Lotus Luxor Hotel | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 5 (Part 40) 04D19

Lotus Luxor Hotel Review| So-So Hotel, but Views Are Amazing

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

After leaving the Temple of Edfu, we drove through the local markets, along the rail tracks, mountains, and then the Nile to reach our hotel. I saw lots of ruins of half-constructed homes and totally abandoned homes along the way. This area was also close the mountains.

The Lotus Luxor hotel seemed to be very old. The building was a 6-7 storey building with 58 guest rooms. Its lobby was dark and unimpressive. However, the hotel had the advantage of offering a breathtaking view. If you pass the lobby and go through the glass door, there was a big open lounge facing the mountain range over the swimming pools and then the Nile.

The 2 outdoor pools looked like they were sitting right next to the Nile with the views they offered. The open lounge was on the first floor. The ground floor had nice sitting areas in the garden and next to the pools.

My room was a basic double bed room. There was a chair and a small TV on the wall. It was nothing to be excited about. The only feature of my room I liked a lot was the balcony.

The balcony was small. Half of its view was blocked by the wall, but the other half offered a view of the swimming pool area down below, overlooking the Nile and the mountains.

After my shower, I took pictures and videos of the hotel complex. I visited the balcony many times during my stay.

We would leave before evening to see the Karnak Temple and then the Luxor Temple.

Exploring the Magnificent Temple of Horus at Edfu | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 5 (Part 39) 04D19

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

The Temple of Edfu | The Best-Preserved Ancient Egyptian Sanctuary

After leaving the tent café we drove for a while, cutting through local markets in Edfu. Once we reached the temple complex, I saw lots of street vendors before entering the temple. The vendors were loud, trying to sell their merchandise to tourists, so we had to maneuver to pass through.

The Temple of Horus at Edfu was built during the Ptolemaic Kingdom between 237 BC and 57 BC and is possibly the best preserved of the Ancient Egyptian structures. This is due to the fact that it was buried under almost 40 feet (12 metres) of desert sand for almost 200 years. The silt from the Nile probably helped to conserve to its near-perfect form.

The Temple of Horus was dedicated to Horus, the falcon-headed sky god. Horus was considered the protector of the pharaohs.

The temple of Edfu complex was huge. The first thing you see is the grand temple entrance gate. You will see stone reliefs on both sides of the symmetrical gate praising the Ptolemy King Neos Dionysos and stone sentinels of the falcon-headed god Horus watching over the Great Pylon.

Once you pass the gate, you face a colossal courtyard surrounded by 32 towering columns on three sides. The whole temple is like a book opening up in front of you chapter by chapter.

The columns and stone walls are richly decorated with floral and palm capitals, reliefs picturing the gods Horus and his wife Hathor.

The inner temples have 12 columns topped with elaborate floral capitals. After that, there is a doorway leading to the Hypostyle Hall. The roof of this hall is supported by 12 columns and there are two small chambers leading to the inner passage around the temple.

There were also two antechambers and then the Room of God. This is where the gold cult statue of Horus once stood upon a granite shrine. The wooden barque that used to carry the statue during festivals at present day is a replica of the original. It kind of looked like a canoe made of gold. The original wooden barque is now on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

From here, we would go to the Lotus Hotel in Luxor.

Tent Tea Café & Restaurant | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 5 (Part 38) 04D19

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

Open Air Tent Café in the Middle of Nowhere | Kom Ombo & Aswan

After visiting the Kom Ombo temple and the Crocodile museum, our tour guide suggested to have a little break in a tent café, and everyone agreed. We drove about half an hour and reached our destination, which was in the middle of nowhere.

The place had several sections. One section looked like tents and was covered by fabric on the top and on the side. These fabrics had native artworks or designing. The passage cutting through these tent-sections had carpet on the ground and on the side there were small objects representing local culture and pottery.

Other sections were open with shade from bamboo stalks or similar trees with chairs and tables to sit. These sections looked to me like those used at restaurants and the tents were for relaxing purposes.

I also noticed they had several gates made of plants and orchids or something similar. I even saw a wall and a mini-castle made of mud a little farther away.

The whole place had a nice vibe and the Bedouin-style Arabic music added more charm to it. We all sat to have a drink. I ordered a tea, which came with fresh mint and sugar. Like other Egyptian teas I tried before, this one tasted very good. I was not sure why the tea tasted so good and different in Egypt. The tea costed 20 LE or around $1.70 CAD.

From here, we would head to The Temple of Horus at Edfu or simply known as the Temple of Edfu. 

Visiting Crocodile Museum at Kom Ombo | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 5 (Part 37) 04D19

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

Temple of Kom Ombo and Crocodile Museum | The Double Temple Dedicated to the Crocodile God Sobek the Falcon God Horus | Kom Ombo & Aswan

After visiting the Kom Ombo temple, we headed to the Crocodile museum, which was a short walk. This was a very small, dark museum with an array of mummified crocodiles and statues in the shape of crocodiles in several display cases.

The Crocodile is the first ever crocodile museum in Egypt. Dedicated to the ancient Egyptian god Sobek, the museum has forty mummified crocodiles arrayed on a sand hill inside a huge glass case. These crocodiles are not too big, ranging from about two to five meters long.

I also saw crocodile coffins, wooden sarcophagi, crocodile foetuses and eggs, carved items, and more on display. Some cases had instruments they used to mummified these crocs. Sobek mummification processes, a funerary ceremony and burial in the necropolis are also illustrated.

The most significant and eye-catching artefacts you will notice are the gold and ivory teeth and eyes they inserted into the dead crocodiles after mummification.

They prohibited camera use inside the museum, but using a cell phone to take pictures was allowed, so I had to use my phone for videos and pictures.

It didn’t take long to visit the full museum. We spent about 20 minutes and completed the tour. The dark museum had AC, which was a blessing in this heat.

From here we would go to have tea in a tent café restaurant and then would head to the Temple of Horus at Edfu.

Spending Night in The Middle of the Nile in a Felucca Cruise boat | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 5 (Part 35) 04D19

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

Leaving Felucca Sailing Boat – Part 6 | Aswan

I woke up very early when everyone was still sleeping. I sneaked out of my head under the canvas shade to wash my face using bottled water. The water went into the Nile. It was all dark and very cold. I saw some boats and lights far away. We were anchored very close to the shore and saw some vehicles passing every once in a while.

The crew started making breakfast when it was dark and it was ready by the time everything was lit by the early sun. Again, they did a remarkable job with breakfast, tea and coffee.

We all said goodbye to the felucca crew. Their hospitality efforts to keep an eye on detail to best serve their guests was truly amazing.

Our bus was waiting for us on the shore and we started to move. It was not full daybreak yet. We were moving along the Nile for a while and then passing through rural Egypt. Sometimes our bus was on a road parallel to train tracks and I saw a few rural train stations in that area. 

There were agricultural lands and sometimes we were passing villages and towns. The scenes were totally different than Cairo. The sun was slowly coming out and I had a glimpse of sunrise out the window sometimes.

We had a busy day ahead. We were scheduled to visit the Temple of Sobek in Kom-Ombo, then would head to Edfu to visit the Temple of Horus, and then a little rest at the hotel. In the evening we would see the Karnak temple complex.

So, it would be an exciting day coming up, but tiring as well.