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.

Luxor, Egypt

May 4, Saturday.  We have entered Egypt today. We docked at Sagafa, somewhat near Luxor, and then were met by our guide for the Egypt extension. His name is Ahmed Wasfat. I managed to remember his last name because once Ahmed “was fat” but now he is not. LOL. To be a guide in Egypt one must have a four year degree in Egyptology, so we can expect a decent level of expertise from Ahmed.  We are also happy to learn that we can understand his English pretty well. Our morning was consumed by a long bus ride to Luxor through mostly desert. At first the terrain was rocky and mountainous.  Eventually it became flatter and more sandy, and then near Luxor we began to see a few green fields as we neared the fertile Nile river valley. Ahmed told us that is typical of Egypt.  The country is divided between inhospitable rocky mountains, a great deal of barren desert, and the Nile where all the people live. 

Near Sagafa there are rocky mountains rising from the sandy desert

Further down the road, sand as far as you can see

Near Luxor and the Nile where irrigation is possible and the Egyptian breadbasket thrives

We arrived at our hotel, the Sonesta St. George, in time for a buffet lunch and an afternoon tour of temples. Luxor was called Thebes by the ancient Greeks.

We started at the enormous Karnak temple complex. the largest temple in the world. The scale is huge and the entire site is impressive. 

This is a model of the entire temple complex.  Only about 1/3 has been excavated and even that is huge.

It was also boiling hot, so by the time we left, most of us were pretty wiped out.  No rest for the Weary Tourist, however.  The temple was awesomely large and surprisingly well preserved considering it is nearly 4000 years old. Unlike ruins you see in most other places where the buildings have fallen down and must be rebuilt, here they were more likely to have been covered by sand. Almost no restoration has been necessary here. The sand kept these enormous buildings erect and probably even preserved colors and carvings much better than if they had been exposed to weather all this time. The carvings alone are fascinating because they all tell stories of the pharaohs and the gods, and even to some extent of the people.

Approaching the temple, a row of rams-headed sphinx leads to the entrance.
These seems small until you notice the people in the distance.

Protected by each ram is a statue of the king, Ramesses II.
The ram symbolizes Amun, the chief god to whom the temple was dedicated.

Although some have lost horns, they are in surprisingly good condition.

Majestic from any angle

This is the view as you enter the temple.  Note the tiny people at the bottom.

One of many depictions of the king.  Our guide jokingly called Ramesses II "the busy boy"
because he had many wives and concubines and over 100 children.

The Pharaohs were always idealized in these depiction.  No matter what their age when the statue
was created, the king is always young, strong, and powerful with beautiful idealized features.

Protected by her royal father is one of Ramesses II's daughters

Moving on in the temple complex

The circle is the symbol of the god Ra, who is generally depicted with the head of a falcon

The oval cartouche identifies the person or god who is honored here.

Originally most of the complex would have had a heavy stone roof, making it dark except for the clerestory windows between the tall central portions and the somewhat lower side sections.  Now it is open to the Egyptian sun, and light and shadow create interesting patterns as well as a completely different atmosphere.

It is amazing to still see color in some of the carvings,  The paint used then was made
from ground colored stones and gems and has resisted fading to a surprising degree.

Click to enlarge.  The person on the far left is a woman.  To the right of her is the god Amun,
identified by the two plumes of his headdress and the ankh in his hand.  The other person is
probably presenting a tribute. Cut off on the far right is probably Ra with his disk and falcon head.

These columns are about 28 feet in circumference

A guide and a couple of tourists resting in the shade tell the story of scale

One of two obelisks in the temple.  Buried in sand for hundreds of years, the carvings remain deep and readable.

A last look at the promenade leading to the temple of Karnak

From Karnak, we went back to the smaller Luxor Temple.  Both temples were impressive and interesting, but we were glad to finally return to the hotel. A trip back to Karnak to see the light show was scheduled for after a short rest period, and we truly planned to go, but once in the hotel, we started thinking bout how late dinner would be (9:30 or so) and changed our minds. In the end, only seven of our group of 26 attended, and the next morning most said we had made the right choice.  Meanwhile, here are photos from our daytime visit.

This was taken from the bus and reveals the much smaller size of Luxor Temple

Papyrus bud columns typify this temple, dedicated to the god, Amun-Ra.
Apparently the older gods Amun and Ra merged into one at some point.

Luxor was built by the pharaoh Amenhotep. 

The headdress of the Pharaoh shows he is king of both upper and lower Egypt.
Interestingly, upper Egypt is the southern portion and lower Egypt lies to the north
because it is the lower or delta end of the Nile.

The temple and its younger neighbor, a mosque

This mosque is also a national historic site and therefore preserved.  It sits way above the path we walked through the temple because at the time it was built, it rested on the sand that covered the temple.  Today, the mosque is still in use, but the door we see here is not in service, thanks to the excavation of the temple below.

Statues honoring the pharaoh are everywhere

In this idealized version, he is sporting a beautiful headdress similar to what we see in the movies and the false beard that was common to most of these pharaoic depictions.

Here he is with his double crown, false beard, and symbols of office.

The side of his throne depicts a story about his power

Many depictions show roped captives following successful wars.  They are interestingly detailed and even slightly different from each other.  These slaves are from Africa.  Note their slightly different though stylized faces.

These slaves came from the Middle East

The temple changed hands over the centuries.  This section was reworked as a Roman altar.
The columns and the painting are clearly Roman.

Nearby in the corner is another Roman surprise.  Plastering over the Egyptian carvings
allowed the Romans to leave behind painted portraits of their own people.

Here we see that the Egyptians also used paint.  Both are surprisingly well preserved.

We drove between temples by modern roads.  Back in the day, a sphinx-lined
boulevard connected the two.   Today it is being restored.