Many From United States Pay Visits to Luxor
Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt, March 29 (By the Associated Press)—Within the last month three big ocean liners from the United States have touched at Egypt, and swarms of American tourists have flocked down to the scene of King Tutankhamun’s terrestrial resurrection In the Valley of the Kings. American travelers who heretofore have spent their winters in the Holy Land, Algeria or other semi-tropical resorts, have this year chosen the Nile because of its nearness to the tomb of the ancient Pharaoh. The great presidential shrines a Mount Vernon and Springfield, Ill., have not attracted a greater number of American pilgrims this winter than the strange subterranean sepulchre of Egypt.
“Have you seen the new tomb?” is the first question put to every American upon setting foot In Egypt. For in the popular view, not to have visited the now famous mummy chamber is not to have been in Egypt. American visitors, instead of stopping off at Cairo, as was their habit previously, now come directly down to Luxor, making the 450-mile journey from the capital in 12 hours, or more leisurely in one of the river excursion boats. The finding of Tutankhamun’s tomb has given this little Nile municipality an Importance it has not enjoyed in 3,000 years.
On East Bank of Nile
Luxor is snugly situated on the east bank of the Nile, opposite ancient Thebes, and has a population of 15,000. Its chief attraction, apart from the new royal tomb, is the temple of Luxor, built by the sovereigns of a forgotten age and, until 1890, buried, in the accumulated rubbish and mud of centuries. A Mohammedan mosque built in the heart of the ruins of the temple strikes an incongruous note. The principal industry of Luxor, besides tourists’ hotels, is souvenir making. The busy and ingenious Arabs of the town bring quantities of elephant tusks, rhinoceros hides and amber from the Sudan and other areas and convert them deftly into a thousand and one novelties and knickknacks to attract the tourists. The latest product of their ingenuity is an ivory figure of Tutankhamun which is sold for a dollar.
The men of Luxor go about in long cotton cloaks and white turbans, while the women wear sombre dresses and shawls of deep black that cover even their faces. The children of both sexes ramble about the streets naked, a custom dictated both by economy and the excessive heat. The only school in the town is an American missionary institution for girls. Like the modern Greeks, the Egyptians of today take little interest in the history and achievements of their ancient forebears, and seem quite indifferent to the temple and tomb excavating being carried on by the American, British and French archaeologists. They are interested only in the amount of gold the new tombs may produce, and they indulge, the suspicion that large quantities of this are taken secretly out of Egypt by foreigners.
Site of Ancient Thebes
A pleasant 15-minute sail across the Nile In catboats rowed by Arabs brings the visitor to the site of ancient Thebes, in its day the largest and most sumptuous capital in the world. The metropolis of antiquity is now a vast expanse of sand, marshes, sugar fields and straggling farms; The city of New York might be placed upon the present plain of Thebes, but a part of it would overflow into the Nile.
When the west bank of the Nile is reached, the visitor usually mounts a donkey or camel for the two-hours ride to the Valley of the Kings. He passes on the way the great Colossi of Memnon, one of which, according to tradition, emits sounds when the sun’s rays fall upon it. The Emperor Hadrian came here in the dawn of Roman history and scratched his initials upon the pediment of the vocal Memnon, just as do the tourists of today.
The Royal Necropolis, which entombs the dead of 40 centuries, lies six miles from the river’s bank. The narrow footpath that led to it in the days when Tutankhamun’s sanctuary was uninvaded by prowling archaeologists has become expanded into the width of a good American road. It winds through poverty-stricken villages of the native farmers, past the temple of Rameses III, and beyond the mountain shrine of Queen Hatshepsut, the Cleopatra of the Dynasty, and thence past the deathlike Valley of the Queens.
After getting a glimpse of the entrance of Tutankhamun’s rock-hewn portal for no one is permitted to go into the tomb itself visitors usually seek the cool shade of one of the many tombs that are quarried in the side of the mountain. Here they discuss the merits of Tutankhamun’s sepulchre and eat their luncheon, while the mummified body of a sovereign of by-gone centuries rests in all its ancient majesty in a ghostly inner chamber.
New Britain Herald, New Britain, CT, March 23, 1923