Pharaoh play - returning to the Nile

I’ve never come eye to eye with a lioness, until now. Ears pricked,eyes fixed, light glinting off her furrowed brow, she has an air of solemnity,no less haunting for the fact that those delicate features are carved out ofwood.

Still she may be, but this animal has attitude. Gilded in brightyellow gold and adorning the end of a funerary bed, this embodiment of warriorgoddess Sekhmet – the fiercest of hunters, hence her likeness to the mightylion – once stood sentry over the body of boy-king Tutankhamun.

Now transported to the conservation lab of the Grand EgyptianMuseum, she – along with other never-before-displayed items recovered from thehidden tomb – is being restored to her former beauty. After the best part of3,500 years, no one could blame her for having a little work done.

It’s a bit more than a nip and tuck, though. The world’s most accomplished Egyptologists are hard at work restoring sandals, clothing,jewellery, armour and other artefacts buried with the pharaoh.

“We will display, for the first time, the complete Tutankhamun tomb,” says Dr Tarek Tawfik, the museum’s general director. “Only about a thirdof what

was discovered in the tomb has been on display. This will change Tutankhamun’s image from only being the golden pharaoh to a real representativeof the 18th dynasty.”

When the first stage of the exhibition opens late next year, therewill be 5,000 objects on display, but when completed in 2022, it will house 50,000, makingit the world’s largest museum dedicated to a single civilisation.

The scale of the task becomes clear as our behind-the-scenes tourtakes us
to the sculpture room. More loading bay than lab, it’s a cavernous hall filledwith towering statues of long-dead pharaohs in varying states of repair.

We chance upon one and ask which museum it came from. Not from amuseum at all, it turns out – it was uncovered just last year, one of dozens ofstatues long buried in the temple of Amenhotep III on Luxor’s west bank. Theidea that the ancient Egyptians’ bounty could still be bearing fruit now,millennia after they lived, is somind-boggling as to be almost beyond grasp.

“Egypt never ceases to amaze you,” adds Dr Tawfik. Indeed.

CAIRO: Enchanting chaos

That’s as true of modern-day Cairo as it is the ancient world. I’dexpected blaring car horns and endless traffic jams and I wasn’t wrong – bothare a constant in the capital – but I hadn’t counted on how enchanting thatsense of chaos would be.

The Khan El-Khalili bazaar is a case in point: all piled-highstalls and tiny shopfronts no wider than the doorframe, squeezing shoulder-to-shoulderalong meandering alleyways. Pass through its 10th-century gate – there’s noneed to pause, that barely countsas history here – and you see merchants displaying arrays of Egyptian cotton,intricate metalwork lamps, dark Arabian coffee and spice stalls stacked withbarrels of preserved lemons, gnarled roots of ginger and heaps of hibiscuspetals waiting to be made intotea.
Just a few miles away, on the west bankof the Nile, lies Cairo’s other big draw. Giza should be thronging with crowdsand there are certainly more tourists here than we’ve seen elsewhere, but it’sa fraction of what it once was. Just consider what they’re missing – the GreatPyramid looms every bit as magnificent and mystifying as the rest of Egypt’sancient monuments. It’s a staggering 4,500 years old – built around 2,550BC,when the British Isles had barely reached the Bronze Age – with each of its2.5-ton blocks hauled into place with perfect symmetry.

ASWAN: A more peaceful pace

After the chaos of the capital, the pace of life on the Nile comesas a welcome relief. Flying south to Aswan to join Sanctuary Sun Boat III atAbercrombie & Kent’s private dock, we reach the Sofitel Legend Old CataractHotel just in time to watch sunset.

Once teeming with life, now just a few white-sailed feluccas plythe waterway. Sailing the Nile was once part of the river cruise sector’s coreproduct, but political upheaval has decimated numbers in recent years. Figuresfrom Clia show that between 2012and 2016 there was an 88% fall in numbers to a paltry 3,600 UK passengers.

A gin and tonic on the riverfront terrace is a leisurely affairthat feels very Agatha Christie-esque – parts of Death on the Nile wereset here – and inside, the hotel oozes turn-of-the-century sumptuousness.

Visitors don’t come here just for colonial-era ambience, though.Philae Temple is a short boat trip away, sporting images of goddess Isis at itscolossal entrance, and further upriver, Kom Ombo surpasses even the majesty ofPhilae.

It’s a rare double temple, one half dedicated to falcon god Horusand the other to crocodile god Sobek. Crumbling columns still bear traces ofthe red and blue dyes that once brought its reliefs to life and although itshows some wear and tear, the most astonishing thing is how well-preserved itis.

Spare a few minutes for the bizarre museum of mummified crocodilesdiscovered under the temple floor – weird but oddly entertaining.

LUXOR: Home of ancient wonders

An overnight sailing brings us to Luxor, home of yet more ancientwonders – tombs and funerary temples on the west bank, temples of worship tothe east.

Most famous among the former is the Valley of the Kings, where thechamber of Tutankhamun lies open. It’s surprisingly small and unfinished –while other pharaohs spent their lives building elaborate monuments tothemselves, he died at 19, before work was anywhere near finished – but it’s theromance of its discovery, almost undisturbed, that captures the imagination.

After five years of digging in search of a tomb he had only thevaguest notion might exist, archaeologist Howard Carter struck gold – almostliterally – on discovering steps down to the long-sealed tomb. It took 10 yearsto catalogue and preserve every item – no wonder, the solid gold coffin alone weighs 110kg –though scholars believe there could be even more lying as yet undiscovered.

On the east bank, the vast Karnak Temple Complex covers 60 acres,bigger than most ancient cities, and took an almost-incomprehensible 2,000years to build, with temples added right up to the time of Cleopatra.

If it’s hard to comprehend just how ancient it all is, considerthis: nearby Luxor Temple, lit up at night to atmospheric effect, has carvingsadded by Alexander the Great a full 1,000 years after the temple was firstbuilt.

For him, this was already ancient history; for us, it’s almostbeyond belief to walk in the dust of ancient Thebes, to see and touch carvingschiselled out of the stone by people who lived 3,500 years before us.

Yet while this journey delves into the furthermost reaches of theancient world, perhaps the most remarkable thing about Egypt is how little ithas changed.

The Nile is still the heart of life here – of trade, transport and agriculture, itslush green floodplains an oasis amid miles of arid desert. Farmers can still beseen in the fields that line the banks and children wave enthusiastically asour boat sails past.

While the past few years have been tough on the tourism industry,the Nile has seen Egypt rise and fall and rise again over not just centuriesbut millennia – and now must surely be the time for it to rise once more.

BOOK IT

Abercrombie & Kent’s Highlights of Egypt, with three nights inCairo and three on Sanctuary Sun Boat IV, starts at £1,895, including flights,transfers and sightseeing. Agents receive an enhanced 15% commission onbookings made before August 31, 2018 (excluding peak season). abercrombiekent.co.uk