The East Bank of the Nile in Luxor is where people lived, and the West Bank was where they were buried, just as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. A guide commented on how it reflects how much more important the afterlife was to the ancient Egyptians that more remains were found on the West Bank than East Bank, e.g. they've found burial tombs but no houses.First we headed to the West Bank to see the Valley of the Kings. This was my favorite part of our trip. The Old Kingdom pharaohs (2500 BCish) built their tombs in pyramids. One guide told us the shape of a pyramid is like the rays from the sun shining down to earth. Or perhaps it is like a staircase to the heavens. The New Kingdom pharaohs (1500-1000 BC) had wised to how obvious pyramids were to tomb-robbers, which is why later archeologists found most pyramids, and tombs, empty, so these later pharaohs built their burial tombs in the mountains of the Valley of the Kings. A guide told us this location was chosen because this mountaintop looks like a natural pyramid.
The Valley of the Kings is a ravine where some 60 pharaoh's tombs have been discovered, one of the later (in the 1920s) and the most intact being King Tut. We had to leave our cameras in the van since they're not allowed in the tombs then took a tram into this ravine. It's amazing to think the distance that they'd have traveled with the pharaoh's treasures and his mummy all the way into this valley for his burial. Plus it was blazing hot.
Construction of each tomb began as soon as the pharaoh took power. I think the pharaoh chose where his tomb was constructed and they seemed not to keep track well of where other tombs were because there were several that, while being dug, ran into part of an older tomb so had to be dug taking a new angle. The tunnels to the burial chamber vary in length depending on how long the pharaoh ruled since it was bad luck to build the chamber while the pharaoh was alive (as if to say we wish you dead). So Ramses II who ruled for 66 years has a very long tunnel. Once the pharaoh died, it took 70 days for the mummification process so they had only 70 days to finish the whole tomb. Some tombs have whole walls unfinished but most are covered on every inch with hieroglyphics and paint that to this day is still vivid.
The entrances were subtle. They would have had a heavy wood door then were covered with rubble so they'd blend into the mountainside. Yet most were empty when "discovered." I was a good girl, this picture below is from the internet. This is the burial chamber where the sarcophagus with the mummy would've sat. Most of the sarcophaguses (sarcophagi?) were stone boxes and inside were a series of coffins each elaborately decorated and containing a yet smaller coffin (like russian dolls). Obviously the wood flooring and lightening were for our modern sake.
The Egyptian believed that, like the sun, we had a rising (birth), a daytime, a setting (death), a nighttime (where the spirit faced many trials, demons, snakes, crocodiles, etc), then the next day's dawn (rebirth?). Bodies of pharaohs (and their queens and priests and certain nobles) were preserved through mummification so that the spirit could return to the body in rebirth. They also filled tombs with the pharaoh's treasures and foods (so he could be nourished during his trip through the afterlife). The tomb walls are completely covered with stories with depictions of how the person was mummified, of his life accomplishments/battles, of advice for him to remember as he faced the trials of afterlife (Book of the Night), of blessings from the gods and depictions of offerings he gave the gods. This is a pharaoh, wearing the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, and the god Anubis (the jackal) who is the God of Mummification.
We were only able to enter three tombs and they were each a little different: Ramses III (tomb #12) was one of the longest at 410ft; Ramses IX (#6) which was one of the better preserved though most visited; and Tawosret (#14) which was originally the tomb for Queen Tawosret, wife of Seti II who grabbed the throne after her husband died, but was taken over by her successor Sethnakht who moved her burials and expanded the tomb by adding a longer tunnel to a second burial chamber for himself.This part was absolutely awesome to me and I think my favorite part of Egypt. Standing in one of the tombs, I was taken back 20 years to the first lava river cave we explored during a fieldtrip when I'd first moved to Bend. I became fascinated with Indiana Jones-type adventure stories and wrote several of my own in which my brother Joe and I were archeologist (child archeologist) explores in Egyptian tombs facing mummies and all kinds of good stuff (think The Mummy way before it's time, or The Hardy Boys or The Boxcar Children which I was also very into). And this joy filled me. Here was this 20 year old memory of dreaming about how amazing it would be to see a real tomb, a real pyramid, a dream I'd forgotten all these years until it came back to me as it was realized. The whole trip was worth those moments.
On our way to the next stop though, we were forced to stop off at an alabaster factory where they hand-carve items (jars, vases, etc) out of alabaster from the nearby hills. This is one of those tour stops imposed on tourists by the guides who receive a cut of whatever you purchase there. It was interesting, I suppose, since they showed us how ancient Egyptians carved vases, etc (they kept certain organs in jars for the afterlife-- the stomach, lungs, intestine and liver. They left the heart in the mummified body.) Once these carved vases were baked, their weight changes from something that feels like granite to something light as plastic. Tired of being dragged to such places, Jen and I did not purchase anything... except that as we were leaving, some old toothless man who'd been demonstrating the carving tried to hand me some scrap pieces of alabaster- "gift! Gift!" he kept saying and trying to put them in my hand. I didn't want to be rude, since we'd read that during Ramadan it's incredibly rude to turn down a gift or tea since the Muslims are trying to demonstrate their generosity. But I suspected this was a trick. I took the small rock and then of course he tells me "tip! Tip!" so I had him a pound or two (which is less than $0.50) since after all, it's a scrap rock. It's just garbage rubble. "No! Too little!" he protested and held his hand out for more. "You said it was a gift," I argued back. "No! Too little! Tip!" So I tried to shove the rocks back in his hand and said "fine!" but he shoved it back to me and I just walked away. Whatever.
On the other side of a ridge was the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. This temple Queen Hatshepsut (pronounced like "hot cheap suit") built both for her worship and for mummification of bodies before being taken to the Valley of the Kings. According to our guide, Hatshepsut was forced to marry her younger half-brother Tuthmose II but was a strong woman and probably controlled many of his decisions Upon his death, his son with another wife, Tuthmose III, was supposed to take rule but since he was still a child, Hatshepsut sent him away and took control for the next 22 years. She was a proficient builder in Egypt.It was incredibly hot this day, and I had a reoccurring issue with my camera batteries dying so there are not a ton of picture of this temple. It is also still under reconstruction.
Hatshepsut had statues of herself as the God Osiris lining this level. Apparently Hatshepsut often depicted herself in drag with a false beard to show her power, saying I am as good as any man.
There was still some painted areas of the temple. The night sky scenes were my favorite. I love how the stars are just how I drew them as a child.
There was some graffiti done to this temple, Hatshepsut's face and name scratched out, which was actually done by her stepson once he finally took power, pissed that she'd kept him out of power for so long.
As if I hadn't learned my lesson at the last stop (maybe this day I just felt fiesty, it was really hot), I had another argument with another salesguy on the way out of this complex. So all of these sites are surrounded by a gate and you have to pay a fee to enter. Fine. But that is surrounded by all these vendors selling the same stuff everywhere you go- postcards, scarves, cheap spices, touristy-knicknacks. But I had been looking for a cheap scarf, cheap meaning I'd like to have paid LE20 or less (about $4) for the cheaper ones, some were really not nice quality. Of course the silky, nice ones they were asking what amounted to like $20-30, which is what you'd pay in the States anyhow. But someone shows me a cheaper scarf as we're trying to exit and tells me he's selling it for like LE10. So I, though I knew better, engaged him in the conversation and he shows me all these other colors and nicer scarves and I tell him, no, I'm only interested in this one for LE10 ("ten pounds"). Okay, okay. So I take a LE10 bill out of my pocket and start to hand it to him. "What is THIS?" he said, hands up refusing to take it. "It's ten pounds." He shook his head and said "oh no, no, this is EGYPTIAN pounds." Yeh, no crap, we're in Egypt. "oh no, no, I meant ten ENGLISH pounds." Okay, first of all, I don't even know what the exchange rate is between English and Egyptian pounds but I'm sure this would've been a rip-off. Secondly, this guy had already asked me where I was from and I'd said America so how he thought he was going to pull this over on me is beyond me. "Why would I have English pounds? You said ten pounds. This is ten pounds," I argued and tried to hand it to him again. "No, I meant English pounds," he protested. So by this time I was just irritated and started walking away, which led him to chase after me repeating all this. Finally I turned around and said "look, I will purchase this for ten Egyptian pounds because that is what you told me. Otherwise no." "No, no, I meant English pounds." So I looked in right in the eye and said "you're a liar and I don't appreciate being treated that way" and walked away, him still chasing after me until we got into the van. Boo.
On our way back to Luxor from the west bank we stopped by the Colossi of Memnon. These are the remaining statues from temple of pharaoh Amenhotep III (built around 1350 BC) which was washed away by the Nile.
Then we had a little break from our tour and had to return to the restaurant from the day before since we'd promised the chef we'd be back. He prepared us some delicious rice (must be cooked in broth), okra and beef cooked in tomatoes and onions (apparently I don't hate okra anymore), and some fresh squeezed lemon juice (it tasted like a fresher, less sweet lemonade).
The next stop was Karnak Temple, which is actually right in the city. This temple was built over the course of 1300yrs, starting as temple for god Amun (maybe around 2000 BC), then about 30 pharaohs each added a "wing" or hall or statues in his/her own honor, including Ramses II and Hatshepsut. According to Wikipedia, the complex is a vast open-air museum and the largest ancient religious site in the world. There are four parts to the site, the largest being the Precinct of Amun-Ra (Amun was a local god self-created without mother or father, eventually they combined him with Ra, the sun god).This is a model of the complex. Three of the parts are closed to the public. This temple included a holy pool where monks would bathe before making offerings. Yes it does have water in it today.
I loved these rams lining the entrance. They lined both sides. Amun-Ra was sometimes depicted as a ram.
This is inside the external wall. You can kinda see how the wall angles inward as it rises, demonstrating how they stacked each row of blocks.
You could still see some paint on the hieroglyphics that were hidden from the sun's direct rays.
This obelisk was constructed of rock from Aswan, 130 miles south of Luxor, and transported up the Nile. How?! One of the obelisks was erected by Tuthmosis I (1504 - 1492 BC), Hatshepsut's father. It stands 70ft tall and weighs about 143 tons. Our guide told us one suggestion of how they got such a huge column standing. They may have built a box with a ramp on the side, then filled the box with sand. Then they hauled the carved obelisk up the ramp, positioned its base on the sand, cut a hole in the box to drain the sand, and as the sand drained the obelisk was slowly lowered to the ground. Then they removed the box and may have finished positioning it with ropes.
The Hypostyle Hall was the most impressive. These columns stand between 49ft and 69ft tall. They were all carved, painted, and used to have a roof and a floor of carved alabaster.
This is a depiction of what the Hall would have looked like.
More cool ram statues, these ones with little Ramses II under their chins, as if to say "I am Ramses II and protected by Amun-Ra."
I'm a sphinx!
Karnak Temple was interesting but there's a lot of rubble. I'm not sure what kind, if any, reconstructive projects take place but it looked like it could benefit from some help. You can see some reconstruction on the columns in the pictures above where they've patched some of it back together.
Then we were off two miles down the road to Luxor Temple. Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple actually used to have a road lined with sphinxes. Most of that road is now buried under the city but there is a reconstructive project to restore this road. I envisioned tourists on segway tours down the two mile road once it's down.Luxor Temple was originally built by Amenhotep III (around 1360 BC?) then expanded by Ramses II (maybe 1250 BC?). Originally there were two obelisks but the Egyptians have tended to gift some of their artifacts to other countries and the other one is now in Paris. There was also a lot of mentioning of certain statues at sites that are now at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. I understand the significance of having everything concentrated and that you can visit the museum and see things from all over Egypt, but why not put them back where they were, so that people visiting the original sites see the original pieces?
Jen decided that Ramses II was her favorite pharaoh. Well he certainly did put his name and face out there.
Once inside the walls of this temple, you can see a mosque (built in the 13th Century) was built atop one of the corners. According to our guide, this temple was buried and forgotten when the mosque was built. In fact, this mosque was built atop a church's ruins. Still seems strange to me that you can have a whole temple buried and forgotten and built atop. Luxor Temple wasn't excavated until the 19th Century, which seems like when a lot of excavations were done based on all the 1800s dates we saw carved into the walls in various temples. But really, when does it happen that the people around just stop caring about the structure and let it be lost to time and earth?
It was starting to be evening as we walked around Luxor Temple. This evening was actually the end of Ramadan. They have sound and light shows at several of the temples we'd visited but they sounded a bit too touristy and lame for our taste. The lighting at the temple was pretty though.
I was impressed by this huge statue of Ramses II.
On the back of the statue was the Goddess of Writing, and she's probably writing into this how awesome Ramses II was and how he's the king of Upper and Lower Egypt and is blessed by the gods with eternal life. You can see a duck in there, and a bumble bee across from it (above the bowls), at the bottom below the feathers is the ankh, the sign of eternal life.
This is the road of sphinxes that runs to Karnak Temple.
Then we hopped quickly into the van and were dropped at the train station for our sleep train back to Cairo. Always rushing it felt like.
On the train, THIS, my friends, is the worst meal I've ever been served. There was a rubbery piece of steak, some buttery-ish rice that was far from tasty, some raw dates (which were really hard like an unripe pear but had a funky aftertaste), the usual roll-in-a-bag (which were usually fine but something just starts to bother me about so much prepackaged carbs), some yucky date cake that was spongy, sticky, and had the texture of damp coconut (Jen got a cookie, dangit!), and some kind of dipping sauce like baba ghanoush (an eggplant dip, which I'd never had before and frankly did not enjoy), and this one was especially bad. Umm, I ate a Clifbar for dinner.
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