Today, we woke up early to witness another beautiful sunrise and watch many colorful hot air balloons launch into the sky. Esther is torn between booking a balloon ride or not—her fear of heights clashes with her curiosity to see Luxor from a bird’s-eye view. As for Chris, he’s not so keen on getting up really early for the experience. We’ll see.
We set out at 7 AM to drive to the valley of the kings. What was once a a very cumbersome road in bad shape is now an asphalted road, and smooth ride. The bus parking is huge and we could see that apart from a few larger busses, the visitor count must have been down here as well. Hopping on a little electric golf cart, we were driven to the entrance of the valley and deposited there with dozens of others.
The regular entrance ticket allows access to just three tombs. This limitation is in place to help manage the number of visitors and prevent the buildup of humid air from respiration and transpiration inside the tombs.
So far, 63 tombs have been discovered, and it’s believed that two more are still hidden. Of these, only eleven are open for visitation. For the eleventh tomb, that of Tutankhamun, an additional fee is required. If you want to visit more than three tombs, you’ll either need to purchase the Luxor Pass ($ 130) or buy a second ticket. Since our cruise trip and horse riding excursion include visits, we can explore six tombs.
The landscape is a barren rocky desert and hill landscape without a single bit of greenery anywhere. The tombs are built into the ground at an angle, to make it as difficult as possible for grave robbers to detect and pillage them. Unfortunately almost all of them were ransacked before being excavated properly by archeologists.
What we found out is that all those tourists in large groups only visit the three nearest tombs to save time. So we visited the tomb of Ramses the IV, which had some traffic, but then decided to head up to one that was further up the valley and less visited. We had the place to ourselves.
A beautifully colored and carved tomb was the tomb of Tausert & Setnakht, a queens tomb (Tausert) that was reused as a kings tomb (Setnakht) with two sarcophagus on top of each other. The queens sarcophagus below and her kings above. The vivid colours remaining on the walls are amazing after thousands of years.
The valley of the kings graves span a period of roughly 500 years. We will be coming back again for more visits in a few days. Feeling the need to walk back to the car instead of taking the golf cart again, we took a stroll downhill.
Next stop is the Hatshepsut Temple, which is distinctly different from other temples. Built into the hillside, it spans three levels, with a long ramp leading up to the highest terrace. It’s a striking sight when standing in front of it.
Chris recalled a strenuous hike up to the rim of the Hatshepsut Temple over 30 years ago. This area is no longer accessible to tourists due to the tragic events in 1997, when six gunmen attacked the temple, resulting in the deaths of 58 foreign nationals and four Egyptians. At the time when Chris visited the temple in 1987, only two levels had been excavated, and the temple was far less preserved—or rather, less remodeled—than what we see now.
Hatshepsut was the first queen to rule as a pharaoh for many years. Unlike other queens, who were typically only allowed to rule for a short time—either as regents for their sons or in the absence of their husbands—Hatshepsut maintained power until her death. She claimed to be a direct descendant of the sun god Ra, asserting her right to rule as pharaoh for an unlimited time. To emphasize her authority and underline her role as a pharaoh, not just as an interim queen, she adopted the traditional symbols of male pharaohs, including wearing a fake beard. As a result, even her statues depict her with a beard, further reinforcing her masculine presentation of power.
Chris was a bit disappointed by the temple, as his memories were more impressive than what he saw now. For Esther it was a first time, and she enjoyed strolling through the many areas of the temple.
As nearly always when school classes are present, we got asked to pose for pictures with the kids, turning into a tourist attraction ourselves. We gracefully and patiently complied with all the requests to make local kids smile and happy. Fun fact, while it was a nice 20 degrees and sunshine, all of the kids wore thick winter jackets and some even wore woolly hats … strange world, T-shirt weather for us, deep winter weather for locals.
Our last stop before lunch was the Valley of the Queens, where only two tombs were open for visitation: the tomb of Queen Titi and her son. Once again, we had the place to ourselves. The paintings and carvings in these tombs were exquisite—vibrant and colorful, making them well worth the visit. Unfortunately, the tomb of Queen Nefertiti was closed, which is said to be the most beautiful tomb in all of the valleys. When it reopens, an additional fee is required to enter.
After lunch back at the ship and a quick rest, we set out to explore the east side of Luxor where there are two magnificent temples to see: the temple of Karnak and the temple of Luxor.
Both temples used to be linked by a 3 km long alley of sphinxes, of which only a few hundred meters can be walked today. Karnak is not one temple, it‘s a whole temple complex.
This was the most impressive visit so far by the sheer size of the place. Not only are the grounds huge, the biggest hall was home to 134 large stone columns, each at least 20 meters high and carrying huge stone blocks on top.
Originally the entire roof was made from large stone blocks and the pillars were needed to support those. Most of the columns are still standing in their complete height and the sheer size and number is baffling.
Karnak temple was not built by one pharaoh alone. Like many temples here in Egypt one pharaoh started the building phase and others added to it over time.
Walking through a number of pylons (huge gates that are hollow but built with large square rocks) from two sides, one can only imagine how this place must have felt intact and painted with vivid colors everywhere. The way through an alley of ram sphinxes and through four pylons led to an inner temple where the largest granite altar of Egypt is kept. In this inner sanctum, only the pharaoh and the high priest were allowed.
The entire temple complex had bits and pieces of ancient ruins lying all over like a gigantic puzzle that is still waiting to be assembled. We had a leisurely coffee at the sacred lake within the compound and watched the setting sun bathing the ruins in orange and red lights.
As the temple closes at five PM we had to head out at that time and headed to our last stop for the day, the beautifully lit Luxor temple at night.
Unfortunately many other groups had the same idea as it is spectacular to watch and open later than Karnak. Nevertheless it was a breathtaking view with the lights illuminating the statues, walls and columns of Luxor temple.
At least three rulers added additional pieces to Luxor temple. In the 14th century a mosque was taking up one of the adjacent areas and built wall to with the temple. Christian conquerors later on repurposed one of the halls as a christian church by simply plastering over existing Egyptian carvings and covering them with Christian paintings.
We decided that those two temples are worth a second visit while we are staying in Luxor.
