Why You Can't Miss Luxor, Egypt
Luxor is definitely a do not miss place if you’re planning to visit Egypt! It’s a quick 1 hour flight from Cairo, and can be a day trip but I recommend spending the night if time allows so that you can see all the sights in this area but if you can only go for a day its still totally worth it! The flights are roughly every hour and a half, so you can feesably get an early morning flight out of Cairo and a late evening flight back out of Luxor.
You need a visa to enter Egypt, it costs $25 USD you will need cash and can purchase it before clearing customs. It only took about 10 minutes vs trying to navigate which online sites may or may not be legit.
ProTip: Traffic in Cairo is next level, you can easily sit for 1-2 hours in traffic trying to get across the Nile to the airport, or anywhere for that matter honestly. So just accept that there is going to be traffic, ALWAYS and you’ll be fine! Memphis Tours was amazing, the tour guides were super knowledgeable and the drivers were great too!
Luxor is what is considered upper Egypt due to the River Nile flowing from the South to the North into the Mediterranean Sea. Luxor like Cairo is divided into East and West by the Nile. The East side was considered the land of the living by the Ancient Egyptians, and the West side the land of the dead. This coincides with the sun rising in the east (being born) and setting in the west (dying).
Horse and carriage are still very popular means of transportation in Luxor, the local guide said she did not feel like the horses were treated well so when she goes to the Mosque she said she tries to just take a taxi or walk even though horse and cart was cheap— around 5 L.E.
East Bank of Luxor
On the East side of Luxor is Karnak and Luxor Temples. Karnak temple is dedicated to Amun-Ra. Ra is the sun God and Amun being the overseeing or omnipresent God. Amun is also the most logical explanation for ending prayers with “amen”. Karnak temple is a massive complex, that in ancient times had a channel running from the Nile to the temple allowing for boats to dock. The entrance or first pylon was actually the last to be built and was never actually completed. They Pylon was actually covered 3/4 of the way with mud and sand as well when it was discovered. Per all Egyptian temples, outside the first pylon was the avenue of the sphinxes.
This is the unfinished outside pylon that has been excavated revealing the original mud brick ramps used to reach the high levels when building which would have been removed upon completion.
Luxor Temple is south of Karnak temple and in ancient times was connected by a 1.5mile (3km) paved avenue lined with sphinxes. The avenue of the sphinxes is currently being excavated and restored and will be open by 2020, and visitors will be able to walk between the two temples! Luxor temple is really interesting because it has been used over and over again as a holy site for worship since ancient times. It was a temple for the ancient Egyptians, then occupied by Christian and Coptic churches, and then finally a mosque was built on top of the ruins which is still functioning today! You can also see the remains of frescoes when Alexander the great ruled.
Frescos that we’re plastered on top of the ancient hyrogliphs, which is clear evidence that the temple was used as holy site throughout history.
The front of Luxor was very grand with statues of Ramses II and obelisks, one remains the other is in Paris. Obelisks are one giant piece of granite that was cut from the quarry in Aswan then put on a barge and floated down the Nile to the site of the temple. The columns in Luxor temple are 52 feet high, and would take twelve men holding hands to circle the base. They were inscribed with hieroglyphics and then painted, and some of the paint is still visible today and vibrant for being 4000 years old!
Entrance to Luxor Temple, which was completed last.
Statues of Ramses II at Luxor, who added himself in many of the temples decorations after it was completed by his predecessors.
The enemies of Egypt under foot of the Pharoh is common theme in temples and tombs. These are under Ramses II statues at Luxor temple. These are the enemies of the East, and seem to be of Middle Eastern decent.
Colonnade of Amenhotep III, the columns are 52 feet high and originally had a ceiling and was walled in creating a dark chamber. The colonnade tops are open lotus flowers and were all painted.
Paint that is still visible today from 1270 BC.
The artists at Luxor engraved the walls to make it harder to deface. The darkening on the male is from people touching it for blessing or good luck! Also how crazy is it they knew what a sperm looked like, while people in Europe were living in caves!
West Bank of Luxor
The west side is home to the Valley of the Kings and Queen Hatshepsut’s Mortuary Temple. Pharaohs decided that massive public monuments of their burials were an easy target for thieves, which is why during the New Kingdom they moved burying Pharaohs to the Valley of the Kings on the West bank of the Nile. The Valley of the kings is like an upside down pyramid if you think about it, which makes sense why they would create massive elaborate burial chambers here, aside from the fact that tombs were not being advertised with a giant pyramid. This did not stop tomb raiding though, as almost every tomb is assumed to have been robbed by the end of the New Kingdom or 1077 BC.
The tombs here are so intricately and beautifully decorated! They depicted religious ceremonies, battles, and important themes in Ancient Egyptian life.
Tomb entrance with the God Ra depicted with a falcon head—Horus.
This is the ceiling of an unfinished tomb in Valley of the Kings. The architects and artists, planned the decoration of the tombs very mathematically using grids that you can see today in a tomb that had to be sealed because the 70 days after death had ticked by and the tomb was not completed as work had to cease on that day.
The afterlife was super important to the Ancient Egyptians, once a ruler came to power one of their first orders was to start preparation for their tomb. Many times tombs went unfinished because a Pharaoh would pass leaving on 70 days to complete everything before the next ruler came to power and the tomb and body needed to be sealed up.
This adorable cat that joined for some lunch in the most beautiful Oasis in Luxor! Nour El Balad, it’s a hotel and restaurant!
February is high season for visiting Egypt as it has not gotten too hot yet. This is also when the local school children have a break too! So when visiting most sites were more crowded than usual, so def go early to spots you really care to get good photos!
Queen Hatshepsut’s Temple was the most crowded place I’ve ever been! Even more so than the Pyramids! Having light hair regardless of what your’e wearing makes you attractive to Egyptians that are not from Cairo and used to seeing foreigners, so expect to be asked to take photos with them. If this bothers you just politely decline.
Queen Hatshepsut’s statue wearing the crown of upper and lower Egypt and the false beard with crossed arms to convey power and strength.
I did not take a ton of photos at Queen Hatshepsut’s Temple because of the crowds but also the sheer size made it difficult to get it all in one frame even using my DSLR. I did however take many photos of the art work here because of how well preserved it was.
The interior chambers of Queen Hatshepsut’s Temple are amazingly well preserved and the colors are super brilliant! The reason the color has lasted in because the stone has actually absorbed the color vs just being painted on top.
Luxor is definitely a must see if you visit Egypt because of the tombs and temples! I know everyone comes to Egypt to see the Pyramids and the Sphinx but you’re shorting yourself if you don’t take even just a day trip to Luxor!
