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.

COVID-19 Vaccine – What Common Side Effects You Can Feel | Pfizer Covid Vaccine Side Effects

What are some common side effects of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Covid vaccine?

I just received my first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine yesterday on May 08, 2021. I was not sure what to expect, as different people react to any kind of vaccine differently.  

Disclosure: This article represents my personal experiences and yours may be very different. I am not a medical professional. This is not a suggestion or recommendation for any products or anything else. I am only sharing my own experiences. If you have any questions or concerns, please consult your own physician.

The whole process was seamless and pleasant. I would like to thank the City of Toronto and the Ministry of Health for the good job they did.  My appointment was at 7:00 PM and I was done in 10 minutes. After that, I had to stay for 15 minutes in case some reactions appeared.

The nurse was really good, as I didn’t feel the needle and it was fast. I thanked her for her good work. I came home walking and even picked up a Tim Horton’s coffee on my way.

Later at night, I started feeling tired. I was on the Toronto Island for my Project Soundscapes video recording, so I was not even sure if I felt tired because I was outdoors all day or from the vaccine.

I slept well at night. In the morning, I felt slight pain at the injection spot on my left arm. There was a pain if I tried to lift my arm, but it was very negligible. I also had a coarse voice with fever and runny nose. However, the slight fever was on and off throughout the day. I also felt tired on and off.

Overall, the effects were not bad at all. They didn’t stop me doing my regular activities and there was nothing on the heavy side. My 2nd dose is scheduled for August and I’m looking forward to completing it.

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.