Luxor, Egypt

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March 24, 2008

Luxor, Egypt

Monday morning we had a very early wake up call to beat the large crowds that visit the many temple sites in Luxor. Luxor was the capital of the united North and South Egypts for many hundreds of years and because of this many important sites are here. These include the Valley Of The Kings and The Valley Of The Queens on the west side of the Nile and the Luxor and Karnac Temples on the east side.

The Valley Of The Kings has many excavated burial tombs including a very small but very famous tomb, The tomb of King Tut. Famous because it was one of the only tombs found that hadn’t been looted and all the artifacts were still in the tomb when it was discovered. King Tut was in power for a very short time and his treasures were rather insignificant compared to rulers who lived longer.

This visit included walks into the tombs to see where the sarcophagus were kept as well as the places for storing all the goods the kings would need in the afterlife. The paintings and carvings inside the tombs are absolutely amazing. The entrance tunnels go as far as a few hundred meters underground in some of the tombs and the artwork is all the way in on the walls and ceilings. They feel that there are still many more undiscovered tombs still to be found in this area.

Karnac was the largest temple built in Egypt and was an ongoing project for about 2000 years. (covers over 22 acres ). This was a very long and very hot day with a lot to see in the morning and early afternoon. The temperature was 39 C officially but it felt a lot warmer than that. In fact it was just plain HOT !!!!!. We were very glad we got an early start on the day and beat most of the heat.

All in all a very good, but very tiring, day in Luxor. We checked into our hotel in the afternoon and spent some time relaxing and taking it easy for the rest of the day.

Tomorrow we have a quiet day in Luxor and a late afternoon flight to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt for a couple of days at the beach and hopefully some scuba diving in the Red Sea.

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