Day 94 to 97 - 1st to 4th February - Luxor & Nile Cruise

Point of departure : Luxor

Point of arrival : Aswan

Accommodation: Ti-Yi Cruise Boat

Km travelled today N/A

Countries so far: 9/16

Where to next? Aswan

No of photos: 517 (cum 4 605)

Luxor - known to the Greeks as Thebes and Waset to the Pharaohs. The Arabs named it El-Uksur (meaning palaces). The corniche (river front) lies on the east bank and is lined with riverboats (stacked three of four deep), hotels, gardens and shops and can be experienced either by walking or hailing a caliche (horse drawn carriage).

We were collected from our hotel and transferred to Ti Yi our riverboat for the Nile cruise where we were introduced to our guide Emad. The ship is quite elegant and luxurious. A delicious luncheon buffet went down really well… in fact, we pigged out - we quickly realised what we had missed out on in the past six weeks. Straight after lunch we started our tour of the temples in Luxor.

The Karnak Temples consists of ten temples over an area of 65 hectares. There is far too much information to process and we will highlight the sections that we found most impressive. The construction of the first temple began under Thutmose I (1493-1482 BC) and continued under successive Pharaohs each adding to the length (additional "pylons") or breadth (additional columns) or adding new sections altogether off to the left or right.An avenue of sphinxes with heads of rams lead to the first pylon. The second pylon (which forms the hypostyle hall) is made up of 134 columns (the 12 in the centre at 22 metres high being the tallest with the others at 18 metres). The sacred lake (with water from the Nile) was used to purify the priests and the statues of the gods.Adjacent to the lake is a giant granite scarab beetle - a symbol of luck and good fortune.

The names of the Pharaohs and their respective dynasties responsible for the Karnak Temples can be quite overwhelming as well as the sheer size of it. It is an immense structure with huge columns and statues and an array of carved decorations on the walls or virtually any available surface, each telling its story from the respective eras.

Our next stop was the Luxor Temple another sacred site. The temple was built during the reign of Amenophis III and the bulk of the later additions were by Ramses II (one of the most highly revered Pharaohs). Facing the main entrance to the temple stands a 25 metre obelisk - the second one (which formed a pair) now stands in Place de la Concorde in Paris - it was given to Louis-Phillipe of France by Mohammed Ali the King of Egypt in 1831. Only three of the six colossi remain (three on either side of the entrance). The one courtyard (Ramses II) has 14 columns (23 metres high) and this leads into a second courtyard (Amenophis III) which is followed by a hypostyle hall of 32 columns (identical to those in the previous court) on either side - a total of 78 columns.

The temples were built on the east bank and the tombs on the west bank. The reasons for the tombs on the west bank are threefold namely: the entrance to the tombs face east; the sun sets in the west (darkness represents death); when they return in their next life (ancient Egyptians believed in an afterlife) they are facing east (light represents life). John had fun with night time photography - a couple on the blog.

Back to the ship for dinner and a good night's rest.

Day 95 an early wakeup call and on the road by 07h00 to visit the Valley of the Kings on the west bank. A very busy morning in Luxor with hundreds of tour buses, mini buses and taxis on the road and at the Valley of the Kings; on the river the countless boats preparing to sail at 13h00 and in the air a minimum of 15 hot air balloons… who mentioned global recession?

As a result of the pyramids being raided by grave robbers, the New Kingdom Pharaohs stopped building pyramids and decided to build their tombs on a distant site -all excavated into the limestone rock of the valley on the west bank of Luxor known now as the Valley of the Kings.Recorded history states that there were 87 New Kingdom Pharaohs and to date 62 tombs have been unearthed. These rock tombs are made up of corridors with side chambers ending in the burial chamber.The most famous tomb here being that of the boy king Tutankhamun - we were advised by our guide that it's not very impressive in terms of "inscriptions, scenes and hieroglyphics" and was not worth the additional entrance fee of EP100. As a result of restoration work being undertaken not all tombs could be visited.Of the 62 tombs only 4 (including Tutankhamun) were open to the public and we visited that of Ramses IX.The scenes and text depicted on the walls of the corridors and burial chamber were very impressive, a combination of carved figures and hieroglyphics and the use of colour further enhancing the experience.One can only wonder at the sense of awe that the early archaeologists must have felt on discovering these tombs and the huge, almost life time work, that work into constructing them. Unfortunately no photographs or video was permitted at the Valley of the Kings - we had to settle for postcards.

Last stop was the Temples of Hatshepsut and Mentuhotep in Deir El-Bahari. Briefly, the Temple consists of an entrance formed by a pylon and an avenue of sphinxes (long destroyed) and built on three terraces, each on a different level .

The crush of tourists at the Valley of the Kings, coupled with the hangover from Karnak and Luxor Temples the day before, had taken its toll… we felt a little "templed and tombed out" and cut short our visit to the latter.

On the way back to the boat (which was sailing at 13h00) we made a "pit stop" at a local coffee shop for Egyptian coffee and to smoke some sheesha (nargiles).

Back on the ship, lunch and (… we are sailing, we are sailing … across the River, calming waters…) a relaxed afternoon on the upper deck, next to the pool, enjoying the Nile sights and as the sun set so a gentle breeze blew away the heat of the day and cooled the night.

At sunset, we reached the lock that we have to go through but only got our turn to enter at about 22h00.There are up to 50 boats (out of a total of 325) a day cruising this stretch of the river between Luxor and Aswan.

Day 96 - Marina and Sim, still feeling "templed out" opted to stay on board for a body massage and a lazy day at the pool. John and Dani voted for the guided tour of the Temple of Edfu, built out of sandstone by the Greeks (between 237 and 57BC) and one of the best conserved temples in all of Egypt. The standard layout of a temple has an entrance pylon, a courtyard, a hypostyle hall (with columns) and a sanctuary. Somewhat smaller than Karnak, it is on a more human scale, and easier to comprehend in a couple of hours. The carvings on the walls tell their stories of the gods and Pharaohs and in some places the painted artwork is still clearly visible. This was also the site of the original boat used to carry the god, Amun Ra during the seasonal migration up the Nile, now replaced in the sanctuary by a replica.

Lunch was a barbecue on the pool deck with magnificent views of the Nile followed by afternoon tea and then an oriental dinner.

The Galabia Ball followed where we all had a chance to dress up. During the evening we arrived in Aswan and moored for the night.

Day 97 - 07h30 departure for the Aswan High Dam.Earlier on in the blog we mentioned the Aswan High Dam.The cost of the dam in 1954 was $300 million.The International bank refused Egypt the finance to build the dam. As a result, President Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal and precipitated the Suez Crisis, for those that are old enough to remember, and the revenue from the Suez coupled with Russia and India's assistance the dam was built. The dam has 12 turbines of which only 4 operate to provide Egypt's current demand for electricity. The dam wall is 111m high, length at crest 3 830m, width at base 980m, width at top 40m, power of turbine 175 000kw, length of storage lake 500km and total capacity of the reservoir 169000 million cubic metres. The High Dam monument was presented to Egypt by the Russian government - the five columns represent the five continents with the surrounding water on the left side representing the oceans and the right side the seas. Quite an impressive monument!

Then, a visit to the Temple of Philae - the last one! This Temple was also rescued by UNESCO (1972 to 1980) from the waters of the Nile and was moved from the island of Philae to the island of Agilkia. The French army sought cover here in 1798 during the Anglo-Franco war as is evident by French graffiti on the wall.

After a brief visit to a cotton factory back to the boat for lunch. After lunch we boarded a felucca and sailed for half an hour on the Nile. Then transferred onto a faster boat upriver to visit a Nubian village. On arrival, we climbed onto camels and had a 30 minute ride to the village. We entered a typical Nubian home and were treated to tea and were given a baby crocodile to hold. Then another chance to smoke sheesha… and no it's not becoming a habit, but it was fun.

Dinner and an evening of belly dancing.