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Published: December 15th 2008
Leaving Aswan can be done in style on a 5 star Nile cruiser or the good old way on a Felucca. Feluccas have ploughed the Nile since ancient times and there is a good reason for this. Which one I don’t know but I guess it must have something to do with the high oil price and the fact that Feluccas have sails. Well guess what, we chose the Felucca. We were quite lucky and had only two other Japanese guys on the boat. This gave us plenty of space to lounge around.
A Felucca isn't the biggest boat around and 80% of the boat consists of the cargo hold which for the purpose of lugging tourists around is covered with floor boards onto which mattresses are laid. That's about it. No toilet no kitchen nothing. The food is cooked by the captain and his helper (there is never just one guy working) next to the rudder and the toilet is some green space or sand dune next to the Nile. That's the way to travel. It was great to slowly (very slow) cruise down the Nile while reading or playing backgammon (our newest craze) no need to hurry. Don't understand
Chilling
Not much more to do for 1 1/2 days on the feluccawhy you would want to be on those 5 star luxury cruisers with their bars, restaurants, pools, deck chairs, fancy dress up parties and bathrooms...
Once arrived in
Luxor the ancient world was our oyster. There is so much to see here its frightening. The town itself has the aptly named Luxor temple smack bang in the middle of the town and the major calls Luxor the largest outdoor museum in the world (he wouldn't lie would he?).
The first (of many) temple that we visited is the world famous temple of
Karnak. The temple complex is spread out over an area of over 2 sq. km and contains one of the biggest religious building in the world the Hypostyle Hall. The hall is massive and contains a stunning 122 columns of which some are 21 meters high. All columns and all walls are highly decorated with hieroglyphs, figures of Pharaohs and gods and various battle scenes. It must have a stunning sight when everything was brightly coloured and some of the colours are still visible today.
The temples go on an on after the Hypostyle Hall with some in good and some in bad condition. One
of them has the best preserved paintings I have seen so far in Egypt. As usual most of the temple complex was below sand before it was rediscovered again. Since then a massive rebuilding program put all the puzzle pieces together but there is still heaps left and can be seen outside on a massive field. There are fragments of various size and shape laying around waiting for some bored archaeologists with a puzzle fever.
As you can imagine the temple (and Luxor) is very popular with tourists and I counted 50 large tours buses in the parking lot and I am sure I missed quite a few. That was just when I left. The average tour group spends about 1 1/2 hours. You do the maths.
The day after we joined a small tour to see the attractions on the west bank of the Nile. We could have visited them by ourselves but its pretty hard to make sense of temples and tombs by just reading a few words in the guidebook so we settled for the tour including tour guide. It was good but very quick.
We started with the valley of the Queens. I can
only guess why the Pharaohs wanted to have a different location for their tombs from their women but I suspect it had to do with nagging and peace after death. Anyway the Valley of the Queens contains various tombs of Queens and the offspring of Pharaohs and is a gentle introduction to the tombs to be seen in the Valley of the Kings. In total we visited three tombs which all were fully decorated with carvings and paintings which have fared absolutely fantastic over the last three thousand years. The colours are vibrant and some of the tombs look like they have been finished yesterday. There is nothing in them as grave robbers have emptied them centuries ago and what was left is now stored in various museums around the world. Nevertheless a great start.
Afterwards we visited the temple of
Hatshepsut which is not only famous as it is a stunning temple but also because in 1997 62 people died here in a terrorist attack when they were gunned down by some crazy dudes thinking to improve the world through violence.
The temple is actually the funeral temple for the female Pharaoh Hatshepsut. Apparently she cheated a bit
and dressed mostly as a men as being Pharaoh was a male dominated occupation.
Each Pharaoh needed a temple to be remembered and for the underlings to bring offerings to. They tried to be clever and placed the temple and tomb at a different location to confuse grave robbers and make life harder for them. The temple consisted of three levels and a massive ramp connecting them. The carvings on the wall were quite interesting as some of them told of journeys to far lands and the people, wildlife and plants the Egyptians found there. Another tells of the carving of a giant obelisk which now stands in the Karnak temple. As usual there are also a lot of rather large statues of the Pharaoh.
The next stop is the most famous of all the sites in Luxor the
Valley of the Kings the resting place of many Pharaohs. The tombs range from rather small and quickly finished to elaborate and nicely carved. The styles of decoration also changed over time and some figures look more like stick figures and others have elaborate paintings on the walls and ceilings.
The tomb for a Pharaoh was started once he climbed the throne and
the size of the tomb is therefore determined by how long the Pharaoh reigns. In some cases this was over 80 years and in some a lot shorter. Some of the tombs were finished in a hurry and the most famous example is the tomb of Tutankhamen. He was rather young when he died and the tombs (judging by some pictures that I saw) look like a couple of garages and only one of them is painted.
Unfortunately no one is allowed to take photos inside and this is strictly enforced. You need to go there yourself to see it. Not a bad holiday destination that one I can guarantee you.
They are still discovering new tombs on a regular basis and the last one as discovered in 2008. We saw some digging going on and I can tell you that not much has changed since Howard Carter was digging here. It is all done by hand and looks like painstaking work. It is also amazing that they haven't found everything there is to find as the valley is not very large and there must have been hundreds of archaeologist looking for fame and fortune here.
Being close to
templed out but knowing that I wont see anything like this in long time I decided to put my bum on a bike and visit also the Tombs of the Nobles. Everyone of any importance wanted a tomb back then and the nobles were no exception. The main difference between the tombs is the location and the size. Some tombs of the Nobles came close to the size of the Pharaohs. The main difference is what is painted on the walls. The Pharaohs were busy getting their afterlife sorted out and the walls are covered with text and pictures of the book of the dead. This was meant to help them to navigate the many steps to afterlife with ease. The Nobles were a bit more pragmatically and depicted scenes of daily life. There were scenes of hunting and even a barber is depicted.
I even was crazy enough to visit another temple which turned out to be one of the best I have seen but I cant write any more about temples and I guess you don’t want to read anything about any temples anymore.
Now we are in serious need for a break
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