The Valley of The Kings: The Royal Burial Site Was the Gateway to the Afterlife | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 6 (Part 45) 05D19

The Valley of The Kings in Luxor, Egypt | Exploring the World’s Most Famous Tombs

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The Valley of the Kings refers to the sloping cliffs in the mountains on the Nile’s west bank near Luxor. The valley became a royal burial ground for pharaohs during the era known as the New Kingdom (1539-1075 B.C.). You will find the tombs of Tutankhamun, Ramses II, Seti I, and many queens, high priests, and elites of the 18th, 19th, and 20th dynasties.

63 tombs have been discovered and there are possibly more lying hidden beneath the mountains. The size of these tombs can be from a single chamber to massive complexes spanning several thousand square meters. Inside, the tombs are very colorful and awe inspiring. You will find hieroglyphic carvings and vividly painted decorations illustrating ceremonies, burials, and much more.

Environmental pollution from mass tourism such as friction, carbon dioxide, sweat (2.8 kg from each tourist) is a threat to these tombs and artworks inside. Egypt is working to put a process in place so these ancient antiquities can survive many more thousand years. Some of the measures are having a limited number of tombs open on a rotation and each ticket allows access to only 3 tombs (with an option to pay extra for more), installing dehumidifiers, glass screens, and so on.

It took us about 30 minutes on mountainous road to reach the Valley of the Kings. The road was gradually sloping upward with very dry, hot and humid weather. Even riding in a luxury van, I felt like we were going to an isolated place in the mountains far from the city and people. That made me wonder how it was possible to find this type of place and build this magnitude of structures like these enormous tombs when there was no electricity, no motors, and no nothing.

Colossi of Memnon | A Long Day of Excursions | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 6 (Part 44) 05D19

Early Breakfast at Lotus Luxor Hotel | Visiting Twin Memnon Pillars - Two Faceless Colossi of Memnon Representing Pharaoh Amenhotep III

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We were scheduled to leave the hotel at 6:30, so I had to wake up very early. The hotel provided breakfast in a box, which was available before 6:00. It was a basic dry breakfast, but I appreciated that they provided something so early.

Some of our tour mates went for a hot air balloon ride that provided aerial views of Luxor, its iconic landmarks, and the sunrise. I skipped that because it was way too early. Just before leaving the hotel, I saw the sky in the distance when daylight broke. It was a beautiful view over the swimming pool with mountains and the Nile River in the background.

We were heading to the Valley of the Kings as our first excursion of the day. However, we had a stopover at the Colossi of Memnon, a site where two huge faceless statues representing Pharaoh Amenhotep III rise majestically about 18m from the plain.

Each colossus is cut from a single block stone and weighs about 1000 tons. This place is a popular tourist spot with lots of open gift shops and small or big restaurants. Our tour mates who went for the balloon ride would meet us here.

I picked up a mango juice from a restaurant for 30 LE, about $2.40 CAD. I would say this was my best mango juice ever. They squeezed real mango with pulp in front of you, adding nothing. The result was a heavenly sweet mango juice – the taste was hard to forget.

I also met a cute and friendly street dog greeting all the tourists, wagging his tail. A lot of tourists liked his sweet behaviour and fed him cookies bought from the roadside snack shops.

All our tour mates gathered and soon we were heading to the Valley of the Kings.

Murphy’s Irish Pub Restaurant in Luxor| Unwinding After A Long Day of Excursions | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 5 (Part 43) 04D19

Dinner in Luxor | Murphy’s Irish Pub – A Little Oasis in Luxor

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After reaching our hotel, our guide gave us an hour and a half to relax before meeting at the lobby. I utilized this time to take a shower and have tea.

Then we all met at the lobby and waited for everyone else to come. Some of our tour mates decided not to go, so there were close to 10 of us going to the Irish pub.

After walking a few blocks, we reached Murphy’s Irish Pub. An ordinary pub, nothing fancy, but in Aswan downtown finding an Irish pub felt like finding a little oasis. Their pub had 2 floors. We all settled on upstairs.

Although I saw a Guinness tap on both bars located upstairs and downstairs, they were just show and not connected to anything. The pub mainly serves local beers and alcohol. I didn’t get any beer, but tried a Coke. Beers were a lot cheaper compared to a pub in Canada. One of our tour mates who was from London kept drinking lots of beer, it was too cheap not to drink a lot.

I saw a pool table and there was even a DJ. We all felt comfortable and were chatting about our experiences in Egypt so far, and other stuff in general.

I ordered a mixed kebab with rice for 150 L.E. or about 12 CAD. The food was not great, but good enough. Food prices felt cheap, but I figured it was most likely that local Egyptians would pay less than us.

The pub was not crowded. I saw only one customer besides us. After finishing our dinner, we stayed for a while before returning to our hotel. On my way back, I noticed a big, antique-looking bookstore called Aboudy next to the pub. If I was alone, I would go in and spend some time browsing the bookstore. It looked like they had a good collection of books, postcards, and other interesting stuff.

The next day, we would leave our hotel at 6:30 to spend a busy day exploring.

Luxor Temple | The Most Beautiful Temple Offers an Eerie Spectacle of Shadows & Lights at Night| Egypt Travel Blog: Day 5 (Part 42) 04D19

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Exploring the Temple of Luxor| Where the God Amon Experienced Rebirth

After leaving the Karnak Temple, we headed to the Luxor Temple, which was a mile south. In ancient days, Karnak and Luxor temple were joined by an avenue. There were two rows of sphinxes, who had human heads, guarding both sides of the avenues. To this day, this avenue has survived and is visible outside the entrance of the Luxor Temple.

Located in the heart of Luxor, the Luxor Temple was built over 100s of years by the New Kingdom pharaohs Amenhotep III, Ramses II, Tutankhamun, and other pharaohs.

Known as “the place of the First Occasion,” this is where, during the pharaoh’s annually re-enacted coronation ceremony, the god Amon experienced rebirth.

The vast Luxor Temple complex has a colossal Great Colonnade Hall, which is 61 meters long, with 28 twenty-one-foot-high columns. You will see thousands of sandstone fragments with carved and painted details of hieroglyphic texts and temple ritual scenes. Lots of the statuary and carvings you would see feature Ramses II.

The gigantic statues and columns were so big and high that I felt tiny when I was taking pictures standing next to them. The first huge 24m-high Ramses II pylon had reliefs of his military exploits on it. This pylon originally had six (four sitting and two standing) colossal statues of Ramses II. But to this day, only two of the seated figures and one standing figure remain.

Some striking anomalies can be seen in the complex. The temple’s hypostyle hall was converted into a Christian church, and then a Coptic church during the Christian era. Then after thousands of years, a 14th century mosque of Sufi Shaykh Yusuf Abu al-Hajjaj was built on the southern wall. To this day, this mosque is carefully preserved and active for praying. There is an entrance leading to the mosque from outside, without entering through the main temple complex.

This was the first time we visited a temple at night. I guessed the tour company arranged to visit at night because of Luxor Temple’s famous night spectacles when the lights lit up. Starting from the sunset till when it’s all dark, the Luxor Temple turned into an eerie spectacle of shadows and lights playing off the reliefs, colonnades, gigantic statues and the whole complex. I had no regrets that I didn’t visit this place in the daytime.

From here, we would go back to our Lotus Luxor hotel and then go out for dinner.

Karnak Temple | Bold – Majestic – Awe-Inspiring | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 5 (Part 41) 04D19

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Exploring the Temples of Karnak | The Largest Religious Building Ever Constructed on Earth

After leaving the Lotus Luxor hotel, we drove through Aswan city to reach the Karnak Temple complex. The first thing you notice at the complex is that it is simply huge. Karnak Temple, so far, was the most grand ancient temple we had seen in Egypt.

Located on the east bank of the Nile River in Luxor and covering 200 acres or 1.5X0.8 km, Karnak Temple is the largest religious building ever constructed on Earth. It is a huge, complicated site with four courtyards, ten pylons, many buildings, and a sacred lake.

Construction started 4,000 years ago and continued until 2,000 years ago when the Romans took over Egypt. Each Egyptian ruler left his own architectural mark by adding a new piece to the temple.

Karnak Temple has three main sacred areas honouring three gods. The central part taking the largest space of the temple is dedicated to Amun-Ra, the chief god of Thebes. Then there is one part for the goddess Mut, wife of Amun and another section for Montu, an ancient local warrior god.

The Great Temple of Amun is Karnak's main temple building, where most visitors spend the most time. Colossal columns, mammoth statues, and oversized stonework covered in a dizzying amount of intricate carvings are just a few of the things that make the Great Temple of Amun the world's most stunning man-made structure.

I can’t describe the full complex, it would be like writing a book, so in very brief here are some of the sections you will find in The Great Temple of Amun. Each section is like a separate building and has its own awe-inspiring elements.

- First Pylon
- Great Court
- Temple of Ramses III
- Second Pylon
- The Great Hypostyle Hall and the Triumphal Inscription
- Third Pylon
- Central Court
- Fourth Pylon
- Fifth and Sixth Pylon
- First Hall of Records
- Court
- Second Hall of Records
- Great Festival Temple of Tuthmosis III
- Botanic Garden
- Seventh Pylon
- Eighth Pylon

Beyond the main temple building of The Great Temple of Amun, there are other sections, each one a separate temple or entity in the complex.

Northern Section from the main Great Temple of Amun

- Kiosk of Sesostris
- Temple of Ptah
- Temple of Montu

Eastern Section from the main Great Temple of Amun

- Temple of Ramses II
- Temple of Osiris
- East Gate

Southern Section from the main Great Temple of Amun

- Sacred Lake
- Temple of Khonsu
- Temple of Osiris and Opet
- Temple of Mut

If we had to see the full complex A to Z, I believe we would require 1-3 days at a slow pace. We completed our tour in only 1:30 to 2 hours, so it had to be fast. We concentrated mainly on the main temple building and had a glimpse of the rest.

From here, we would go to the Luxor Temple, which offers spectacular night views.