Day 16: Luxor

We woke up for our super early flight to Luxor to start our cruise down the Nile. A&K picked us up, had our plane tickets printed and waiting at the airport, and took us and our bags through security and to our gate. It was nice to not to worry about a single thing! After a delayed, hot, and generally uncomfortable flight, we arrived in Luxor and were delivered to our gorgeous boat. We were greeted with cold towels and cool hibiscus tea (which our Egyptologist assured me several times was a healthy drink – it tasted so good, I didn’t care!) and I quickly forgot the irritations of our flight. We were quickly checked into our cabin and hurried out to visit our first site in Luxor, Karnak Temple. WOAH!

Paul thought the pyramids were not impressive after visiting Petra in Jordan. I disagreed. My way of looking at our visit was simply that the pyramids are completely different than Petra. There is no comparison. Each site is amazing in its own way. Well, after seeing Karnak Temple, I have to admit the pyramids are the least impressive site we have seen (although I still maintain the Great Pyramids were an amazing must-see!). I was in awe of Karnak Temple! My mouth was hanging open the entire time we looked at the big columns in the shape of papyrus flowers, the endless carvings of scenes and hieroglyphics, the colors on the walls, the obelisks extending up toward the sky, the small piece of the marble floor that was discovered. I can’t even begin to imagine how beautiful the temple was during the ancient times.

The entrance to the temple, with rows of ram headed sphinxes on either side (a symbol of the god Amun Ra).

Columns on columns - the upper set of columns framed the open windows in ancient times.

Paul standing in the columns.


Close up of the colorful ceiling.

Paul in front of an obelisk.

Me in front of statues holding the ankh (the key of life). The statues stood on either side of an alter at the end of a long room.

After lunch on the boat, we hopped onto a little motor boat and headed over to the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens on the West Bank of the Nile. The tombs in the Valleys of the Kings and Queens were amazing. I thought the faded colors on the walls in the Temple of Karnak were impressive…Never mind. The colors in the tombs were breathtaking! It was like the tombs were painted yesterday, with vibrant white backgrounds and bright reds and yellows and blues (sadly no pictures). We learned that there is a tomb in the Valley of the Queens that is so gorgeous the cost of entry is $4000 per person! And I seriously wished I had $4000 to see it. The tombs were that impressive. In one of the tombs in the Valley of the Queens we saw a tiny mummified fetus. Hard to believe ancient Egyptian science was so advanced as to mummify a fetus.

We stopped at a reconstruction of the Temple of Hatshepsut (the most famous woman pharaoh) built into the mountains. Hatshepsut was married to the pharoah Tuthmosis II. When he died, her step son, Tuthmosis III married Hatshepsut's daughter and took the throne. His rule did not last too long. Hatshepsut locked him away in prison, propogated a story the she was the daughter of the sun god, and ruled Egypt for 20 years until she died of cancer. When Tuthmosis III finally got back to the throne, he attempted to destroy all monuments built for (or even mentioning) Hatshepsut.

Reconstructed Temple of Queen Hatshepsut.

As we were leaving the temple of Hatshepsut, we walked through a row of shops (just like at all temples in Egypt). Paul was ahead talking with the two girls from NYC and I was chatting with the other two members of our tour group. One of the sales guys was completely beyond obnoxious in trying to sell me a scarf. He kept touching my shoulder and putting the scarf on me. I looked him right in the eye, pushed him off me and told him “No touching!” Well, of course that just got him to start bothering me more. When Paul noticed, all he had to do was say “stop” and start walking toward the guy and the guy ran away. Thank goodness!

Our last stop was the Colossi of Memnon (two big statutes known in ancient Greek times for haunting voices at dawn, the result of moisture in the cracks of the statues and heavy wind).

Colossi of Memnon.


It was an incredible day of sightseeing in Luxor! And we have a great Egyptologist – he used to dig in the sites, is up to date on all the newest developments in the study of Egyptology, and obviously has a passion for teaching guests in Egypt. My one complaint is that we didn’t have more time at each site! He was always telling us to “shake a leg!”

Back on the boat we had a cocktail hour and dinner, followed by a belly dancing and whirling dervish show. Our tour group is a fun little group of six – two girl friends from NYC, a mother and daughter, and Paul and me. We had fun chatting over cocktails, and everyone told me Paul’s dancing skills were quite impressive when the belly dancer pulled him up on “center stage!”

Paul dancing. I have an AWESOME video of Paul belly dancing, but sadly I cannot get it to upload here!

Colorful whirling dervish.