Wednesday in Luxor

Ok, Wednesday afternoon: we hopped off the shipped once we docked in Luxor. It was still pretty warm out, but starting to cool off a bit. A bus was waiting for us to bring us to the Temple of Luxor: built by 2 pharaohs around 1300BC. We've learned that the Egyptian gods often came in "trios" or "trinities" of a god, his goddess wife and their son and this one is no different. The temple sits on the east bank of the Nile and was very lovely to visit as the sun dipped a little lower in the sky.

From the front, you see the additions to the Temple by the second pharoah, Ramses II. (He's a popular one because he was a prolific builder.) There are three of the original six huge statues of the pharoah and there used to be two obelisks - only one remains, its twin having been carried off to France where it still stands in the Place de la Concorde. (Incidentally, out of 95 obelisks that are known to have stood in Egypt in ancient times, only 5 remain here in the country. The others are scattered around the world, taken as "sounvenirs". When the French took the one that stood at Luxor, they gave Egypt the gift of a clock tower in return. It's at the main mosque in Cairo, the so-called Alabaster Mosque, but has apparently never functioned. Nice.)





Turning so that the temple is to your back, you see the Avenue of Sphinxes, a processional pathway that once went 3km all the way to Karnak Temple which we'll see tomorrow. There was an annual ceremony that took place involving both temples - a boat with a statue of the main god sailed from Karnak up to Luxor, entered the temple, then was walked along the Avenue of Sphinxes back to Karnak. (Or maybe it was the other way around...) Anyway, the avenue is lined on either side with small sphinxes - one every 10ft. or so! (Fun fact: Sphinxes represent the combination intelligence - the head of a human - and power - the body of a lion.) They have part of the avenue excavated at each temple and have just finished up negotiating with the locals to move out of their houses along the route so the rest can be excavated. It will be something to see when that's complete!



As you enter the pylon, you notice to your right that part of the temple is removed and a small mosque, complete with a minaret, at street level. (The Temple is excavated below street level.) You go through several courts and hypostyle halls, along with more huge statues of Ramses II. As always, every inch of the walls and columns are covered in carvings and in some places some of the original painting remains. The columns typically have capitals representing a closed or open lotus blossom or papyrus.



Tonight we spend one last night on the boat, even though we aren't sailing anywhere else. I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of our swanky Nile cruiser. (Don't mind my suitcase open in the background of one!)