Egypt - Luxor and around

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We left mount sinai and headed towards Luxor in the centre of Egypt. From luxor we had plans to take in many of the sites in Egypt including the Valley of the Kings, Abu Simbel temple and Karnak Temple.

When we arrived in Luxor the first thing we noticed was the heat, it was scorching the temperature reached 52 degrees celcius and there was nowhere to shelter as the desert has a distinct lack of shade.

After recovering from the heat we made our way to the Valley of the Kings. This is where all the royal tombs of the pharoahs are housed and is a major tourist attraction in the Luxor area. The tombs are actually underground and no photography is allowed in them however inside the tombs are amazing in there detail and the hyroglyphics on the wall maintain many of there original colours. This is the site where the legend of Tu tan khaman began as his tomb was discovered completely untouched with all the pharaohs treasures inside.

After the valley of the kings we made our way to the temple of Abu Simbel, situated on the banks of Lake Nasser. The temple was built by the Pharoah Ramses the second who considered himself to be a god, as a place to praise himself. Ramses lived till he was over 90 and had over 100 children and nearly 90 wives. So in ancient Egypt people thought he was an immortal god. The temple at Abu Simbel is amazing. The temple itself has been moved because of the flooding of the neardby lake Nasser, but it now overlooks the beautiful Lake.

Inside the city of Luxor there are many ancient temples, the most impressive of which is Karnak temple. Karnak Temple was built by a number of Pharoahs as a place to worship gods and as each Pharoah added there own touches the temple became ever more impressive.

After a few days of sightseeing in Luxor we headed off on a felucca trip down the nile. A felucca is basically a small sailing boat covered in cushions and you sit abck and cruise down the nile for 2 nights. The felucca was a really great experience and allowed us to see some great bits of the nile from the comfort of our felucca.

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Photos

the entry to karnak temple
the entry is lined by statues of rams not sphinxes