31st July sunset over the valley of the Queens Luxor Egypt

The Egret fishing in the Nile

Those of you fishermen can take a leaf out of the egrets wisdom in fishing,  not only will it stand and vibrate its legs to atract the fish but it will use the same bait as man,  Bread,  I stood and watched this Little white egret for 10 minutes before  taking photos  In that space of time it caught 6 fish,  as the bread drifted upriver it brought it back down stream dropping it in the Water  the fish  ate the bread  the egret waited until the right size came along and  it caught it. the photos are not that good as they where taken  on the new marine  too many watching eyes to get the big lens and camera out  so made do with the pocket camera.

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The photos are in sequence as they where taken.

Here it has just dropped the bread in the water!

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 One fish in its beak.

 

And then its back to the not so good part of life in Egypt.  the Gas delivery  horse .

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the Horse thats tethered to its carriage day and night.

With no respvite from the heat its midday and about 43c today  its driver has gone to sit in the shade to take a well earned break from hassling the tourist.

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the rest of todays walk  photos of the wild life  are on the updates on the side bar, dragons  butterflies,birds, bees etc

almost forgot about the dead Camel  well it seemed to be dead  too many people about,,, we need money for photograph!!!! took this shot while pretending to take shots of the dragonfly.

if its dead they will wait for dark then tow it out to the middle of the Nile so the fish can eat it as it floats away to Cairo.

Abu haggag festival

Abu Haggag Mosque

The Mosque after its facelift  from the fire

 

View of the Mosque from inside the Temple pre 2007

The Mosque of Abu Haggag is a mosque located in the Egyptian city of Luxor. Specifically, it stands atop the ruins of Luxor Temple, an Ancient Egyptian centre of worship dating back to the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep III in the 14th century BC.
Although its positioning atop the pharaonic columns seems both precarious and invasive, the Mosque of Abu Haggag (or Abu l-Haggag) must be seen as more than just a coincidental intruder. First, when the mosque was built, large parts of the temple were covered with earth. Secondly, it is not uncommon for a religious kinship between ancient Egyptian cult places and the local version of popular Islam to be recreated. When the pharaonic temple was unearthed in the late 19th century, locals fiercely resisted any attempt to tear down the mosque. For them, the geographical position was important, and a new mosque also dedicated to Abu Haggag has never become very popular.
Abu Haggag was a Sufi shaykh, born in Baghdad, but he spent the latter half of his 90 years in Luxor. He died here in 1243, but it is believed that the minaret is older than him, dating back to the 11th century. The mosque itself has been rebuilt many times, and completely in the 19th century. Abu Haggag is Luxor's main saint, and his mosque is the core of local religious activities. Locals believe that his mosque is a particularly important religious spot, full of baraka, divine blessing.
When Shaikh Abu El Haggag came to Luxor, Islam at the time was not the major religion in Egypt; Coptic Christianity was the leading religion at the time. The city was a colony owned by a religious Coptic lady. She used to be called The Princess. Her soldiers saw Sheikh Abu El Haggag there and was immediately recognized as a foreigner, therefore he was taken to the Princess for questioning as they feared that he is a spy from a different tribe/region. He complained to her about the treatment he received and expressed that he wishes to become a local citizen. The lady was generous and offered him to stay as long as he wishes. He asked her to give him a land as big as a camel’s skin to sleep on it, she thought that would be maximum of 2 square meters, so she agreed as she was a generous Lady, he asked her to sign a contract confirming the deal which she agreed to.
At night, he took a camel’s skin and he cut it into a very thin line at the front of some local witnesses, something similar to a very thin washing line, he used it to border a big part of Luxor Temple. In the morning, soldiers saw this line and reported it to the Princess, and then she realised that he owns this bordered part of the temple as per their written agreement. As much as she was feeling deceived by his plan, they met few times afterwards, she was impressed by his knowledge and then she converted to Islam.
At the time, there was a church in the place of the mosque. Shaikh Abu El Haggag agreed with the princess to convert the building to a mosque, which stands till today. In the upper ground foundation the old part of the church, which is clear that it is not a part of the temple, can still be seen.
Lots of people claimed that he became a monk and was given a power to practice miracles, such as walking on water, healing rare diseases, and even people see him in the pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia while others sees him at the same time in Luxor. When he died he was buried in the mosque.
The festival is held for 2 days how I describe it is a big sweet selling time anything that makes a noise
  shiny or plastic. (a fairground sweets avenue)

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Evening scene of the festival  the noise right outside my home went on until 3 in the morning.

OOh look some beans being kept cool with a block of ice,

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One of the egyptians favorite snack  forget about hot dogs  beefburgers  etc  this is the real thing  the inners of the cattle,    I remember A freind of mine being very clever in Cairo in 2003.  got to have one of them he said,   before he finished the sandwich he was sick,   so me I never touch the stuff  even though it smell delicious,

and of course the smell is the spices,

Last day of the sale  this guy is selling off cheap by 3 in the afternoon all the stalls had gone and it looked as if there never was a 2 day festival.

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Just loved this one , what do we do with all the hats left over mum.

Sand castles!  pretend you are on the beach little one.

 

The ice blocks ready to put in the fridges  thats if they do not melt before .

Hats  hats and more hats.balls balls and more balls,

Beans with sweets   or sweets with beans

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And if you can not buy a candy floss machine make your own improvised version 

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Last procession of the festival   I almost missed  it  sorting my own problem out,

 

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Thank goodness thats all over  i can get som catnap time in now,

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Oh dear some one will get a sore bum.

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Just think of the germs  poeple have eaten from this meat mincing machine  

You may also like this post from march 20th

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update on the swindle.

http://nilelife4.blogspot.com/

doo doo's

23/7/2010

The Grand mufti of Egypt  And his brother Sheik Mohamed el Tyeb  fulfiled their promise,  I now have guarantor of my money back, 



and on with the sunny side of Egypt at least we are alive. just about in this heat.
It will be nice and  cool up in the balloon  over Luxor temple. not sure if its a special'   do not often see a ballon this  close to the temple.

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lemons  lots of them here  these make an ideal drink mixed with water, coool?

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And I have the wildlife no promises   none made none broken.  they are here  no matter what goes on in our lives.

Even from my flat I see the wildlife  sometimes its quite entertaining. as you will see from my other blogs,  on the side bar, 

the following is just a taste of what I see on my walks around Luxor Districts.

Lots of this about as  Luxor has not caught up with the times yet.  Horses and donkeys do most of the  hauling here, and these beasts of burden are noted for one thing.  shit,   the flies love it even live in it and born in it. 

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Then they fly off to places like my flat where they can annoy me , but I  have a lecy zapper and some other help to get rid of them,  the greco 

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Then we have all the other wild life that live off the flies

 Like this pretty tiny bird the gracefull prinia.

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or this the mosque swallow can take a fly in the air at 100 miles an hour.

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This bird the cattle Egret is the minder for some of the animals here  wherever there is an animal tethered in the field it will be there cleaning the flies   It can take a fly from the beasts eye without touching the animal.

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todays last photo.  shows everything can live together here birds with Cattle etc.  and then along comes man  and spoils it all.   not just for the animals he is supposed to look after  but for himself.  its called greed