If you have not visited Egypt before I hope that this gives you an idea of what the place is like. It's not guidebook stuff as some of it is quite dark, but it is from the heart.

I shall steer away from tales of Gigolos and scam artists and concentrate on what it is like to live here in the hope that it can create a balance.

For those that do not know the Luxor’s West Bank, can I draw you a mental picture of it? Not its geography, as the Theban hills are visible from everywhere, but of its culture. There is a village near the ferry, but it is not an Egyptian village. It lost that distinction many years ago. Where once there were donkey carts and waving corn there are now black Daewoo cars, blocks of flats, tourist restaurants and new hotels with swimming pools. Soon there will be a disco. Several hundred European men and women live there at various times of the year, mostly as second or third wives to young Egyptian partners. Few learn the language and know little of Islam but most are convinced that they know Luxor. I have refused to live there

Beyond the ferry area, there are green fields. Beyond them is a police checkpoint. Turn left or right at the checkpoint and drive a few miles down the road, then turn into any side track and you will enter a time warp. This is my Luxor or at least the Luxor that I love. It is the same on the east bank. A fifteen-minute drive from central Luxor leads you into another world. This world does not deal in sleaze; it deals with a love of Allah and the hardships of life. This is where the good people live. Most do not even speak English let alone all the other European languages that are necessary to implement the usual tourist scams. They don’t have cars parked in their yards. There would be no room for one in amongst the cows, donkeys, chickens and goats that provide the family with sustenance.

In this Luxor, people toil in the fields from dawn until dusk six days a week and are asleep by 8.00 p.m. On Fridays, they visit the mosque, invite their friends in to gossip and have tea. Their wives will light the bread ovens and bake for the family then they will tie some loaves up in a piece of cloth and take it around to their father’s house where they will sit on the floor and gossip with their mothers. They are safe in the knowledge that their husbands will care for them and their children, which have a tendency to be numerous. Here only one or two men will take a second wife and then only in exceptional circumstances.

Beyond the villages and the irrigated fields lies the desert. As the desert covers 96% of the country, is this the true Egypt? Except for the black kites that circle overhead there is complete solitude. This desert is not an endless series of rolling dunes; it is a mixture of fractured limestone and crystalline rock that sparkles when the sun catches it. Its vastness is overwhelming and scary. When alone there, I have the same feeling that I got on the Yorkshire moors where there was always apprehension of what might lie under my feet. It is easy to see why the Pharaohs chose it as their eternal resting place. It is beautiful and barren. As near to death as can be.

Soon my Luxor it will be gone forever. Progress is vital purely for the sake of the health of the population, but I hope that anyone reading this note gets to see it before it disappears completely. It really is worth the effort. Forget the hassles and people forever asking you to take tea with them. Get on a bike and go wandering in the back lanes. It is truly enlightening.

One of my great passions is cycling and you have got me seriously thinking now about how far you can cycle along the Nile. Are there proper paths suitable for a mountain bike? have you any idea how far you can go?

As far as cycling goes there are limits. the police will only let you cycle south as far as the bridge (10 kms) and north as far about a few kilometers beyond Karnak. It is the same on both sides of the river.

I cycled merrily through one check point and was pursued by an irrate policeman who had hailed a service car to catch up with me. He made me walk back to the checkpoint beside him and he yelled at me the whole way for causing him problems. I was not happy about it but I could see his point. They are just terrified that some European is going to get killed or raped and cause an international incident.

But, within that space you have complete freedom to roam along the side roads etc. I take my mobile with me when I go into the desert just in case I get a puncture. The heat there is so intense that survival rates would be low if you had an accident while alone. I am usually alone as Egyptians are not very energetic and most of the Europeans I know are not very adventurous.

I have been trying to find the old temple of Isis that is out there somewhere. I have no idea how little of it is left but I imagine that most of it has gone otherwise it would be on the tourist trail.

When I step off the plane and inhale.......its like coming home

Just stuff the name of your hotel in your pocket (in Arabic) so that you can get back easily if you get lost and get out there. You might get sunburned and footsore (or bum sore if you are on a bike) but you will also see Egypt at its best and learn to love it despite its faults.

Egypt not only gets into the blood it squeezes intself into the soul. The sheikhs sell potions to people toi make others love them, I think the ancients poured tons of love potion into my drinking water as each day my love afair with the Nile and the desert gets more intense.

I have suffered every possible emotion since I have been here. From terror through to despair. From joy through to elation. Nothing puts me off Egpt.

For those that have not been here, give it a try and look beyond the Corniche and those that inhabit it. Look beyond the felluca captains and the calleche drivers that hassle you. Look at Egypt. It is magnificient.

"I have suffered every possible emotion since I have been here. From terror through to despair. From joy through to elation. Nothing puts me off Egpt". Do you mind me asking what the terror was?

Ive never felt frightened in Luxor or Cairo, but I dont live there, Ive always felt safe, no matter what time of day or night, adn Ive been far out of Luxor at night on a few occassions!.

Can you really cycle in the desert? is it not too soft. I love the sound of your wanderings...it is rather like me in the sea I just go off for hours...my husband has learnt not to worry now...sady I can't take the mobile if I come unstuck!

I think that if you want to get past the check points then it is best to get clearance papers before you get here. If you know the right people then take advantage of it. The other way to do it is to stay at various towns on the way up country and hire a bike in each place. I am not sure what the situation is in places like Abydos. I have a acquaintance who has built a house there and he now has a permanent police escort. Since 9/11 the authorities are nervous.

The land in the desert is hard. The bike travels over it with ease but it is a bit rocky and you have to look where you are going. The reflected heat builds up so it is best to go out there early. I manage to go that far by turning off the track and into the desert between checkpoints. Nodody expects anybody in their right mind to do that.

The side roads leading off the main roads, are mainly dusty tracks that head off through the sugar cane and look as though they are going nowhere - but invariably they end up in a village. Some of them are fascinating to follow. I really spooked myself cycling through the sugar cane one evening as it was getting dark. the light was failing, I had no idea where I was going and a wind came up and rustled the cane. Every Steven King novel I have ever read came to mind. I think I broke all records peddling back to the main road.

The boundaries seem to be sacrosanct as it is not possible to go beyond them by felucca either. The river police turn the boats back if they stray beyond Crocodile Island (hotel site) and beyond Karnak the other way.

I suppose I have a fifteen kilometer stretch of land to explore without upsetting anyone.

LL you touch on things that I feel and sense when I am in Egypt - even in my imaginings here in the uk too when I read your delightful descriptions.
"It" touches some thing deep in my heart - it is a love affaire to me and so much "safer" than loving any man. I feel truly blessed to feel such emotion and it never ends - that's the real joy

What more can I say !!!

Agree

(The year is 30 BC and Egypt is in crisis. The war with Rome is not going well. Cleopatra is in Alexandria and Mark Anthony is about to fight and lose a crucial battle with Octavian at Actium. Egypt stands alone. The earthquake that shattered the temples of the West Bank is about to strike; Cleopatra is about to take her life; and Egypt is about to become a Roman province.)

Imaginary scroll written by the High Priestess of Isis at Hatshepsut’s Mortuary Temple, Thebes.

“My name is Maatamun and I belong to Isis. She is a good mistress. Times in Egypt are hard. My people are crushed. The taxes levelled to support this war are breaking us, and to what end? The Greeks have been here for centuries and a Roman stands at Cleopatra’s side. What difference will the outcome of this foolish war make to us in the south? None- except that many young men will die.

I was born in the Workers’ Village that lies to the south of my mountain. My arrogance is such that I claim it as my own. I know little of its deepest secrets but I know every inch of its surface. My childhood was short but I spent most of it wandering through the mountain's wadis and climbing its rocks. To the north the pharaohs lie in the Valley of Truth, to the south their Queens lay in eternal rest. I was seven years old when I was given to the temple and I have never since left its grounds. When I came here, my fear was intense and my sorrow was immeasurable but I loved my mistress and I serve her well. My mountain is still there and one day I will climb it again; although it may be in the afterlife.

On the temple’s upper balcony is a divine shrine, flanked by statues of Osiris. He has been given Hatshepsut’s face but Isis will not mind. When I place offerings for my mistress’s pleasure on her shrine, the whole of Thebes is spread before me. An avenue of Sphinxes leads from the temple to the river. On either side, irrigation channels bring life giving water to the trees and flowers that grow there. When the river rises, the floodwater will reach the temple walls. Everything will disappear beneath the black waters that wash over the feet of the gods.

Many temples are spread about the plain. Some are exquisite and small, others are large and ostentatious. All are beautiful. Their brightly painted walls are clearly visible and I wonder if life inside them is the same as it is here. Above me looms the mountain, beyond that is the land of Osiris where the husband of my mistress rules supreme. This is a necropolis; a place for the dead, not for the living. Yet it will endure and be admired long after those that made it have been forgotten. It is a lonely place and I have seen the hopes of my childhood wither and die in it.

The temples and the Workers’ Village are a closed community. They have secrets. Provisions and water are brought in daily and on feast days people cross the river to make pleas to their gods. Barren women come to ask Isis and Hathor to give them children. Old men come to ask for vigour in the bedroom. Youths come to ask for strength in the battlefield. All ask the gods for the courage to carry on with their lives until Osiris takes them. Rich men will have tombs here, poor men will be buried in the sand close by them in the hope that the gods will notice their presence and grant them eternal life. Everyone wants what cannot be had.

The oracle says it will soon end. She has seen the future. She lives a life of isolation in the far south and has no comforts. Her home is but a cave and her life is one of poverty. Rich men offer purses of gold for her wisdom, but she spurns their offers. Egypt is corrupt, but she is not and the gods still talk to her. Copies of the Books of the Dead and the Book of Gates are now freely available in the market place. The priests have been overcome by avarice and have dishonoured Osiris and Amun. It is an insult and they will take vengeance.

I came here as a child and now I am High Priestess. My life has been spent within these walls and I do not wish to live to see Egypt fall. But fall it will. One day I will be buried within the temple walls next to my sisters in faith.

Isis give me peace. Osiris give me rest.”

Thanks for you patience. Luxorlover

(NB: I have used some license, as there is debate over whether the earthquake came in 30 or 31 BC. Also most of the chapels in the temple are dedicated to Hathor not to Isis.)