Luxor: Another touristy place. First we went to Karnak Temple. We hired a guide, but sometimes I didn't really listen to him because I was daydreaming about what it must have been like to walk through the temple when it was new and big and the paintings were fresh. From what I understood, I think that over the generations, every new pharoh would add on their own little hallway or obelisk or whatever, so the place is huge and represents the legacy of many different pharohs.

There were lines of sphinxes lining the entrance walkway. I thought they were pretty cool because they were for Ramses and Ramses was really into rams, so they all have the head of a ram and the body of a lion and they're all hanging out with what is I think a representation of some pharohs. I also think the guide said that all of the little men statues were destroyed except for this one, which was supposed to represent Ramses. I'm not sure though.

I think this is another representation of Ramses as a Ram man.
Part of the main hallway or something. It was supposed to have a roof, but the roof collapsed, and it has like over a hundred giant columns.
Some of the beams and columns even retained their vivid paintwork.

Our guide, some obelisks.
Our guide again, a statue. The statue was roped off, but the guide was touching it anyway to show us how the detail in the knees and ankles and toenails said a lot about ancient Egyptian sculpture.



At this point, about like half of our group decided we were too burnt out to continue on to the Luxor museum. So while some people went to the museum, we sat around the giant columns and considered taking a falucca, but then ended up sitting and eating. After that, we decided to meet up at Luxor Temple, built for like yet another Ramses. I wasn't really feeling it though.
I think part of it was the sunlight. By the time we got there, it was almost sunset, so the light was pretty terrible. Also, I think I was still a little sick of the sightseeing thing and just wanted to sit and chill.


Apparently Luxor Temple is supposed to be really awesome when the sun sets because bats come out or something. So we sat around and watched people walk by while we waited for the sun to set. There was a tour group of middle aged women who wore matching bright orange shirts. Another interesting thing: in Cairo, things are pretty conservative, so women cover up and couples don't really do a lot of the PDA thing. But in Aswan and Luxor, almost everyone there is a tourist who doesn't really know much better, so there are all these people wearing tank tops and short shorts and I feel totally scandalized when I see them - especially when a girl wearing a tube top and short shorts is kissing her boyfriend who is wearing a wifebeater.
A blurry picture of how dramatic it looks at night. I still think it looks worse though.

Afterwards, we met some other AUC students for cocktails and beers and shisha and bad food and it was a pretty great time.

The next day, our hotel arranged a guided tour for us to the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens and some other things. First we went to this temple:
I don't remember its name. Also, it might not really be a temple. This was the place one of the pharohs got mummified. But the interesting thing was that this particular pharoh was a woman, and every reference to her in this temple has been chiseled away by her son, because she sort of usurped the throne when he was a wee baby. I don't really know how we know it is her, in that case, but whatever.

Great painting jobs. The ceilings here are fantastic, and it's kind of amazing that the paint has lasted this long.

Then we went to Valley of the Kings. Of course.
They don't allow you to take pictures inside the tombs, so I can't really impress you with them. But. They were awesome. The first one we saw was Ramses IV and it might have been one of my favorites. The walls were painted white with carved and painted hieroglyphics. Farther into the hallway, the walls were covered in giant painted reliefs of slaves with their hands tied, and snakes that were meant to protect the dead and on the ceiling was the goddess who eats the sun every night and gives birth to it again in the morning. At the end were the broken sarcophagi of Ramses IV and also of Ramses V, who I guess was a lazy cheat and just tried to put his name on top of his father's and had himself buried there too.

We also saw Ramses IX, Ramses I, Ramses VI and Tut. You had to pay extra to see Ramses VI and Tut though. I heard Ramses VI was better, so I paid for that and it was ok. It wasn't as well preserved as Ramses IV, and that is kind of a big deal to me. Also there was the sky goddess again, and it's supposed to be the biggest representation of her in a tomb or something, but I wasn't impressed.

I had also heard that King Tut was overrated and it cost more, so I didn't pay for it. So we were standing around waiting for the people who had paid for it to see it, and I turned to one of my friends, with whom I just recently been talking to about getting a tattoo, and I said "Do you think it hurts to get a tattoo?" At this, this old woman near us like, turned to us and offered me her ticket. She said she had torn something in her knee and could not take the steep stairway down to the tomb, so she pretty much gave me her ticket and wouldn't let me pay her back for it. So. I saw King Tut's tomb. It's very small and deep inside, and there is only really one room with a full wall mural and his sarcophagus and one of his many layers of gold coffins. Also, his mummy is in there. He is kind of shrimpy, but it was really cool because I had never really heard conclusively where exactly Tut's mummy was. So it was an experience.

Then we went to Valley of the Queens. No pictures there either except for this one:
At this point, I was pretty burnt out anyway. We saw a tomb for some queen and her children. It was interesting because in the queen's tomb, the first room was full of images of people holding hands. Like gods holding hands with gods, queens holding hands with kings, kings holding hands with gods. It was very nice and full of love and happy emotions. Also interesting: also found in the tomb was a miscarried fetus, buried with the queen, in like a box or something. So that was on display and really fascinating. The tomb I would've really liked to see was Neferteri's. Apparently it is super well preserved and her tomb is beautiful, probably because Ramses II was totally whipped and worshipped her. But. As it turns out, it apparently costs 40,000 Egyptian pounds for a group of ten people to go see it. Of course, that is only 4,000 Egyptian pounds per person, but that is still about like $800 USD per person. So we didn't see Neferteri's tomb.

Afterwards, we freshened up and took a falucca, just for the experience. The experience was drifting aimlessly in the river while it was approaching sunset and getting really cold.



Then we ate dinner and half of us, who were not planning on staying another day in Luxor, left to take the plane home. There were some problems and in the end, after even more problems, we took a crappy train back to Cairo. Did you know that they probably haven't cleaned the train toilet since the train has been built? I didn't use it (which was difficult on a 12 hour ride) but my friend did and he reeked. Also, this was first class.

Anyway, it was really nice to get out of Cairo and do some things, as touristy as they may be. Next time, I want to just sit somewhere and eat. We have this Thursday off for some new holiday that was just declared, so that will probably be really nice and fun.