Mons Claudianus

On our way from Al Gouna to Luxor we had to join the compulsory convoy with police escort at 9 am at the Safaga checkpoint. We tried in our best Arabic to convince the police that we could drive to Luxor alone, but they did not give in. Them we asked them if we could see Mons Claudianus, a famous mountain with a Roman quarry and fortress complex, about 15 km off road in the Eastern desert. The police was very accommodating and we got the permission, we only had to take a police agent in the car for when we would leave the convoy. We are normally not very keen on having police in your car, but we really liked to see Mons Claudianus and we found it difficult to refuse.

The mountains around Mons Claudianus on Google Earth. The red line in the bottom right is the Safaga to Qena road. The line from the bottom right to the upper left is our off road track to Mons Claudianus.

We drove off with the convoy and we left the road after about 40 km. At a small roadside cafe we picked up a local guide to show us the way. It was not that easy to find, so we were glad we had our guide.

An overview of the fortress

At the side, there was a fortress and the desert floor was full off broken pottery and pieces of quarried granite. You still could see many pieces with the original holes for the wooden wedges. Romans and Egyptian used a technique where they would hammer wooden wedges in a row of small holes they cut in the rock. By poring water on the wedges the wood would expand and break the rock. We had seen similar holes at the quarry of the broken Obelisk in Aswan.

A pillar base with the markings of the wooden wedge technique

The landscape here is beautiful, but very remote and desolate. Roman prisoners were used to hack the granite out of the mountains and it was a hardship post for the Roman soldiers who guarded them. The enormous granite blocks and pillars quarried here were transported over 180 km of desert and mountains to Qena, where they were put on boats and shipped to Rome and other places. The walls of the fortress and houses of the complex were made up of irregular pieces of granite that where probably not good enough to be shipped to Rome.

Corine at the door of one of the Roman houses made of quarried leftovers

A short car drive further we saw an enormous broken pillar, probably left where it was broken 2000 years ago.

Jurriaan tries to lift the 2000 year old broken pillar

Our guide showed us some old water wells where Bedouins were filling up their water tanks, after which he led us back to the main Safaga-Qena road. We dropped him at the cafe and continued our journey to the Nile. We had a tea and lunch break with our police officer at a small roadside cafe just before the checkpoint about half way between Safaga and Qena. When we continued our journey our police officer asked us to drop him off at the checkpoint and we could continue our drive to Luxor alone. We were very happy, but we still do not understand why the convoy is compulsory for foreigners if this police agent let us off so easily. Anyway, we had our freedom back for the rest of the day!

On the way we saw many mini buses with ornamental leaves on their roof rack, sometimes combined with white flags and big loudspeakers. We learned later that these buses were returning pilgrims from the Haj. The pilgrims take the boat back from Jeddah to Safaga, and then continue their journey with buses across the eastern desert. We had never seen this in Cairo around the time of the Haj. Apparently, it is tradition in Upper Egypt to recite Quran verses through the loudspeakers and to carry the leaves and white flags.

Pilgrims returning from the Hajj

Qalaat al Gindi

Towards the end of the year it turned out that Jurriaan's work offshore had progressed better than expected and that we could take a few weeks holiday around Eid al Adha, Christmas and New Year. We decided to start with five days surfing at Moon Beach, followed by Christmas at Al Gouna, New Year in Luxor, and driving back to Cairo along the Nile. More on the rest of this trip later.

We borrowed wet suits from friends, as it can get a bit nippy in the Gulf of Suez in December. One day the weather was bad for beach and surfing: no wind, no sun and the occasional drizzle, so we decided to explore the Sinai. We went to Qalaat al Gindi, the ruins of the 12th century Fortress of Salah ad-Din or Saladin, built in strategic location where three caravan routes converge. The fortress was originally built to protect pilgrims making their haj from Africa to Mecca and trade caravans from Africa to Asia. Saladin had planned to use the fortress as a base to launch attacks on the crusaders who had reached Jerusalem at the time. However, Saladin managed to chase the crusaders out of Jerusalem before the fortress was finished.

Qalaat al Gindi on Google Earth

We knew about it through a website of a colleague, who had left Egypt before we arrived. This is actually the second attempt to go to Qalaat al Gindi. In February 2007 we went also, but is was rainy and the paths were too slippery to go up safely. This time it was dry (only just), and we climbed up the steep route (bottom middle on the Google Earth picture).

panorama shot of Qalaat al Gindi

When we reached the top of the plateau there were more ruins to see than we expected. We saw some old Arabic texts cut in rock.

old Arabic text above a window arch

Even though it was not such a clear day we had beautiful views all around from this strategic location. Most of the walls and some large vaulted rooms are still standing.

Corine enjoying the view on the impressive outer wall

We walked around the outer walls to get a good feel for the scale of the complex.

Jurriaan walking around the the northwestern wall of the complex

The next day the weather was sunny and windy again and we enjoyed the last surfing of the year.