Luxor is another ancient Egyptian capital. As such, it has lots of goodies for Egypt-goers to enjoy. Our first day in Luxor was spent exploring temples.
Luxor temple is just off the corniche in the heart of town. It was built over the years by three different pharohs, each of whom lent his own style to the construction. For some reason, the entrance to the temple doesn't take you directly down the avenue of sphinxes. Travis and I therefore walked all the way to the end of the avenue and made our way back to the entrance of the temple. The avenue of sphinxes used to lead all the way to the temple at Karnak, and there are still some places in town where you can see their remains.
The first part of the temple was built along a different axis than the other portions, making for an unusual crook in the pathway. We did a bit of exploring and examining the reliefs, but there was an English-speaking tour group outside and I wanted to listen to it, so I left Travis to his photos and went to sit on the stoop. Unfortunately, one of the guards spotted me and decided he'd really like some baksheesh, and I was too weak to avoid him. Therefore I ended up in a little recess with my hand on a sun disk. Guard dude put my hand on the disk, on my head, on the disk, on my head, on the disk, one cartouche, two cartouche, on my head, and apparently I was now invested with pharoaic good luck. Great. Then he had his buddy take a photo of us, so I was inclined to give them each some money. I put it in their hand and they stared at it and said, "This is one pound." "Uh, yeah." Like, how much do you think you deserve for doing absolutely nothing at all? They left us alone after this.
Having escaped the guards, I discovered another tour group and proceeded to trail them for the duration of their visit. Travis wandered about and took photos. The tour guide was satisfactorily informative, but I won't get into details because I think they wouldn't really make sense if you're not in the temple. I followed the group into the great Ramses II courtyard, surrounded with towering lotus columns. The tour guide said there was a tunnel underneath the courtyard where archaeologists discovered loads of burried artifiacts. Deeper into the temple complex was an area adopted by Greeks. In one room is an inscription regarding Alexander the Great, in another small courtyard are remains of Greek frescoes.
What with the pylons, statues, obelisk, columns, inscriptions, and paintings, Luxor Temple makes for a really great exploration. If you can tail a guide or get some inside information, it gets even better.
"You want a caleche?" "No." "Guess how much! Five pounds!" This followed us whereever we walked in Luxor. When we went to the temple at Karnak, I decided we'd take them up on their offer, but I had to play it cool. I had to act like I didn't want it so they wouldn't up the price on me. We got ourselves a 5 pound horse carriage to the temple, which amused me immensely, but frustrated Travis because we probably could have walked faster. If you do want to walk just stay along the river. It's only a couple kilometers from the center of town.
At Karnak we were almost entirely alone. All the tour groups were eating lunch, I suppose. Karnak is immense, covered with carvings and sculptures, and every now and again you can see paintings. We were there for hours, exploring all the niches we could find, including the pre-Karnak stuff way in the back. The temple is dedicated to Amun-Ra, his consort Mut, and their son whose name I can never remember. Ergo, there are a great many sun disks running around. Ramses II also had a great part in the building of this temple, so of course he's plastered everywhere, too.
I think our favorite places were the Great Hippostyle hall, with its 134 columns all carved and painted. There was also a little room way in the back that was still painted and all the characters either had blue hair or blue skin. Mostly we enjoyed getting to explore at our leisure. Like just about any other type of temple or church or whatever, decoration can be repetitive. Thus by this time we liked to find unique things, or particularly well done carvings. We were also glad to find informative posters about the site, so we didn't have to rely on eavesdropping to learn about what we were seeing.
We opted not to go the the open air museum, but it sounds like it can be full of interesting things, too, if you've got the time and inclination. For our part, we were inclined to get some felafel.
Erin
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