Luxor is not necessarily luxurious

That day and the following were spent in Luxor, which literally translates to “Temples”. There are two major temples in Luxor, the Luxor temple itself and Karnak temple. The temples, as it turns out, are connected by a 3 kilometer long avenue that’s lined with Sphinx statues that archeologists are just now unearthing. So there is a project in Luxor where they are uprooting and demolishing all the buildings and modern city between the two temples and unearthing the underground passage with the Sphinxes. It should be complete in a few years and there will be a direct walkway between the two temples.

After a few hours of recuperation and a highlyunsatisfying lunch of dry falafel from a street vendor, we set off for Karnak temple. For some reason that is still beyond me, our tour guide gave us the option of walking to Karnak temple from our hotel (a 3km walk) or taking a cab, which would be 5 L.E. per person ($1). For reasons that are, once again, beyond me, the group elected to walk in the 100 degree weather. I tried to say something, but, being in the minority, I wasn’t gonna press the issue. By the time we finally made it to the temple, no one really gave a shit anymore about what Michael had to say. We listened, we fanned ourselves, we took some pictures, and we all hurriedly eagerly out of the temple into the air conditioned van that was waiting for us.

Why doesn’t anyone ever listen to me? I think I was also severely dehydrated because I felt like I was going to collapse for most of the afternoon. That night, though, we went out to a very nice dinner not far from our hotel where we once again took pictures of the Nile at sunset and had some delicious Moussaka!

The next day was, once again, an early one as we left the hotel at 7am in order to visit the Valley of the Kings. This series of tombs built into the rocks in the mountains is the grave site for all of the Pharoahs of Egypt, included the major ones like Ramses the II and Tutankhamun. Its pretty impressive how intricate all the artwork is inside the tombs, with the colors still preserved thousands of years later. Unfortunately, I have no pictures as we were not allowed to bring camera inside the site.

After visiting the Valley of the Kings, we were off for our donkey ride. As I’m writing this entry two days later, my legs are still unbelievably sore as they have never been before. I think I was holding on to that donkey with my legs for dear life. They’re very low to the ground, but after a call of “hup hup” from their masters, they go rather fast.  The trotting of the donkeys was nothing like the trotting of the camels, and I think I lost about 10 years of elasticity in my breasts from that 20 minute ride. A heads-up to wear a sports bra would have been helpful.

Our last site for the day (there were two more that we saw from the bus but I couldn’t say what they were because I passed out) was Hatsheput’s temple. She was one of the only real female rulers of Egypt (Cleopatra, apparently, came thousands of years later and was not in the time of the Pharaohs. Also, apparently the term “Casearean section” comes from the fact that during Cleopatra’s romance with Ceasar, she gave birth not in the natural way  - they had to cut his baby out of her and thus, the term was coined). The temple was pretty impressive, especially the fact that she is almost everywhere depicted as a man, because it was the only way she could exude her power as a ruler (Guess things haven’t changed much for women in Egypt in the last 4000 years)

The rest of the day included two meals of junk food, a stroll through the tourist-only souk “Madam, come look, you so beautiful, let me help you spend your money”, and a horse drawn carriage ride from the Luxor temple back to our hotel.

We then boarded our night train back to Cairo.