The view of the Mut Temple from the southwest corner of the sacred lake. Despite our best efforts last year the reeds are now thicker than ever, completely obscuring the shores of the lake.
The Qufti (technicians from the village of Quft, ancient Coptos) working with us this year are Mahmoud Abbadi (left), who is a superb archaeologist, and Yehia Farouk Sharid (right), who was with us last season.
We've spent the last week on housekeeping chores, mainly cutting down the grass and camel thorn that have taken over many parts of the site. It took workmen several days to remove the grass that has grown up in the excavated area east of the Thutmoside gate that we discovered in 1983 and that the Johns Hopkins University expedition excavated in 2002.
Looking west through the Thutmoside gate after the grass and blown dirt have been removed. Next week we plan to shore up the sides of the square and build a stairway at the east wall so that people can get access to the gate, which is one of the earliest preserved structures at the site.
In the meantime, Richard has been continuing his work on the inscriptions in the Mut Temple's Montuemhat Crypt Here he and our inspector, Mai Yusuf Abul Hagag, discuss the texts.
We also had visits from some old friends on January 21. John Sherman, Associate Director of the American Research Center in Egypt for Luxor, has been an immense help to the Mut Expedition, particularly in assisting us in getting conservation supplies, which are hard to find in Luxor.
Later that same day, Mustapha Saghir, the SCA Director for Karnak, also paid a visit. Mustapha is the son of the late Dr. Mohamed Saghir, a former Director for Upper Egypt, a great scholar and a wonderful man. Mustapha is a worthy successor to his father.
This season we are restoring the Sekhmet statue in Temple A that we rescued last season but were unable to restore then. Mohamed Abdu, one of the Egyptian conservators working with us this year, carefully cleans centuries of accumulated dirt from the statue fragments so he and his colleague can examine the condition of the underlying stone.
The hoopoe, here, is perhaps my favorite bird in Egypt. This one of two who have built a nest in the precinct entrance.
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