Luxor

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Luxor was stinking hot and we spent a few days there recovering from our illness. Luxor is beautiful especially along the waterfront and is basically a huge open air museum with temples, tombs and other ruins at every turn. Unfortunately it also has some of the worst hassle we have experienced, from felucca rides, ferry crossings, taxis and the annoying horse and carriage rides. On the flip side, the people are just trying to make a living and feed their family but it was hard to keep this in mind while being constantly followed and pestered. This was not helped by the fact that there were not as many tourists around as usual due to the flight disruptions from Iceland’s volcano. Travelling as a female here is quite demanding, the constant unwanted attention and sexist remarks as we walk around is especially draining and irritating.

We spent a lot of time relaxing on roof top terraces slowly recovering from our sickness and avoiding the heat as much as we could.

One of the most impressive sites in Luxor we thought was the Temples of Karnak. This is a huge complex of sanctuaries, temples, pylons and obelisks dedicated to the Theban gods. Everything is on a gigantic scale, the site itself covers over 2 sq km and the Temple of Amun it is claimed, is the largest religious building ever built. This was the most important place of worship in the New Kingdom. The most impressive site was the Great Hypostyle Hall which covers 5500 sq metres, apparently enough space to contain both Rome’s St Peter’s Cathedral and London’s St Paul’s Cathedral. The hall contains 134 papyrus shaped stone pillars. The size and decoration on the pillars was quite staggering.

An obligatory stop and apparently one of the top things to see in Egypt is Valley of the Kings. Once we got off the ferry we found a taxi driver who could take us to all the sites we wanted to see for a reasonable price. We had hoped to cycle as the West Bank was a really nice area but we were still feeling sick and in the end it was too hot anyway. Our first stop was the Temple of Hatshepsut (1473-1458 BC). The temple was amazing. It is set against a backdrop of 300m rugged limestone cliffs above the desert plain. The temple is partially cut into the cliffs and absolutely stunning with three terraces rising up from the desert. The temple was vandalised over the centuries by various pharaohs who defaced the reliefs but the middle terrace had the best preserved reliefs, some still with colour. It was stinking hot even at 8am in the morning. Our guide book describes the temple sites as one of the hottest places on earth and we would have to agree!

The next stop was the Valley of the Kings which has 63 magnificent tombs from the New Kingdom Period (1550-1069 BC).The ticket allowed entry into three tombs. The first tomb we looked at was the Tomb of Ramses IX. This is the most visited tomb in the valley. It had a really wide entrance and long sloping corridor decorated with animals, serpents and demons from the Book of the Dead. The walls of the burial chamber featured the Book of the Earth and the Book of the Heavens. It was beautiful and the colours were still really well preserved. The next tomb we visited was a walk up the hill and then via a steep staircase that crossed a deep ravine to the Tomb of Tuthmosis III (1479-1425 BC). This pharaoh was known as the Napoleon of Egypt and was one of the first to build his tomb in the valley. He chose one of the most inaccessible spots and the tomb was designed with a series of passages at haphazard angles and fake doors to mislead tomb robbers. The illustrations in this tomb were quite different to the previous one, it was populated with stick figures. The final tomb we visited was the Tomb of Ramses III (1184-1153 BC) who was one of the last of the Egyptian warriors. His tomb is one of the longest in the valley at 125m long. It is beautifully decorated with colourful paintings and sunken reliefs of traditional ritual texts, boats, harpists and the royal armoury. The final stop before boarding the ferry was the Colossi of Memnon which are the first monuments that you see when you arrive on the West Bank. These huge 18m statutes are carved from one piece of rock and are pretty much all that is left from Amenhotep III’s memorial temple.

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Comments

[Noreen Camarena]

Mc pic
Your MC Delivery pic is fantastic!! LOL Thanks for the laugh. Shared it with peeps in my office. :) Noreen