Luxurious Luxor

Friday: December 10, 2010

Luxor is truly a beautiful place to spend a few days in. It is unlike any other city I have visited thus far in Egypt. Unlike Cairo, there is no smog or intense traffic and unlike Aswan, it feels like a town where I can walk around. Sure, it is a developing tourist attraction, but they are certainly doing a great job making it a clean and enjoyable place to visit.

I have noticed a few things about Luxor (which literally means “the palaces” that I haven’t seen in other places we’ve stayed in Egypt. First off, there is a cleaning crew that works all day and night to keep the sidewalks and streets clean. Crews carry carts with brooms and garbage bags to clean the streets, similar to the Times Square Alliance and 34th Street Coalition crews to keep those areas in New York City clean and safe. Even though most of Egypt has a lot of security (all the temples, tombs, and hotels we’ve visited have metal detectors and x-ray machines at the doors and we’ve had security guys with us wherever we go), I’ve noticed a heavy visible police presence in this city. There are lots of nice sidewalks and I’ve walked a few times between my hotel and the marketplace (as I’ve discussed in the previous entry).

Luxor also has an interesting and unique land use policy that it seems to be adhering to. While there are many old homes and businesses in the city, the government is taking significant amounts of property to restore the city to look and feel as it did during ancient times. During ancient times, an avenue of sphinxes connected Luxor Temple in downtown Luxor and Karnack Temple, a five-minute drive from downtown. Archeologists have found these sphinxes and the government is restoring the avenue. This has meant uprooting many homes and businesses (including a 5-star hotel) in the middle of the city. Additionally, during ancient times the Nile could be seen from the two temples, which is also going to be restored by taking houses and businesses that block the view of the Nile. Once completed, Luxor is going to look like it did during ancient times with the more modern areas away from the Nile. If I find more information about this, I’ll strongly consider writing my final paper on this topic.

Anyway, I digress. Today we visited the previously mentioned Luxor and Karnack Temples. The first stop was Karnack Temple, the largest temple in Egypt. “Kar” means “Spirit” or “House” and “Nack” means “Goose,” which makes sense because Amun-Re was represented by Geese. This temple is unique because not only is it the largest, its construction spanned ~2,000 years as many kings and pharaohs continued to add sections to the temple throughout the years. Because of the on-going construction, there are lots of places where one could enter during ancient times, though there is only one true entrance. There have been ~100,000 monuments found under the sand at this site alone and 90% of the stones are sandstones that traveled ~80km from the south to Luxor City. This temple is also interesting as it contains a sacred lake that could have been used for mummification, for crocodiles, or most likely for the geese around the temple. The sphinxes at this temple are different because they are ram-headed here. The temple was destroyed over the years for a variety of reasons including flooding, a change in religion, and politics. It can be seen in this temple that Ramses III was a great builder and is a storyteller about the wars he presided over. We also danced around a beetle on a pedestal (check out Melanie’s blog for more on that, because I don’t remember what the beetle is exactly called). It is supposed to give you luck, wealth, happiness, and fertility if you go around it 7 times. We then saw the biggest Hieroglyphics in Egypt and sure enough they were huge! I gotta get a picture up here at some point.

Our next stop was down the former and future avenue of the sphinxes, Luxor Temple. This temple was significantly smaller but was also built by many kings. It was built for King Ramses II. Interestingly, the entire site was covered by sand during the modern days of excavation. A historical mosque that was on top of the temple before it was discovered still exists today. There was also an early temple that was at this site before buildings were built on top of them. During ancient times, the temple was much bigger. He also gave us a gift for the group in the hotel. There is also a portion of the temple built by Alexander the Great.

After spending time in Luxor Temple, we went to a buffet lunch on the bank of the Nile River. I ate some garlic bread, pasta, and ice cream since who knows what my stomach will do next. We then went to the hotel after lunch. Interestingly, our hotel in Luxor is hosting a World Human Trafficing conference made up of adults and youths all around the world. We couldn’t get out of the bus in front of our hotel because there were private and security cars outside since the Governor of Luxor and the President’s wife were attending the conference inside the hotel.

Once we got into the hotel, I went 2 minutes down the road to the Internet café (4:20pm). I expected a sketch place with dusty computers, but this was in the lobby of the hotel next door. It was totally worth the 20 pounds for an hour as I caught up on my blog entries. As soon as my hour at the café ended, I dropped my computer off and hopped on our tour bus to return to Karnack Temple for the light show. The show was pretty cool as we got to move around the temple at night and was much much better than the show at the Giza Pyramids. After the light show, which lasted about an hour, a bunch of us asked Professor Ghaly to be dropped off in the market area, which I did. I was going to buy some things, but I didn’t have the energy to haggle tonight and tried to get through the market without a vendor from last night recognizing me (sounds like a bad high school reunion, haha). After successfully getting through the market, a few of us splurged on dinner—McDonalds. I can’t say I’ve had McD’s in a while, but it felt like I was back on Route 1 in New York. I got the Happy Meal (6 Chicken Nuggets, a Medium Coke, and Fries) for 15 pounds…not a bad deal. Don’t worry! I also got a toy!

Today marked the end of the major touring sites in Egypt. Wow, that was fast. Tonight is the last night in Luxor City and we head out at 10am for a 4-hour bus ride to Hurghada. Apparently we will get to relax most of the rest of the trip!

The days are long, but the work is great. I’m tired and I’m hungry, but I’m having an awesome time! Enjoy the entries! Comment! I’ll answer anything! Talk to you soon!