Temples, tombs and a Nile River Cruise

Hello and welcome to my Egypt travel diary. This is day 4.

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 5 | DAY 6 | DAY 7

I took one week of annual leave to explore one of the most ancient civilisations, and it was incredible. I hope you enjoy peeking into my travel journal.

When we arrived in Luxor last night, our tour operator gave us the option of visiting Karnak Temple forest thing in the morning. He recommends it, as it is one of the largest temple complexes in the world. Successive kings built upon this site for over 2000 years, which has contributed to it being so big.

For us to visit this site, we need to be picked up at 5.45am. So we are up early and ready to go. The hotel has arranged a breakfast box for us to take with us. It consists of a lot of bread rolls! But I appreciate the effort.

We arrive at Karnak Temple just prior to it opening and wait a few minutes to buy our tickets. After purchasing our tickets, we walk through to the beginning of the complex. The sun is just rising, which is fitting because this is the temple of the sun god, Amun-Re.

At the entrance to the temple is a series of ram head statues. When I first landed in Cairo, these were being used as advertising for Luxor. And now I’m seeing them with my own eyes!

We walk down the path that leads further into the complex. Along the way we pass the first pylons that were placed on the site. There are more rams outside the temple of Ramses III. We then walk into the Great Hypostyle Hall. My jaw drops to the floor. This space is so incredibly beautiful, especially with the early morning sun streaming in.

We stay here for a little while just admiring the gigantic pillars that make up the hall. We then move deeper into the complex where we see some amazing hieroglyphics, even a bin chicken! We are helped to find the Sphinx Avenue by a local, for a tip, of course. He also takes us into a building that is currently under restoration. We’ve exhausted our time here and so we make our way back out to the entrance.

We get picked up by our tour van, and it is now full of people! These are the people I’ll be spending the next few days with. There’s a total of eight tourists that our guide will be looking after. One of the other couples is Aussie too!

Now that we are all together, we make our way to the Valley of the Kings. After entering the grounds, we are driven by an electric cart closer to the tombs. This is because cars cause vibrations that can damage the sites.

Our guide explains about the tombs and why they are here. They are built here because there is a natural pyramid shape on top of the mountains. Our guide explains that Tutankhamen’s tomb was actually his grandfather’s tomb because his wasn’t finished by the time he died. Our entrance ticket allows us to visit three tombs, and then we paid extra to visit Tutankhamen’s tomb.

The first one we go into is Merenptah, who lived in the 19th dynasty. The corridor in the tomb is long and steep. We walk down and down and down, and I wonder how difficult it will be to come back up. At the end of the corridor, there is an empty sarcophagus. The mummies are all in the museum we visited yesterday in Cairo.

The walk down the corridor was an amazing introduction to the tombs. The colours on the hieroglyphics are still quite bright. This is a stunning tomb.

Next, we go into Tutankhamen’s tomb. This one is very short and small. It’s amazing to think that over 5000 items were jammed into it for him to use in the afterlife. In this tomb, the mummy of Tutankhamen rests. This is the only one that was not taken to the museum. Seeing mummies can be quite confronting! The tomb is beautifully decorated, but being so small, we only spend a short period of time here.

The next tomb is Ramses III. I overheard a guide telling another group that this is the prettiest one, and I fully agree. The walls and ceiling are covered in the most magnificent hieroglyphics and pictures. It is so colourful and well preserved. It is a wide tomb, which means this particular king was quite rich. This is because the tombs were carved into the mountain and it took many workers many years to chisel away enough rock for such a cavernous tomb. This tomb would be my favourite in terms of decorations.

The final tomb I went into was Ramses IX. This is another very wide tomb with beautiful wall decorations. It is not as long as Ramses III though. This one has some interesting depictions on the walls with people upside down. I probably should ask the guide what that means.

After we finish at the Valley of the Kings, we are taken to an alabaster factory where we are shown the process for turning alabaster rock into ornaments. While I know the guides take us to these places for a kickback, I found a piece I absolutely loved and so I bought it. It is an alabaster piece with a scarab carved into it and coloured.

We then move onto Hatshepsut’s Temple. The story behind her as a king is quite fascinating. I’d heard it before, but the guide uses us in the group to demonstrate how she became a king. She married her half brother because he wanted to legitimise his position as king. After he died, she became the regent for the next king, but after sending him away to the army, she made a story about how her father is actually Amun-Re (the sun god) and she is the next king. So the high priests put her in charge and away she went. Once the real king came back, he destroyed her claim to the throne and, unfortunately, her temple. So, it been in a state of restoration for sometime.

Anyway, one of the guys on the tour proposed to his girlfriend here with us as the audience. It was so sweet. The tour guide did an excellent job of setting it up.

As for the temple, it is nice, but it just so unfortunate that so much had been destroyed.

We then stopped for a photo op at the Amenhotep III statues. Once we finish here, we go to a convenience store to buy water, soft drinks and snacks to take aboard our boat as we are now going on a 4 day / 3 night cruise from Luxor to Aswan.

We settle into our room and wait patiently as we are having a late lunch. Just as we’d finished eating, the boat starts to move down the Nile River. We go up to the sundeck and check out our surroundings. The views from the boat are magnificent. The greenery, the brown of the mountains, and the clear blue skies are stunning.

Amy and I have a quick nap for half an hour. When we wake up, I make my way back to the sundeck to soak up the atmosphere and read a little bit of the book I brought with me. We then have afternoon tea. Amy heads back to the room, but I hang around to watch the sunset on the first night of our cruise.

Dinner is at 8.00pm. Just before we make our way to the dining hall, we are stopped outside of the lock. Sometime during the night we will go through the lock to the upper part of the Nile.

What an experience.

More journal entries from this trip

My Egypt Travel Stories / Day 1
My Egypt Travel Stories / Day 2
My Egypt Travel Stories / Day 3
My Egypt Travel Stories / Day 5
My Egypt Travel Stories / Day 6
My Egypt Travel Stories / Day 7

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