Our boat reached Luxor earlier than planned. So we were all ready and waiting for Walid. He was also ready but asked us to wait for 20 minutes so that the rest of the crowd disperses. "we have time! we can enjoy a nice less crowded walk!" he said. It was a good idea.
We walked from the boat to the Luxor temple. It took us 30-40 minute tops including some photo ops! This is a beautiful walkway with the river on one side and the Luxor temple on the other side.
Once we went into the temple past security (yes, every temple has a ticket counter and security), we saw the Avenue of the Sphinxes.. 150 of them lined up on either side of a wide road that goes for kilometers to connect Luxor to the Karnak temple on the other side.
The Luxor temple itself is "small" compared to some of the other templed we had seen. It had its share of history! It was a gateway from the dock to Karnak for the kings in those days. The whole place was beautiful.
The video highlights first, so you have context for most of the photos..
There is a mosque on the top which had its own crowd. The whole temple was burried under the mosque and a village and was excavated recently (relatively speaking).
Romans painted over the original murals with colored faces
Finally there was a bunch of boards describing the major faces in Egyptian history. After my co-sister and me took photos of all these boards something was off.. then we realized we were going left to right.. the picture sequence was right to left.. Arabic style! So have put the pictures in the time sequence into one composite. Each of these is a large board at the entrance to the Avenue of the Sphinxes. You can click on this pic to get the larger size version.
We were not done for the evening.. We had booked tickets to a sound and light show that was to start an hour later. It was a narrow time window. So a van picked us up at a street corner before we hit the walkway and took us on a road parallel to the avenue of the Sphinx to Karnak...
The night pictures from that show are proving to be an editing challenge. . . will post that next!
Our entire group was ready at 4:30 AM and outside on the street adjoining the dock. The original plan was to have a van ready to take us to Edfu Temple before Sunrise! Given every ship was sending its people there, we were to go early to clear the security check and ticket counter and get in.
There was a snag. The van never showed. We tried to change plans to go in two horse carts (originally abandoned by our guide Walid as too risky) but others kept getting the horses and we were just waiting for 30 mintues. Walid had to feel the fury of 3 women and two girls who burnt him with their eyes just like those sages in the Amar Chitra Katha cartoons. He apologized profusely and we finally got our van after 25 minutes of waiting. When we went to the temple entrance, the line was a few hundred meters long and I counted ~ 600 people in the line in front of us!
We made it to the temple after security checks and were amazed by what we saw! This temple reminded me of Uttarakosamangai. Same layout.. a long hallway that takes you to the main sanctum with a lot of pillars and chambers on the way!
A must see highlight video of Edfu temple.. it took me a long time to edit this to under 10 minutes from 56 video clips!
It is one of the most well preserved temples in Egypt. The murals on the large temple walls tell a story just like a cartoon in panels. The fight between a hippo god and a crocodile god and the crocodile emerging victorious is amazing.
Inside the temple the walls still retain some of the color. If the plain murals look this awesome, imagine how they would have been 2300 years go when every bit of it was painted!! It would have been spellbinding!
this one reminded me of Ravana..
the unifier being confered the crowns of the north and south with different crests ! this theme is repeated across a lot of temples. The kings support the gods, the gods support the kings. eventually the kings take over for the gods..
the detail on the boat including the little chains was amazing! Probably why it took a 100 years to finish this temple!
No wonder people came there and donated to the temples and they were the big social and economic centers.
These pictures do not do justice to this temple. It happened to be preserved only because it was buried in the sand and folks used to tunnel into some of these chambers and used it as hideouts.
tried a pano but again, this is at a scale where pano's don't work..
This one doubled up as a hospital and maternity ward as well apparently. When we first went to the main sanctum, there was a 100 strong crowd and given my height, simply couldn't see or capture photos or videos. Was disappointed with that and walked out to the entrance with the group. Then I asked Walid how much time we had? He said 10 minutes. So I ran 1/2 a mile back and forth to the sanctum. Given all boats were leaving at more or less the same time, the crowd was gone. There were 4 people in the sanctum.
Ran there, took pictures and videos and captured my running back to the entrance.
The golden idols all gone!
Then there was more drama. The van driver locked the van with the keys inside! We waited another 15 minutes for a backup van. The ladies burnt him with their eyes again like the sages of folklore! Before they started painting some new murals in Edfu temple on the vanquishing of Walid at Edfu in Etchachrome colors, we got into the new van and drove back to the ship in time for breakfast.
we were in for a surprise at the breakfast area as three large tables were empty. The entire Chinese and Korean gang was gone! Walid told us that they took a bus to save time and were going to see everything in our next stop ahead of time and fly out. We had more time, so we were going to spend it on the ship the rest of the afternoon!
More on that in the next post..
If you do the river cruise or not, do not miss Edfu temple! It is just fantastic!
We slept on the boat overnight and woke up at 3:30 AM. The group including kids were all assembled at 4 in the van and the drive started to Abu Simbel from Aswan docks.
Most of us dozed off in the first hour of the drive as it was still dark outside. A little past 6AM the van slowed down for a tea and restroom stop in the middle of the desert! It was good we had some local currency. Restrooms also need local currency for the two sheets of toilet paper they hand you. The restrooms themselves were well maintained but the cigarette smoke was difficult to deal with. Wanted to come home and check what percent of the population smoked and what lung cancer rates were in Egypt. A healthy population is a good idea for any country. With kids (who looked 10 or under) smoking everywhere, it cannot be a good thing!
Enough with the vent. We came out of the shack, ate a packed breakfast that was given to us at the boat, took pictures of a glorious sunrise and kept driving.
lens flares on iPhones are tricky. was trying to teach a class to the group on how to avoid them.. this is as good as it got. More lessons are required!
We went past a small city which was mostly engineers supporting local agriculture in the desert. It was a massive project covering acres growing everything from basic vegetables to maize.
Eventually after 4 hours we made it to Abu Simbel. We got an explanation of how the temple was going to go underwater with the new dam and it took 10 years to literally cut the original temple block by block and reassemble it above the same hill.
The original temple was perfectly oriented to have the sun come through and shine on the main shrine on two days of the year. The new moved temple up the hill still had that going for it. The original temple was a marvel. Moving something like that in the 70's within a 10 year span with global support was impressive!
The minute you walk around the hill and come across the gigantic statues, it just takes your breath away!
There was still color in the murals on the walls and ceiling. Given we were close to Dec 21st, the sun was angling in and lighting up the entire temple in a golden glow inside!
A few pictures of the insides of two temples here..
A video highlight of the Abu Simbel visit.. the video captures both the sunrise and the beauty and scale of the temples!
We had spent a litle over two hours at the temple including a restroom stop and some time at the gift shop buying magnets. Then it was time to start the 4 hour drive back.
It was a race and there were no stops on the way. We had to be back at the boat before 2. Lunch was at 1:30 but the boat was finally going to start moving at 2PM.
We made it at 1:30! I had enough time to run to the market across the docks with Walid and grab some more large water bottles before we started sailing..
We were surprisingly refreshed and were not as tired as we thought we would be! We were all looking forward to moving in the boat on the Nile!
Our second morning in Egypt started at 3:30 AM to get ready to hit the Cairo airport from Giza. We were flying to Aswan. Once we landed and got the bags, we saw that they broke the wheels on my big suitcase. We were talking to the AirCairo rep at the small Aswan airport to complain that the brand new bag was damaged and he said "this is just a small thing. if you go to the main street in Aswan you can get it fixed!". He didn't even want to accept a complaint. Just bought the suitcase last month. Our guide, a patient softspoken man by the name of Walid, was already waiting and he just shook his head. At that point decided to lift it as much as possible or readjust the weight to be able to drag it with the wheels on the front side! So we loaded it into the large van and started off towards the first stop of the day.
Aswan dam!
Egypt, the land of the Pharoh's and pyramids gets to go through successive invasions and takeovers from Romans, Greeks, Brits, and Ra knows how many other strifes between the North and South. Every now and then someone comes and unifies the place and claims a throne.
By the time the military takes over from the monarchy and General Naser leads the country post World War II, he is inheriting a huge population, a developing economy that is hungry for resources and development, which all relies on one thing. Water! A country that is 90% desert needs water.
As a kid in India we learn a lot about Nehru, Nasser and Tito from Yugoslavia coming up with the concept of Non-Aligned nations that don't want to take sides in the US vs. USSR arms race. They push for economic development over the cold war. That was our history books.
All these countries got help in some form from the USSR. There is a monument to symbolize the early work.
Egypt did in its early days but when the terms were not favorable, they went to the world bank with even worse terms to get teh Aswan dam built. However, after starting the project, they realized that a lot of old temples were going to be flooded.
Guess a few old temples in ruins going underwater was not a big deal initially. Given they were relocating so many villages to the other side of the dam, it was understandable.
Then they literally got international help from the archeology community and chopped up temples block by block and moved them to higher ground. The effort is extremely commendable!
The dam itself is a massive undertaking. We walked on it and took pictures. Got a history and engineering lesson from the display boards on the dam. While all this was going on, I realized Arabic is a beautiful language in Aswan area compared to Cairo. In Cairo, it came across as staccatto and a rude tone. In Aswan the syllables were all blending together and there was a softness to most of the words.
There is an old Aswan dam which is now more of a sluice gate that is generating minimal electricity. That itself is massive. The new dam is a game changer. Still Egypt has its own version of the "Cauvery water issue" with Ethiopia as they have built a dam as well and that brings in less water into Lake Nasser.
This is the largest manmade freshwater lake in the world !! No wonder it drowned out so many temples!
After seeing the dam, we went to see the Philae temple. There was a boat ride to the temple, an hour and a half spent at the temple and a ride back. This temple is only 2800 years old. A young temple by Egyptian standards. It was a small but beautiful temple. It had many chambers for the different gods and the offerings. At one point there were gold statues at the altar for every deity. The early Christians came and defaced every face of the old gods to force Christianity on the population. Felt sad seeing those beautiful carvings all faceless. Someone spent so much time and effort into creating those works of art. Kings, queens and military rulers come and go as do religions.. we see leaders statues being pulled down today after revolutions. So our guide explained, it is what time does to this world. He said it is amazing that at least this much is left after a few thousand years. Normally they take the giant stones and make smaller blocks out of it to build houses!
The walkways on the side with the massive pillars have faces on top that gradually increase the smile from the first pillar to the last! That was incredible art work! We had a lot of fun taking pictures around the pillars. There were also a lot of cats in the temple!
Most of these giant stones were quarried 100's of kilometers away and brought here by special boats a few thousand years ago. Even the stones were a resouce for a newly developing country.
There was a separate complex to the side that was built later in Roman times.
One thing we were exposed to at the temple was the stores on either side of the walkway to the temple. These are street vendors who try to sell trinkets to the tourists. You cannot walk to any temple without crossing these stores and the kids trying to get you to come to their parents store! It is like the strategic stores at the exit of every ride at Disneyland or the walk out of the airports through duty free shops! Guess they learned that from the Egyptians! Temples were economic centers. In most of the temples you have to pay to use the restrooms. So having local currency in change is recommended! The ladies decided to buy "masala nuts" of the Egyptian variety after sampling a few of them.
Saw these Egyptian doves and took a picture..
We enjoyed the temple visit but were tired and hungry. It was time to go to the hotel. That is when we were told that we were to stay in the cruise , not a hotel. Our next stop was a Nile river cruise that started the following morning. So we expected a hotel stay in the night. Turned out we were staying in the docked cruise ship for the rest of the day as the cruise was supposed to be 3 nights minimum. We were dreading small claustrophobic spaces and tiny bathrooms (after our Mexico cruise experience from years ago).. but found this one to be better than the Giza hotel room!
We had enough time to put our stuff in the room and have lunch on the cruise. The plan was just to chill out till the next morning or try some optional activities for the evening.
Video highlights of the dam visit, the Philae temple and the cruise ship room!
To be continued when my jet lag gives me a break..
Our group met at the roof of the Hayat Pyramid View hotel for breakfast. It was cold outside and all the breakfast items were cold given it was in a room with open doors. We made the most of it and saw the run rise to face the pyramids. Caught the first light hit the great pyramids! It was fantastic.
When we first walked up to the roof, it was hazy! The moon was still up.
We took pictures before and after the sun came out..
Had a feeling this trip will be a good one just by the way she was smiling!!!
The sun comes out and the clouds roll in and "magic"!
Then it was time to meet our guide for the day, Ibrahim. At first glance if you are not used to Arabic nations, the tone comes across as rude and our guides way of saying "excuse me!" everytime he wanted to grab our attention was interesting. He was a really sweet and caring dude!
The language and accents make up for an intersting social study! He was dealing with desis .. from US. So he was a bit flummoxed on how to deal with us. Should he be proud that we bargained for everything like Egyptians? Or should he be upset that being Americans who can afford things, we are still bargaining.. he literally was telling us that in a very roundabout way. He wanted us to tip the locals wherever possible. Tipping, how much and when was the topic of most of our group discussions!
Ibrahim gave us the rundown and told us he was not allowed inside. He also told us that the big pyramid and the pyramid of the grandson had entrances to go in but it is the same experience. One was 20 USD and a longer line and one was 4 USD and a much smaller line. We opted for the shorter line given the interest of time! We went in and out through a narrow tunnel at a steep angle to see the bottom of an empty chamber and come back up. It was an intersting experience. How they moved things around in these angles and got giant granite boxes in and out is just mindboggling.
Everything about this place is just amazing. This was 3000+ years ago and they still stand inspite of all the regime changes and looting over the decades. Everything thas been stripped off including the stones over the years but what took them a few hundred years to build has lasted a few thousand.
One side has all the drama.. other side is bland ..
We as a species don't build anything this lasting anymore. All our glass, steel and sheetrock stuff won't last anything compared to this!
At some point the room would have had a large granite box with the mummy and all its treasures. They were looted a long time back! What little things the locals and invading cultures didn't take, the Brits and French took to their museums!
now there is an empty chamber with graffitti over a few thousand years! We suck as a species is what I kept thinking!
After we went in and out of the pyramid, some of us got to go on a camel ride around the pyramids. Our camels were named Michael Jordan, Michael Jackson, Alex, Mickey mouse and Charlie!
Once the camel ride was done, we visited the Sphinx which was right across from our hotel. There was already a big crowd at the Sphinx thanks to some school excursions. We were lucky to get some photos without too many people around. We also got to see the place where they did the mummification near the Sphinx.
There is a steele in front of the Sphinx which talks about the Pharoh's dream to clean the sand around it.. we learned that the sphinx probably predates the pyramids. That was a special ticket and given time we were just happy to walk around it and get a view! I cannot write enough words to make you realize how amazing this place is. You have to see it for youself. Do it while you can still walk long distances every day, do a little climbing on tall stones. In another 10-15 years this trip might be difficult for me!
Was wearing my uniform BYSJ 60 day challenge shirt on multiple days. Surprisingly no one asked me what a 60 day challenge was in Egypt or Jordan and that is a first!
A video highlight of our first morning in Egypt!
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After this it was time to drive off to our next stop across the Nile into Cario!
Saturday, December 28, 2024 at 2:26PM ;)
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