s first Egypt tours since the start of the pandemic, although Egypt has been welcoming tourists for over a year. Not many Americans have attempted it yet, but we’re a bit nuts (think first Epic Journey). Oh, and we are tripled-vaxxed, and masks are still our friend. So we will be careful, honest we will.

And Happy Halloween today! Perfect day to learn all we can about the ancient Egyptians’ Book of the Dead, just one of many topics we’ve immersed ourselves in, to prepare for the trip. We’ve almost finished our Ancient Egypt Great Course of 48 lectures. We’re old, but we have stamina, and the course is excellent.

We made a road trip down I-5 to see Portland Art Museum’s current Queen Nefertari exhibit (see it if you can – fabulous). And so many books. Absorbing 3000 years of civilization takes some time, we’ve learned. Makes our 200+ democracy seem baby-sized, in comparison. 

And I must say, Ancient Egypt is the perfect subject for Halloween! Lots of creepy underworld stuff about dead things hidden in tombs, down in the dusty dark. Padre is going to be in his happy place in Egypt, I suspect, with all the tombs, temples and mummies we get to see. (I think his years working in a funeral home are to blame for this, I really do – ha!)

So three Egyptian Halloween bits for today, which help me remember:

1. to be cautious about assumptions (vultures)
2. to keep my Netflix password to myself (Ammut)
3. to remember with much fondness my old friends (King Tut was the best Teacher Octet ever, old friends, don’t you think?).

VULTURES

Vultures! What a perfect bird for Halloween. I’ve always loved ‘em, but found it odd they were plastered all over the walls in Queen Nefertari’s burial chamber. She was a wise, literate woman, beloved of Ramses II, and beautiful, based on the images in her tomb paintings. Not vulture-like in any way.

But guess what? Vultures are some of the bird world’s best mothers. And they’re not killers. They just pick up roadkill scraps to feed to their young ones. They even shield their babies from the hot sun with their wings, for hours on end. So vultures, while creepy, are the nice kind of Halloween, kind of like the candy I just sent Padre to the store to buy, for the trick-or-treaters that never come. (We have to have the candy so we can eat it ourselves, right? Right?)

Turns out that the vulture is an Egyptian symbol for ‘mother’, and a vulture image stands for the mother-goddess Mut. Nefertari’s cartouche, which is basically her nameplate, prominently features a vulture as well, because Egyptians considered her a very nurturing, mom-like queen. So next time you see a vulture, just think ‘Mom’. And remember when you’re looking at hieroglyphics, they don’t necessarily mean what you think they mean. Probably don’t, in fact.

GODDESS AMMUT, DEVOURER OF MILLIONS, EATER OF HEARTS

Thinking of cheating on your taxes, calling in sick when you’re not sick, or using someone else’s Netflix password? Think of Ammut, and stop right there. The goddess Ammut will make you clean up your act, just like that.

So here’s how it works, as described in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, passages of which we’ll see inscribed on ancient Egyptian tombs, coffins, sarcophagi, absolutely everywhere.

When you die and arrive in the underworld, your heart gets placed on the scales of justice, to see if it weighs more than the feather of Ma’at, the goddess of truth. If your life was one of unblemished truthfulness and goodness, no problem – your heart will be as ‘light as a feather’. But if your life was filled with evil deeds and lies, your heart drops like a stone to the floor, where the monster goddess Ammut rips it to pieces. So your journey to the afterlife ends in Ammut’s jaws, and no eternal life for you.

In the tomb drawing above, Pharoah Ani’s heart weighs out as lighter than the feather. Whew. The monster Ammut, on right, waits to pounce, though. Looks like he may have to wait for a more despicable Pharaoh than Ani to get dinner.

KING TUT HAS NOTHING ON MY OLD FRIENDS!

And then there is King Tut. Once upon a time when I was a much younger traveler on my life journey, I dressed up as an Egyptian to dance the King Tut dance in our school’s Homecoming show, with my other teacher friends. The teacher homecoming Octet is still a tradition at my old school, I hear, a long-lasting tradition which is starting to seem rather Egyptian-like, I’d say. Yay teachers! When the staff joins in the fun, the kids seemed to love it, and we did too. 

So there you have it. We’re off to Egypt soon! It’s so good to be back. I’ll leave you with a couple frightfully scary pics, above and below, in honor of what day it is.

Thanks as always for following along, and look for more posts about Egypt quite soon. Happy Halloween everyone!