Luxor

We very quickly discovered that Luxor was a very touristy area. It’s virtually impossible to walk down the street more than a few feet without being asked to go for a sail on someone’s felucca, ride in someone’s horse carriage, or eat someone’s peanuts. I think in general the best strategy is to more or less ignore people and say as little as possible. After a nap and a terrible Jackie Chan movie (but one of those movies that’s also great in its terribleness), Julia, Ben, Bret, and I went out to eat and discovered an awesome dinner place. I haven’t laughed so much in a while; my abs still hurt from it. Following dinner, we were joined by a few others for some sing-a-longs, political discussions, and more laughter. It feels really nice to be finding my niche with certain people and having a good time in general.

The next morning was kind of a whirlwind of activity, beginning with the now-famous Valley of Kings, where (among many others), Tutankhamen was buried. For $8, we were able to see the body (and I do mean body; all his mummy wrappings were gone) of this once-great king (although, since he died by 20, let’s think about the fact that he is currently famous for having a really rich tomb…). His body was very well preserved, and VERY short; maybe 5’2” tall. The gold outer sarcophagus is as awesome as it looks, too. In the Valley of the Kings, though, every other tomb that I wanted to see (Ramses II- the famous Ramses, Horemhab, and the Amarna Cache) was closed. We made a cool discovery; Rebecca, Julia, and I ended up wandering into the tomb of Siptah, which had incredibly well-preserved hieroglyphics all through the entrance of his tomb. The outermost sarcophagus was also still in the burial chamber, and it was so big that it could have been a room unto itself.
I have to say that, for having read so much about Egypt and Valley of the Kings, I was disappointed to some extent. There were so many tourists there, and because of this the area (obviously) doesn’t look like it did thousands of years ago. I guess I should have expected that. But in my mind I was still picturing these well-hidden catacombs and a long trek through the desert to reach them. My bad. Futhermore, most of the loot is in museums, so I’ll have to wait to see more mummies and whatnot. Also, if you are all wondering why Tut’s pic isn’t posted here, it’s because no photos were allowed in the tombs…boo.

From Valley of the Kings, we went on to Deir Al-Bahri, the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut. She literally stuck it to the man (or men) by building her temple into the cliffs in front of the Valley of the Kings burial area. The view is so impressive, and as usual, the camera does no justice in capturing the area, but check out the picture on the right nonetheless.

Next was Medinat Habu (the Ramesseum), which was a temple of Ramses II..or III? I loved this place because of the sheer size and how overwhelming the scale was. It dwarfs you and in a way is an ego check. Although, apparently it wasn’t an ego check for Ramses: he portrayed himself to his subjects as being divine while he was still alive and ruling the country (usually pharaohs weren’t thought to attain divinity until after death), and images in the temple show his sons making offerings to him as though he were part of the pantheon of gods.

Our final morning stop was the Colossi at Memnon, by Amenhotep III (the father of Akhenaten, the rebel/heretic pharaoh who only believed in one god). Quick stop but again the sheer size was impressive. We were also told that previously an entire temple was behind these statues, stretching back to the road in the distance (if you can’t make it out in the picture, it’s really far).

After some rest and showers, Luxor Temple was our final stop for the day, and we went right before dusk. The sun was setting as we toured this giant complex, and because of the time of day and the beauty there, this was definitely my favorite site of everything we’ve seen, with the Philae Temple running a close second. Something about the size, the beauty, and the knowledge of what care and effort went into these constructions demands from me a certain awe, admiration, and even reverence and devotion.

The picture to the right is about as close as they came to pornography in the temples. Showing two people seated on a bed holding each others’ elbows was tantamount to showing their sexual union, and this one shows the mother of Amenhotep III mating with Amun-Ra. The pharaoh had this depicted to show that he was of divine descent and therefore had the right and duty to rule Egypt.

May 10 we made our final stop at the Karnak Temple in Luxor. This was dedicated to the worship of Amun-Ra, the most important god in the Middle and Late Periods of the Pharaonic times. A.K.A., this temple was a BIG deal here for a very long time. I know how many times I’ve mentioned size. But this place was as big as my high school, if not larger. I’m not even bothering to show a picture of this because any image that I took will just diminish the impression you should have of it. I also want to make the point that almost every single temple or statue that we’ve seen in the past few days had been buried in sand and/or silt for centuries between their final days of use and their rediscoveries in the past few centuries. In most cases, they were very close to the Nile, and years upon many years of successive floodings evertually covered them up, only to be found once again. This kind of endurance and passive existence through the millenia as they bear witness to everything around them gives me tingles all over my body. Being in them, I almost felt as if these places themselves had souls, perhaps because of all the emotion once vested in them. But their grandeur was awe-inspiring, and the reverence I feel for the greatness of these places makes me think that had I lived in those times, I would have been much more likely to have been religious.

The afternoon was spent at the pool, where Julia and I met two really nice Irish brothers now living in England that we talked to the rest of the day. This Dialogue trip that I’m on is obviously supposed to help us enter into conversations with Egyptians, but this was also a great opportunity to exchange opinions with two cool people. The topics of coversation ranged from music (generally agreed the the Brits led the music scene back in the day and those same groups are still good) to learning languages at a young age (it’s a good thing) to movies (apparently Keira Knightley is “rubbish”) to opinions on George Bush abroad (he’s a joke, albeit an unfunny one) to the idea of PC-ness in modern society (it’s going too far sometimes) and finally to the English majority having to bend over backwards to accommodate its growing minority population (this reminds me of a book I read called Londonistan, which I had originally thought to be a piece of alarmist conservative junk but apparently is based off of some grains of truth).

After taking the midnight train to Georgia, or at least the sleeper train from Luxor to Cairo, I’m in my home for the next four weeks, an awesome little place called the Hotel Longchamps. It’s quaint and cute, with gorgeous balconies and best of all, free wireless! Now to upload all of these outdated blogs, get some groceries, and rest up for classes tomorrow!