Welcome to Luxor

Day 4: Travel, Temple of Kom Ombo, Edfu Temple, Carriage rides, Al-Sahaby Lane Restaurant

     We woke early in the morning to start our drive to Luxor from Aswan, a 3-hour car ride north. I had meant to write some blogs on the drive but soon discovered the drive itself would be quite an experience in itself. Our van weaved through small villages and rural farm land that looked like scenes pulled straight out of the bible. The fields were beautifully green and lush and filled with people dressed in brown robes and sandals harvesting their crops. Along the road were donkeys carrying a heaping load of green grasses on their backs with a usually young rider on the very top of the pile.

     On our drive to Luxor, we stopped at two more temples Kom Ombo and Edfu. The first temple we stopped at being the Temple of Kom Ombo. This temple began being constructed in 180 BC. This temple was built to worship two gods: Sobek- god of fertility and creator of the world and Horus- falcon god of the sky, war and hunting. Normally temples are only built for one god so this fact makes Kom Ombo very unique. Additionally, Kom Ombo was placed very near to the Nile in an area with abundant crocodiles. The crocodiles were dangerous to the Egyptians and thus Egyptians believe that they would be good protectors in the afterlife. Therefore, near this temple, many crocodile mummies were found. This temple also had a water well that they would use to determine taxes. The number of steps above the water line would negatively correspond to the amount of tax. Meaning, when the water height was high tax was also high due to the fear of flooding. This was a real concern and today much of the temple has been destroyed by the Nile in addition to earthquakes and defacement done by other religions including the Coptic Christians who used the temple as their church.
     The second temple we stopped at, Edfu, is one of the best preserved shrines in Egypt. Edfu was dedicated to the god Horus and was built beginning in 237 BC. It evaded the disfigurement done by the Coptics and the weather because it was buried under 39 feet of sand and wasn't discovered until 1798 by the French. When the French found the temple, only a small portion of the top was sticking out of the sand and they decided to use the temple as target practice shooting holes in the top of the temple! Inside the temple, burn marks are visible on the ceiling from villagers who used the temple as their home. I can't tell you how irritated I was by the destruction that was done to every one of the temples we went to. I give others a pass for not knowing a temple was going to be historically significant and destroying it but with this temple, I can't possibly understand why the French soldiers more than 2000 years later wouldn't have had any appreciation for the ancient relic they stumbled upon.
     Once we arrived in Luxor, we walked through the market area, ate at a restaurant called Al-Sahaby Lane with a nice view of the sunset over Luxor Temple and then took a horse carriage ride. I drove the horse for awhile on the streets of Luxor and our driver took us directly through market street. This street was only a few inches wider than our horse carriage and the market contained everything from clothing strung up on the makeshift tent ceiling to produce in baskets on the ground. I was amazed that the shop owners didn't seem to mind a horse in their market and I was horrified when our horse decided to use the restroom right next to the produce on the ground. The American and future physician in me was completely shocked by just how unsanitary this was but none of the locals seemed to mind. Afterward, we went back to the Al-Sahaby Lane Restaurant which we would frequent every day of our stay in Luxor. The beautiful atmosphere of the restaurant coupled with the beautiful view of Luxor temple and the really good food made it the perfect place to unwind from our adventure filled days.

Entrance to the temple of Kom Ombo

Kom Ombo

Hieroglyphics at Kom Ombo

Some of the color that has been preserved

More color on the ceiling. The entire temple would have been painted in this fashion at one point.

The crown in the middle represents the dual crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. The Upper Egypt crown is on the left and the Lower Egypt crown is on the right. 

The water well with steps. Currently tax would be low because the water is low.

Edfu Temple

Red Aswan Granite Horus sculpture

Driving a horse down the middle of Luxor market. Our carriage would hit the clothes hanging from the ceiling frequently

Day 5: Colossi of Memnon, Temple of Hatshepsut, Valley of the Kings, Medinet Habu, Al-Sahaby Lane Restaurant

     The next morning we went to Colossi of Memnon first which are two large stone statues of the Pharoah Amenhotep III with smaller carvings of his wife Tiy and mother Mutemwiya that reach up to his knees. On the side of the Pharoah's throne, the Nile god Hapy is carved. They were built in 1350 BC and made out of sandstone. The purpose of the Colossi was to guard the entrance of Amenhotep's massive memorial temple that was 86 acres large. However, this temple no longer exists because of constant flooding from the Nile as well as later rulers reusing the sandstone for their own temples.

     Afterward, we went to the well-known Valley of the Kings. The Valley of the Kings was a burial site for Pharaohs from the 16th-11th century BC. Currently, the valley is known to contain 63 tombs and chambers but there is likely more that have yet to be discovered. Unlike the temples, these burial caves were not weathered so the paint used was not stripped off. The marvelous colored carvings inside the tombs allowed us to mentally picture what the other temples would have looked like in ancient times. To see the most beautiful tombs or to see the tomb of king tut you have to pay extra. We paid extra (50 LE or ~$2.75) for the tomb of Ramses V & VI which was beautifully decorated. Once again, we were very happy to have Hend directing us as she told us which tombs we should go into and which ones we should avoid because your general ticket only gets you into three tombs. While at the Valley of the Kings, we found out that in the Valley of the Queens, the tomb of Queen Nefertari is so beautifully kept that it is an extra 1000 LE or currently $55 to go to! Usually, it would actually cost you $125 but, currently, the Egyptian pound is being floated so the exchange rate went from ~8 LE to $1 down to 19 LE to $1.    
     Next, we went to the Temple of Hatshepsut. This temple is special as it is the only remaining temple, that we know of, that was built female pharaoh. Female pharaohs would portray themselves as strong male figures to symbolize her strength and powerfulness. Furthermore, female temples tended to be destroyed more thoroughly than the temples of males. A pharaoh after Hatshepsut sent out men to destroy her name from the temple and replace it with his name. Although they were successful in doing this they forgot about one small thing... the female pronoun was still in the sentences! Therefore, Egyptologists know that it must have belonged to a woman!
     Our last temple for the day was the temple of Medinet Habu. Medinet Habu was set up as a mortuary temple for Ramesses the third and has interesting architectural features not seen in other temples. The entrance is a type of fortified gatehouse known as a migdol and was a common feature of Asian fortresfortresses time.
     To end our second day in Luxor, we once again ate at the Al-Sahaby Lane Resturarant where we became acquainted with Sahlab, a delicious warm, thick and milky Egyptian drink and watched the beautiful sunset fall below the horizon behind Luxor temple.

Colossi of Memnon

What they believed Amenhotop's temple looked like

Ramses IV tomb in the Valley of the Kings. We went into this one however, photos were not allowed inside so this isn't my photo.

Hatshepsut's temple

Colorful offerings of food

  

Medinet Habu and Asian migdol architecture

Medinet Habu

Medinet Habu has very deep carvings on the wall. These would be filled with a shiny glass or metal so that the whole temple would glisten.

Day 6: Karnak, Luxor Temple, Al-Sahaby Lane Restaurant, Plane

     Our last day in Luxor our tour guide gave us the morning and afternoon to do whatever we wanted on our own as we only had two more temples on the agenda and one we would see after dark. It was to be the only day we were able to sleep in and we took full advantage of the opportunity. We set our alarms so we would catch the tail end of the free hotel breakfast and then we decided to take a walk on the Nile before returning to the hotel to sit out by the pool, drink some Egyptian beer and eat some pizza.
     Around 3 pm we headed out to see Karnak. Karnak is a massive complex of temples, chapels, and pylons. Karnak was built during the reign of over 30 pharaohs which is very impressive considering most of the time, the new pharaohs would destroy previous pharaohs temples to build their own. Karnak is also, likely, the second most visited tourist stop in Egypt and its impressive size makes it worth it.
     At dusk, we headed to Luxor temple which is light up beautiful at night and contributed to a really unique perspective and beautiful photos of the temple. When you have seen upwards of 10 temples over the last 6 days, it can be hard not to fall into the negative mentality that you are seeing just another temple. The change in lighting combined with our tour guide who tells great historical stories about the temples helped keep the tour interesting. One interesting historical fact about Luxor temple was that it was used in a ceremony to honor the god Amun-Ra in which a boat would be carried along a road called the avenue of sphinxes from Karnak temple to Luxor temple, a journey of approximately three kilometers long. Unfortunately, most of it is now covered by the city of Luxor and will likely not be able to be recovered.
    With that we wrapped up our day, headed to Al-Sahaby Lane Resturant one last time and then headed to the airport to catch our flight back to Cairo and spend one last day with our tour guide Hend!

Sitting by the pool in the afternoon of our last day in Luxor

Model of Karnak

Karnak entrance

Karnak

Karnak

Luxor temple at night

Luxor

Look closely and you can see that this group of pillars is not exactly lined up with the previous set of pillars. This is the very last set of pillars on the entire 3 km straight road from Karnak. Due to the shape of the Nile at that time, they had to be offset a bit.