We got on the wrong train from Luxor to Cairo on our return. It seems we should have waited for the next train but got on one that was in the station at the right time and found our assigned seats in car number 5.
After two more stops a bunch of Egyptians piled in and it quickly became obvious (although not through any language communication) that our seats were not ours. A patient Egyptian couple and others calmly repeated Arabic words to us over and over more slowly than the last time, hoping that we would finally understand. Finally a man who spoke English way back in the car interpreted – “This train not for you.” — We had gathered that but were reluctant to get off in the middle of Egypt in the middle of the night — (night train, of course). “No,” he said, “if you get off at next stop you can get train that is for you.”
At this point the conductor in a scruffy green jacket, obviously inebriated, came to help us with our stuff and we vacated our seats to stand in the little doorway to wait expulsion at — Qena.
When we disembarked at Qena we were relieved to see it seemed like a real train station and town. Scott said the worst that could happen is that we would have to find a hotel and then deal with the whole thing the next morning. Voice of reason — good guy!
Then I made the mistake of reading the Lonely Planet guide to see where we were — about 1 a.m. in the middle of Egypt. Wouldn’t you know this part of Egypt has a bad reputation for terrorist activity – the government had found it difficult to control the extremist groups in this area because of the ease of hiding and escaping into the desert. Tourist travel is not recommended.
Well, we did finally get the train that “is for you” everyone had been patient and kind. I thought of what would have happened we had taken someone’s seat elsewhere in the world, I don’t think “kindness” would have come to mind.
Nag Hammadi, down the railroad track from Qena, is the site where a collection of thirteen ancient codices in a Coptic dialect was discovered in 1945. These are “primary Gnostic scriptures” texts once thought to have been destroyed during the early Christian struggle to define “orthodoxy.” These texts, along with the Dead Sea Scolls found about the same time but in Palestine, make up a body of work that were repressed or hidden for their preservation by two groups — the Essenes in Palestine and the ancestors of the Ancient Egyptians, probably a Coptic sect.
The Coptic Christians make up about ten percent of the present population of Egypt and many think they are the best remnant of the Pharaonic Egyptians left, with their sacred language a “survival” from ancient times.
When we were waiting in the train station at Qena, Scott saw what must have been a Coptic bishop also waiting for a train. Scott said people were coming over to kiss his hand.
So – Qena/Nag Hammadi — terrorist stronghold or sacred ground — Both, is my guess, which brings me to a fascinating book I found online (ain’t the internet great?) Jung and the Lost Gospels: insights into the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library. This book talks about how at the darkest times – comes the light,i.e. these texts found following World War II, the Holocaust and the atom bomb. Maybe now again we are having a dark time when there will be another leap forward. I also found, before I left, a wonderful book The Pharaoh’s Shadow: travels in ancient and modern Egypt by Anthony Sattin and only available from Amazon.co.uk. Sattin is in search of culture that has survived from ancient times in Egypt and the Coptic connection is well described.