Posted inTravelers' Tales

Outwitted the Orientals

An Experience With the Customs Officials at Kermanshah.

In eastern lands the collecting of customs dues is attended with perhaps more than ordinary fraud. In his book, “‘From Batum to Baghdad,” Mr. W. B. Harris has told his experience with the customs officers of Kermanshah. The incident had Its comical feature as well as its serious lesson:

Two hours later than I had Intended we made a start and, proceeding through the long tunnel-like bazaars, emerged from the town. Here fate had annoyance in store for me. At the local custom house the guards wanted to search as and make us pay duty on our scanty baggage.

Posted inTravelers' Tales

Ground Hog in Long Trip

Animal With Wanderlust to Come by Way of Chicago on Journey Around World. Salt Lake City.—The wanderlust of small ground hog, which entered Salt Lake recently on the brake beam…
Posted inArchaeology Travelers' Tales

Egypt’s Tombs and Temples

Thousands of Tourists Make the Egyptian Trip Since Howard Carter Discovered the Tomb of King Tut Ankh-Amon. Scene of the Carnarvon Expedition. Riches of the Tombs.

BY GIDEON A. LYON

Photographs by the Author.

It would be interesting,” said a fellow traveler to me at our hotel in Cairo on the evening of our arrival at the Egyptian capital, “to know how many thousands of tourists have been drawn to Egypt since 1922 as a result of the discovery of the tomb of King Tut Ankh-Amon by Howard Carter. It would be even more interesting to know how great a treasure has been brought to this country through tourist expenditures here in consequence of the finding of that tomb and its rich contents.”

Howard Carter, discoverer of the tomb of King Tut-Ankh-Amon, descending the steps of the tomb to carry on his work.

That thought recurred to me a few mornings later when I stood in front of the tomb of Tut Ankh-Amon and saw Howard Carter descend the steps leading down to the entrance. The tomb was closed to visitors, for Mr. Carter was engaged in superintending the removal of the remaining treasures. So all I got of King Tut’s last resting place was this glimpse of the back of the man who restored him to fame. Yet it was with a lively sense of the service Mr. Carter has rendered to Egypt that I saw him go down into the depths to carry on the work begun by him eight years ago.

Unquestionably many thousands of people have been attracted to Egypt by the discovery of this tomb. And practically all of them make the journey up to Luxor and across the Nile to the west bank and through the rocky defiles of the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings to the scene of the work of the Carnarvon expedition. They have, with few exceptions, seen nothing of the tomb itself. But they have had the satisfaction of glimpsing the forbidding area chosen by the monarchs of many centuries ago for the reposal of their mummies and the riches of their burial equipment.

Posted inTravelers' Tales

Sunset at Egyptian Resort Brings Greater Activity

THE TERRACE OF THE WINTER PALACE HOTEL AT TEA TIME IS THE SMARTEST RENDEZVOUS IN EGYPT

Comical illustration of westerners having tea at the Winter Palace Hotel.

By Karl K. Kitchen

You can tell how long any one has been in Luxor by the spot where he takes tea on the terrace of the Winter Palace Hotel. A new arrival invariably hugs the edge to get an unobstructed view of the Nile. The visitor who has been there several days is content to sit farther back, while the winter resident prefers to take his tea in the garden on the other side of the hotel, or if he happens to be an American, to replace tannic acid with cocktails at the bar.

The tea hour is “the” hour in Luxor. It is then, that the hotels—of which the Winter Palace is the most important—are at their liveliest. All the tourists are back from their excursions to the Valley of the Tombs the Kings, Medinet Abu, Karnak and the other glories of the past, and tea is not only an appropriate social function but a welcome stimulant after a tiring day in the broiling sun.

The Winter Palace is the rendezvous for all the foreign colony of Luxor at this hour. On its spacious terrace, which flanks the Nile for the entire length of the hotel, or in its beautiful gardens are to be found the most famous travelers, the greatest Egyptologists and archeologists and world celebrities who have come to Luxor to pay homage to King Tut.

Posted inArchaeology Travelers' Tales

Temples and Tombs of the Egyptians

Another Article on the Ancient Buildings of the Nile Country.

BY GIDEON A. LYON
Photographs by the Author

A general view of the Temple of Karnak, Luxor
A general view of the Temple of Karnak, Luxor

RETURNING to Luxor from the west bank of the Nile, after visiting the tombs and temples of the ancient “City of the Dead,” one sees in its fullest proportions the Temple of Luxor, earliest, it is believed, of the great religious structures of the east bank. It presents from this point of view more the aspect of an architectural unit than dees its greater and more celebrated neighbor, the Temple of Karnak. Yet it is sadly ruined and is, more over, marred by the intrussion within its very precincts of a mosque that, standing on higher ground, dominates the scene with its incongruous outlines.

According to accepted hypothesis, ancient Thebes, on the east bank, was regarded as the city of the living, while the Thebes of the west bank was known as the city of the dead. Thus the tombs are on the west bank, while the temples, with a few exceptions, such as the Der el-Bahri, the Medinet Habu and the Ramesseum, are on the east side of the river. Western Thebes was a necropolis, while Eastern Thebes was the city of splendor, of ceremony, of wealth, of active power.

Posted inIron & Steam Travelers' Tales

Mr. Weed Through the Thames Tunnel

Extract from Letters From Mr. [Thurlow] Weed . . . No. X., Correspondence of the Albany Evening Journal

Monday, July 17

I have been through the Thames Tunnel. This is to London what the Croton Water Works are to New York, the great achievement of the 19th century. There is nothing at either entrance of the Tunnel, which indicates that you are in the vicinity of this extraordinary improvement. We passed over it in a steamer in the morning, without being aware that other masses of fellow beings were quietly walking through a subterranean passage below us! The visitor is directed “This way to the Tunnel ” by a board on the corner of a street. You descend a winding stone stairway 100 steps, and enter into the Tunnel, which is well lighted with gas, and afforded us a cool pleasant walk, after four hour’s exposure to the sun. The Tunnel has two avenues, each wide enough to allow 12 or 16 persons to walk abreast. Half way through, a printing press is stationed “By Royal Authority,” which is throwing off sheets containing an account of the Tunnel. I told the man I would purchase two of his sheets provided lie would allow me to “pull” them myself. This, upon learning that “I knows the ropes,” as they say at sea, he consented to. I have, therefore, an account of the Thames Tunnel, printed by myself, standing midway between the London and Surry sides of the river, seventy feet below its bed, with Steamers and ships passing directly over my head!