Luxor - Balloon ride, Valley of the Kings, Queen Hatshepsut's temple, Colossi of Memnons, local family visit

March 14 - We got up very early to go for a balloon ride over Luxor.  Rode across the Nile on a small boat before dawn.  It was a little chilly so we are dressed in layers.  Below on the boat at 5 AM:  Ellen, Bobbi, me, and Lynn.

The name of our balloon company:

At the launching are there were probably 10 balloons in the process of inflating and each basket held 32.

We are waving at the camera man as we go up.

We flew over the West Bank where all the tombs and some temples are located.  This is Queen Hatshepsut's temple which we toured in the afternoon.

There were farmers burning their sugarcane fields  in the distance so we went away from the fires.  The air has a lot of smoke.

Sunrise over the Nile.

Lynn's silhouette with the sunrise.

Farmers cutting their sugarcane.

We were up an hour and when the captain decided to put down we went into a sugarcane field.

Our path -

With 32 people on board it took a lot of workers to pull us out of the field.

We survived!  Lynn, Ellen, Bobbi, and me.

After the ride they had a drummer and we all danced.  No champagne here!

They gave us certificates of the ride.

These are the boats that transport people across the Nile from the East bank to the West or vice verse. 

We went to the Valley of the Kings but could not take our cameras into the area, only in the parking lot.  There is a natural pyramid over the Valley of the Kings (the mountain you see in the distance).  Of the 63 tombs that have been discovered, only 10 are open for a visit.  We visited two:  Ramses IV and Ramses IX.  We paid extra to see King Tutankhamuns tomb.  His mummy was still in the tomb.  The tombs were very colorful with long passageways leading to the final room where the mummy would have been put.  King Tut's tomb was the smallest tomb.  There were over 5000 pieces found in the tomb when Howard Carter discovered it in 1922.  These pieces are now in the National museum in Cairo.  Most of the treasure in the other tombs were taken by the workers of the tombs.

This is Queen Hatshepsut's temple.  It was restored by archeological team from Poland.

The hieroglyphics were amazing and very colorful.

The Queen dressed like a man, including a beard, and ruled for 22 years.

Outside her temple.

These two huge statues are the Colossi of Memnon.  These lead to the temple of Amon-Ofis III which was destroyed but excavation is going on in the area.  These two gigantic statues, 20 meters high, were cut out of a solid piece of sandstone.

 We had a delightful lunch at a restaurant called Marsam, which is the oldest guest house on the West Bank.  This time we got a choice of fish!

On the way back we were treated to some local sugarcane and how to eat it off the cane.

A highlight of any trip is meeting the locals and their families.  This was a bread making demonstration by the wife of a local farmer.

Our server was the daughter.

We all took our turn making bread.  She made it look easy but for us it was difficult.

After a visit to the barn to see the water buffaloes and the geese and a walk in the farmers alfalfa fields, about 2 acres, we sat down to a very nice meal:  cucumber and tomato salad, boiled eggs, cheese, fries, hummus and the bread we cooked which was delicious!

Happy and content:  Lynn, Ellen, Bobbi, and me at the local's home.

Luxor, Egypt - Valley of the Nobles, Medinet Habu, Dier Elmadina, Carriage ride

March 13 - Got up really early and went to the Cairo airport to fly to Luxor.  Flying over Cairo I could not see anything because the air was so dirty.  One of our tour guides from Real Egypt met us at the airport, Ahmed.  Then we picked up another tour guide, Ayman, who was with us most of the time in Luxor.  He was very knowledgeable and gave us a lot of information about the Gods, Kings, and history of Egypt. Luxor (Thebes) was the capital of Egypt during ancient times.  In the old kingdom their were 36 dynasties between 3200 and 2700 BC.  This was the age of the pyramids.  Then the First Interim period which had a lot of social upheaval and anarchy was from about 2180 to 2130 BC.  The Middle Kingdom started about 2060 BC which was renowned with the first pharaoh Amon-Emhat who established the cult of Amon, the sun god.  Next was the Second Interim period which is obscure and full of uncertainties.  The New Kingdom which dates from about 1580 BC signaled the triumph of Egyptians over the then known world.  Egypt thrived under strong kings until 595 AD when it became part of Roman Eastern empire.

Arabs and Muslims changed the name of Thebes to Luxor meaning city of palaces.  The West Bank of the Nile in Luxor was the city of the dead because that was where all the tombs are.  East bank is the city of the living.

Our first stop was the Valley of the Nobles.  Their was an excavation in progress so there were a lot of workers moving dirt.  We went into two tombs.

Workers on the hill.

Sifting through the bags of dirt.

Inside one of the tombs

The second tomb -  the most important thing was to build the tombs deep in the ground.  The

ground is limestone, so it is easy to dig.  There are 700 tombs on the West Bank:  Valley of the Kings -63, Valley of the Queens - 70, Valley of the Novles - 400, tombs of the artisans and workers - 65.  The difference between the nobles and the Kings is that the nobles portray their families in the tombs where the Kings honor their gods.  These tombs are over 3000 years old and the colors are still magnificent.  

Next stop was the funeral temple, Medinet Habu, of Ramses III,  who ruled between 1194 - 1163 BC.  

It must have been school field trip day.  Lots of kids visiting the temple.

The goddess of Nekhbet depicted as a vulture, protects Upper Egypt and, symbolically the whole temple.

The first courtyard has Osirian pillars decorated with war scenes.

Ramses III and me.

The south gate is set between two pairs of towers with an imposing military appearance.

We went to the tombs of the artisans and workers in the village called Dier Elmadina.  We could not take pictures in the two tombs we visited.

Excavation of workers homes.

Another worker tomb

This is a reminder that we are now in Africa where two cultures, African race from central Africa, and Mediterranean race with origins in Asia, joined.  This is the restaurant on the Nile that we had our first lunch.  Typical lunch in this part of the world:  chicken schwerma, potatoes, fried eggplant, rice.  

Our hotel was located on the Nile and this is a view from our bedroom balcony.

After unpacking we went for a carriage ride in downtown Luxor.  We split up into two carriages and we had an older man and young boy driving the carriages.

We went into traffic, thru old town, new town, down the crowded bazaar streets and to the street of the Sphinx between Karnak and Luxor temples.

Down through the crowded shopping bazaar.

Bobbi and Lynn on the carriage ride.

Ellen and I

Luxor temple at night.

Finishing off the evening with a Luxor tradition - smoking the water pipe, Shisha.  Ours was fruit flavored.  Lynn,  me, in back our driver, Ellen, and Bobbi.