The Necropolis of Thebes

Luxor, Upper Egypt

From Valley of the Kings

Egyptians believed that the world emerged from water, and if the balance of good and evil was not maintained, it would drown in water again. A warning for these times of rising oceans, they might say. They believed that when the sun set, it crossed that vast primordial ocean and rose in the Land of the Dead to light their day. Then it set there, crossed the vast ocean again, and rose here in the land of the living. Thus ancient Egyptians tended to live on the East Bank of the Nile, closer to the rising sun, and buried their dead on the West Bank, closer to the setting sun and the journey into eternity. Today we crossed over the river to the West Bank to see some of the funerary complexes of the Necropolis, or City of the Dead.

From Valley of the Kings

Colossi of Memnon
They're not Memnon. They represent the Pharaoh Amonhotep III who built a now destroyed temple that once stood at their backs, but the Greeks later named them after Memnon, an Ethiopian king who was a hero at Troy.

From Valley of the Kings

The Temple of Hatshetsup
Egypt's most successful female pharaoh, she ruled for 22 years, won many military campaigns, and built many monuments. This one has a Temple of Hathor, goddess of beauty, on the left. On the right wing is the Temple of Anubis. The center right gallery is the "Birthing Room," telling the story of how Hatshetsup's mother made a deal with the Sun God Amon to bear a pharaoh, thus rendering Hatshetsup divine. (It helps one's legitimacy as pharaoh!) The center left gallery tells of Hatshetsup's campaign to conquer the land of Punt, which was probably in Somalia judging by its depictions in the temple.

From Valley of the Kings

The Valley of the Kings
Sadly, they have now banned cameras in this valley altogether, not just in the tombs, so I can only leave you with the Internet for visual interest!

And then we loosed our moorings and set off upstream! I put together this little video to show you a few of my pictures, and a little stop-motion capture of the locks we passed through at Esna, because I thought my father would especially appreciate that (both the locks and the stop-motion cinematography!)

Ancient Thebes Revealed!

Luxor (aka ancient Thebes), Upper Egypt

From Karnak and Luxor Temples

Almost a Disaster
So, I thought we were leaving at 2:15PM this afternoon for Luxor. But at 1:45AM, as I was going to bed, I thought I'd take one more look at the schedule, just to be sure. Good thing, too, cuz we were leaving at 2:15AM, and I had exactly 15 minutes to pack, and 15 minutes to get to the bus! But I made it, which is good, considering how much money I spent on this trip!

So, of course, I was then up virtually all night flying to Luxor (much preferable to taking the night train, I might add!)

From Karnak and Luxor Temples

Karnak Temple
After dropping off our bags and having breakfast on the riverboat, we headed for the magnificent Karnak Temple, begun by Pharaoh Ramses II but expanded by about 30 other pharaohs over 1000 years of Egyptian history. As usual, Dr. Shahinda gave us a wealth of information I couldn't possibly convey, but which I've highlighted in the captions of my pictures. I have to say, above all you have to consider the scale of the place. Everything is enormous, and every inch of the walls, columns and ceilings would have been decorated with raised and sunken reliefs, painted in bright colors. It's even more impressive when you remember that this was the Stone Age, and for the most part these artisans didn't have metal tools, only stone implements. You also have to imagine a roof over most of the complex, which admittedly would have made it much more difficult to appreciate the painted reliefs, but was nonetheless and impressive feat of engineering. To this day, scientists and archaeologists are not quite sure how much of it was accomplished.

From Karnak and Luxor Temples

All pharaonic temple complexes were dedicated to a trio of deities: a god, a goddess and their child. The so-called Theban Triad was composed of the sun god Amon, the mother goddess Mut, and their son Khonsu the moon god. Just inside the main pylon entrance to Karnak are three small chapels dedicated to the Triad, but they appear again and again throughout the complex, as do the many pharaohs who contributed to its construction.

From Karnak and Luxor Temples

One of the highlights are the obelisks of Hatshepsut, one of which was hidden by her step-brother in a fit of pique. See, upon the death of Hatshepsut's father, Tutmoses II, she was named pharaoh instead of her baby step-brother Tutmoses III, and then she proceeded to rule for 22 very successful years, longer than any other female pharaoh, winning lots of battles and building lots of impressive monuments, all of which pissed off her little brother. When she finally kicked the bucket and let him be pharaoh, he went around much of Upper Egypt scratching out every picture of her, every mention of her name, etc. Only there was a catch; obelisks were considered representations of the gods, and as such could not be defaced in any way. As a compromise, Tutmoses III had Hatshepsut's obelisk encased in a wall, so that her name, while still present, would be completely obscured from view. Consequently, it is the best preserved obelisk remaining to us!

From Karnak and Luxor Temples

Luxor Temple
Because one temple is not enough, twice a year the Theban Triad went on vacation to the other side of town and the Luxor Temple. It's thought that a street lined with sphinxes stretched the entire distance between them, and a colorful parade and lines of supplicants bearing sacrifices would have accompanied the statues, which is depicted on one wall of the first courtyard.

From Karnak and Luxor Temples

One of the more interesting features of Luxor Temple is the Abu Haggag Mosque, one of very few examples of a mosque being consecrated on ground sacred to another religion, especially a non-Abrahamic one! Even Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was a church before it was a mosque, and not a pagan temple! As Chris Tuttle explained to us in Little Petra, throughout human history, religions have re-sanctified the places that were already holy to local peoples. Until Islam, that is. With a few notable exceptions (the Ka'aba in Mecca, the Temple Mount, Hagia Sophia), as Islam spread across the world, mosque-builders tended to avoid existing temples and churches, and instead sanctified new ground to satisfy the demands of the Muslim version of God. In this case, they didn't actually know there was a temple there when they built their mosque, but by the time the temple was discovered under their foundations, the mosque had become an important local monument, dedicated as it was to a local saint. So the archaeologists installed a new door on the opposite side, and a second minaret for good measure, and just excavated around it!

From Karnak and Luxor Temples

Luxor Marathon!

Luxor, Egypt

This might go down under "Seemed Like a Good Idea At the Time" in my book.... Egypt is cheap, and since I was staying with Megan I didn't have to pay for a hotel room, but still, I was determined to be as thrifty as possible. If I was going to pay for the train to Luxor and back, I wasn't going to spend money on a hotel. But while I remember sleeping pretty well on trans-European sleeper trains, Egyptian trains are not as smooth a ride. Still, it was an awesome day. I arrived in the cool early morning to see Karnak bathed in golden light.

From Luxor

Then I proceeded across the river and headed straight for the Valley of the Kings. You can't take pictures inside, which is only one of many things that Petra could learn from the Egyptian authorities. Tourism is detrimental to archaeological sites, from flash photography, to litter and graffiti, to the very air they breathe. While Jordan has let the sudden increase of tourists in the last year trample right over the best interests of preservation, Egypt has not, forbidding photography of sensitive sites and restricting tourists to seeing only 3 tombs on a given day in the Valley of the Kings. As a result, the tombs are pristine and astonishing, most still brightly painted. It's something I'd love to chat with Chris Tuttle about some day soon.

From Luxor

Then I saw the stunning Temple of Hapshetsut. By the time I got to lunch, I was starting to tire.

From Luxor

That was when the Arabic teacher I had hired to drive me had a brilliant idea, called up some of his high school students, and put me on a falucca on the river to see the sunset.

From Luxor

Two thoughts kept running through my head. From The Wind In The Willows:

There's nothing more worth doing than messing about in boats.

and from my father:

A bad day on the water is better than a good day at work!

From Luxor

In the end, this was anything but a bad day!