Luxor and the Valley of the Kings

William and I went to Luxor by car with Friedemann and Peter. We made an early start leaving the marina at 5.30 a.m. Our driver and guide didn't hang around and it still took 4.5 hours but we did stop for an Egyptian breakfast of beans, chips, feta type cheese and bread on route at a roadside café.

Right here comes the history lesson so you can skip it if you want and just look at the pictures. Luxor is what was known in ancient times as Thebes, the capital of the Egyptian empire for almost a thousand years. On arrival we went to the Temple of Karnak. It is absolutely vast and is divided into three separate areas. The largest and oldest is the central area dedicated to the god Amun-Ra. This is the part we explored and photographed the most. The other two complexes are dedicated to Mut, Amun's wife and Munt the god of war. Mut is represented as a vulture, well I suppose its better than a dragon.

The entrance to the temple is preceded by an avenue of sphinxes with rams heads which represent the god Amun protecting the pharaoh who is portrayed between its paws. We passed through the Ethiopian Court with more sphinxes and a tall column 21m high. This leads to the Temple of Ramesses III, which we went into.

There is a colossal statue of Ramesses II with a smaller figure of one of his wives sculptured between his legs.

The most spectacular bit in my opinion was what is known as the Great Hypostyle Hall. I will quote a few dimensions to give you an idea of its grandeur hope it is not too boring. It has a door leading into it 29.5m high. It is 102m wide and 53m long. It has 134 columns representing the papyrus flower, the symbol of Upper Egypt. Each is 23m high. It was built by Seti I (1313-1292 BC) and completed by his son Ramesses II.

Peter left us after lunch and went to the station to get a train to Cairo from where he was flying home. We continued with our tour going to the Valley of the Kings. Well I wanted to see the place where the curse of the mummy originated.

On the way we passed the colossi of Memnon. These 2 giant statues cut from massive blocks of sandstone are all that remain of the burial temple of Amenhotep III.

Entrance to the valley itself was 80 Egyptian pounds (9.6 to the £ or 5.8 to the US$) so not cheap. Then you had to take a little shuttle from the car park and no photography is allowed anywhere on the site. The pictures I have loaded to give an idea what it was like are not mine they are borrowed from the guidebook. However if you offer some baksheesh you can take the odd picture on the quiet. For our 80 LE we got to see 3 tombs, Rameses III, Ramesses IV and Merneptah. The corridors leading to the burial chambers and the chambers themselves are covered in symbolic paintings. The colours are really bright when you consider their age. The sarcophagus remains but the mummies and precious artifacts are in the museum in Cairo. In the tomb of Merneptah the inner wooden sarcophagus has been removed and we sat on the alabaster plinth underneath the granite lid. On the inside of the lid is a carving of an air goddess. On one side of her are 12 small suns representing. 12 hours of daylight. On the other side no suns representing 12 hours of darkness.

If we had wanted to see king Tut it would cost another 100 LE each on top. Hopefully we won't be cursed by our close association with mummies and hope to continue our journey in a few days.