Luxor -- Tourists Under Seige

Temple of Luxor

Luxor has some unbelievably great features and it’s getting better in terms of the new walkway that’s being constructed between the Temple of Luxor and the Temple of Karnack. It’s a multi-year project to build this stone walkway 3km’s long and 10 meters wide lined with statues of the Ram god that resembles a Sphinx only with a ram’s head instead of a lion’s head.



By the time Luxor came on our agenda we’d been touring

Temple of Luxor from Across the Nile

 temple after temple and we were getting weary. Instead of touring Karnak we decided to go to the Light and Sound show … a kind of show in the Temple that has some re-enactment, music and descriptions. Karnak was so impressive if for nothing else other than its massive size. The columns are bigger than those of the Parthenon … and they’re dozens of them. There are pieces built by a number of successive Pharaohs from Ramses through to Tutankhamen. Karnak is a shrine to the god Amon from who king Tut derived part of his name. There were several obelisks, some sandstone, some granite, a number of large columns, a lake for reflection and large structures surrounding the temple. The Pharaoh’s would take a ceremonial wooden boat up the Nile and make offerings to the priests of the temple. Apparently they were the true power behind the throne.

Temple of Karnak

Columns at Karnak

Granite Obelisk at Karnak

Walking around Luxor presented a real challenge of our abilities to deal with aggressive vendors. I don’t think the kids will have much trouble haggling, negotiating, or saying no to many things for a while. We found Luxor really difficult for the first day or so, then got into the spirit of it as time went on, beginning to enjoy walking through the bazaar.

Select your Ride this one has only been driven by an old lady on Sundays ...

Is that a dog or a donkey?

On our third morning in Luxor we caught a ferry to the other side of the river and hopped on the back of some donkeys and rode to the Valley of the Kings. Ross ended up with a pint-sized donkey that was barely tall enough to keep his feet off the ground. Jessie loved her donkey – what a surprise, Marina’s was a bit pokey, and mine was the herd’s ‘bad boy’. We had to separate my donkey from Jessie’s because he kept biting her ass’ ass (couldn’t resist) – 

Keep those feet up Ross!

the donkey who receives the bite giddyaps a little when it happens. One highlight is when John, one of the guys on our trip, rode by cowboy hat in hand whooping along at a canter. Then about a minute later Ross’ donkey decided to be the front runner and trotted by with Ross’ feet hitting the ground occasionally. Despite his diminutive size, Ross’ donkey kept the lead until the end of the journey.


We dismounted, thankfully as my hips were on fire, and mounted up into the back of a Landcruiser for a couple minutes ride to the entrance of the Valley of the Kings. Once inside we had tickets to visit three tombs out of the 15 or so that are open there. We chose not to enter Ramses II’s tomb (the nicest of all) and Tutankhamen’s – the most basic as he was an unimportant king that died at age 18 and was buried in an inconspicuous place – hence why they found his tomb intact with 1.6 tonnes of Gold .. plus all the other pieces. It’s hard to imagine the amount of treasure a truly wealthy long-serving king like Ramses II (67 years) would have had in his tomb. [No Photos Here ... they collected the cameras]

OMG Another Freaking Temple

The three tombs we visited were very impressive. With some of them being carved 100 meters or more into the cliffs, they go down into the rock through wide hallways with elaborate designs carved and painted on the walls. The Ancients believed that to prepare for the afterlife, they would need to bring with them riches from this life. The mummification process would preserve the body so it would be able to serve them in the Afterlife. The organs were placed in urns and also in the tombs. During the time of the Pharaohs they would employ thousands of people to cut the rock, decorate the tombs and guard the Valley. The Valley is roughly pyramid-shaped (apparently why they chose it) and has only one entrance. Regardless of its natural protection, all the tombs were looted over the years and some time ago (can’t remember sorry) all the Royal mummies were moved to another location and disguised to protect them from robbers.

Valley of the Queens Entrance

Pigeon Hole Tombs in the Valley of the Queens

The view inside the Columns

After the Valley of the Kings we mounted up on the Landcruiser taxi and headed to the Valley of the Queens – next valley over. The temples there were reconstructed this century since they were totally destroyed over the ages. They're massive though and definitely worth the visit. The sun was shining and it was very warm … so just walking around the temple was awesome. The structures were destroyed during the crusades but parts of them have been rebuilt over the past 100 years to give us an idea of some of their original splendor.

Sunset from the Hotel Rooftop

We went back to our hotel to watch the sunset from the upper rooftop and prepared for the next day’s journey -- to Dakhla .. almost all day in the bus. We visited a mud-brick Islamic town from about 1000 years ago and got a chance to see how basic their lifestyles were. Many of today’s traditions were born from rules on how to run an orderly society 1000 years ago. When you see how basic life was … wow what a difference.