Luxor was part of an absolutely fascinating tour of Egypt we experienced in 2008 which included a four-night cruise on the Nile River. Luxor is the city where we boarded our river boat to cruise to Aswan and has plenty of amazing sights to explore. The tour group was based in Luxor for 4 days. We were lucky to be touring with an Egyptologist, Hanan, so were given quite detailed explanations of everything we saw. It was great to have such insight (Hanan was also great for providing Egypt strength “stop-gut” medication!). In this story, I’ve described some of the highlights we experienced whilst in Luxor.
Valley of the Kings
We’d expect that anyone who travels to Luxor will be visiting the Valley of the Kings. Many pharaohs and powerful nobles are entombed at this site. It’s an incredible place!
We visited both the Tombs of Ramses I and IV, Tutankhamun and Merenptah. The line to enter Ramses I was the longest of those we visited. And we were surprised to find that it is actually quite hot inside the tombs. The wall carvings and relief work within the tombs are really impressive, and amazingly well preserved considering their age.
Photos are prohibited, so we weren’t able to take any to share with you from within the valley. But we do have some aerial photos from our hot air balloon ride the following day. We did see three tourists who had taken photos have their cameras confiscated and were being marched to the ‘Director’s Office’. Be warned that they take the no photos rule very seriously.
Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut
Adjacent to the Valley of the Kings is the spectacular Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. This Temple is positioned at the base of sandstone coloured rock, within a canyon. It’s an impressive three level construction lined with square pillars. Some complete with statues of Hatshepsut herself. It is very photogenic.
We took an electric trolleybus from the gate and down an immaculately kept roadway to the Temple. An impressive ramp, decorated with statues of Horus provides access to the upper levels.
There is so much to the Temple, but one of the highlights for us aside from the impressive architecture, was getting up close to the reliefs on the walls of the Temple and in particular the Anubis Shrine.
The Hathor capital columns of the Hathor Shrine, as seen below topped with the head of the goddess Hathor, are an amazing sight.
Our Egyptologist, Hanan, gave us this help for pronouncing ‘Hatshepsut’ – you say ‘Hat’ and ‘Cheap Suit’ together as one word, and there you have it – near perfect pronunciation.
Check out our story on our Luxor hot air balloon ride to see the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut from above.
The Temple of Luxor
Luxor Temple was within walking distance from our accommodation. Imposing statues of Ramses II are located at one of the entrances. The Obelisk of Ramses II is also located here.
Hieroglyphics decorate the pillars and walls of the Temple, and Hanan explained the meaning behind some of what we saw and told a number of stories reflected on the Temple’s walls.
This Temple, dedicated to the god Amun, runs parallel to, and right on the bank of the Nile River.
The impressive ‘Sphynx Avenue’ which leads to the ‘ceremonial’ entrance was one of our favourite sights.
Karnak Temple Complex
Not far from the Temple of Luxor is the amazing Karnak Temple complex. Karnak is a collection of temples and other constructions, and like the Temple of Luxor it is located directly on the bank of the Nile River.
The Sphynx Avenue mentioned in the Luxor Temple above originally ran between Luxor Temple and Karnak. Some sphinxes also remain in the Karnak complex. At Karnak there is also an Avenue of the Rams which leads to the entrance to the Ramesses III Temple. Just inside, Ramesses III’s statues line the entrance way.
For me nothing topped the 134 enormous pillars, covered in Hieroglyphics that are part of the Great Hypostyle Hall. Note the Hieroglyphic detail between the top of the pillars. These tall pillars dwarfed us! Most of them were ten metres tall, with some a whopping 21 metres.
This amazing complex is certainly somewhere you need to spend half a day if you can.
The Souq
The Luxor Souq is exactly what you would expect it to be. Lots of tourist focussed items, and lots of hassling as you walk by the various shops and stalls. We did hear some witty one liners from some store attendants designed to grab our attention. Once they knew we were Australian, we were subjected to various forms of “G’Day Mate” and kangaroo references.
I did buy a couple of pashminas for my sisters, managing to haggle a couple of hundred Egyptian Pounds off the initial asking price. We also came across a store selling old brass jugs amongst other things. We fell in love with a rustic old tea jug. The store owner was lovely and we agreed on a price of 80 Egyptian Pounds, only to find we had just 65 Pounds in our pockets! He said he trusted Australians, and let us take the jug if we promised to come back with the balance. We readily agreed.
Later that evening we returned with the balance, I suspect much to his surprise. The store owner sitting on his step, and his face lit up when he saw us. He observed that he knew he could trust Australians. He was so happy to see us that he offered to help us buy things at other stores. We told him we had only brought enough money to pay him, so had nothing else to spend. I am not sure how much ‘help’ he may have been, but it was a lovely interaction, in a rustic shop in the middle of the hectic market.
Luxor is a must visit place if you are touring Egypt. According to Wikipedia, the Karnak Temple complex is the second most visited site in Egypt after Cairo’s pyramids. And we can definitely see why, it was awe inspiring. Luxor’s position on the Nile River also made it a very scenic location. If we return to Egypt, it’s definitely on the list of places to see again.
1 comment
Entertaing article with some interesting photographs , thanks