Madina Heights Luxor

... still today.

In general the town of Luxor isn't that exciting, many tourists and many people that try to sell to tourists. In fact they get quite annoying, pushy and aggressive and you slowly start to ignore the "Taxi taxi" calls only to be called a bad tourists because you don't respond to people.

If you ever wondered about how a house is torn down in Egypt, read the following. The street around ...

... When it was discovered by Howard Carter on 4th November 1922.We should also mention the great King Ramses II, which is one of the strongest kings of the ancient Egyptian. He had ruled Egypt about 76 straight. There is a collection of his statues spread in many parts of Egypt like the temple of Abu Simbel in the Upper Egypt. Also according to some historical evidence which says that Ramses ...

... bank of Luxor. The shepherdy donkey guy matched everyone up with a suitable donkey and thank fully i got a tiny one so my feet were nearly touching the ground which everyone behind me found hilarious. I personally found it very reassuring because it meant if i fell off it wouldn't be from a great height so that made me relax even though there was very little to hang on to. One of the shepherds was a little boy named Biyup (i asked him in Arabic and i ...

Got up at 5.30am for an early start. We wanted to head to Philae before the tourist rush. Had a typical Egyptian breakfast at the hotel consisting of the usual cheese, bread rolls, yoghurt, olives, boiled eggs & croissant followed by tea. Mostafa was waiting for us on time as usual and took us to Philae, where we then had to haggle for a ride in a tinny across to the island. It looked pretty dodgy - the outboard was a little worse for wear the skipper did have trouble keeping it ...

... I was originally upset that I would potentially be missing. For the fact that it was only about $8 US for entry into both, plus about $10 more for transit, I was really pleased. Edfu temple has a similar layout, with some pretty interesting hieroglyphics and color remaining. For those going on this trip, try and see if your guide will bend and take you to these two temples. While not the biggest or the best, they are worth a look.

From Edfu we ...

... and I. So we sculled some more water, had some panadol and lunch was well recieved as was the nanna nap we had back on the boat :)
Our next foray out was to Luxor Temple, at 5pm which ended up being in the coolness of 40 degrees, but much more bearable than the midday heat. Again, the ruins are huge and magnificent and now we know how they get obliesks up without breaking them! Seems also that kings and queens just can't help themselves, they have to build multiple monuments ...

... and boarded MS Norma, a sister ship for lunch. We were allocated cabins for the afternoon so were able to have a welcome rest and cool down.
Later in the afternoon we boarded the bus again and this time we headed out to the Karnak temple. You would think we would be templed out by now but once again we were amazed by the wonders we saw. This is a complex with several temple compounds which was once linked to Luxor by the avenue of sphinx ...

... there. Melissa teaches science to 7th graders, which as I said are from 11 to 17, in Cameroon in an Anglophile area. She is totall issolated, as is Kat, as it seems are most Peace Corps volunteers. The nearest other foreigner is 2 hours away. She deals daily with the awful hassle of being known simply as "white man" to all around her. At least she speaks the language...Kat lives in a francophone area and upon arrival in Cameroon spoke no French...

Luxor, Egypt jimmyandkristen

... its not a souvenir, its an investment! So then we decided to see Karnak during the daytime, and it was really something. There are more hieroglyphics here than any other place we\ve been to, really easy to walk around and there really wasnt all that many people there. Lots of pics, lots of footage, lots of heat, but we\re used to it now! So were leaving for Cairo on a sleeper train due to arrive at 5 and have only 3 more days in Egypt before Jordan. I have to say its ...

... a giant temple built into a mountain covered in colored hieroglyphics and carvings. Built during the reign of the most powerful Queen of Egypt, the temple’s highlight is a carving depicting the transfer of the massive obelisks of Luxor and Karnak from the quarries upstream in Aswan down the Nile to Luxor. Since the obelisks were made of only one massive granite stone, transportation was no small feat. There was one giant boat with 3 levels that would be beached ...