Cat God at Valley of the Queens

Sunset Philae Temple

Nubian kid

Little Crocodile

It was an amazing trip to Luxor/Aswan. All that incredible and mysterious temples, tombs and giant statues..

But the one thing that ate my heart was a little cat at the Valley of the Queens.

He looked like my South African wild cat Sisi, and was strolling across the valley floor, apparently trailing a tomb guard, when I stopped him to stroke him. He rubbed himself against my leg, very content. When I had to leave, I called out to him, "Come, show me around". He looked at me, then looked back at his "master" who was looking at him with a silent command, uncertain who to follow. The cat looked visibly  tortured.."Should I follow this mad Chinese woman who showered me with attention? Or should I follow my servant who keeps me company all the time?" After some hard soul searching, In the end he choose to follow his "master".

Sadly I left my camera in the car. The cat's tortured look haunted me for the rest of the day and the thought of having no photo of him tortured me so much that I decided to go back to Valley of the Queens next morning to get a photo, before my flight out of Egypt.

The cat was of course not there. The tomb guards and police were puzzled about my visit but when they understood the purpose of my visit, they tried to search for the cat for me. The name of the  guard that the cat was following was Ibrahim. He told me in broken English that the cat was there in the morning and may have gone up the hills to eat something or gone sleeping somewhere. I looked up-vultures were hovering around near the top of those hills..

"Yesterday was cat but no camera. Today was camera but no cat". Ibrahim summarized my predicament with the feline race.

Cat Server Ibrahim Valley of Queens 

 I had to catch my plight out of Egypt so I appealed to Ibrahim to take a photo of the cat with his phone camera and emailed it to me. He must have taken sympathy for me and readily agreed. I felt imposing on him and offered him a small baksheesh, which is expected and asked for by almost everyone that a foreign tourist encounters. But to my complete surprise, he tried to decline it and I could even detect some embarrassment on his face.

Maybe, the cat chose Ibrahim for a reason..

P.S. Oberoi Towel Art: