August 2009

We had the opportunity to have dinner at a traditional Nubian home, which was interesting. This family keeps 3 crocodiles is a kind of a permenant fish tank next to one of their rooms (and relatedly eats crocodile once a year). There are a few inches of sand on their floors (which is quite comfortable, and which they change every few months). They have a rotation on bread-cooking, so that every family in the village cooks bread for the entire village once every few weeks, and everyone has bread every day.

Valley of the King (皇帝山谷)和Valley of the Worker (工匠山谷)
[b]
Luxor 最大的卖点就是皇帝山谷和工人山谷。与其说山谷，不如说是皇帝的墓地。古埃及的人们相信人有来世，而且来世是永久，幸福的。所以他们把尸体保存成木乃伊，并在墓地里画上太阳，太阳船，和各种他们相信能够庇佑他们的神灵，希望在他们死后能够顺利地来到所谓的极乐世界。刚开始的时候，法老们命人们建造金字塔。之所以建成三角形的形状，是因为即使在正午的时候，金字塔上的任何一点也不会有影子，这就保证了法老能够与太阳亲密接触，远离罪恶的黑暗。可是后来的法老们却发现，由于盗墓者的猖狂，法老们并不能安息。于是法老们就选择隐蔽的地势来建造他们的墓地。他们发现luxor的山脉起伏不断，远远望去就像金字塔。而这些天然的地势又保证了墓地的隐蔽性。我们总共去了3个墓地，据导游说是最具代表性，墓地内部结构最复杂，壁画雕刻绘画最精美的。（内部不能照相，所以大家只能会意了！）

Valley of Workers是工匠们给自己建造的墓地。虽然内部结构很简单，墓地挖得也很浅，但是所有的绘画都很精心。少了拘谨，充满了想象。看得出来，绘制这些图画的都是一些热爱生活的工匠。对此生的热爱和留恋，才有对来生的憧憬。墓地之外，还可以看得出当初村庄的格局。麻雀虽小，五脏俱全。

第2日是自由活动，我们去了temple of Karnak(卡纳克庙)。和其他废城不同的是几乎每个柱子，每面墙壁都留着古埃及的痕迹。法老像（及其皇后，妃子，子女像），神灵像，整排的狮身人面充斥着角角落落。真的希望能够穿越时空，成为尼罗河的女儿……

The temple of Karnak is a massive temple spread over 2 square km and built over the course of several centuries.

At the entrance is a road line with sphinxes,

And on the inside there are big buildings held up by a lot of massive columns, with carvings and drawings, and a vast array of sculptures. One of the most impressive stops of our stay in Egypt.

The valley of the kings is a large complex with dozens of pharoahs' tombs individually carved underground. We went into 3, all more-or-less the same (unfortunately no pictures were allowed): a long downward-sloping hallway with hierloglyphs (drawings) carved and painted into the walls and ceilings, culminating in a room, about 10x15 ft, which had the sarcophygus and tomb.

The Valley of the Workers was where the workers that worked on the tombs in the Valley of the Kings lived and were buried. The living quarters of the few hundred people there looks like a maze: all are connected as if in the same building. They weren't allowed to leave the area even during days off because the location of the Valley of the Kings was kept a secret to avoid the type of theft that was common in the pyramids and other visable tomb markers. As a result, during their days off they built their own tombs here, and the tombs looked like the pharoahs' only not as deep and with the heirloglyphs only drawn rather than also carved. Behind the living quarters there is apparently a big impressive temple, but we didn't see it because our tour guide didn't mention it and no one in our group knew about it at the time.

我不知道为什么西纳山那么有名，就连多伦多都有一个医院叫西纳山医院，应该是和基督的起源和犹太人有很大关联的（有兴趣的同学可以自己去google，我不太有刨根问底的精神）。我猜想它的地位就像中国的武当于道教，少林于佛教吧。旅游书上介绍西纳山的日出是世界7大日出的圣经之一，再加上免费的山上露营，我们自然不能放过这个机会。

我们于傍晚7点到达山脚，炊事组一阵折腾，我们终于在9点吃上了热腾腾的蔬菜意大利面条。晚上10点导游准时出现，带领我们向山上进军。爬山绝对不是我的强项，特别是考验耐力的攀爬。3个小时的骆驼山路可不是闹着玩的。于是我两计划在山脚雇两头骆驼，背我们上山。可是我终究在最后一秒失去了与骆驼亲密接触的勇气。爬吧！
我都不知道自己是怎么爬上山顶的。只记得刚开始的时候还能勉强跟上队伍，可是等到过了一半以后，我就全靠chris拽着我往上挪了！最后的700个台阶是最艰难的。我手脚并用还是走10步歇一歇，终于在12点半到达了山顶。不敢睡在悬崖边，怕半夜一转身，便滚下山一命呜呼了。于是在最热闹的人堆里，和chris找了一个最靠里面的角落睡下了。

半夜被冻醒无数次，哎，谁叫我们太懒，没有把睡袋背上山，只带了两张毯子！把双脚都伸进书包里，还是不管用。身上因为先前爬山出汗而变得黏黏的，加之半夜2，3点又来了一群吵闹无比，喋喋不休的年轻人，于是于4点半索性起来，去山边占领看日出的有利地位。

爬西纳山看日出的观后感 – 我后悔我费了半条命爬上了西纳山，日出很美，但是不见得胜出沙漠和死海的日出和日落；但是我知道，如果我没有去，我在以后的日子里回忆起来也一定会后悔！