egypt: luxor

My flight arrived in Luxor at 0810, not long after sunrise. I got off the plane and saw a lot of clouds and a small airport. It didn't take long for my bag to come through baggage claim, thank goodness. I took the time to watch everyone else, I'm sure the great majority of them were tourists like me. Some people bring a LOT of luggage.

My new guide and driver met me just outside the airport. We all hopped in the car and started driving, it didn't take long to get to the river, where my boat was docked. It was only about 0900 I think, and check in wasn't until 1230. Nevertheless the boat staff took my bag, so I guess this is something they deal with everyday.

All three of us got back in the car, and drove to Karnak Temple. It isn't far from Luxor, though I don't know the distance. (I should look it up.) I'm guessing it is actually in the city limits of Luxor, though who knows.

We were some of the first to arrive at the temple. I guess that's one of the benefits of being on a flight early in the morning. Since there was no place to hang out and relax, why not go to the first sight on the itinerary?

Karnak Temple is actually a complex of temples, it is BIG. The complex was built by several pharoahs, each adding his/her bit onto what was already there.

My guide told me the last pharoah lost power before finishing his bit, which was actually a good thing for today's archaeologists. Because the building wasn't finished, the 'scaffolding' was left behind. Archaeologists had wondered for years how the builders of temples and tombs had lifted the bricks and stones to such high levels, and this scaffolding gave them their answer. Oddly enough, these 'empty' and unfinished walls surround the entrance area used by tourists.

You enter the complex after walking down a short street of ram headed statues. Back in the day, this road was quite long.

Now, many of them are missing their faces or various bits and pieces. If I understand correctly, most of them weren't here to begin with, but archaeologists have decided to put them here and make this side the entry for visitors.

This small road leads to a narrow-ish entry between the two unfinished walls. After walking through, my guide pointed out the scaffolding to me. It's not scaffolding like we think of it now, it is the scaffolding they used back then.

Archaeologists are actually glad the powers that be left and quit so fast. Otherwise they wouldn't have left the scaffolding behind, and archaeologists wouldn't have known how the temples were made to be so big.

Off to one side of this entry area is a temple. It isn't big, but both sides (on the inside) are lined with large statues. One of the temples to Ramses, I think.

At the entry to another area of the complex (which I think means the entry to another temple in the complex,) are two really really big statues. I'd been in Egypt less than 24 hours, and I'd already realized I'd be seeing plenty of these really big statues. It's one of the ways the pharaohs and their courts were able to display power and wealth.

Inside this area were a lot of columns. (Another thing I'd see plenty of during my tour.) The columns had originally been covered in paint and pictures, telling stories and assuaging the gods. There is very little paint left, though there is a little in places that haven't been touched much, by people or by the weather.

While we were walking through this complex my guide told me of the French explorer who had decided to excavate this temple, to remove the sand that covered much of the area. He decided to do this by letting the water of the river flow through. Apparently he thought the water would simply go through and take just the sand with it.

Obviously (to anyone who knows physics,) this is not how it worked. When the water went through, it took the sand, but also the bottoms of all the columns. All of the columns had to be rebuilt. Silly French ;)

In one area of the complex I could see the remains of two obelisks that had originally been dedicated to Queen Hatshepsut.
They'd both been slightly destroyed because her brother was really jealous, and did his best to break everything she left behind when she died. Sibling jealousy is a theme through all of history.

I got to see the green granite door in the complex, a gate through which only the pharaoh and his head priest would've been allowed to go through.

I got to see areas that are still being excavated, although rather slowly. Ever since the revolution in 2011, money for archaeology from the government has been hit and miss. No one really knows what is still left to be found.

Eventually we left the temple complex, I bought postcards and a drink from one of the many stalls on the way out. There were a whole lot more people wandering around by this point. I already appreciated having a private tour, and not having to stick to a schedule with a large group on a bus.

We found the driver, and drove to the next sight on my itinerary: Luxor Temple. It's a lot smaller than the complex at Karnak. My guide told me this is because Karnak was used for ceremonies and such, whereas Luxor was more for 'daily life.' Well, as much as daily life was normal for pharaohs and everyone else in that level of society.

There was another security check to enter Luxor Temple. These kinds of security checks are a normal part of life in Egypt these days, there are security guards everywhere. The checks at tourist sights are more cursory in terms of how closely they look at you after you go through a metal detector. My guide told me it's mostly based on intuition, that is, how the guard feels when he looks at you.

From the entry area I could see what remained of more statues lined alongside a road coming to the temple. This is what used to be several kilometers long, and connected Karnak Temple to Luxor Temple. Now you can see modern society all around, but back in the day it must've been really impressive to see this road lined with all the statues, (of sphinxes I think,) in good condition.

The entry to Luxor Temple was my first chance to see how much Ramses II thought of himself. It's putting it mildly to say he thought very highly of himself. There were two flat walls making a narrow entrance way, on either side of the entrance was a large statue of Ramses II.

When we entered the area we came into another platz area, with more statues of Ramses II. Each statue was slightly different, and my guide told me they were to mark each year of the life of Ramses II. Kindof like having professional photos taken of you each year, I suppose. The majority of the statues were made during his lifetime!

We passed through another area filled with columns that used to be painted, and more of the ceiling of this area still stands. Looking up into the corners I could see a lot more of the original painting on the walls. In other words, there is more colour, and the design is much more clear. It's amazing to think of how long this has been in existence.

Since Alexander the Great was involved in the history of this temple, (renovations when it was still being used,) there are even a couple pictures of him!

At the back of the temple is an area that was used as a Christian church for a while. Pretty amazing, if you think about it. They used the temple while trying to hide from the people in charge who didn't approve of Christianity. It was amazing to see frescoes right next to heiroglyphics, and to know that those frescoes had been painted over other heiroglyphics. As has happened throughout history, one group of people has protected another, and we got to see what still remains.

As we were walking back toward the exit of the temple, my guide told me to look up. He pointed out a couple of windows, and a door. The door looked a little odd, since it was high up on a wall and I didn't see how it could be used. Then I looked around the rest of the building. My guide told me it was a mosque that had been built on top of part of the temple before everything it had been excavated.

At the time, the temple was half covered in sand and dirt, so it made sense to build the mosque at that level. After excavation and some restoration, a door/entry to the mosque were built on the other side, with access from the street outside.

Somehow I thought it was neat to see evidence of ancient empires building on top of each other, and accomodations being made for both.

From there we walked out the exit gate of the temple. Just across the small square outside was another mosque, impossible to miss. I could hear the noon call to prayer, and the calls from several nearby mosques as well. Since this was Saturday, there weren't many people heading for the mosque. If it had been Friday, there would've been many more people.

We got back in the car, and drove to the boat. I sat on a couch in the lobby, and waited while the desk clerk checked me in.

Ten minutes later I was all settled in, and told that lunch was down in the dining room. Lunch was a large buffet, with heaps of good food. I was in heaven. I had several different kinds of protein, veggies, and fruit. Curries, salads, roasts, etc... I went waaaay overboard, but it was all good, and none of it was processed food. Yay.

I was eating at a table by myself, and less than halfway through my meal another guy came along and asked if he could sit down. I could tell he was a native English speaker, so I figured why not. He got his food, sat down, and we started chatting. He was originally from Arizona, but is now semi retired and living in various places for three months at a time.

After lunch I didn't have any plans with my guide, so Eric and I went for a walk in Luxor. Since we were obviously foreigners, and tourists at that, there were people coming up to us pretty much all the time, trying to sell us something. It was frustrating that we couldn't say no and keep walking. These men (and they were all men,) kept telling us how cheap they could be, or how everyone did it, or anything else they thought would get us to spend money. It never worked, as neither Eric nor I had any desire to buy anything, or spend any money. Except for on drinks and snacks of course. 

At one point during this walk we went into a mosque. We attempted to go in the main entrance, before a man said we first we had to go in a different entry, so I could stay in the women's area. There was also an area to take off our shoes. I looked up as always, and really liked the ceiling in this area. I was a bit disappointed I couldn't go in the main area, I couldn't even look in through the door. Argh.

As we left the mosque and picked up our shoes, the man indicated we should pay him for doing so. Eric had kept his shoes in his hands after taking them off, so he hadn't even left them to be watched.

I gave the man 20 Egyptian pounds, which was far more than I should've given, but he said it wasn't enough. He wanted me to give 200 pounds, which was absolutely ridiculous. Why would I give that much for someone who probably didn't even glance at my shoes in the period of about five minutes I was inside? Argh. Actions like this give me such a negative impression of a place. I know times are tough, but being aggressive toward visitors most defintely won't make the situation better.

During our walk we stopped in a couple small shops to check out the snack situation, I found stuff I wanted to try. I couldn't resist trying things with American names like ho-hos and ding dongs.

They weren't American brands, but hey, why not? I also found the drink I already knew I liked, a pomegranet flavoured Schweppes.

Eventually we returned to the boat, since we were tired of being pressured to spend money despite saying multiple times to everyone that we didn't want to. Men (and it's almost always men,) say things like 'just five minutes in my shop, no pressure,' or just take a look, or I give you cheap price. When I say no thank you, or just plain no, I mean it, I'm not trying to negotiate. Argh.

After our walk both of us went up onto the top deck and relaxed on the chairs for a while.

There was a tiny, shallow pool up there, which is probably used a little more during warmer months. It was sunny though, and I really enjoyed that.

Later, around 1700, I met my guide, and we also went for a walk in town. This was his first time just walking with me, it didn't take him long to figure out that I wanted to see the city, not the tourist sights upon which most people focus. It was sooooo much easier to walk with Tamer than with Eric. Since Tamer is Egyptian, when he said no to all the vendors and touts, they listened to him and went away. It was almost relaxing!

I got to guide this walk, which I enjoyed. As we walked, when I looked down a street and it looked interesting, that's where we went. Tamer pointed out a few food places with 'traditional' food (he called it oriental,) that looked rather tasty. I got to have sugar cane juice, after watching the sugar cane itself get squashed by a machine. Yum!

At one point we were on a hunt for a drink I like, called sahlab. I'm still not sure what it is, other than it's white, sweet, and good. The first cafe we tried didn't have it, neither did the second or third. We decided to try a last cafe, and we finally had success. Yay!! We sat at a table on the street and watched people while we drank. Since this was winter in Egypt, it was cool in the evening but locals thought it was cold, which made me laugh.

We went back to the boat in time to clean up and get ready for dinner. It was a special dinner, because it was Christmas. Dinner started at 2030, and was plated; waitstaff came out with each course.

I don't remember how many courses we had, maybe four or five? The food was good, but there was one major problem: the lighting was really low, so I couldn't really see what was on each plate set in front of me. A couple times I got out my phone and used the torch (flashlight) to see my food. I understand the idea of mood lighting, but I still want to see my food, and mood lighting is openly good when you're part of a romantic couple. There were plenty of families who probably also wanted to see their food. Eric and I ate together again, we figured it's nice to eat with someone who speaks the same language.

There was a party or dance of some kind after dinner, but I was tired after getting up so early, and I'm not a late night kind of person anywho.

The next morning I got to have my first experience with the buffet breakfast on the boat. Lots of food, but not as good as the lunch buffet I'd had the day before. I had an omelette made in front of me, some fruit, some veggies, yogurt, tea, etc...

I ate again with Eric, and already both of us could tell that others on the boat thought we were a couple. Hahahaha. I grabbed an apple on the way out of the dining room, in case I somehow needed a snack during the day.

I met up with my guide and we found our driver waiting just outside the boat. He took off driving in the same direction I'd walked with my guide the night before. After a little while we drove across the river, then turned toward the right, so we were basically heading back in the direction from which we'd started, but on the other side of the river. My guide told me that this was the side of the river on which locals lived, those who don't have anything to do with tourists.

We turned onto the road that was signposted to lead to the Valley of the Kings. A very long time ago, at the beginning of the ancient Egyptian empire, the pharoahs were buried in the pyramids. After too many of those tombs were looted (everyone knew exactly where they were, it's not as if the pyramids were hidden,) the powers that be decided to change things. It was decided that pharoahs would be buried in hidden tombs, in an area not close to Cairo, not close to anywhere in particular. This is how the Valley of the Kings came about. Archaeologists have found more than 60 tombs in the area, and they think it's entirely possible that more tombs could be found in the future.

Our driver dropped us off in the parkplatz, and we walked up to the ticket area. There, my guide gave me the tickets I would need, there were two. One was a ticket that allowed me to enter three tombs of my choice, and the other was for the short 'train' ride to get to the official entrance. There was also an option for a ticket to the tomb of Tutankhamun, but I skipped that one. There would've been paint on the walls in there, but nothing else, since all the items were moved into a museum.

We walked along the path, and my guide told me a bit about the various pharoahs buried there, and showed me photos of what I would see in some of the tombs.

You're not supposed to take photos inside any of them, but some of the workers will take bribes to allow you to do so. I'm not sure how I feel about such things. If photos were allowed then you'd have to deal with people moving really slowly and spending the entire time behind the lens instead of just appreciating and absorbing what they were seeing. At the same time, I don't use flash, so I know my photos don't hurt all the paintings, The administrators of this area have to take into account that the body heat and breathing of all the visitors isn't good for the tombs, which is another reason to block photos.

People go through much more quickly (and therefore release less carbon dioxide through fewer breaths) when they aren't supposed to take photos.

The three tombs I saw were Ramses IX, Merempath, and Tutmosis III. Each had similarities and differences. To get into the tomb of Ramses IX, the ramp going down wasn't very steep. The colour of the paint on the wall had held up really well, I was very impressed. (Had I used my camera in there, I would've been inside for an hour.) This tomb wasn't very big, it didn't take me long to see.

The second tomb I visited was that of Merempath. The entry ramp to this one was much more steep, and I'm sure plenty of people slip and fall at some point. There are wooden boardwalks built for the visitors, those boardwalks were not there back when the tombs were built. The colouring inside this one wasn't as vibrant, but it was so deep, and I had to admire the engineers who designed the whole thing. This tomb was also bigger, there were more rooms to see. The main room, the one with the sarcophagus seemed really big to me. It was much larger than the sarcophagus itself.

My last tomb was the tomb of Tutmosis III. To get to the entry of this one I first had to go up an exterior ladder, probably two or three flights of stairs. The entry wouldn't have been obvious to anyone, even if you were in the know. After I got to the top of the stairs, the boardwalk heading down into the tomb was rather steep. Basically, my legs were already realizing this tomb would be more of a workout than the other tombs I'd seen.

Due to being at the back of the valley, and the challenge of the ladder outside, this tomb was better preserved than the others. It also seemed more extensive to me. I walked through at least four rooms, and went up/down a set of stairs within the tomb itself. There was paint on all the walls and ceilings, and on the surfaces of the sarcophagus as well. In this tomb there were a couple employees, both wanted tips for telling me the history my guide had already told me or allowing me to take photos. I took a few photos, but didn't pay a huge amount for it. I already knew how much Egyptians make in a monthly salary, and it didn't take me long to do the math on huge tips for these employees.

After this tomb Tamer and I walked back to the official entrance, then took the train back to the ticket area. On the way out I told Tamer I wanted some postcards, he said to walk out by myself, and he would buy them for a reasonable price. He knew that if I bought them the price quoted by the vendor would be a lot higher. I loved this plan, we used it several times during my tour.

We drove out of the valley, and around to the other side. This was the tomb of Queen Hatshepsut. She wanted to have her tomb in the valley, but that didn't work out. Apparently sexism was alive and well even back then. It also didn't help her cause that her brother hated her and did everything he could to block her plans.

The temple she built was right into the back of a mountain, and pretty impressive. I loved walking through there. There is a long approach to the temple, any visitor should be stunned. In theory, every queen or pharoah worshipped several gods, but they all had their favourites. The favourite of Hatshepsut was Hathor, the Goddess of the cow. There was an entire area of the temple dedicated to Hathor.

When Hatshepsut was building this she tried to build a tunnel that would go through all the way to the Valley of the Kings on the other side, but her brother destroyed that after she died.

Our next stop was a granite shop, basically a place where they showed me how various vases and other items weree made, then say here, take a look at my stuff and buy it if you want. They offered tea, which I turned down. I know that was probably rude, but I'm not one who moseys through shopping. I look, and I decide. I don't like sitting around drinking tea unless I'm just hanging out.

We left there, then drove to the Colossei of Memnon. My guide said that when the wind blows, you can here it whistle against them. I wasn't there during any wind, so I don't know for sure. The Colossi are two huge statues of the pharoah Amenhotep III, they stand in the Theban Necropolis. (I don't understand what this area is; that is, are there other tombs? Or something else in the area?)

We drove back to the boat, in time to take part of the buffet lunch. I always overeat at buffets, but at least this time it was all yummy food. Just like the day before I had some fish, some beef, some chicken, veggies, and fruit. Yum.

Mid afternoon, the boat started moving south on the river. Eric and I spent most of the time up on the sundeck again, this time there were a lot more people up there. We were there during the full sunset, which was lovely. I suppose they have these sunsets all the time, since it doesn't rain very often. There was tea time on the sundeck, they offered tea or coffee to anyone who wanted it, as well as pieces of shortbread, or something like that. (I just had tea.)

At 1930 an official cocktail hour started in the bar. There were alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks available, I had a couple non alcoholic drinks. Main different fruit juices, which were quite tasty, but probably loaded with sugar. Dinner that night was 'normal' so it was a buffet.

I'd love to come back to Luxor and walk through other parts of town, and see other temples in the area. I love the convenience of the cruise down the river, but I don't love being on the same general schedule as everyone else.

Read the next post to read about other parts of this boat cruise.