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Published: June 26th 2017
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Geo: 25.7024, 32.6421
We have spent the last two days in Luxor, real home of Egyptology and the most amazing antiquities. We flew here on Saturday morning from Cairo and boarded our Nile cruiser, MS Crown Jewel.. Saturday afternoon was spent viewing the wonders of Karnak and Luxor temple. These are amazing. Karnak is huge, with massive columns and amazing hieroglyphics. I did expect to see James Bond emerge from between the 132 columns that adorn this place. This was built by Rameses the second and the size is breathtaking. Each of the columns are covered by deep cut hieroglyphics which still retain their splendour even after 4000 years. There are also huge statues of Rameses standing guard to keep watch over this special place. You approach it through an avenue of ram headed sphinxes and then plunge into the enormous interior.There is also the Sacred Lake which not only was there to honour the god Amon -Ra but also to check the level of the Nile so appropriate taxes could be levied.
After viewing this amazing place we went to Luxor Temple. Though this is on a smaller scale it is no less impressive. At the entrance stand two Colossi of
Rameses and one obelisk and the base of the other. That second one I have also seen but in La Place de la Concorde in Paris.On the side of the statues there are deep carvings depicting Rameses triumphing over his enemies. There are also wonderful columns here with the capitals of the Lotus and Papyrus flowers depicting the unification of the upper and lower kingdoms.. At the end of the colonnade is the Inner Sanctum which had been also used as a Christian church during the Greco-Roman period. There are remnants of Christian frescoes which had been painted over the hieroglyphs. Ironically in this section there is a depiction of Rameses giving worship to the god of fertility who is depicted as a one armed, one legged man with an enormous phallus.!
After a rather comical New Year's Eve which started with cocktails on the boat and an OK but unspectacular 5 course meal and ended with an average Belly dancing exhibition and a Whirling Dervish performance, we drove this morning to the Valley of the Kings. This is truly an awesome place. Set against a backdrop of barren cliffs and desert sands the valley ascends between a number of tomb
entrances. We visited 3 tombs which are considered the most spectacular. The first was Rameses the 4th which contained the largest sarcophagus found here and some extraordinary painted hieroglyphics including a ceiling scene of the sky goddess Nut bending over to touch her lover the earth. The colours were fantastic. The second tomb was that of Rameses the 9th which was partly unfinished but in which there was a steep descent to a lower chamber which again had vivid pictures on all the walls and ceilings. The last was of Rameses the 3rd and this was the longest at about 130 metres. It contained a second tomb found during the digging and had great paintings depicting the boat that carried the pharaoh to the afterlife with offerings for the gods and the snakes which were supposed to torment the pharaoh on his journey. We saw Tutankhamun's tomb but did not pay the extra to go in as our guide said it was very small and we had seen all the treasure in Cairo.
Our second stop for the day was at the temple of Queen Hatsepsut. This is in a spectacular location against the sheer sandy cliffs and is a three
storey tomb unlike anything else in the area. We walked up the various levels seeing again many hieroglyphics and wall paintings but most of these are rather faded now unlike the vivid pictures in the other tombs.
We are now on the boat on the Nile having set sail from Luxor about 2-30 this afternoon. Unfortunately we are at a standstill as the Nile is very shallow at the moment and we are waiting, for what I am not sure.
I will try to upload some photos later. I am using an internet card and I am not sure how many megabytes all this will take.
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