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Published: March 16th 2009
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Day 2 started at 2:20am with our driver taking us to the airport for our 4am flight to Luxor. It was the last flight available when I booked it, in hindsight probably not the best idea. Amazing at 2:30 in the morning how many people were on the streets of Cairo, and not coming out a club hammered out of their minds... Flight was fine, airport security in Egypt certainly not as strict as here. We had someone pick us up and drop us off at our cruiseboat, where we assumed we would begin our tour right away. So we sat in the lobby of the boat from about 6am until the Luxor tour organizer and guide showed up at about 8:30. Arabic time as they say.
First stop was the Colossi of Memnon. 2 60' sandstone statues of Pharoah Amenhotep III (14th century BC) is pretty much all that remains here. At one point they guarded the entrance to a massive memorial temple, but the statues are all that have survived. A few photos here and on to our next stop.
Valley of the Kings
After the Pyramids, Valley of the Kings is likely the next
most well known relic of Ancient Egypt. Basic history is that the pharoahs of the New Kingdom (16th to 11th century) realized that building huge pyramids on the horizon is not the best way to try and hide your tomb from the graverobbers. Their solution was to build very nondescript tombs into the side of the Theban hills (Thebes was the ancient name of Luxor) on the west bank of the Nile. All the necropolis' in Egypt lie on the west bank because the sun is said to "die" in the west each night, and return to life in the East. It is of course best known for the tomb of Tutankhamun. King Tut was actually a very insignificant pharoah who took control when he was 8 or 9 years old and died about 10 years later. But his tomb in the VOK has been the only one discovered that was not found by graverobbers. The only reason his was not found is that another pharaoh came along and build the entrance to his tomb directly above tut's. The riches found in his tomb are incredible (we saw them later at the Egyptian musuem in Cairo) and provide an insight
to what some of the other pharoh's must have had in their tombs.
The entry ticket provides entrance to visit 3 tombs. Currently there are 63 known tombs, 18 of them open to the public on a rotating basis. The day we were there there was about 9 tombs open. King Tut's tomb is a separate ticket costing 100 pounds ($22), and is very basic compaired to others, so we skipped it. We visited Tutmosis III, Ramses I and Ramses IV. No pics allowed inside, but the tombs are elaborately decorated with various scenes of Egyptian mythology, such as the Book of the Dead.
VOK was very cool, from there we went to one of the Alabaster factories (I forgot to tell the guide no shopping, so we just went with it). Probably the shadiest people we met and most uncomforable experience. They give you the little demo, then give you tea and tell you to go look around. We decided to buy a granite bust of King Tut. First price $65 US dollars!!!. In the end I paid $16, which was still probably too much. Then the guy asked for his baksheesh (tip), I politely told him
that I'm pretty sure he just made some money off me, he insisted he just worked there and didn't get much. He then asked us to come back inside as our guide was finishing his breakfast. I think they could tell I was not impressed when I said go get our guide and we were quickly on our way.
Next stop was the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, or the joke every tour guide uses, Queen Hot-Chicken-Soup. Very cool looking temple backed into the mountain. Hatshepsut was also a female pharoah, which although wasn't unheard of, was rare. Basically her son was too young to assume the throne, so she took charge. At the end of her son's reign, Tutmoses III, and into the reign of his son, they destroyed many of the images of her as pharoah.
Last stop of the day was the Valley of the Queens. Quite similar to VOK, but the tombs generally were not as big and didn't have as many rooms. The most well known is the tomb of Queen Nefertari, who was Ramses II favorite wife. Its not open to public anymore, but if you have 20,000 pounds ($4,500) you can arrange
a visit. Everything in Egypt can happen with cash.
Back to the boat, the MS Nile Festival, for the afternoon where we subsequently crashed until dinner was served at about 8pm. The boat was really nice and the food was quite good. Most of the guests were Italian, Spanish, British, and a few from the west. We were definitely one of the youngest groups on the boat.
Day 3 - began with a visit to Karnak temple. Its a huge complex covering 60 acres, began in the 16th century BC and added onto and modified for almost 2000 years and by about 30 different pharoahs. Most impressive is the 134 columns in the hypostyle hall, ranging from 30 feet to almost 70 feet. There's also some pretty impressive obelisks and monuments here.
We went straight from Karnak over to Luxor temple. Luxor temple was contructed in the 14th century BC, but most of what remains today was commissioned by Ramses II, who was considered Egypt's greatest builder. At one point Luxor and Karnak temples were connected by a line of sphinxes, some of which remain. There is a project initiated by Luxor's governor to reconstruct it, which
Karnak
Hypostyle hall means the demolition of tonnes of private property in the way, fairly controversial issue. But building projects do not move swiftly in Egypt, so there likely won't be any change for a while. Over the years, Luxor was used as a Roman fort, a Christian church and monastery, and there is a 13th century AD mosque that still exists.
Back to the boat by lunch time for afternoon sailing. We spent most of the afternoon sitting on top of the sundeck reading, and watching life on the banks of the Nile. Pretty fascinating to see the little villages and agriculture as you're floating by. After tea time (4:30 every day on the sundeck) we met our guide Alaa' in the bar, who gave us a very thorough 1.5 hour history of Egypt right from pharonic Egypt through the Israeli wars to today's Mubarak government. It was definitely interesting, but a little long in one shot and we really didn't know what was going on at first, he just invited us to meet him up by the bar. Once we finished, we felt better as we saw one of the big package vacation groups getting the same talk by their
Luxor temple
The other obelisk was moved to Place de la Concorde in Paris in 1831 rep, a couple of the teenagers fast asleep. Dinner at 8pm, then off to bed.
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