Luxor

Luxor is located in Upper Egypt, and was the capital of the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt.  The ancient name of Luxor is Thebes.  The city and the surrounding area has a huge number of tombs and temples, many of which are very well preserved.  The two major temples are Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple.  Luxor is also the sight of the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, the Valley of the Nobles and the Colossi of Memnon.  We saw all of these sights and there are actually many more, including several good museums.

By the time of the New Kingdom, Egyptians had figured out that building a pyramid for a nobleman made a great advertisement for where a lot of gold, jewels, and other treasures were located.  Most of the pyramids were completely emptied within a couple hundred years of being built.  So during the New Kingdom time period, Egyptians began burying their pharaohs in tombs dug into mountainsides.  Most of these were also robbed of the treasures, but the paintings and other decorations are largely intact.  Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the tombs.  You will just have to come see them for yourselves—they are remarkable! 

Before we joined the cruise, we went by ourselves to the Valley of the Nobles and Medinet Habu, the memorial temple of Ramses III. 

The Valley of the Nobles is being somewhat reconstructed for safety reasons, but the tombs are still largely intact. 

We couldn't take our own pictures of the paintings inside, but here are a few of what we saw from the internet.  They really did look this clear, this isn't fancy photography or re-touching!

Next we went to the memorial temple of Ramses III.  This wasn't a temple for making sacrifices to gods, it was built so that people would remember the king when he was gone.  The paintings in this temple were nearly as spectacular as in the tombs, even though this temple is open-air:

The hieroglyphics in this temple were carved remarkably deep, and this allowed them to be more clearly preserved up until the present time.

Once we joined the cruise, the Egyptologist on our boat took us to the rest of the sights.  First was Karnak Temple, which is known for its large number of enormous pillars:

The most remarkable thing about this temple, apart from its architecture, was that it was built, re-built, and added on to by up to 30 different pharaohs.  As a result, it has a variety of buildings and architectural styles.  As was the case with many ancient Egyptian temples, parts of Karnak Temple were also used in Christian times as a church.  There is evidence that the ancient Egyptian creation stories inscribed on the pillars were 'edited' for decency by the Christians.  (If you're curious as to why, look up the god Min.)

Next, we visited Luxor Temple, which has been impressively lit.  Because of the lights, we visited this temple just as the sun was setting so we could see the full effect. 

There is a mosque on top of Luxor Temple, that was built before the ruins were excavated.  A set of  conflicting historical preservation laws prevents the removal of the mosque, so it sits in one corner atop the temple.

All of the temples to the gods were built on the East side of the Nile, and the tombs and memorial temples were built on the West side of the Nile.  Since the sun rises in the East, and the sun brings life, the ancient Egyptians felt it was the appropriate side to worship their gods who also bring life.  The sun setting in the West signified death, thus the location of the tombs and mortuary temples.   As most of these sites did not allow photography, there isn't much I can show you.  Below is the reconstructed mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut— a powerful female Pharaoh. 

We sailed from Luxor down the Nile to a couple of smaller towns.  I will post pictures of them on the next blog entry.