Luxor

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The three hour train ride north from Aswan to Luxor took us past many villages on the banks of the Nile, which left us feeling very privileged and fortunate to live the way we do! They have so little, but are still so very genuinely warm and friendly people!

Our first day in Luxor took us up into the Valley of the Kings, which was quite scenic and extremely hot! We checked out three different tombs (Tuthmosis III, Tawosret/Sethnacht and Tuthmosis IV in case you were curious), and it was quite interesting to see the various styles of hieroglyphics and decoration (colouring, carvings of different animals and different sarcophagi, etc). From here we hiked up out of the valley (despite warnings from signs not to) and over the mountain to go to the Temple of Hapshepsut (try saying that three times fast!) which was rather beautiful.

We spent our second day early on at the Temples of Karnak, which is quite possibly the most amazing man-made "thing" I've seen! The overall temple is over 2km square in area and had been added to or modified over thousands of years. It has huge (at least 20m high) gates and walls surrounding it, all sorts of statues like goat-headed sphinxes (or sphinxi?) and other various egyptian dudes, and 134 carved columns that are at least 3m in diameter and at least 15m tall! An awe inspiring site indeed!

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