Luxor and surrounds

 Wednesday 29th May

After arriving in Luxor around 6:30am we went to our hotel to drop our bags and use the bathrooms to freshen up. Then it was off to The Valley Of The Kings. Around 1000BC the Egyptians noticed that several pyramids had been robbed, so the King decided to dig his mausoleum into the cliffs in a valley near Luxor. The idea being that they could hide the entrances and or make false entries into the tombs.
Our ticket included entrance to 3 tombs and on our guides recommendation we also bought a ticket for the Ramses VI tomb. We decided against going into Tutankhamen's tomb, which - though it had his Mummy - had little wall art 

The tombs that are available to visit do change occasionally, but we saw Ramses IV, Ramses IX and Ramses III before going into Ramses VI. Each tomb was amazing, with the carvings incredibly detailed and the colours still vibrant.  Whilst the first three tombs went in a straight line into the hillside, the last (Ramses VI) had a few turns - because as they dug their way in they came across an entrance to a different tomb.  Ramses VI probably was our favourite as it was longer, had side areas and a large chamber at the end with a sarcophogus in place.

After The Valley of the Kings we visited Queen Hatshepsut's mortuary temple. This a very imposing building that was originally 3 levels and accessed via a large ramp. Some sections had collapsed and efforts are under way to rebuild/restore the building.

We made a brief visit to see the Colossi of Memnon on our way back to Luxor. The Colossi are two giant statues of Amenhotep III that stood in front of his - now collapsed - mortuary. Don't worry if you are having trouble keeping track of all these Pharaohs.  Our Guide is always telling stories and talking about family trees, but I am struggling to remember them all. Suffice to say there was a lot of in breeding with brothers marrying sisters and half sisters. One way to become a King was to be in the Royal Family, so they were not keen to let many outsiders in.

We went back to the Hotel for a while before heading to Luxor Temple, in theory after the heat of the day. Even though it was 7:00pm it was still in the high 30's. Another reason was to see the Temple with spotlights trained up some of the columns and statues. The temple was another spectaular sight with a few standouts. One was the 22 metre high Obelisk, that was once one of a pair. The second is now in Paris. There was also a room containing 12 very tall columns, all intricately carved. As night fell the lighting was reasonably subdued and not as spectacular as we hoped, but Tracy had enjoyed photographing during "golden hour"

Thursday 30 May
A very early start today, trying to beat the heat, had us on the road to Dandara Temple around 6:30. This Temple wasn't for a specific King, but was more a centre for information, and depicted strong women. As with other temples there were magnificent carvings, including some that depicted a women eating the sun, before giving birth to it again. This represented night falling and 'the Sun' being reborn the next day. There was another room with a dozen columns, each with hieroglyphics and topped with 4 carvings of women's heads. They were amazing!

On the way back we stopped at Karnak Temple.  This Temple is connected to Luxor Temple via a dead straight road lined with 600 sphinxes.  This road is reputably the oldest in the world, around 4000 years old. Karnak Temple has around 100 sphinxes as well, though these are different because they have Rams heads. The main "room" consists of 134 columns up to 20 metres high, and is very impressive. It also has an Obelisk that is 21 metres high.

Leaving here we said goodbye to half of the people on the tour. They are all heading back to Cairo and then onto other adventures. The 8 of us that remained have moved to a river boat, ready for a cruise up the Nile to Aswan, a trip that will take a couple of days.