At Ain Amur
Papa Noelle brought more than just goodies on Christmas: he gave us a passable route in the direction of Ain Amur and no flat tires or sand traps. We followed the Darb Taweel to within 2 kilometers of Ain Amur when we were stopped by a gulley. Trying to find away around, a cliff and wide valley suddenly apeared over the crest of a hill--the edge of the Abu Tartur Plateau. Coming up behind me, Uncle Bob said that the tiny smudge of green in the distance were the shrubs and palms surrounding the spring at Ain Amur. However, there was no visible way for us to get there. The Darb Taweel led into the gulley, where we could see it opening below us into a boulder-strewn canyon and finally the valley depression: a difficult path even for camels. We decided to set up camp and investigate possibile descents from the plateau the next day. (Delicious Christmas dinner of course: pate, beef stew, plums in wine, and champagne.)
The first photo shows the view of Ain Amur visible from our camp. The next shows Myriam and Bob trying to scope out a way down in one of the other wadis. The third shows Aunt Myriam investigating one of these wadis. Having reached the conclusion that the site was not accessible from the plateau by car, we spent our evening walk looking for a good walking path, (which we did not find). The whole terrian was cracked: walking along, a crevice would suddenly open in front of you, invisible from two steps back. We decided the best way would be to follow the camels, so the next morning we embarked, armed with cameras,a bottle of water, and our trusty Haribo licorice. Following the ancient paths of goats, donkeys, camels, and people, we descended below the rim of the plateau. After almost two hours of picking our way along various paths, some of which ended in thin air as erosion had washed away large chunks of it, we arrived at the site. First we came the gulley worn by the spring, crowded with shrubs, reeds, and palms, ringed with the tracks of foxes, gazelle, and desert vipers. The wind in the reeds sounded odd after days of hearing it hit only rock or our tents.
As we got closer the flies became peskier. Bob explained that anywhere inhabited by humans attracts them, even after the humans are long gone. Myriam and Bob climbed a hill to take photos of the site from above; I examined a "robber pit" left behind by people digging for artifacts and graves. I thought that this particular pit must have beena disappointment, as it seemed they'd only unearthed a dead camel. But according to Bob some of the bones were human, and upon looking closer I recognized a scapula that definteily did not belong to a camel. It appears the tomb raiders were successful. (fifth photo)
At the site we explored the temple built in Roman times in the style of Ancient Egypt's Old Kingdom, complete with hieroglyphs and gods. (sixth photo) Our guidebook described an unidentified winged figure, the torso of a man, and a god. Inside the third and only intact chamber of the temple I found more human bones. Graffiti in English, Arabic and other languages had been carved on many of the stones. Photo 7 shows that left by British exploere and Egyptologist Edmonstone, the first European to see the site, he even left the year, 1819. The guidebook told of an inscription in Arabic in which someone had written that they had been traveling alone and on foot and were nearly dead by the time they reached the spring. Sort of the like the scene in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" when the insriptio inside the monster's cave reads "Aaarrrhhh". We also found bits of Roman glass, a bead, pottery of course, and sneaker prints coming into the site fromthe opposite direction. We followed them up an easier path back onto the plateau. However, trekking back to our camp ultimately took more time, as we repeatedly had to retrace our steps as wadis opened up in our path. We finally reached camp and spent another night on the edge of the cliff. The next morning, assessing our supplies of time, food and fuel, we decided to head for the descent from the plateau at Dahla Oasis.
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