Wow, so much has happened since Luxor that I'm just going to finish up *talking* about some of the pix from that trip.
*The Colossi of Memnon
*The Valley of the Queens. Cameras were not allowed into the tombs so we can't show you the neat painted interior walls. Not only the queens, but royal children were also buried here.
*The Temple of Hatshepsut. She was the first female pharoh. This is a chapel deep inside the temple. Again, I love all the residual color! I also loved these columns topped with the head of a goddess.
*We also went to the Valley of the Kings, but, again, photos inside the tombs were forbidden. And we were too cheap to buy more postcards.
*Sunset from the top of the Nefertiti Hotel. You should stay there if you go to Luxor. The staff are friendly and offer tours at reasonable prices and don't pressure you into buying them.
*One of the few ways you can make a sunrise even better- in a hot air balloon! The hotel offered balloon rides at the bargain price of 300LE which was less than USD60 at the time, so we had to try it.
*Luxor Temple at sunset and sunrise.
*The mosque built on top of the Luxor Temple. They man who gave us the tour said it was the oldest mosque in Egypt, so I guess built during the 1st century sometime. It's pretty cool to see how they used the column tops and lintels of the temple (and weird to think that they were sticking up out of the ground instead of being up above you). They even carved into one for the mirhab. btw-it was being rebuilt when we were there.
*Taking the train back to Cairo. While we were there the Feast began. (This one celebrated Abrahim about to sacrafice his son to God, then God sending a ram instead.)In the more rural areas you can actually watch the sheep, calfs, and goats being slaughtered but in Cairo that all happens in the less tourist parts of town. Everyone else just has fun in downtown.
Showing posts with label Luxor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Luxor. Show all posts
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
Luxor! Part 1
OK- from Aswan we woke up early to catch a bus to Luxor. On the way we were to stop at a couple of temples. They were pretty cool, but not that old- Ptolemic instead of Pharonic, so only, like, 1300-2000 years old.
My jaw dropped when I first laid eyes on Kom Ombo. It's a temple dedicated to two gods: a crocodile god Sobek and the other I can't remember. It was so amazing and I just love the residual color. In all the textbooks you just see these old buildings that are just mud- brown, but I loved them just the same and to see that they had colors!!! It makes my head swirl just imagining the walls and columns as they were first built.
Sadly, we only had 30 min to enjoy it before heading to Edfu temple, dedicated to the god Horus. This was even bigger than Kom Ombo!! And the carvings, the details, are so rich. We had a bit more time to explore so we got to see some of the storage rooms and climb the stairs that the priests would climb carrying a statue of Horus so that it could be bathed in the sun and get more energy and live longer, etc. One of the storage rooms was where they made perfumes and stuff, so the walls were carved with the recipes. Unlike Kom Ombo and other temples we've seen, Edfu still had ceilings. In the chapels, they were painted blue with stars carved into them, representing Mut, the sky goddess. The ceilings helped preserve even more of the colors. Blue! Red! Black! Yellow! It is amazing when you stop and think that these columns were actually handcarved by people! BTW- I really liked the falcon statues.
That night, because we hadn't seen enough temple for one day, we saw the Sound and Light Show at Karnak temple. It. was. awesome. First, we decided to walk, being only a couple of kilometers from our hotel and the guidebook made it sound like it was just straight up Karnak Temple Street (no brainer, right?) So, down the street we go. It's very busy but no touts so we don't mind. But eventually we began to feel lost because the street got very quiet and the tour buses and caliches just disappeared towards the Nile. We did happen upon the rest of the Avenue of the Sphinxes. It starts at Luxor Temple and runs all the way to Karnak. It was weird to realize these ancient sculptures were right here where the sidewalk should be and even weirder still to see kids playing hide-and-go-seek among the sphinxes!
Anyway, Froody asked for directions a couple of times and we reach a locked gate to the temple parking lot and so we have no choice but to walk all the way around, but we did make it to the ticket booth just as the music was starting! I haven't seen any of the other light shows (this was supposed to be the best one), but the show starts at the main portal to the temple along the Avenue of Ram Sphinxes. There's dramatic music, colored lights, and voice actors talking about the history of the temple and a bit about the pharohs who added on and about some of the festivals that took place here. I'll admit that it was a little over-theatrical, but I didn't mind at all. In fact, it seemed to fit because Karnak is, in itself, over-the-top and surreal, this 3000+ year-old structure. The story leads you through the temple itself. It was like a dream, finding yourself walking through an ancient temple at night. The end of the show has us all seated by the Sacred Lake and I'm sitting there, allowing myself to get carried away by the music and voices, and that's when it hits me: I'm in Upper Egypt, someplace that seemed so far away when I was in junior high (ahh, so long ago) and first learning about Ancient Egypt, the pharohs, the Nile, the desert and wishing I could see these things for myself.... And now I was! For a while, even after the show, I was so full of warm happiness. Froody said he was glad I was happy and glad he could be there with me.
So, the next day we ventured to the West Bank- the side of the Nile dedicated to the afterlife whereas the East Bank is dedicated to this life. (A restaurant owner said that it's kind of true even to this day. The people of the West Bank all go to sleep when the sun goes down and don't stay up late like the Egyptians of the East Bank.) We decided to go on a guided tour of the Valley of the Queens, Al-Deir Al-Bahari temple, and the Valley of the Kings.
My jaw dropped when I first laid eyes on Kom Ombo. It's a temple dedicated to two gods: a crocodile god Sobek and the other I can't remember. It was so amazing and I just love the residual color. In all the textbooks you just see these old buildings that are just mud- brown, but I loved them just the same and to see that they had colors!!! It makes my head swirl just imagining the walls and columns as they were first built.
Sadly, we only had 30 min to enjoy it before heading to Edfu temple, dedicated to the god Horus. This was even bigger than Kom Ombo!! And the carvings, the details, are so rich. We had a bit more time to explore so we got to see some of the storage rooms and climb the stairs that the priests would climb carrying a statue of Horus so that it could be bathed in the sun and get more energy and live longer, etc. One of the storage rooms was where they made perfumes and stuff, so the walls were carved with the recipes. Unlike Kom Ombo and other temples we've seen, Edfu still had ceilings. In the chapels, they were painted blue with stars carved into them, representing Mut, the sky goddess. The ceilings helped preserve even more of the colors. Blue! Red! Black! Yellow! It is amazing when you stop and think that these columns were actually handcarved by people! BTW- I really liked the falcon statues.
That night, because we hadn't seen enough temple for one day, we saw the Sound and Light Show at Karnak temple. It. was. awesome. First, we decided to walk, being only a couple of kilometers from our hotel and the guidebook made it sound like it was just straight up Karnak Temple Street (no brainer, right?) So, down the street we go. It's very busy but no touts so we don't mind. But eventually we began to feel lost because the street got very quiet and the tour buses and caliches just disappeared towards the Nile. We did happen upon the rest of the Avenue of the Sphinxes. It starts at Luxor Temple and runs all the way to Karnak. It was weird to realize these ancient sculptures were right here where the sidewalk should be and even weirder still to see kids playing hide-and-go-seek among the sphinxes!
Anyway, Froody asked for directions a couple of times and we reach a locked gate to the temple parking lot and so we have no choice but to walk all the way around, but we did make it to the ticket booth just as the music was starting! I haven't seen any of the other light shows (this was supposed to be the best one), but the show starts at the main portal to the temple along the Avenue of Ram Sphinxes. There's dramatic music, colored lights, and voice actors talking about the history of the temple and a bit about the pharohs who added on and about some of the festivals that took place here. I'll admit that it was a little over-theatrical, but I didn't mind at all. In fact, it seemed to fit because Karnak is, in itself, over-the-top and surreal, this 3000+ year-old structure. The story leads you through the temple itself. It was like a dream, finding yourself walking through an ancient temple at night. The end of the show has us all seated by the Sacred Lake and I'm sitting there, allowing myself to get carried away by the music and voices, and that's when it hits me: I'm in Upper Egypt, someplace that seemed so far away when I was in junior high (ahh, so long ago) and first learning about Ancient Egypt, the pharohs, the Nile, the desert and wishing I could see these things for myself.... And now I was! For a while, even after the show, I was so full of warm happiness. Froody said he was glad I was happy and glad he could be there with me.
So, the next day we ventured to the West Bank- the side of the Nile dedicated to the afterlife whereas the East Bank is dedicated to this life. (A restaurant owner said that it's kind of true even to this day. The people of the West Bank all go to sleep when the sun goes down and don't stay up late like the Egyptians of the East Bank.) We decided to go on a guided tour of the Valley of the Queens, Al-Deir Al-Bahari temple, and the Valley of the Kings.
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