Egypt Day 5 - Luxor

November 19

Luxor is easily the highlight of the trip. It is the first place we are spending two nights in the same hotel and it's for a good reason.

A 6 am wake up call was tempered when we arrived to the Colossi of Memmon. Giant statues with the temple behind still being excavated and farm land all around, I could feel the West Bank of Luxor was going to be special.

Or guide was smart and took us to Al-Deir Al-Bahari Temple, the temple of the gender bending pharoah of Egypt, Hatshepsut. A queen of Egypt, Hatshepsut decided that she would instead be a king. All the statues and inscriptions of Hatshepsut show her as a man. She even went so far as to exile the rightful king for 22 years. He wasn't happy when he got back to Egypt and you'll the throne. As such, her image is erased throughout the temple. The temple is immense and we had the place to ourselves. We left after a solid 1.5 hours. Two major monuments and it wasn't even 9 am yet.

Next was one of the most stunning sites, Valley of the Kings. No pictures were allowed here. Big bummer. We visited 3 tombs, Tutmoses III, Tausert/Setrakht, and Ramses IV. Addie got a bonus tomb, Ramses VII. The decoration of the tombs and the way they were carved in to the mountain left me speechless. It was also great to connect the mummies we saw in the Cairo Museum with their stories and tombs. Tutmoses III was my favorite tomb, amazing colors and an incredible location fitting for the Napoleon of Egypt.

Habu Temple was the next stop. In Habu Temple we saw more amazing colors, statues and columns. After Habu, we returned to the hotel to rest up  more sites at night. Hassling and haggling in the streets was an unwelcome but necessary part of finding dinner. Pool time was then had.

Luxor Temple was our nighttime site. The columns and statues are given an impressive look with the lighting and the high moon. Looking back on the temple from the Avenue of Sphinxes (a lined path of 3 kilometers, most still underground, connecting Luxor and Karnak Temples) was gorgeous. Remarkably, even inside this temple, people on the street were hassling us to ride in their carriages.

After Luxor Temple we went for a buffet of traditional Egyptian foods specially prepared for our group. The food here is great.

This day in Luxor is the highlight of the trip for me. Amazing.