King Tut...he's the host of babylon a..King Tut

As promised...here is the post about the most thrilling part of my recent trip of Egypt (if over a month ago is recent)

Let's see if I can remember...hmmmmm....yes, OK, it's coming back to me...

On Thursday of our trip, Craig and I set off early in the morning (as in 4ish) for the amazing city of Luxor. We had booked a tour and we were picked up in a mini-bus in the cold, cold morning air. The hotel provided us with a little boxed breakfast, so as we dug in and settled in...we were off to pick up the other people on our tour. It was about 1.5 hours before we left Hurghada to get on the road.

When you are travelling from one area of Egypt to another (on the "highways"), you pretty much HAVE to take a tour. There are many reasons for this- violence, theft, tourism. Anyway, we drove through the desert and the huge sand dunes. It was so beautiful as the sun came up. About half way to Luxor, we stopped at a rest stop to stretch our legs, go to the restroom, and....get hassled by the souvenir hawkers! Before the bus even came to a stop, there were women and children with donkeys coming up to the bus. What?! Yes, they came up and wanted us to take pictures of them for money. Why would you pay to take a picture with a bedoin and a donkey? Because they had baby goats riding the donkeys, of course!!! It was hilarious...especially when Craig thought they were dogs on the donkeys! Hahaha..

Can you see the baby goat?

I stayed on the bus...I was not yet prepared for the constant begging and hawking of goods. I don't like it....I don't like to walk by someone, especially a child, who is trying to make money. Everyone is so pushy...it's not my scene at all.

After a rest, off we went and after another few hours, we were caught up in the morning rush hour traffic of Luxor.

A little Luxor history:

Luxor is the ancient city of Thebes and the city of the sun god Amon-Ra. Many consider Luxor to be the greatest open air museum in the world because it is home to so many monuments, temples, etc. Luxor, or Thebes, has always been a center of art, wisdom, religious, and political supremacy. Located on the Nile River, Thebes was visited by many peoples- Bablyonians, Mitanni, Hittites, Canaanites, Phoenician, and Minoans. However, during the Late Period, it's political and military prowess were overshadowed by places such as Alexandria. However, because it was the city of the god Amon-Ra, it remained an important religious area.

Nowadays it is a major tourist attraction. One side of the Nile has the ancient ruins of the Karnak and Luxor temples and the other side has the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens with a multitude of ancient monuments, temples and tombs. (psst.....thanks Wikipedia)

Our first stop of the day was the Valley of the Kings. The others on our trip were Czech and they had a Czech guide, but Craig and I lucked out and got a very own English speaking guide!

The Valley of the Kings is a great necropolis where, from the 16th to 11th centuries BC, the kings and noblemen were entombed. There are about 63 tombs altogether. While the Pyramids of Egypt are the most iconic images of Egypt, most burials took place in tombs cut into the rocks. The tombs were cut into mountains because.....what shape does a mountain have?? A pyramid!! And a pyramid is shaped like a staircase...where is that staircase going? Up to the heavens!

The tombs range in size from a small pit to a tomb with about 120 chambers. The remote location of the necropolis ensured that it would be difficult for tomb robbers to desecrate them. However, even with the distance and tomb police, most of the tombs were robbed in antiquity. One of the most famous tombs located here is Tutankhamun's (King Tut), but alas we would not see it as you had to pay extra and our tour guide (and everyone else) said it wasn't worth it.

We DID get to see 5 tombs. And they were amazing. Of course, there is nothing in them- everything has either been stolen or taken away and placed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but the hieroglyphics are still there. And some of the paint is still there..it was amazing at how brilliant the colors were. I mean....what kind of Sherman Williams were they using back then for it to last over 4000 years??!! We couldn't take any pictures inside (but I could buy the souvenir set of postcards! which I did), but we could take pictures of the valley. I'm not going to lie....a couple of times I expected a guy in a robe, sandals and a flowing hair to come over the hills at any moment!!

In the parking lot

With Craig

One of my favorite stories about one of the tombs we went into was that they found some graffiti in the tomb from early Christians who were persecuted and had to hide out in the tombs for a while. It just seems a bit funny to me that they were tagging the tombs!! And you can still see it today. Cool :)

After the Valley of the Kings, we drove over to Deir el-Bahari, which is a complex of mortuary and temples first constructed in the 15th century BC. The first buildings were built by Mentuhoptep, but later Hatshepsut (a woman who would become ruler) built there as well. Most of what we saw was built by her. Her story is amazing..

Hatshepsut was the 5th Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty during the 15th century BC. She was one of the most successful pharaohs of all time, and the longest ruling female. She was married to Thutmose II. They had a daughter together and he had a son, Thutmose III, with a second wife. Basically the story goes like this.....her husband died and her step-son was too young to take over. So she reigned as pharoah in his place. In order to assert her right to rule, she had her statues and engravings depict her as a man with a beard. When he came of age, she would not hand over power because she was doing such a good job. In her middle age, she suddenly disappeared and the step-son took over. When he did, he ordered all evidence of her removed, so her cartouches, carvings and statues were all destroyed.

Even though this story is not historically accurate (there was no anomosity between her and her step-son who ruled as co-regent, she was depicted as Osiris, just as all pharaohs were, and she died of natural causes), she was still a great ruler. Successful in warfare, she brought lots of wealth to the area which allowed for much building. The only true part of the story is that all around the temple at Karnak and here in Deir el-Bahari you can see her image chipped off of the stone.

Getting on the train to the temple

In front of Djeser-Djeseru (Holy of Holies)- Hatshepsut's mortuary temple

Just an ancient hieroglyph- no biggie

The colors were so bright- even after all this time

The temple was so amazing. You can't even believe you are looking at something that is about 4000 years old. And for me it was powerful because all of it was for a strong, powerful, positive woman.. you go girl!!

One side note...as you walked around (and not just here, but everywhere we stopped) old Egyptian men would come up to you and start to explain about the various symbols, statues, etc., which at first Craig and I thought was great, what nice men. But NO, after their nice professorial lectures they would ask for money...and got a bit peeved when you didn't give it to them. UGH! So now I had to start to just put on the "vacant stare" and walk by everyone and anyone who looked my way. Not a fun experience at all.

But enough about that...more pics:

I mean....are these cool or what? There was so much to see and experience. Unfortunately, we were on a bit of a schedule and couldn't take all the time I wished we could. But still....WOW!

I'll just let the pictures do the talking. And how amazingly blue was the sky that day??!!

These have NOT been retouched

This is NOT the Indiana Jones I remember!

Actually, we saw a few archeaologists doing their thing throughout the tour.

a respectable pose

This guy wanted money after this pic...I didn't even want him in it

Craig

Here you can see where Hatshepsut's face was removed from the wall. Chipped away. We saw this all over Luxor...here and at Karnak Temple.

total tourist shot

a bit of a giggle

Looking over the valley toward the Nile

Ooohhh...the artsy shot

Having seen our fill of Deir el-Bahari, it was back to the bus through the gauntlet of souvenir sellers and beggars and off to the next stop. Which was an alabaster factory/ store. We got to see how the alabaster rock is shaped into the many figures that are sold....and then, oh, well, here's the shop. Come in....it's cool in here....can we offer you a nice cold Coke?.. why don't you just look around?....Yep, about 100 Euros later, I was ready to go!! I did get about 4 free alabaster beetles though!

Then we were on the move again (seriously, there was no time to dawdle on this tour- very much like a Janis family trip with all the driving) to the Colossi of Memnon. Two massive statues of the Pharoah Amenhotep III have stood in this place for 3400 years. Flanking the pharaoh's legs are his mother, Mutemwiya, and his wife, Tiy. Amenhotep is seated, looking East. When I say there are massive.....they are MASSIVE! The quartzite sandstone statues are about 60 ft. tall and weigh 720 tons each! Big Boys! The statues stood as guards to the gate of the massive temple of Amenhotep, who was considered a god-on-earth; however, they are the only things left standing. After a massive earthquake, they were quite damaged. And a sound like a cry could be heard coming from the statues, usually right before or after sunset. No cause was determined, though it was considered good luck to hear the cry. The popularity of the "vocal memnon" spread throughout the ancient world. Eventually, the "crying" stopped; probably because it was caused by dew evaporating in the sandstone at dawn and the subsequent settling of the rocks over the many centuries.

We heard no crying, but we did hear the rev of the bus engine....Craig and I were the only ones to get out and look at these massive beauties. A shame too because the sheer size left you in awe.

The Colossi of Memnon

Yes, yes I AM a tourist!

Could you imagine how breathtaking these would have been when they were shiny and new? And standing in front of a massive complex? Ahhh...to be able to go back in time and be there!

dog

Now, it was time for lunch!! Off we went in the bus again and arrived at our restaurant. For another.....buffet! But there were a few good treats including a fantastic salad. After eating, we all went out the back door to sit on the banks of the Nile and wait for our boat ride across. Wow, I can't believe I just wrote that sentence....I never dreamed I'd be in Egypt sitting on the banks of the Nile!

Our boat arrived and our trip took a total of 3 minutes across the Nile!! Hahaha!! We got off at the Luxor Museum...and didn't go in, but got back on our bus to head to Karnak Temple.