Greeting the New Year in the Luxor Desert

January 1, 2011, Luxor, Egypt, in the desert (Jud, moonscapes, a sunset, the fire with our waterpipes). The sky brilliant with stars (Wikipedia photo, but it was this beautiful).Kolysena winta-tayeeb, a rough transliteration of the Arabic for Happy New Year!

I greeted the first day of the New Year with a memorable dinner and stargazing evening in the Egyptian desert. It was incredible, fantastic. A Belgium couple now living in Luxor organizes these special tours, and they are beyond belief. After driving away from the city and into the open desert, the lights of humanity fading behind us, we arrived at our site, a barren-looking stony brown landscape of hills in every direction, the only patch of green a thin line along the horizon closer to the Nile River.

We began our new year’s adventure with a hike up the rocky desert moonscape that used to be a body of water, up to the tops of hills, to watch a stunning sunset. Stunning! We took our time, small groups of people, wandering apart, then together, then apart, dancing in different configurations, looking like Martians exploring a new planet against the setting sun. I couldn’t capture the essence of it in words, or in photos. How do you capture a mirage?

After the sun descended slowly into the desert, leaving behind an orange-red glow, we meandered back to tables beautifully set and glowing in candelight to share an authentic Egyptian dinner that was a gastronomical feast. It was an astronomical feast, too. We ate in the open air, the heavens for our roof, with a group of interesting people from around the world as the stars popped out one by one by one. I sat with a couple from England, Jane and Edward, who travel the world with their three sons, now ages 14, 10 and 8. I talked a bit with two beautifully dressed young women from South Africa. A thoughtful Frenchman, his lovely 9-year-old daughter Moon in hand, waxed philosophical about the meaning of life, the universality of humankind, the limits of religious beliefs. The night sky was brilliant, colorful, sparkling, clear. No moon. Ingrid, our leader and astronomer, green lazer beam in hand, led us through the mysteries and vastness and endless variations of the heavens, billions of stars, millions of light years away, the constellations, the planets.

She and her husband, with the help of experienced Arab helpers, set up two huge telescopes and we all took turns viewing various wonders: Andromeda, the pleidies, the North star and nearby star clusters, Jupiter, a favorite planet after Venus (Saturn won’t be visible for about 6 months, Ingrid said), and betelgeuse in the constellation Orion, my favorite star this night because it looked like an effervescent ruby through the powerful telescope. It was utterly thrilling. Loren would have loved every minute of it. It was his night. I wanted to believe I felt his presence, soaring among the stars and the planets, his every curiosity and hope fulfilled.

We then went back to the tables for dessert, more tea, and the hookahs, the waterpipes (these with apple-flavored water) that you breath into, blow bubbles, and relax. The ever-attentive Egyptian helpers met our every need. These Renaissance men prepared a fantastic dinner, the best we’ve had in Egypt. They brought water and tea. They showered us with Egyptian hospitality. And as the night grew chilly in the desert air, they built a wonderful fire for us. We all gathered round in gratitude, enjoying the richness and beauty of the moment, the joys and wonders of Egypt.

What a fantastic way to begin a new year! The heavens and the earth conjoined. One of the best New Year’s days I can remember. The memories and images will take me to the ends of the earth on my journey through time, to the great beyond. Kolysena winta-tyeeb.