Luxor: the East Bank

After our visit to Abu Simbel, we were afraid the rest of our time in Upper Egypt might be anti-climatic.  This was not at all the case.  There was such a variety of temples and tombs, and so much to learn at each of them, that each experience brought something new.  The East Bank at Luxor contains the city itself, and the temples of Karnak and Luxor.  We visited in the mid-afternoon, arriving at the Luxor temple at sunset.

The Temples of Karnak covers over a square mile, containing sanctuaries, kiosks, obelisks and a sacred lake.  The largest temple was dedicated to the god Amun, with other huge complexes honoring his wife and son. It was the most important place of worship in Egypt during the New Kingdom, and was built, added to, amended and restored over a period of about 1500 years.  Karnak was connected to the  Luxor temple, almost two miles to the south, by the Avenue of the Sphinxes.  During an annual festival, the images of the gods were carried between the two temples. Reconstruction has begun  on the avenue, tearing down the buildings which had been erected over its route. Action during the Karnak Sound and Light Show is featured in the Bond movie, The Spy Who Loved Me. We'll watch it again when we get home!

The Luxor Temple, built largely from 1390 to 1213 BC, was dedicated to the phallic form of Amun.  It was later added to by King Tutankhamen, Alexander the Great, and various Romans, so combines a variety of architectural styles.  A fourteenth century mosque was built over a portion of the temple.  With the discovery and subsequent excavation of the temple, entry to the mosque was moved and the original door is now high up on the wall of the mosque.

The Temples of Karnak

Ram-headed Sphinxes Guarding the Entry to the Temples

Pillars and Obelisk, Karnak

Statue of the God Amun's Wife

Nick at the Sacred Lake, Karnak.  All Life Was Assumed to Come from the Lake.

The Two Obelisks at Karnak

Avenue of the Sphinxes, Luxor Temple

Head from a Statue of Ramses II, Luxor Temple

Original Entry to the Mosque

Columns in the Great Court of Ramses II, Luxor Temple

Twilight at Luxor Temple

Luxor: the West Bank

The monuments of Luxor (the ancient Thebes) are scattered over both banks of the Nile.  We started our exploration on the more rural  West Bank, passing through fields of sugar cane and banana and date palm trees. We were welcomed by the two huge Colossi of Memnon, all that remains of what was once the largest temple complex in Egypt.  Each statue was cut from a single block of stone and weighs over 1,000 tons.

We then moved on to the Valley of the Kings, the location of 64 royal tombs from the New Kingdom period (1550-1069 BC).  No photographs were allowed inside, but we viewed some quite well-preserved wall decorations, statues and sarcophagi in the several tombs we entered.  We then visited the Temple of Hatshepsut, one of the most famous of Egypt's female pharaohs.  The temple is partially cut from the cliffs surrounding it and was designed by a court architect also assumed to have been her lover.  Hatshepsut ruled for 15 years (1473-1458 BC) and was succeeded by her stepson, Tuthmosis III, who attempted to wipe out all references to her in existence by defacing the many statues and representations of her, evidently a rather common practice by successor pharaohs.

The Colossi of Memnon

The Valley of the Kings

The Temple of Hatshepsut

Statue of Hatshepsut

School Girls Wanting Photo With Me

Assuming the Funeral Pose in Front of the Temple

Kom Ombo and Edfu: Crocodile and Falcon Gods

After spending our first night docked at Aswan, we sailed north downstream to our first stop, Kom Ombo.  Watching life along the banks of the Nile was interesting and relaxing - donkeys pulling carts of vegetables, fields of sugar cane, cows grazing, small homes and local citizens going about their daily lives.

After breakfast, we disembarked and walked up to the nearby Temple of Kom Ombo.  The temple is unique in that it was dedicated to two gods, Sobek the Crocodile god and Horus the Elder.  The dual nature is reflected in its composition of two symmetrical entrances, two parallel halls, and two sanctuaries.  The dedication to the crocodile god was a result of the worshipers' desire to appease the crocs and stop their attacking.  A sacred live croc was always kept on the grounds, and offered mummified crocodiles as offerings.  The crocodile mummy museum is adjacent to the temple.

The Twin Temple at Ko Ombo

Our Guide, Achmed, Explaining Finer Points of a Relief

A Painted Archway in the Temple

School Kids Viewing the Nilemeter, a Cistern Into Which the River Flowed.  Taxes Were Levied Depending on the Water Level in the Cistern.  It May Also Have Been Used to House the Sacred Crocodile.

Mummified Crocodiles at the Museum

We left Kom Ombo and sailed on to Edfu, about 40 miles north, during lunch.  Arriving at Edfu we took a carriage ride to the Temple of Horus.

 The temple is built on high ground some distance from the Nile, and is the most completely preserved Egyptian temple since it escaped the flooding which impacted so many other temples.  It was dedicated to Horus, the falcon god, and was the cult center for falcon worshipers.  It was built over a period of 180 years, finally completed in 57 BC by Ptolemy XII, the father of Cleopatra VII (she of Mark Antony, the asp, and Liz Taylor fame), so is much newer than most of the other temples we visited.

On Our Way to the Temple of Horus

The Temple of Horus

Granite Boat, Used to Transport a Falcon Statue

Horus, the Falcon God (He's the One in the Middle)

Back to Aswan and the Start of Our Nile Cruise

On Thursday, December 4, we returned to spend the night at Aswan, then boarded the Sonesta St. George the next day, beginning three nights and four days along the Nile.  The ship was pretty luxurious, especially in comparison to the Yangtze Gold Seven, our China cruise ship.  The cabin was very comfortable and nicely furnished, with a whirlpool tub and steam shower in the bath. The public areas were very good, and the staff were fantastic.  Most spoke excellent English and seemed to be on hand gladly to fulfill any request.

We had booked the cruise through Memphis Tours and they provided a guide to accompany us on the cruise and guide us on our shore excursions.  There were five of us in the English-speaking group-Liz and John, from Kelowna, B.C., stopping in Egypt on their way to a Tanzania safari, and Ed from Pennsylvania, who'd made a last minute decision to come to Egypt to use up vacation time before the year's end.  We were assigned to the same table and fortunately proved to a very congenial group. Our guide, Achmed (who preferred to be called 'el Prince'), was excellent, and we had a lots of laughs.

After boarding the ship Friday morning and having lunch on board, we visited the Aswan High Dam (world's second largest after the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze, with Hoover in the USA third). The granite used in the High Dam came from the same quarries which provided most of the granite used in monuments and buldings throughout Ancient Egypt. We also visited the Temple at Philae, another monument moved to an adjacent and higher island to prevent submersion with the High Dam construction.  Then back to the boat for dinner and a Nubian show modernized with lighted costimes! We docked overnight docked in Aswan and "set sail" (what does one say for a motorized ship?) the next morning.

I Was Standing on Our Balcony at the Hotel in Aswan Taking Some Photos of the Nile When the Driver of this Horse Carriage Spotted Me and Proceeded to Try to Convince Me to Book Him, All the While Shouting Across the Traffic

Nile View from Hotel Balcony

The Sonesta St. George

Pool Deck, Sonesta St. George ('Hot' Tub Water Isn't Heated!)

The 'Unfinshed' Obelisk.  If Completed, Would Have Been the Single Heaviest Piece of Stone the Egyptians Ever Fashioned, But a Flaw Appeared and it Was Abandoned.

By Boat to the Philae Temple.  Fellow Traveler Ed from Pittsburgh on the Left

Temple of Isis, Philae

Kiosk of Trajan, Philae.  The Pharaoh Was Not Allowed to Spend the Night in the Temple, so Would Sleep Here When Visiting

Abu Simbel

 On Tuesday, Dec 2, we flew from Cairo to Aswan.  We spent the night in Aswan, then journied to Abu Simbel the next day.  The majority of the tourists to Abu Simbel either fly there from Aswan or take the pre-dawn road convoy to the site, arriving there about 7:30 AM, tour the temples, and return to Aswan in the 10 AM convoy.  For security reasons (including the proximity (~40KM to the border with Sudan) the only way to travel by vehicle is in a protected convoy (after a terrorist attack on tourists many years ago).

We did things a little differently.  We slept late and took a private car and driver as part of the much smaller 11 AM convoy.  It's about a 3 hour plus journey.  We stayed overnight at Abu Simbel in a small Nubian inn and returned as part of the larger 10 AM convoy back to Aswan the next day. The rest of the sight-seers had left by the time we arrived at the site, and the two of us (plus one guard) were the only people at the Temples that afternoon.  We had a wonderful experience exploring on our own.  It was a great introduction to the Temples and Tombs of Upper Egypt.  It took a bit of figuring out for us to understand why the area south of Cairo is "Upper Egypt," while the area to the north is "Lower Egypt," until we realized that the Nile runs north into the Mediterranean and the two once -separated kingdoms, Upper and Lower, refer to that fact.

The two temples of Abu Simbel, the Great Temple of Ramses II and the Temple of Hathor, were relocated (raised up 60 meters) to their present site over a 4 year period to protect them from the flooding by the new dam that formed Lake Nasser.  The Ramses Temple is very much a self-proclaimed paean to the pharaoh, fronted by three (originally four) massive statues of him.  Inside are another eight Ramses statues (inside photography prohibited but Nick sneaked a couple of shots) and wall reliefs depicting his prowess in battle.  The adjacent Temple of Hathor is smaller, but unusual in that Ramses' favorite wife, Nefertari, is shown as of almost equal height to her husband. We spent a wonderful afternoon at the temples, then went back to our lodging to see if there were sufficient tourists (10 or more) for the evening Sound and Light production.  There were only 5 of us interested that night (2 Japanese women, a Spanish guy and us) so we each bought 2 tickets and the production went on, in English with the others listening to translations.  It was very well done and we were glad we attended.

Our accomodation in Abu Simbel was interesting.  We stayed at the Eskaleh Nubian Lodge, a traditional Nubian mud brick house but with modern comforts.  The lodge is on the banks of Lake Nasser, with fields growing their vegetables and a small farm with chickens, ducks, sheep and a donkey. The owner, a Nubian musician, was off performing, but we were welcomed and looked after by a Nubian man who introduced himself as "Friday."  He said we'd never be able to pronounce his Nubian name.  Friday arranged for the lodge's boat to take us out on Lake Nasser the next morning to see the sunrise on the temples.  Lake Nasser is the only place on the Egyptian Nile where crocodiles remain, but he said they were out in the deeper water this time of year.  Lake Nasser is either the world's  largest or second largest artificial lake-we heard both-and the morning cruise was well-worth rising early.

The Temple of Ramses II

Statues of Ramses II Inside the Temple

The Temple of Hathor.  Statues of Ramses II and His Queen Nefertari

Interior, Temple of Hathor

Sound and Light Show, Abel Simbel

Sunrise on Lake Nasser

Abu Simbel Temples at Sunrise

Fishing Boats at Sunrise, Lake Nasser

The Eskaleh Nubian Lodge

Terrace, the Nubian Lodge

Vegetable Gardens, Nubian Lodge

Lake Nasser from the Nubian Lodge

With Our Man Friday at the Nubian Lodge

The Egyptian Museum, the Pyramids and the Sphinx

Monday morning (Dec 1), we met our guide, George (a Coptic Christian named for St George), and started out at the huge  Egyptian Museum.  We spent the morning there.  To do it justice you'd need a month or more of visits.  No photos allowed within the museum, but an incredible set of galleries of Tutankamun treasures, along with other wonderful collections of ancient artifacts.  We'd visited two King Tut exhibits at the Field Museum and the more recent St Paul Science Museum exhibit, but the Cairo galleries are really incredible.

On leaving the museum, we noticed a large burned-out building adjacent.  Turns out it was the Mubarek Party Headquarters, torched in the 2011 revolution.  It burned for two days (our guide says some theories have it torched by the National Democratic Party themselves to destroy evidence of their misrule) while activists surrounded the Egyptian Museum to protect it and its treasures.

 We then headed west to Giza to visit the three great pyramids of Cheops, Chephren and Mycerinus ( Grandfather, Son and Grandson in order).  And the inscrutable Spinx.  Headed back to the hotel for a rest and then back to Giza for the Sound and Light Production, touristy but worthwhile.

With Our Guide, George, Outside the Egyptian Museum

The Burned-Out National Democratic Party Headquarters

Interview with Two Journalism Students at the Pyramids.  "What Did I Find Most Interesting in Egypt?"  Since I'd Been There Less than 24 Hours, I Punted.

Part Way (Very Part Way) Up the Great Pyramid of Cheops

The Three Great Pyramids of Giza

Camel at the Middle Pyramid

Nice Photo of the Sphinx

Cheesey Tourist Photo With the Sphinx

Even Cheesier Tourist Photo With the Sphinx

Cheesey Tourists With the Sphinx