Karnak Temple – the largest ancient religious site in the world

Posted on July 1, 2011 by Travis

On our last day in Luxor we planned to visit Karnak Temple, a complex containing a large group of temples. It is situated two kilometres north of Luxor Temple, and the two temples were originally connected by the “Avenue of Sphinxes”. We arranged a horse and carriage for 6 EGP to Karnak Temple; this was surprisingly cheaper than a taxi. On arrive we organised a one hour tour for 60 EGP, the tour guide shared a few unknown and interesting facts, but a tour guide isn’t necessary.

We entered the temple complex from the west and were presented with a small avenue of ram-headed sphinxes which lead to the first pylon on the inner Temple of Amun-Re. The first pylon is incomplete with temporary mud-bricks still remaining behind, providing an insight into its construction. After the first pylon was the Great Forecourt which housed a large number of open-air artefacts. After the second pylon was the Great Hypostyle Hall, a forest of one-hundred-and-thirty-four columns, initially constructed by Seti I and majority completed by Ramesses II. Between the third and fourth pylon was a large obelisk from time of Thutmose I. In all, there are ten pylons with the last being built by Horemheb.

One of the interesting things within Karnak Temple is the Sacred Lake used by priests to purify them. At the corner of the lake is a sculpture of a scarab beetle which the ancient Egyptians worshipped as a representation of the sun god Ra, due to the similarities between the rolling of the dung and rolling of the sun across the sky.

The rest of the time we enjoyed exploring the temple complex, with its hundreds of artefacts scattered around. There were hardly any other tourists which made for good photographs.

After visiting Karnak we headed back to the heart of Luxor. Unsure what to do for the rest of the afternoon, we stopped at an outside restaurant that enticed us with 8 EGP bottles of Egyptian ‘Stella’ and which overlooked the Luxor Temple. Cold beers on a hot day, it was a relaxing way to spend the rest of the afternoon that reminded me of Australia.

That evening we caught the sleeper train back to Cairo.

Luxor – The West Bank Funerary Temples and Necropolis

Posted on June 27, 2011 by Travis

Across the Nile is the world famous Valley of the Kings housing Tomb of Tutankhamun, however, the more impressive and little known are the associated Funerary Temples and Tombs of the Nobles.

I initially thought we could walk the site the whole day; after all it was only two kilometres from the hotel. We started our journey towards the ferry crossing, and were followed by a taxi driver who tried to convince us to hire his taxi, we politely declined. We caught the 1 EGP ferry and continued up the road. The same taxi driver drove up alongside us and offered to take us to the ticket office for 2 EGP, and eventually we accepted. After some discussion, he had made business, we arranged 80 EGP for 8 hours of taxi hire, quite a bargain, I thought.

The following were the tickets we purchased that day (and this didn’t even include the Valley of the Kings!)

Temple of Deir El-Madina (30 EGP)
Medinet Habu Temple (30 EGP)
Ramesseum Temple (30 EGP)
Deir el-Bahari Temple (inc. Hatshepsut’s Temple) (30 EGP)
Temple of Seti I (30 EGP)
Tombs of the Nobles
1. Tomb of Userhat and Tomb of Khaemhet (25 EGP)
2. Tomb of Rekhmire and Tomb of Sennofer (25 EGP)
3. Tomb of Menna and Tomb of Nakht (25 EGP)

Temple of Deir El-Median

Deir El-Median was a village home to Egyptian artisans that worked on the tombs in the Valley of the Kings. One of the main features in the temple dedicated goddess Hathor. When drawn from the front Hathor has a very distinguishable wide face with pointy ears.

Medinet Habu Temple (Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III)

We entered through the Migdol Gate which brought us to the magnificent first pylon with decorated walls of Ramesses III defeating the Nubians and Syrians. Inside the first court are statues of Ramesses III as Osiris. Throughout the complex the walls were covered in amazing carvings and hieroglyphs, many with vibrant colours.

Ramesseum Temple

The Ramesseum is the memorial temple of famous Ramesses II. We entered the first court from the north; in front of the second pylon were the remains from a giant statue of Ramesses II. In the second court were eight statues of Ramesses II. Moving from the second court was the Great Hypostyle Hall, where once stood forty-eight columns with capitals of closed and open papyrus flowers.

Deir el-Bahari Temple and Hatshepsut’s Temple

One of the most amazing monuments is the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut, hidden beneath and in the relief of cliffs known as Deir el-Bahari. Approaching from the ticketing-booth were small caves carved out of the valley’s cliff face, similar to what we had seen in Petra. Turning the valley corner you see an enormous cliff face with the Hatshepsut Temple sitting at the bottom, in the centre a cause-way leading all the way to the lower terrace of the temple. The ramp to the middle terrace was flanked by two statues of sitting god Horus. On the left side was Chapel of Hathor, bearing columns featuring the head of Hathor.

Temple of Seti I

As one would have guessed the temple of Seti I is the memorial temple of Pharaoh Seti I. Though the temple wasn’t very impressive, it now had lush palm trees interspersed throughout which was nice.

Tombs of the Nobles

The Tombs of the Nobles are the burial tombs of priests and officials. While we were there we were the only tourists, however just as we left a tour bus of Egyptians arrived.

Tomb of Userhat (TT56) and Tomb of Khaemhet (TT57)

Both tombs had beautiful paintings of daily Egyptian life, hunting, fishing and agriculture. In the Tomb of Userhat is a famous painting of man getting his haircut.

Tomb of Rekhmire (TT100) and Tomb of Sennofer (TT96)

The Tomb of Rekhmire had beautiful animal paintings of a giraffe, monkey, baboon and cheetah from Nubia. The Tomb of Sennofer or known as the Tomb of Vines, due to the walls and ceilings or the Lower ‘Burial’ Chamber covered with paintings of grape bunches on vines. The Tomb of Sennofer had amazing artwork throughout.

Tomb of Menna (TT69) and Tomb of Nakht (TT52)

The Tomb of Menna had beautiful paintings of rural life and agriculture. The Tomb of Nakht had the famous painting of three female musicians representing the ‘Beautiful Festival of the Valley’.

Valley of the Kings

After having seen the most amazingly decorated tombs in the Tombs of the Nobles, we were questioned whether we should visit any of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Also, all the recommended tombs by the Lonely Planet were closed on our visit. Normal entry is 80 EGP for three ‘plain’ tombs.

Tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62)

Even though Tutankhamun is a ridiculous 100 EGP, and is one of the least grandeur, we decided to see it due to being such an iconic tomb. The tomb also included the inner wooden sarcophagus and mummy of Tutankhamun.

Tomb of Ramesses V and Ramesses VI (KV9)

The other tomb we saw was the unique jointly shared Tomb of Ramesses V and Ramesses VI (entry 50 EGP), it gave us an idea of the grandness of a tomb of a pharaoh, over one hundred metres in length with a very wide and long entrance way. The walls and ceilings picture the story of the origin of the earth and include astronomical drawings.

We finished the day off resting on the side of the valley talking to the young local Egyptian sellers, who wanted to find out everything about our lives. One of them even asked Sonya for advice about how to woe his online Brazilian girlfriend.

Luxor – the world’s greatest open air museum

Posted on June 18, 2011 by Travis

From Aswan we caught a train to Luxor arriving late in the afternoon. After the Pyramids of Giza, Luxor is the most visited tourist destination in Egypt. Luxor sits on the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of Thebes, with the majority of the city on the East Bank of the Nile and the Tombs and Temples on the West Bank Necropolis. We gave ourselves two days only to visit all of Luxor’s sites, it would be rushed.

On arrival we checked into our hotel and then made our way to Luxor Temple, situated in the heart of Luxor. On arrival it was already sunset but the temple was lit up which provided a different view, and one that wasn’t part of a sound and light show. Entering the temple we were presented with the first pylon on the left and Avenue of Sphinxes on the right. The Avenue of Sphinxes now consisting of fifty or so sphinxes, originally connected the Temple of Luxor with the Temple of Karnak, a little over two kilometres away. The government is attempting to restore the avenue, but it unfortunately means destroying existing local housing.

Walking along the Avenue of the Sphinxes towards Luxor Temple gave a magnificent view of the first pylon. A pylon is a monumental gateway, placed at the entrances to rooms of temples. The pylons would be covered in Egypt stories chiselled in to the stone. The Luxor Temple first pylon was named Pylon of Ramesses II and led to the Great Court baring the same name. Outside the first pylon was also a large red granite obelisk, obelisks where commonly found in pairs at the entrance to temples. The missing partner was gifted to France and is standing at the centre of the Place de la Concorde in Paris.

The Great Court of Ramesses II consists of columns with capitals of closed papyri buds (representing Lower Egypt) interspaced with statues. From the Great Court is the Colonnade consisting of two magnificent rows of columns with capitals of lotus flowers (representing Upper Egypt). Before entering the temple sanctuaries was the Sun Court of Amenhotep III.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped to have dinner at a corner restaurant. We tried karkadé (Hibiscus tea) which is very popular in Egypt.

Abu Simbel – reign of Ramesses the Great

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Sonya

We awoke at 2:45am the following morning to start the journey south to Abu Simbel. The hostel had packed us breakfast (bread, boiled egg and juice) and we hopped onto the bus at 3am to pick up other travellers along the way. As Abu Simbel is about forty kilometres north of Sudan, there are some rules around travel there – buses need to travel in a police escorted convoy and there are regulated times for these convoys departing Aswan. The three hour bus ride was quite uninteresting – mostly desert outside and so I slept most of the way. One highlight was seeing the sunrise across the bare, flat horizon, it was very beautiful.

Nothing can really describe the feeling of awe as you look above at the huge statues of Ramesses II carved out of the side of a mountain over two thousand years ago. The depictions inside the temple were also quite amazing, of war, family life… and the wonderful statues of Ramesses with the three gods – Ra, Amun and the Ptah god of the underworld which is the only statue which the sunrays do not fall upon inside the temple.

There is also another temple next to Ramesses temple, the temple of Hathor and Nefertari – built for his wife Nefertari. Inside were pictures dedicated to the beautiful Queen.

We headed back to the bus back to Aswan. At Aswan, we stopped at a local restaurant and tried koshary – something we had seen Egyptians eat in Cairo. Koshary seemed to be a mix of beans, rice, pasta… it was interesting, but by then I had already grown quite fond of falafel and much preferred eating that.

We decided to leave Aswan for Luxor that afternoon so headed to the train station. We purchased tickets on the train and settled down for the ride to our next destination, Luxor.