Luxor

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So unfortunately the felluca cruise didn't happen. A real bummer that, the weather took a turn for worse and became very windy - and seeing the River Nile is about as wide as the English Channel (maybe a slight exageration but it is pretty damn wide!) it was fairly choppy and not safe for a felluca!

So we had to spend a day on the felluca docked on the side of the Nile anyway, just chilling out, playing cards and eating Egyptian food. That night another group joined us and we had a bonfire on the river bank with a few beers and Nubian drumming and singing, so that was cool. The Nubians of course have their own songs but they seem to prefer an old song which everyone knows - 'She'll be coming round the mountains when she comes' however they chaneg the words slightly so that it's 'She'll be smoking hashi hashi when she comes'!!!!

Then drove up to Luxor, stopping at Kom Ombo and Edfu temples on the way which were ok. The temples do slowly merge into one - statue here, hyroglyphics there. Don't get me wrong, the temples are pretty cool but none of them at the moment compare to Abu Simbel which was actually amazing!

The next day, we went to the Valley of the Kings to check out the tombs of the Pharaohs all of which were brightly and colourfully decorated. We also went to the Tombs of the Nobles and the Tombs of the Workers which were suprisingly better than the ones of the Pharoahs. Mainly because the decorations in the tombs seems to have withstood the tests of time a lot better though the proper reason is maybe because they are less visited meaning the damn pesky tourists don't cause as much damage! The walls of the tombs were all brightly decorated with scenes of the workers life and the hopes of going to heaven, they were fairly small and pretty hot and stuffy but very cool none the less. Even cooler when you think that they were made around 3000 years ago!

To get between the two sets of tombs we had a hour hike over the hills which was pretty amazing from a boring geography sense of view - fantastic scenery that you don't get in England like seeing how abruptly the green fields end and the desert starts is pretty amazing!

So anyway, next day another temple, this time Karnark Temple - the biggest in Egypt - which was cool - i'm not really a history person so some of it goes over my head!! What it did have that was unique and so makes it stand out from the others visited was the Great Hypostyle Hall which had 63 coloums all 10 metres in circumfrence and about 25 metres tall, was like a stone forest and so I suppose it makes it a decent temple!

So anyway that was Luxor! Hope everyone is well!
ant

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Photos

Sunrise at Luxor
That's right, i've been up for a sunrise!

Ames and Me at Edfu temple!
Standing next to a very big bird!

Boring geography pic!
Look - fields then desert!

The Great Hypostyle Hall
Pretty big as you can see!