Blogs from Luxor, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa

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Africa » Egypt » Upper Egypt » Luxor November 16th 2023

Luxor: the spectacular Valley of the Kings and last day in Cairo trip to the Khan el Khalili bazaar We set off early to the Valley of the Kings to avoid crowds. We visited 6 tombs in all. Tutankhamen was a must see of course and yes we saw his mummy but the tomb is very simple.his famous burial mask is in the Egyptian museum and other treasures are all likely to end in the new Grand Egyptian Museum. The most extraordinary of the tombs was Seti 1. At an extra charge of $70AUD it was worth it. Outstanding colours and it is very big with several different sections. Other visits were to Hatshepsut (pronounced hats cheap suit), the Luxor temple at night which was great and Karnak. Karnak and Luxor temple are connected by a ... read more
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Africa » Egypt » Upper Egypt » Luxor January 25th 2023

As we approach the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Canal, thoughts turn to the excitement of Egypt, ancient ruins (no not most of the passengers) and PIRATES. We all receive a letter from the Captain informing us that on the 21st we must all take part in the ship’s pirate drill. Now I understand this does not involve wide spread issuance of parrots and tricorn hats. Neither is it a case of a free tot of rum to any passenger producing a peg leg to the bar staff. The rear open decks will be closed at night and the ship’s lights largely extinguished. In the event of an attack the passengers must gather outside their cabin and sit down on the floor. Given that we are deck 11 and a very considerable ... read more

Africa » Egypt » Upper Egypt » Luxor December 11th 2022

Legends of Luxor -Piprey on wheels Luxor was formerly called Thebes or Waset. It was the capital of the Pharaohs. It encapsulated all the wonderful things of ancient Egypt. A long-distance train from Cairo at 8am to reach Luxor at 8pm, took about 12 hours. With my zero knowledge of Arabic, conversation was impossible. Perhaps, a flight would have been a better idea. The grilled chicken lunch of the train for cost 125 LE and was bland. My co-passenger on the window seat shared his lunch of thin, long baguette with cheese and thin, meat salami which was much tastier and filling. I bought some knick-knacks like hair bands and gave two to the two young sisters playing about in the train. At Luxor, my co-passenger showed me the correct way out to the city center. ... read more
Inside Hatshetput's temple
Inside a tomb in the valley of kings
Luxor temple

Africa » Egypt » Upper Egypt » Luxor September 13th 2022

Day 2 in Luxor, with this morning's first stop being the Temple of Karnak... Construction began in the Middle Kingdom (around 2000-1700 BCE) and continued all the way up to the Ptolemaic Kingdom (305-30 BCE) with most of the buildings dating from the New Kingdom (16th-11th century BCE). The temple is huge and is believed to be the second most visited site in Egypt after the Giza Pyramid complex......... Okay, this has been sitting in Saved since March, historical research holding it up for the most part, and I have since travelled to several other places and things are getting backed up...lol...time to move on... So the condensed version of this is: Karnak is cool, probably my favourite temple visited on the trip...the site itself is a maze of temples, statues, carvings and frescoes, with the ... read more
Ankh and Bee Carvings in Karnak Temple
Lovely K and I at the Entrance to Karnak
Avenue of the Sphinxes

Africa » Egypt » Upper Egypt » Luxor June 12th 2022

Luxor by lunch time, the temperature is in the range of the 45 degrees! So the trick here again is to wake up super early to enjoy a beautiful early morning. We are lucky, most sites around Luxor do open at 6am. This means an early 5am wake up call to be ready by the gate of sites at 6am. Most tourist buses only show up around 7.30am, so we have nearly each day sites just for ourselves. We are spending two nights in Luxor. First day was a train arrival just on time for dinner. We are staying at the Winter Palace run by Sofitel. This is the poorer sister of the Old Catarat in Aswan. One more time, a top upgrade in the third best suite of the house...with a very nice private terrace ... read more
Hatshepsut
Dinner at the Winter Palace, with the required dress code...
Ramses V & Vi tomb...

Africa » Egypt » Upper Egypt » Luxor January 27th 2022

Early wakeup, with bags out by 6.30am as we were off to the airport early to catch our flight home. In the morning we flew from Luxor to Cairo. Then there was a wait to change planes and we flew home to Israel. Egypt-Air provided kosher meals on all the flights. Although the final flight was just over an hour long, the airline had obtained full dinner packs for us kosher passengers compared to the simple sandwich served to others. Unfortunately that meant 40 minutes to warm the food, and insufficient time to eat it. Many people including us brought home whatever we could salvage to eat later. Yesterday on the bus everyone had PCR tests for Covid and all results were negative. But today after landing in Israel, a majority of the group tested positive ... read more

Africa » Egypt » Upper Egypt » Luxor January 26th 2022

After breakfast we went back across the Nile by boat again to the Valley of the Kings area. This time our focus was the Ramesseum, the massive memorial temple of Ramses II, the Pharaoh of the Exodus. We saw the massive inscription of his 80 year reign, full of references that bring alive the story of the Exodus and the building of the Mishkan. The temple is surrounded by mudbrick storehouses that date from the period of the Exodus. At this site we entered several tombs. Migo and Rabbi Berman pointed out many relevant hieroglyphs and coloured images. Their explanations helped us understand how the Egyptian kings told their story through artwork. In particular they highlighted elements which could relate to biblical references. . On the bus we all had PCR tests for Covid, required before ... read more
Theban Necropolis of Rameses
to Rameses V/VI tomb
Tomb of Rameses V/VI

Africa » Egypt » Upper Egypt » Luxor January 24th 2022

When I said we were up early, I meant early! 0400, bags outside the room at 0430 and on the bus at 0500. We just had time to grab a bite to eat and make our sandwiches for the day. We arrived at the airport in no time - there is little traffic at this time of day - checked in and sitting around waiting for our flight to Luxor. The name Luxor is the modern Arabic name meaning palaces. The ancient Egyptian name was Waset, meaning the city of the sceptre. It was the ruling centre. The Greeks renamed the city Thebes and it became the capital of Egypt. The Arabs couldn’t say Thebes and so it became Luxor which means temples in Arabic. The city became important during the 11th dynasty when the town ... read more
huge Karnak Temple columns
Karnak Temple ram heads
lonely Luxor Temple obelisk

Africa » Egypt » Upper Egypt » Luxor November 29th 2021

25 Nov (Toujours en felouque sur le Nil) 6hAM. Armada, capitaine de la felouque, a déjà largué les amarres. Je me dérouille à peine, sorti depuis peu de sous mes deux gros tapis utilisés comme couvertures. Un filet doux et orangé orne les palmiers de la berge. Sur l'eau, une fine bruine se décolle du Nil au travers de laquelle s'aperçoit un pêcheur, seul sur sa barque silencieuse. Une délicate buée voltige aussi sur l'eau de ma tasse matinale dans laquelle Armada a, sans filtre, ébouillanté des feuilles de thé. Toujours endormi, le vent laissera l'onde fluviale en miroir, du moins jusqu'au retour du plein soleil. Le capitaine n'a pas encore ouvert la grande voile: il nous laissera glisser au large alors que, cigarette au bec, il nous fera bouillir des oeufs à la coque. Après ... read more
Karnak 4
Luxor Temple
Karnak 2

Africa » Egypt » Upper Egypt » Luxor February 12th 2021

http://www.heygo.com 12th February - Luxor The construction of the Avenue of Sphinxes began during the New Kingdom and finished during 30th Dynasty rule of Nectanebo I (380-362 BC). Around 1,200 sphinx statues are thought to have lined this road together with barque chapels stocked with offerings. The Avenue is one of the most important archaeological and religious paths in Luxor, as it was the location of important religious ceremonies in ancient times, most notably the Beautiful Feast of Opet where once a year during the festival Egyptians paraded along it carrying the statues of Amun and Mut in a symbolic re-enactment of their marriage. The Sacred Road was first discovered in 1949 in front of Luxor temple. Subsequent excavations between 1958 and 1964 increased the initial exposure, revealing the Avenue from Luxor temple to the rea ... read more




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