Luxor: Valleys of Tombs and the Temple of Karnak

Yesterday and today were pretty impressive tours around Luxor, in southern Egypt.  Lots more old stuff, though over a thousand years less old than the pyramids.  Still, these tombs here are 3 or 4 thousand years old.  It's a whole new scale.  I took the night train from Cairo, which was pretty nice, though a bit noisy - I met an English guy at the ticket office and we shared a compartment down here and have, along with Louis who toured Giza with me, toured Luxor together.  We arrived early in the morning and headed out on a tour of the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, along with the Colosi of Memnon.  They did not allow photos at either valley, though we could take photos of Hatshepsut's temple - who has one hell of a story as the first female leader of Egypt (I think - all tour info is a bit suspect so far as I can tell).  We toured from the hotel we are staying in recommended by Holy Spirit world traveler Clare Noughton (Also met Kristi Kempe's cousin this morning - that's pretty wild).  We toured and came back here to crash - repeated that today for our tour of the Karnak.  But first, some photos of the Colosi and Hatshepsut's temple, where we could take photos.

It was incredibly bright, even with my fashionable hat

Lots of images on everything, including some odd ones (you have look closely, someone is drinking this cow's milk)

Hatshepsut - complete with beard

The Valley of the Kinds is right behind this hill (which itself looked sculpted to me)

This was off to the side - lots of sites had these types of spots, out of the way, unmarked, relatively unguarded

Limestone in the foreground, brick made with mud and straw (curtsey of Charlton Heston) in the background

The Colosi!  They were very, very big.  Apparently from solid blocks of granite.

Lots of the landscape here looks 'otherworldly,' which makes sense, as my idea of otherworldly comes from films shot in these places.  The tour was interesting, though certainly not my preferred mode of sigh seeing.  I am taking another one tomorrow, or something like it, though I think it is the only way to see the places I am hoping to see.  We did the prerequisite shop stop, and our tour guide was brusque with us (which I liked, maybe because she was never short with me).  She would roll her eyes at questions and told one guy she wouldn't answer him cause he complained too much (which was true).  We did get a few interesting facts (including that the ceilings of tombs were blue and covered with five pointed stars - starfish - because the Nile was heaven to the ancient Egyptians.

Sidenote - the call to prayer is going and I am hearing a female voice, the first I've heard throughout North Africa!

The tombs were simple, cut into the hillside, a passage slightly downward, about 2 meters wide, most between 50 and 90 meters deep.  Every surface was decorated, some with more recent graffiti (3rd century Coptic Christians), and at the end would be the burial chamber, generally empty.  But again, no photos - so check out the wikipedia links and use your imagination.  We saw Ramses IV, Ramses IX, and Ramses III.  The tomb of Ramses II was supposed to be amazing, but it had collapsed.  The tombs seems to have been started when the person became Pharoh, then finish when he died; so if you ruled a long time, you had a big tomb.  Ramses II also had several children with his daughter (I think) who died of deformities and were buried with him in his massive tomb - he also had several dozen wives, and about 200 children, many of whom were buried with him.  With a little more time and some wifi, I'm able to add some links to flesh these mummies out a bit, because again, no photos, and the tour guides say different things, or something anything they like so they can get some baksheesh (like a tip) out of you.  Some will stand in a gateway and follow you around saying things and then demand baksheesh - so I pretend to not know English, or walk past them, very clearly say 'no thanks' and go past them, which tends to work.

Like Giza, the sites were very inconsistent - some were closed, many were open and unguarded, several assumed to exist and are undiscovered, which gave me a sense of discovery and excitement that I have not often felt in museums in the states - at least not since I was a kid.

This entry is already quite long, but I'm going to add one more site, visited this morning by Louis, John and myself - the Temple of Karnak.  It is massive - the biggest place of worship in the world.  It can't really be captured with the photos I took - though there are a few on wiki that get close, and one of the model that goes a long way.  So here are the photos.

The model

The real thing

Ram sphinxes with little pharohs lined the walkway from the Nile to the Temple

Big ass columns

Ceiling and wall - notice the star shapes on the blue ceiling

Green Granite!  Super cool to have that kind of thing thrown in the middle of all that limestone

Everything was decorated at one time - some color is holding on after 3000 years

Temple of Luxor - impressive in its own right - notice the different column type from Karnak

Pretty cool stuff I'd say.  Hopefully I am not too templed out to see the southern temples.  Here is how I think the next few days will play out.  Tomorrow I take a private car (hopefully with someone else to share the cost, about 100 USD) to Aswan, visiting along the way Kom Ombo and Edfu.  Arrive in Aswan in the early evening and have a dinner and early bed.  Then up at 3AM for my police escort to Abu Simbel, back to Aswan in the afternoon, then hopping a night train from Aswan to Cairo, arriving at about 8AM.  From there I either stay a night in Cairo or head out that afternoon for Mt Sinai, and on to Dahab for some diving, hopefully a day or two to take it easy, then I head north, via ferry, to Jordan and Petra.  The goal is Istanbul by December 19th to welcome with my open arms the lovely Corinne Wichser, who arrives in Turkey on the 20th.  Whew!  Almost as tiresome as this entry!  Thanks for reading!