Al-Ahram Weekly 27 Jan. - 2 Feb. 2000 Issue No. 466
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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Hidden lives, hidden finds

By Nevine El-Aref

I had heard much about the beauty of the Egyptian oases, but until last month I had never visited any of them. The thought had never occurred to me, even though the Bahariya Oasis is only 340 kilometres southwest of the Giza Pyramids -- easily accessible to a Cairene like myself.

In my mind's eye, oases were a few palm trees and a spring, surrounded with dunes, snakes, Bedouins and camels; a spot searing in heat, teeming with sandflies and certainly not the place for me. Then, as the year -- indeed, the century -- was drawing to a close, I was invited to accompany a group to Bahariya Oasis. Drawing on my sense of adventure, I threw caution to the wind and accepted.

Departure was fixed for 8.00am and we took off in two four-wheel drives, fully equipped with provisions for 15 people. We drove towards the Sixth of October City, located on the Cairo-Fayoum desert road and then onto the new dual highway leading directly to the oasis. This in itself was a surprise. We reached the oasis at noon and checked in at Al-Beshmo Lodge Hotel, in Bawiti, named after the hot spring located next to it.

What I found at Bahariya was a far cry from what I had supposed an oasis to be: This was not the place I had harboured in my imagination. Bahariya has its palm groves and natural springs, to be sure, but so too does it have hotels, cafes and a museum. Most significantly, it claims a vibrant way of life that is so different from that in which I grew up. Bahariya is a fully-developed community, well aware of its touristic appeal and exploiting this potential in the most effective way: by emphasising its natural environment, its people and its heritage.

The domed architecture of Al-Beshmo is delightful. The hotel building and its coffee shop reflect the Bedouin style; they have the charming feel of being in a tent rather than a hotel. Al-Beshmo is by no means the only hotel in Bahariya. Safari, the Camel Group, and the Manzal Al-Gabal are three others, all of which provide similar facilities to their visitors: safari trips in the desert, visits to archaeological sites and organising Bedouin entertainment.

Two hours after checking in, we were at the Ethnographic Museum at the entrance of the oasis, a grand title for a small structure more like a Bedouin house. The museum is private; it belongs to Mohamed Abdu, a sculptor whose statues are on display. Here is a man that is proud of his heritage and intrigued with the lives of his people -- especially the elderly -- who was talented enough to turn his hobby of sculpting village scenes into a profession. The unique museum, which provides a welcome overview to newcomers like myself, was launched two years ago.

I could not have had a more appropriate introduction to the oasis. Inside the museum are lifesize statues in poses that reflect Bedouin lifestyle: a man riding a camel, a lady milking a cow, farming implements and activities. The first of the four rooms contains a small, simple statue of a woman baking bread in her rural oven; the second revealed the interior of a typical Bedouin house; the third had oasis handicrafts on display and the fourth offered traditional toys and games. There is also an open-air courtyard surrounded by palms, where visitors can take tea and shisha (water-pipe) in a Bedouin atmosphere.

Bahariya has been slow to mix with the modern world and this, of course, is its charm. Today, there are schools, electricity and local industries (iron ore is mined there), but the people remain conservative. Traditions are based on a code of conduct acceptable to the whole community and group identity -- a sense of innate pride -- is strong. Our first evening was rounded off with Bedouin musical entertainment at our hotel.

We made an early start the next day, taking our jeeps on a trip through the oasis. We drove across rural areas taking in the abundant traditional crops -- dates, olives, tomatoes, watermelon and cantaloup (a new cash crop). The characteristic mud-brick houses of the farming community are built so near to one another that they appear to be leaning for support. Many are decorated with plants, animals or geometrical designs; similar to, but different from, the decorations of Nubian buildings. Alongside these simple dwellings are cement and concrete houses, like those of any modern city; the kind of expected dichotomy found in any community with an eye to the future.

Not just dunes and sandflies: Bahariya Oases, a four-hour drive from Cairo, is home to a number of ancient antiquities ensconced in temples and tombs, rarely-visited due to there relative isolation. But it is the vibrant and well-developed rural community that gives a visit its charming blend of simple living and modernity photos: Khaled El-Fiqi

Cafeterias, cloth shops and the crafts of Bahariya Oasis can be found all along the main streets. People, I noted, were dressed like the Nile Valley inhabitants, with men and women both wearing galabiyas, and women wearing colourful veils. I was surprised, and a little disappointed, to learn that the women's traditional dress -- black loose-fitting garments with an elaborately-embroidered bodice of red and yellow cross-stitch and tasseled ends -- are no longer worn in the oasis. I was told that these dresses are only produced by housewives to be sold to visitors and sold amongst the tourist trade in Cairo. Wealthier women do, on occasion, wear their traditional dress -- "but only for feasts".

We stood for a while watching women baking baladi bread and weaving baskets in front of their houses, surrounded by rowdy, happy children. Half an hour later we drove to Ayn Al-Muftillah area, the spring located to the western side of Al-Qasr village. I had read about the site before visiting it, so I knew that the area was far from archaeologically exhausted. Who knows what additional stone and brick buildings, unknown treasures, await the pick of the excavator.

We found the area deserted but for a large cultivated area at its centre; a virtual jungle of palm trees. After a few kilometres, we came on the temple of Amun-Re, built by Amasis, the famous king of the 26th dynasty. Completely buried, this temple was discovered in 1900 and re-excavated in the 1930's by Ahmed Fakhry, Egyptologist and author of several books on the oases of the Western Desert.

According to Mohamed El-Tayeb, chief inspector of the Bahariya Oasis, the temple was destroyed in ancient times. We walked around the remaining structures, decorated with relieves of ancient gods and goddesses. Scenes from the myth of Isis and Osiris were carved in a chapel dedicated to the god Bes. The Supreme Council of Antiquities is now restoring the temple to open it to the public; windblown sand has been removed, the architectural features of the building have been strengthened, and the walls have been cleaned of fungus and salts. I noted that a wooden roof has been erected to protect the temple from rain.

Into the Jeeps once again. Some three kilometres south of Al-Qasr village we found ourselves in Qarat Hilwah, where the unique tomb of Amenhotep, the governor of Bahariya, was located. According to a member of our group, the tomb was not to be missed -- we almost did. Taking a short cut across the desert we missed a turn and seemed to drive in circles for an interminable amount of time before we finally reached our destination.

The tomb dates from the late-18th and to early-19th dynasties; peak periods in ancient history. We found a well-preserved, rock-hewn tomb comprised of a courtyard and two chambers. In the court, a fragmentary scene shows the tomb owner seated on a folding stool supervising his estate: servants filling and storing wine jars. Another scene shows Amenhotep seated on a chair with his wife reclining on a mat at his feet. One of the most impressive scenes, on the north wall of the tomb, shows Amenhotep and his wife kneeling in adoration of the goddess Hathor, depicted as a cow emerging from a hillside strewn with papyrus plants: one of the most famous funerary scenes. Other scenes show husband and wife adoring and presenting offerings to the jackal-headed Anubis and another, unidentified, deity.

A full day of sight-seeing is exhausting, but we decided to press on. We drove across poor roads, pitted with pot-holes, to reach the temple of Alexander the Great and two newly-restored tombs of rulers of Bahariya. The temple of Alexander is in the Al-Tibbaniyah area. The temple, built by one of Alexander's soldiers, is "the only temple in Egypt dedicated to Alexander the Great," according to Mohamed Eid, chief inspector in Bahariya. On the partially-preserved walls is a scene showing Alexander himself in presence of Amun-Re and other deities. Many of the accompanying inscriptions are intact and we were delighted to find a Pharaonic cartouche with the name of the famous Macedonian conqueror.

Zahi Hawass, director general of Giza and Bahariya, said that the temple was suffering of deterioration due to the rain and wind velocity. A restoration project is under way to rebuild the missing parts of the ruined temple and protect it from environmental hazards. The temple itself is comprised of two parts built from sandstone blocks in the northern section of a large complex of 45 chambers, all surrounded by an enclosure wall. Behind the temple lies the dwelling place of the priests and two other rooms, which may have been administrative offices.

Our next destination was Qasr Salim, where we visited the tombs of Bennentiu and his father, ancient rulers of the oasis. The tomb of Bennentiu, the tomb most frequently visited in Bahariya, is cut in the mountain at a distance of about 15 metres to the west of his father's burial and is better preserved. We reached the burial chamber through a shaft about six meters deep. The walls are decorated with well-preserved paintings on the plastered walls. The tomb consists of a pillared hall and three side-chambers, two bare. The chamber facing the entrance is decorated with funerary scenes; a fine painting in which the tomb owner is introduced by the priest Iun-Mutef to the ithyphallic god Amun-Re, who is followed by the hawk-headed Horus. Behind the tomb owner stands Anubis, the god of the necropolis.

It was an exhausting but inspiring day. We had reserved our last bit of energy for that night, because we had been promised a trip to the Valley of the Mummies. We took off at 10.00pm, driving half an hour to "kilometer six", in the middle of the desert. We got out of the car in what was apparently barren desert and picked our way in the moonlight. Suddenly, we were there, faced with a burial ground at our feet. A generator provided the necessary light to view the mummies. It was a remarkable sight: hundreds of mummies lying one next to the other, most gilded with gold, others wearing wigs, and many faces unrecognisable because of their state of decay.

We were all overwhelmed. I was fascinated by the fact that every anatomical detail of the mummies could be preserved -- even the nipples on one woman. I was particularly intrigued by the decorations on the chests of the mummies; the colours were still brilliant and the gold glittering.

I left with an overall impression nothing short of astonishment. I had started my trip at an Ethnographic Museum, and ended in a tomb with piles of mummies for company. Who would have thought I would find so much in an oasis -- certainly not me.

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