There are a few ways to get from Cairo to Luxor. The quickest is a one hour flight so we hopped it early in the morning and touched down by 8:30 in the morning in beautiful Luxor!
Stella making her up way to her seat like a champ
The Domestic side of the Cairo Airport
Stella making her up way to her seat like a champ
The Domestic side of the Cairo Airport
Traveling tip...this chick doesn't get a ton of tablet time regularly so when we travel its a treat and it keeps her happy and occupied and we don't hear much of "are we there yet?" Obviously we limit how much time she gets on the tablet on long haul flights, but short jaunts, she has it!
We landed and discovered that the Egyptians have a beer called Stella... she thought this was awesome and hilarious!
Our guide and driver met us at the airport and we hit the ground running! Our tours of Luxor would be split into two days and two different banks of the Nile... the East Bank and the West Bank. And again, just like in Cairo and Giza, life was in the East and the West was the land of the dead. So the East bank is filled with temples and signs of life and the West is tombs and burial places.
The first thing we noticed was how lush Luxor is! It is absolutely gorgeous! Our guide, Hagar, explained to us that it only rains maybe once a year so the Nile River is the life giving water source for Luxor.
There were huge pumps on the farm lands pumping out water from the Nile to keep everything green and lush!
Luxor is small compared to Cairo and only about one million people make their homes here. We had seen in Cairo that people had built floors on top of existing buildings to get out of paying for them but in Luxor the practice was different- parents build their homes on one level and the sons remain at home. As they grow up they add on to their parents existing homes. So the eldest son would have the next floor up for his family and then the son after that and on and on.
A mix of old and new...horse drawn cart and motorcycle on the highway!
Avenue of Sphinx's between the Karnak and Luxor temples
Our first stop of the day was Karnak Temple. It is the largest worshipping space in the world. Karnak means protected area and it was named in the coptic time of Egypt.
A massive diorama of the Karnak Temple so you can see just how big it is!
Walking towards the Temple complex
Hagar explained to us that the proper layout of a temple has to have five elements:
1. Avenue of the Sphinx's
2. Pylons
3. Hall of Columns
4. Open courtyard
5. Sanctuary
Rams head sphinx avenue at the entrance
This temple was built for multiple gods but not all of the complex has been restored and is open to the public. The largest part that is open was erected for the god Amun Ra
The pylon
So there have been a couple of earthquakes and massive floods over the years and you can see carved into the temple walls graffiti from hundreds of years ago before it was all uncovered! Here you can see Medici carved!
Some of the surviving paint on the ceiling!
Hatchetpsut's obelisk-she had this built in 6 months and its 29 meters high. When she died her step son, Thutmose III, covered the obelisk with a tower to hide it but it ended up protecting it and saved her obelisk during the earthquakes and floods. His tower, and attempt to erase her from history, fell...hows that for karma?
Hagar teaching us about the columns and their significance... they were basically like giant papyrus for the temple- the more columns there were, the more knowledgable the Pharoah was.
Hagar snapped a family picture for us in the hall of columns!
After she snapped a picture of the three of us, Hagar gave us some time to walk around and explore all the columns. We wandered through and around them taking in all the hieroglyphs and taking pictures!
And then there was this guy... he photobombed our picture and then wanted a tip for it... um... no thanks dude. Keep walking... that is definitely something about Egypt- everyone wants a tip. If you use the bathroom, the attendant expects a tip (Marwa, our Cairo guide, had gotten us a ton of 5 pound notes which were worth less than 30 cents), the security guards in any temples or tombs that might take your picture or offer to take a picture of something out of sight for you, everyone got a tip. It wasn't a big deal, and we were prepared for it, but it was definitely one of those weird quirks.
Photo courtesy of Stella!
I think her favorite thing of the day was crawling around on all the columns!
Scarabs in Egypt are symbols of good luck. There is a myth that a scarab holds the sun and is in charge of its rising and setting- pushing it in or out of its home. So there was a scarab statue near the man made lake and if you walk around it once you'll have good luck!
Some close up's of hieroglyphics
Our little dancing queen dancing through the Karnak Temple!
We left the Karnak Temple and headed to the Luxor Temple.
When the temples were actively being used as worship spaces, they were connected by the Avenue of Sphinx's and are only three kilometers apart. 1800 Sphinx's line the avenue between the two temples!
Luxor Temple from the road
The avenue of the Sphinx's between the Luxor and Karnak temples
The Pylon of Ramses II
Ramses II- 173 cm high! He had 60 wives plus mistresses and fathered more than 200 children! It is said that he lived until he was 99 years old!
Walking into the hall of columns of the Ramses II temple- there are 74 columns in here
Here you can see that something called a butterfly clamp was used to protect and repair the base of this statue where it had cracked. They cut out the cracked part to see how deep the crack went and then took it out so it wouldn't crack further. Eventually granite will actually fuse together over time.
The temple complex is huge and there are multiple sections of temples- so multiple halls of columns and courtyards.
The minaret on this mosque atop the pylon is the oldest one in all of Egypt. The mosque was built on top of a Christian church which was built on top of the temple itself.
People were actually living here inside the temple, in and around the mosque until the 1960's when they were relocated.
Some of the color left on the columns
King Tutankhamen and his wife. They are depicted here as the same size because he was in love with her and wanted to show his love and devotion. Typically the Pharaohs were carved taller than anyone else with them. This was a huge honor and sign of respect and love for Queen Ankhesenamun.
When the temples were actively being used as worship spaces, they were connected by the Avenue of Sphinx's and are only three kilometers apart. 1800 Sphinx's line the avenue between the two temples!
Luxor Temple from the road
The avenue of the Sphinx's between the Luxor and Karnak temples
The Pylon of Ramses II
Ramses II- 173 cm high! He had 60 wives plus mistresses and fathered more than 200 children! It is said that he lived until he was 99 years old!
Walking into the hall of columns of the Ramses II temple- there are 74 columns in here
Here you can see that something called a butterfly clamp was used to protect and repair the base of this statue where it had cracked. They cut out the cracked part to see how deep the crack went and then took it out so it wouldn't crack further. Eventually granite will actually fuse together over time.
The temple complex is huge and there are multiple sections of temples- so multiple halls of columns and courtyards.
The minaret on this mosque atop the pylon is the oldest one in all of Egypt. The mosque was built on top of a Christian church which was built on top of the temple itself.
People were actually living here inside the temple, in and around the mosque until the 1960's when they were relocated.
Some of the color left on the columns
King Tutankhamen and his wife. They are depicted here as the same size because he was in love with her and wanted to show his love and devotion. Typically the Pharaohs were carved taller than anyone else with them. This was a huge honor and sign of respect and love for Queen Ankhesenamun.
When the Romans came they painted frescoes on the temple walls!
close up
There are restorations actively going on in this part of the temple and you could see the set up for the college that was here working and the work they've done so far. It was amazing!
Fully restored section- they only clean and remove dirt and grime. No color is added so what you see here is original. And it was stunning!
Close up-I can't imagine how absolutely stunning this place would have been in full, intact color!
Here you can see the different styles of carving- one is inset and the other is carved so that its raised.
Inset
Raised
Yeah this is a little odd and borderline inappropriate, but- as far as they can tell (as evidenced in this carving of Amun Min the god of fertility)- the Ancient Egyptians were advanced enough in medicine to understand what sperm looked like!
We walked around for a few minutes on our own again, but Stella was temple'd out. We headed back to our hotel for some relaxation! Thats one big piece of advice I have for traveling with a young kid... be flexible and realistic. We always try to schedule in a little bit of time to rest when we have busy days, but I also let our guides know that we don't want to push it too much. I'd rather miss out on some stuff but have a good time and enjoy what we are able to see, than to push her too far and everyone be pissed and exhausted and not care that we saw every little detail of every little thing. For the most part, Stella is an amazing traveler. She is a big adventurer and has wanderlust in her veins like her mama and daddy, but every now and then she just wants to relax and gets over stimulated and we respect that and have some unscheduled hotel time to decompress.
We made it to the Hilton and got our room keys (Hagar's associate had already gone and checked us in while we were doing our East Bank tour so it was quick and easy to get to our room!) And we took in the amazing view of the Nile from our balcony!
Because we'd only had a half day tour we had some down time so we all crashed and took naps- it was blissful! Until a party was set up and the DJ started rehearsing for the evenings festivities. The downside to having such an awesome view and great location was feeling like the sub woofer was on our balcony. We had a balloon ride scheduled for the next morning and our pick up time was 4:30am so I called the front desk and we ended up moving rooms across the hotel as far away from the pool area as they could get us. Luckily it worked out and we could just barely hear the party that raged well into the night.
Inset
Raised
Yeah this is a little odd and borderline inappropriate, but- as far as they can tell (as evidenced in this carving of Amun Min the god of fertility)- the Ancient Egyptians were advanced enough in medicine to understand what sperm looked like!
We walked around for a few minutes on our own again, but Stella was temple'd out. We headed back to our hotel for some relaxation! Thats one big piece of advice I have for traveling with a young kid... be flexible and realistic. We always try to schedule in a little bit of time to rest when we have busy days, but I also let our guides know that we don't want to push it too much. I'd rather miss out on some stuff but have a good time and enjoy what we are able to see, than to push her too far and everyone be pissed and exhausted and not care that we saw every little detail of every little thing. For the most part, Stella is an amazing traveler. She is a big adventurer and has wanderlust in her veins like her mama and daddy, but every now and then she just wants to relax and gets over stimulated and we respect that and have some unscheduled hotel time to decompress.
We made it to the Hilton and got our room keys (Hagar's associate had already gone and checked us in while we were doing our East Bank tour so it was quick and easy to get to our room!) And we took in the amazing view of the Nile from our balcony!
Because we'd only had a half day tour we had some down time so we all crashed and took naps- it was blissful! Until a party was set up and the DJ started rehearsing for the evenings festivities. The downside to having such an awesome view and great location was feeling like the sub woofer was on our balcony. We had a balloon ride scheduled for the next morning and our pick up time was 4:30am so I called the front desk and we ended up moving rooms across the hotel as far away from the pool area as they could get us. Luckily it worked out and we could just barely hear the party that raged well into the night.
We headed down to watch the sun set over the Nile River
The Sky was just gorgeous!
Staring out over the Nile as the sun set over the Valley of the Kings
We grabbed a quick bite of dinner where Christopher sampled the Stella beer (he deemed it delicious!) and then we headed back to the room to get some sleep for our early morning the next day!
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