Night vision…

Photo by Galen C. Dalrymple, copyright 2024. All rights reserved.

First, let me say that I’m just returned from a dream trip that had been calling to me since I was a very small child. I went to Egypt!! And, as you might imagine, I have hundreds and hundreds of photos.

This photo was shot on our first night in Luxor and it shows part of the Luxor temple. We were very fortunate that our tour organizers (First Century Voyages – they did a PHENOMENAL job!) had arranged for our tour group of 52 persons to have exclusive access to the site after hours when it would be lit up in spectacular fashion.

Luxor Temple is part of a two-temple complex built on the eastern side of the Nile. The other temple you may have heard of: the Temple of Karnak. The two were actually connected by a long causeway of nearly 2 miles that was lined on each side by statues of sphinxes.

The temple of Luxor itself is rather unique in that it was not built to honor a particular pharaoh or Egyptian deity. Instead, it was dedicated to the rejuvenation of kingship, and as such is believed to have been the location where many of the pharaohs were “crowned”. Curiously, one person who claimed to be crowned there was Alexander the Great, though it is unclear if he ever traveled further south in ancient Egypt than Memphis.

When I shot this image, I couldn’t help but think about how the ancient Egyptians may have seen this same view of the palms in the background, rustling in the evening breeze after a long, hot Egyptian day. For them, the temple wouldn’t have been lit by electricity, but by fires that burned on the ground near the base of the pillars. Regardless, I was thrilled with the image I’d taken. I hope you find it interesting, too!

TRIVIA FOR TODAY: When President Wilson signed daylight saving time into law during WW I, it was commonly called “fast time.” During WW II, when it was again put in force after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, it was called “War Time.”

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY: in 1906, a devastating mine disaster killed over 1,000 workers in Courrieres, France, on March 10, 1906. An underground fire sparked a massive explosion that virtually destroyed a vast maze of mines.

The Courrieres Colliery in northern France was a complex series of mines near the Pas-de-Calais Mountains. Tunnels into the mines issued forth from several towns in the area and more than 2,000 men and boys worked the mines, digging for coal that was used mostly to manufacture gas.

At about 3 p.m. on the afternoon of March 9, a fire began 270 meters underground in what was known as the Cecil pit. Unable to immediately extinguish it, workers decided to close the pit’s outlets and starve the fire of air. The following morning, with 1,795 workers inside the mine’s deep tunnels, a huge explosion issued forth from the Cecil pit. Apparently, fissures in the pit’s walls had allowed in flammable gases that were then sparked by the still-smoldering fire. It was 7 a.m. when debris rocketed out of the tunnels’ openings. Several people on the surface were killed by the blast and the roof a mine office was blown right off the building.

Fires raged from every opening of the mine and many people suffered terrible burn injuries. Since the fires continued to burn, rescuers and family members of the miners were unable to send help down the mine shafts. One rescue party of 40 men paid the ultimate price for their attempt—they were all killed when the shaft they were descending collapsed. Soon, French soldiers were called in to establish order from the mounting chaos outside the mine.

As bodies began to be found, a mortuary was established near the mine. It took weeks for the all of the bodies to be recovered and identified. In the end, the casualty toll from this disaster was 1,060 miners killed, with hundreds more suffering serious injuries.