Luxor, Egypt

May 5, Sunday.  We had a full morning of sightseeing today. Our first stop after crossing the river from Luxor was at the Colossi of Memnon, which date from about 1350 BC. This was a short stop so we could photograph the statues, and then we were back on the bus.  

Both statues are very badly damaged and it is difficult to imagine what they might originally have looked like.

The lower half of this one is supposedly more original.  The upper half and all of the other statue were reputedly partially restored by the Romans.  The very large temple that used to be here is gone.  This area has been subject to flooding for millennia, hence the poor condition of what was once a major temple. 

This photo shows both statues and a person in the foreground who helps us appreciate their immense size.

Next we went to Habu Temple. It is large, though not nearly so huge as Karnak, with interesting relief carvings and some surprisingly vivid paint still visible.

This rogue palm tree greeted us as we approached the temple.

The temple entrance

A female is  depicted here--one of the few we have seen.  She is the goddess Sehmet.

Some of the famous carvings

An entryway with very deep carvings

Around to one side, this carving is very rare because it represents common daily life more than events in the lives of the pharaohs.  In it you can see cattle, fish in a river, archers hunting, grain growing, all helping us understand how the people here managed to survive and thrive.

As always. looking up yields sights of less faded glories.  The paint here is quite vivid considering its age.

The gods Ra and Amun interact with mortals of high rank

The Pharaoh is showing his captives to Amun

We know these are captives because they are connected to each other and to the
King by a rope, and their arms are held over their heads in submission.

Looking closer, we can see individuality in their faces.

Every column tells a story

Those that have been sheltered from the sun tell their tales in technicolor

A section of the temple way at the back--also filled with carvings and some color.

If a person understood the symbols and hieroglyphics, there are stories everywhere here.

From there we stopped to see the Hatshepsut Temple, merely a photo stop to see the unusual temple carved into the side of a hill. Our guide, in an effort to help us remember her name, referred to Queen Hatshepsut as "hot chicken soup."

I wish we could have visited this temple. It looks very modern from here.

On to the Valley of the Kings where unfortunately no photography is allowed.  There are many tombs here including those of Ramesses II and Tutahnkamun.  There are no relics remaining in these tombs, however.  Some are in museums and some have been lost to looting.  I asked our guide if he thought more tombs would be discovered with the kinds of riches found in King Tut's tomb and now on display at the museum in Cairo.  He replied that no more than one third of the area has been excavated, so he is quite sure that some day more treasures will be found.  I'm sure every archeologist working in this area hopes to be the one to make such an historic discovery!

Excavation continues in areas surrounding the Valley of the Kings.

This is the original hotel that was built in the 1920s to house the people who were working on the original excavations after these magnificent relics were discovered by the British.  Today it is being turned into a museum, which should be an excellent addition to this important area.

It was not so hot this morning, so we were much less wilted when we arrived at the Luxor airport for our Air Memphis flight to Cairo. Turns out our airline owns exactly one plane, ours, a DC9 that was built in 1980. We were glad not to know that until after we had arrived safely in Cairo. It was unnerving enough to have seen how bald the plane's tires were! We arrived a couple of hours late, thanks to the usual charter flight snafus, and were glad to see our hotel and dinner buffet.

We stayed at the Hotel Conrad in Cairo, a very nice five star with a bathroom that did not require an engineering degree to use the bathroom.  Oh, I think I forgot to mention our hotel in Luxor.  It was quite nice, but the very luxurious bathroom was a real challenge to deal with.  The shower boasted all sorts of buttons, shower heads, and instructions, none of which quite seemed to jibe with reality.  Fortunately, you could still turn on the water in ann old-fashioned semi-intuitive way and get a very nice normal shower.  On to the toilet.  More buttons and instructions, but eventually we learned how to simply flush it.  I know this was all intended to impress the guests, but all I could think was that the more electronics you have, especially around water, the more can go wrong. Yep, I'm clearly STILL a cheap date.  LOL.