Third Day in Luxor

Today we hired a horse and carriage and took a tour through the city. We visited a market which looked much as it could have thousands of years ago. Teeming with people in a very narrow alley, it seemed that almost anything could be purchased here. We saw every sort of fruit and vegetable imaginable, baskets piled high with spices and vegetable dyes, slabs of meat hanging in doorways and live chickens (Jerry actually saw one being killed, but I am grateful I did not see this). I wanted to take pictures here, but we were already conspicuous and I was afraid of irritating the locals, so I refrained.

Next we headed to the Luxor museum. While small, it houses a few mummies and a number of well-preserved artifacts, including statues, sarcophigi, furniture, weapons and a royal chariot. Again, no photos allowed, so I don't have anything to show here.

Here are a few pictures of Luxor and the Nile from the balcony of our hotel room (we're staying at the Sonesta St. George - highly recommended).

Second Day in Luxor

This morning we visited the temples at Karnak and Luxor.

The Karnak temple complex is vast, covering over 200 acres. It was built over a period of about 1,300 years, with contributions from about thirty different pharaohs.



Hypostyle Hall with 134 giant columns.




Color still visible on the ceiling of the temple.

Obelisks of Tuthmosis I and his daughter, Hatshepsut, one of the few female pharaohs of ancient Egypt.


Next, we visited the Luxor temple, which is considerably smaller than that at Karnak and is located within the city of Luxor. This temple was built largely by Amenhotep III and Ramesses II to host one of the most important festivals of ancient Egypt. Most of the statues here are of Ramesses II.



At Luxor temple, we saw a different style of column we hadn't ecountered before; these were meant to resemble bundles of papyrus reeds.

This was our last day on the boat; after the excursion, we said goodbye to the Oberoi and headed for our hotel in Luxor. As we were feeling a bit adventurous this evening, we headed out of the tourist areas in town and walked to an Egyptian restaurant called Sofra. Here's our dinner; my duck is there in the foreground, Jerry's spicy veal is to the upper left, and in the center is Kashery, an Egyptian side dish of rice, pasta, assorted varieties of beans and spicy tomato garlic sauce, topped off with fried onions. It was all really delicious.

Luxor

We were up at 5:00 a.m. this morning and left the boat by 6:00 a.m. It took about 45 minutes to drive into the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of the Nile. Because the sun sets in the west, the ancient Egyptians associated the west bank of the Nile with death; thus, tombs and mortuary temples are generally located on the west side of the Nile, while temples to the gods are located on the east side.

Tombs were built for kings, nobles and other high-ranking officials in the Valley of the Kings from approximately 1539 BC to 1075 BC. It currently contains 63 known tombs and chambers, but excavators seem to find another one every few years.


Here's the only photo I have from the Valley of the Kings, although we went inside four of the tombs. Taking pictures within the tombs is forbidden, so you're just going to have to take my word for it that they're incredible. The passageways into the burial chambers are high and wide like great halls, and every square inch of them, including the ceilings, is covered in brilliantly-painted carvings. Because they've been enclosed and away from sunlight in the tombs, many of these look as though they were painted yesterday. The colors are deep and rich - reds, blues, yellows and greens. They really have to be seen to be believed.

Next we headed to Deir el-Medina, the city complex of the artisans who worked at the Valley of the Kings. In the artisans' spare time, they built their own tombs, much smaller than those of the nobles' but just as beautifully decorated. What I found really fascinating is that the art in these tombs depicts common life in ancient Egypt. The kings, who were considered gods, are never shown, for example, playing with children or woking in the fields. But the artisans' tombs show all of these and more, in vivid colors. Unfortunately, as they wouldn't allow pictures in the tombs, I don't have any photos of this site.

We next visited Medinet Habu,the mortuary temple of Ramesses III, built in the 12th century BC.





Ramesses III built himself a royal palace next door to his temple. Note the difference in scale and construction. Royal palaces were meant only for life on earth, so they were built with less durable materials and on a much smaller scale. Mortuary temples and tombs, intended for the afterlife, were built to last an eternity.



After a very long day of sightseeing, it was nice to relax on our balcony and enjoy another beautiful sunset on the Nile.