Friday, February 19, 2010
To the Red Sea Coast
Luxor and the Valley of the Kings
From Aswan, I traveled by train again up to Luxor. I spent about 5 days here traveling around to the tombs and temples. Every person breathing in Luxor is somehow associated with tourism and they are trying to get your money! I enjoy finding the way without the need to be a drone on some tour group. I rented a bicycle for 2 days and rode up into the Valley of the Kings and although it was a bit of a sweat, it was worth the $5 I paid for 2 days of transportation. The tombs are all off limits to any kind of photography so I don't have any to share. There are guards in every tomb and when you either ascend or descend into the tomb, they are there instantly to show you around and point out certain hieroglyphs or paintings of importance then rushing you out the door again (with hand out waiting to be filled with coins of quantity) to allow a new group of donations. This is also to keep your time inside to a minimum since the humidity of everyones breath increases the moisture of the air and encourages a bacteria to grow that eats the paint. You are also only allowed to visit 3 tombs. A small let down I suppose but understandable.
The temples, on the other hand, are really amazing and it is easy to spend hours in the afternoon or at sunset just roaming around between the statues, columns and doorways. I visited the Luxor temple, Karnak temple, Hatshepsut temple and Ramesseum temple.
Luxor Temple
Karnak Temple
Karnak Temple
Karnak Temple
Scarab beetle. Apparently if you walk in a circle around this statue 10 times you become Chinese.
Ramesseum Temple
Ramesseum Temple with guardians guarding
Deir el Medina Tombs
Birds eye view of Hatshepsut Temple
Nubian children
Came across a couple Nubian kids in Aswan. I want to comment on sincere kindness that the Nubian people that I met. They are generally very friendly and more interested in you and showing you their homes and inviting you for tea than getting your money. I enjoyed this part of Aswan a lot and a lot of them live on a island in the middle of the Nile so you are away from all the noise from cars and touts.
Aswan
Some photos from walking around in Aswan and the Nile valley. Quite a beautiful little city but again, full of locals trying to sell you boat rides and crappy "made in China" souvenirs.
Nubian ruins several layers deep. These are still being excavated.
Nubian Mummy
Abu Simbel
Been a little lazy on the blog (blame the beaches of the Red Sea for that) so I suppose I should catch everyone up here.
After the Desert I arrived back in Cairo and spent a day there to wait for the night train that I was taking down to Aswan in the Nubian south of Egypt. The train ride was supposed to be a 12 hour ride but in reality was close to 16! Can't rave on the comforts much either. Anyway, found my hotel and kept it low key for the night since sleep wasn't so easy on the train. The next day, I booked my trip down to Abu Simbel which is the temple that Rameses the Great built for himself around the 13th century BC. He also had one built, though not as grand, for Nefertari. The entire temple was torn down brick by brick and relocated on higher land due to the construction of the Aswan High Dam when it was "discovered" well into the building of the dam that when it would be completed these temples would be under water. Egypt can thank the USA and many other countries for the emergency relocation which cost roughly $40 million and took 4 years to do.
To get here you are required to go in a police convoy and everything was a bit rushed. Get up at 3am to board the bus, drive 2 1/2 hours south to the temple, fight the crowds and souvenir vendors to buy your ticket, walk through the temples 45 min max with "no photo! no photo!"shouted in your ear. Back on the bus for 2 1/2 hours back and done. I'm happy I went but any readers out there wanting to go, contact me and I can recommend a much better way to get there without all this frenzy and a much better experience. Here are the only 2 photos I took here.
After the Desert I arrived back in Cairo and spent a day there to wait for the night train that I was taking down to Aswan in the Nubian south of Egypt. The train ride was supposed to be a 12 hour ride but in reality was close to 16! Can't rave on the comforts much either. Anyway, found my hotel and kept it low key for the night since sleep wasn't so easy on the train. The next day, I booked my trip down to Abu Simbel which is the temple that Rameses the Great built for himself around the 13th century BC. He also had one built, though not as grand, for Nefertari. The entire temple was torn down brick by brick and relocated on higher land due to the construction of the Aswan High Dam when it was "discovered" well into the building of the dam that when it would be completed these temples would be under water. Egypt can thank the USA and many other countries for the emergency relocation which cost roughly $40 million and took 4 years to do.
To get here you are required to go in a police convoy and everything was a bit rushed. Get up at 3am to board the bus, drive 2 1/2 hours south to the temple, fight the crowds and souvenir vendors to buy your ticket, walk through the temples 45 min max with "no photo! no photo!"shouted in your ear. Back on the bus for 2 1/2 hours back and done. I'm happy I went but any readers out there wanting to go, contact me and I can recommend a much better way to get there without all this frenzy and a much better experience. Here are the only 2 photos I took here.
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