Off to Abydos
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Leaving Cairo. The busy city streets quickly yielding to the desert at Giza. We have elected to take the new desert road to Abydos versus the prettier, but much longer, Nile road.
The desert. First the soft sands of gently rolling wind blown dunes. The desert that you classically think of when you hear the word “desert”. This gentle desert giving way gradually to a harsher rock strewn moonscape as we progress on our 8 hour journey.
A railway line cutting across the desert. Seemingly coming out of no where and going no where. It reminds me of photographs of the Hejaz railroad from T.E. Lawrence.
Then through a rough cut pass in the rocky terrain and our first sight of the green strip that lines the Nile. The fertile heart of Egypt. The harshness of the desert gives way gradually and almost unbelievably to green farms and lively villages. Carts carrying sugar cane and fresh cut grain are everywhere. We can now see the mountains that tower over the Abydos plateau with their sand dunes climbing to improbable heights up their sides.
One more turn and we are back in the desert. But only for a moment and then there is the dig house. The residence of the archaeological teams who work the various site in this valley full of surprising finds and monuments from many dynasties.
Posted on: April 8, 2010 | Categories: Egypt
