If you thought Cairo was impressive...

Flight to Luxor - Karnak Temple - Luxor Temple - Valley of the Kings


Quick question – What time do you think I was awoken this morning? Surprise, surprise it was 4am again. At least this time it worked in our favour since we were picked up at 5:30 to get to the airport in time for our flight to Luxor.

[Mum should stop reading]

I didn’t really mention yesterday but we were supposed to go to the market but our guide offered to take us to the Coptic area and we were specifically told not to mention it to the organising travel agency because we should have to pay extra. I was certainly more interested in some historical buildings rather than the markets so was happy not to go haggling. Anyway our agency representative was asking us about our highlights and mum listed off the museum, citadel and then slipped and said synagogue. Word to the wise – while I would trust Dad with state secrets, I wouldn’t trust Mum with even Local Council Secrets. The rep. then quickly asked how the market was and I employed the legal silent tactic while Mum struggled with a non-committal answer. Rest of the trip was slightly awkward...

Flight to Luxor

Another first occurred today – actually flew business class but unfortunately was like flying to Melbourne from Sydney. Was a really quick flight and looking down on the desert made me glad we were flying rather than catching the train. Probably not the genuine Egyptian experience but at least flew EgyptAir. We were dropped at our cruise ship (barge) but again it’s nice enough for a place to sleep. Food doesn’t compare to P&O and still watching what we eat.

Karnak Temple

I’ve just been staring at the screen trying to find words to explain Karnak Temple. It’s not working... Even though it hasn’t been a week yet I reckon this is one place you NEED to visit. My long dormant Japanese photo gene asserted itself and I think one of the regrets of this trip will be that not enough time was spent here. Took a couple of tacky photos – here’s some just to show the size of these pillars.

[Me close up]

[Me far away - same pose but still only halfway through temple]

Took tons more but with a group of 12 (and some very unfit older British ladies slowing us up) we couldn’t get everywhere. Something that was incredible there was dated English graffiti from around early 1800’s. This ‘recent’ defacing of the columns would still be older than nearly everything European in Australia.

Luxor Temple

Ok, this entry is becoming an epic. My feelings won’t be hurt if no one reads this but I need to write it down to remember. Luxor temple is 2km from Karnak and was joined by a causeway guarded by sphinxes. The government is trying to restore this processional path but Luxor has been built on top and they’re going to have to kick out some Egyptian Kerrigan's (see The Castle) and so there has been some conflict over that process. Luxor temple is a smaller version of Karnak but still impressive. Again tons of tourists, lots of photo opportunities but as sun was setting my amateur photography didn’t do it justice.

Headed back to the boat, had tea where the waiter tried to do some matchstick tricks. For some reason I was on a roll – managed to work them out.

Here’s one to try:

Symbolise each part with matchsticks and the 2 as a z with 3 matchsticks:

1 + 1 = 2

Now move one matchstick to make 139. Bonus points to first to work out. Slept well that night (no 4am wakeup call) but nearly fell out of bed a couple of times since it’s a very small single bed.

Our final day in Luxor began relatively early with a nice breakfast and we joined our expanding tour group on the boat. There seems to be three main groups – one exclusive British one (who has to pay for tours), one school group of South Africans and then our hodgepodge of leftovers. I bring the average age of our group down a few percentage points! But at least on the boat it’s not so bad.

Valley of the Kings

Got on our bus and headed through Luxor on to the West Bank. The reason why the tombs are on the west side is that similar to the sun setting/dying at the end of the day, the Egyptians wanted to follow and therefore were laid to rest on the western side of the city. Our ticket enabled used to visit 3 tombs but take no photos. There are over 60+ tombs, and some are closed to the public. Unfortunately couldn’t get into Ramesses II but still saw some impressive tombs. While in Karnak temple yesterday the colour had washed away, there was still plenty of colour in these tombs. And they were massive, none of this stooping down to get into them. And the biggest one we went into was probably over 50m in length – hewn into rock.

It’s all overwhelming – when you stop and imagine the time taken to complete some of these masterpieces.

Hatshepsut Temple

Final stop for the day was an impressive temple cut into the face of the cliff on the opposite side to the Valley of the Kings. There is a massive amount of history in relation to Hatshepsut – a female being King. But she left behind this temple which has been reconstructed and is impressive. Here’s a photo of the temple. Can't fit any more photos on - its very slow internet on cruise ship.

We’re now cruising on the Nile – heading to Edfu. Very relaxing at the moment. Apologies for the length again – I can see why many authors write about Egyptian history/novels. There’s just so much content!



Week Ahead

Fri, 9th of April Cruise cont. (Edfu/Kom Ombo)

Sat, 10th of April Cruise arrive in Aswan

Sun, 11th of April Fly to Sharm el-Sheikh via Cairo

Mon, 12th of April Free day in Sharm el-Sheikh (Red Sea)

Tues, 13th of April Travel to Jerusalem via Taba Border

Wed, 14th of April Nazareth and Sea of Galilee

Thurs, 15th of April Masada and Dead Sea