East Bank of Luxor

Day 7 (30/10/08): Nile Cruise/Luxor "East Bank"

Karnak Temple

The Temple of Karnak played a significant part in the Egypt of the Pharaohs. Situated in what used to be Thebes, the religious capital of Egypt, changing rulers competed in adding their own touch to the temple. As with everything else of a religious nature, the design of the entrance is highly symbolic. It represents a cross-section of Egypt seen from the South: To the left the desert, in the middle the Nile (the entrance) and to the right the high plateau that dominates the East of Egypt. That's why the right side is higher than the left. Unlike our engineering approach of design today, symmetry was not a must - merely an option.

Through the hall, toward the holy of holies, you come to the two obelisks that are still standing. The one to the right was erected by Thutmosis I and made of pink granite. The other one was erected by Queen Hatshepsut and also made of pink granite. It is 30 meters high and weighs app. 200 tons, as seen in the background:

There were at one point nine obelisks at the Temple of Karnak - only two still stand. One of those that has fallen is today located next to the Sacred Lake. This fallen obelisk was probably erected by Amenophis III, as it carries his cartouche (name tag).

The Sacred Lake at Karnak is 120 meter (393 feet) by 77 meters (252 feet) wide. This is where the priests performed their ritual ablutions three times a day. It symbolizes the primeval sea of the Egyptian history of creation, from which all life sprang.

Luxor Temple

Luxor Temple is a large Ancient Egyptian temple complex located on the east bank of the River Nile in the city today known as Luxor (ancient Thebes) and was founded in 1400 BC.

Known in the Egyptian language as ipet resyt, or "the southern harem", the temple was dedicated to the Theban Triad of Amun, Mut, and Chons and was built during the New Kingdom, the focus of the annual Opet Festival, in which a cult statue of Amun was paraded down the Nile from nearby Karnak Temple (ipet-isut) to stay there for a while, with his consort Mut, in a celebration of fertility – whence its name.

The coptics took over many temples and converted them into churches, but archaeologists are now chipping away at the Christian artwork to reveal the bland stones underneath left by the Egyptians, which I found a little upsetting:

Access to the temple is from the north, where a causeway lined by sphinxes once led all the way to Ipet Sut in modern Al-Karnak. This road was a later addition, dating from the time of Nectanebo I in the 30th Dynasty.

The temple properly begins with the 24 meter (79 ft) high First Pylon, built by Ramesses II. The pylon was decorated with scenes of Ramesses's military triumphs (particularly the Battle of Kadesh); later pharaohs, particularly those of the Nubian 25th dynasty, also recorded their victories there. This main entrance to the temple complex was originally flanked by six colossal statues of Ramesses – four standing, and two seated – but only two (both seated) have survived. Modern visitors can also see a 25 metre (82 ft) tall pink granite obelisk: it is one of a matching pair. The other was taken to Paris in 1835 where it now stands in the centre of the Place de la Concorde.

I know this is horribly stereotypical, but I found this image too good to be true. The area was flooded with Asian tourists and this group of travellers went out of their way to personify every Asian stereotype and actually would hold up this mini Hello Kitty doll in front of statues/temples/etc and take a picture of it so it looked like it was imitating some Godzilla-esque scene where it was larger than life and climbing on ancient ruins:

Overnight train back to Cairo....

Gorgeous sunset:

We literally wrapped our bodies in every article of clothing as the train became so cold at night. Quin had a window seat and became very innovative when it came to shielding his eyes from the morning sun rays:

West Bank of Luxor

Day 6 (29/10/08): West Bank of Luxor

Disembarkation after breakfast. Today we'll be out for a tour around the West Bank of Luxor, visiting three main sites: the Valley of the Kings, (skipping the Valley of the Queens because it is a smaller version of Kings without as much to see), the Temple of Queen Hatsheput, as well as the Collosei of Memnon.

Valley of the Kings:

The Valley of the Kings is a valley in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th century BC, tombs were constructed for the kings and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom (the Eighteenth through Twentieth Dynasties of Ancient Egypt). The valley stands on the west bank of the Nile, across from Thebes (modern Luxor), within the heart of the Theban Necropolis. The wadi consists of two valleys, East Valley (where the majority of the royal tombs situated) and West Valley.

With the 2005 discovery of a new chamber, and the 2008 discovery of 2 further tomb entrances, the valley is known to contain 62 tombs and chambers (ranging in size from a simple pit to a complex tomb with over 120 chambers), and was the principal burial place of the major royal figures of the Egyptian New Kingdom, together with those of a number of privileged nobles. The royal tombs are decorated with scenes from Egyptian mythology and give clues to the beliefs and funerary rituals of the period. All of the tombs seem to have been opened and robbed in antiquity, but they still give an idea of the opulence and power of the rulers of this time.

One of the ongoing archeological digs right in the middle of the tombs









Alabaster Museum and Demonstration:

Temple of Queen Hatshepsut

The Mortuary Temple Of Hatshepsut arose as a necropolis, consecrated to the goddess Hathor in the eleventh dynasty (2120 - 1991 B.C.). It was then abandoned, until queen Hatshepsut took it over some five hundred years later. This became the period of its highest importance. After being abandoned again, it was turned into a monastery. The monastery, "Northern Monastery", whose presence at the temple is the reason for its being so well preserved today, has given the temple its present Arabic name, Deir el-Bahri.

The Hatshepsut Temple is built into the rock, and consists of three terraces. The temple itself is located on the top terrace. It was created by the famous architect Senmut. Queen Hatshepsut is best known as the only woman who actually reigned as a pharaoh - probably to her son Thutmosis III's great annoyance. Hatshepsut took over the rule of Egypt in 1473 B.C. after her husband, Thutmosis II, died. Thutmosis II was incidentally both her husband and her half-brother.

When her son Thutmosis III came of age, she was so unhappy about having to hand over the power to him that she, together with the priests, figured out a way to avoid it. The solution included wearing male clothes, as well as the false beard made of wood and leather worn by all pharaohs. When her son finally did come to power, he seemed to find it necessary to demonstrate to the World that he could rule much better than his mother through great conquests of neighbouring countries that he later become known as "the Napoleon of Egypt".

Us (above) standing at the site of the Luxor massacre, which the tourguides kept bringing up with eerie comfort. The Luxor Massacre took place on 17 November 1997, at Deir el-Bahri, an archaeological site located across the River Nile from Luxor in Egypt. Deir el-Bahri is one of Egypt's top tourist attractions, most notably for the spectacular mortuary temple of 18th-dynasty female pharaoh Hatshepsut, known as "Djeser-Djeseru."

The attack is thought to have been instigated by exiled Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya ("The Islamic Group") leaders attempting to undermine the July 1997 "Nonviolence Initiative", an effort to end an Islamist terrorist campaign that had killed hundreds of Egyptians and foreigners since 1992. In the mid-morning attack, terrorists from the Islamic Group and Jihad Talaat al-Fath ("Holy War of the Vanguard of the Conquest") massacred 63 people at the attraction. The six assailants were armed with automatic firearms and knives, and disguised as members of the security forces. They descended on the Temple of Hatshepsut at around 08:45. With the tourists trapped inside the temple, the killing went on systematically for 45 minutes. The dead included a five-year-old British child and four Japanese couples on their honeymoons - in total 4 Egyptians and 59 tourists were dead.

The attackers then hijacked a bus, but ran into a checkpoint of armed Egyptian tourist police and military forces. One of the terrorists was wounded in the shootout and the rest fled into the hills where their bodies were found in a cave, apparently having committed suicide together.

And apparently they still like to tell this story to tourists.

Collosi of Memnon

Kom-Ombu & Edfu

Day 5 (28/10/08): Kom-Ombu/Edfu/Cruise

We woke up on the cruise ship very early, enjoyed a buffet breakfast, and met our guide in the lobby to go visit the dual temple of Sobek and Haroeris in Kom-Ombu.

KOM OMBO, EGYPT:

Located in the town of Kom-Ombo, about 28 miles north of Aswan, the Temple, dating to the Ptolemies, is built on a high dune overlooking the Nile. The actual temple was started by Ptolemy VI Philometor in the early second century BC. Ptolemy XIII built the outer and inner hypostyle halls. The outer enclosure wall and part of the court were built by Augustus sometime after 30 BC, and are mostly gone. There are also tombs from the Old Kingdom in the vicinity of Kom-Ombo village.

The Temple of Kom Ombo is an unusual double temple built during the rule Ptolemaic dynasty in the Egyptian town of Kom Ombo. Some additions to it were later made during the Roman period. The building is unique because its 'double' design meant that there were courts, halls, sanctuaries and rooms duplicated for two sets of gods. The southern half of the temple was dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek, god of fertility and creator of the world with Hathor and Khonsu. Meanwhile, the northern part of the temple was dedicated to the falcon god Haroeris, also known as Horus the Elder, along "with Tasenetnofret (the Good Sister, a special form of Hathor) and Panebtawy (Lord of the Two Lands)."The temple is atypical because everything is perfectly symmetrical along the main axis.

Everything is duplicated along the main axis. There are two entrances, two courts, two colonades, two hypostyle halls and two sanctuaries. There were probably even two sets of priests. The left, or northern side is dedicated to Haroeris (sometimes called Harer, Horus the Elder) who was the falcon headed sky god and the right to Sobek (the corcodile headed god). The two gods are accompanied by their families. They include Haroeris' wife named Tesentnefert, meaning the good sister and his son, Panebtawy. Sobeck likewise is accompanied by his consort, Hathor and son, Khonsu.

In ancient times, sacred crocodiles basked in the sun on the river bank near here. Much of the temple has been destroyed by the Nile, earthquakes, and later builders who used its stones for other projects. Some of the reliefs inside were defaced by Copts (Christians of the Orientatal Othodox - the sect originated in Egypt) who once used the temple as a church. All the temples buildings in the southern part of the plateau were cleared of debris and restored by De Morgan in 1893. A few of the three-hundred crocodile mummies discovered in the vicinity are displayed inside the temple.

EDFU, EGYPT:

And then it was back to the cruise to continue sailing on the way to Edfu to visit the most well-preserved temple in all of Egypt -- dedicated to Horus, the Falcon God. The Temple of Edfu is ;ocated on the west bank of the Nile which was known in Greco-Roman times as Apollonopolis Magna, after the chief god Horus-Apollo. It is the second largest temple in Egypt after Karnak and one of the best preserved. The temple, dedicated to the falcon god Horus, was built in the Ptolemaic period between 237 and 57 BCE. The inscriptions on its walls provide important information on language, myth and religion during the Greco-Roman period in ancient Egypt. In particular, the Temple's inscribed building texts "provide details [both] of its construction, and also preserve information about the mythical interpretation of this and all other temples as the Island of Creation." There are also "important scenes and inscriptions of the Sacred Drama which related the age-old conflict between Horus and Seth." They were translated by the German Edfu-Project.

There were a lot of images of animals and we learned about which animals symbolized what and which were thought to be gods. Summary:

Hippos = Bad luck
Beetles = Good luck

The temple of Edfu fell into disuse as a religious monument following Theodosius I's edict banning non-Christian worship within the Roman Empire in 391 CE. As elsewhere, many of the temple's carved reliefs were razed by followers of the Christian faith which came to dominate Egypt. The blackened ceiling of the hypostyle hall, visible today, is believed to be the result of arson intended to destroy religious imagery that was now considered pagan.

Over the centuries, the temple became buried to a depth of 12 meters (39 ft) beneath drifting desert sand and layers of river silt deposited by the Nile. Local inhabitants built homes directly over the former temple grounds. Only the upper reaches of the temple pylons were visible by 1798, when the temple was identified by a French expedition. In 1860 Auguste Mariette, a French Egyptologist, began the work of freeing Edfu temple from the sands.

Today Edfu is nearly intact and it is the best preserved example of an ancient Egyptian temple in Egypt.







Below is one of the tunnels under the temple. It was dug through the ground and eventually reached the Nile. Depending on how high the water level was inside the tunnel (and thus the height of the Nile that year), that determined how high the taxes were for a given year. The higher the water level, the better the year for agriculture, the more money people had, and thus the higher the taxes would be.



Hand-made exit signs to direct us back to our horse and carriage ride. It was so upsetting to see how emaciated the horses were. You could literally count their ribs and see their bones poking out everywhere. I asked our driver how long his horse or the average horse in Edfu lived and he responded they live very long, like 10-11 years. However, when I looked up how long the average horse lives in a non-abusive environment such as Edfu, it turns out they live about 20-30 years on average (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_average_lifespan_of_a_horse). Very upsetting.




We rode in the carriage back to the cruise ship, and made it just before the ship disembarked from the port. We were on our way north now to Luxor.