Back in time at Luxor, Egypt
- Lucy and the lens
- Oct 3, 2018
- 3 min read
In Easter 2018 Patrick and I spent a relaxing week at the beach in Hurghada, but we wanted to get a taste of ancient Egypt during our trip, too. So we booked a day trip with Love Egypt Tours to the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut Temple, Karnak Temple and the Colossi of Memnon. I would totally recommend them for the quality of the guide who was waiting for us in Luxor. He was a qualified archaeologist who was currently working on searching for the lost tomb of one of the pharoahs, and his passion and knowledge about the ancient sites we visited contributed to one of the most inspiring encounters I've had while travelling.
Our visit to Luxor almost didn't happen though - despite getting ready to leave by 5:30am, we made it about half an hour down the road when we hit gridlock. The highway had been closed for safety reasons due to a freak sandstorm during the night. We sat in the traffic jam for about half an hour before all the tour vans decided it was time to call it quits!
We tried again the next day- another 5am start but it was worth it! We made it to Luxor without a hitch and met our fantastic guide.
Stop 1: The Colossi of Memnon
These two giant, weather-beaten statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III are in fact the only remaining remnants of a giant palace complex. They guarded the gates into the building, which was slowly eaten away by the Nile, as it stood on a flood plain. Despite the damage done to the Colossi, as our first experience of ancient Egypt it was absolutely breathtaking standing between the two enormous statues.
Stop 2: Karnak Temple
This was one of the most incredible structures I've ever seen. It's a vast temple complex of labyrinthine, towering pillars carved with hieroglyphs. As you enter, you are greeted by two long rows of ram-headed sphinxes, before passing by gigantic statues of Ramses II.
We fell in love with our guide even more when he clocked a tourist trying to climb one of the ancient pillars and gave him a right telling off - imagine trying to climb onto 4,000 years of history!
Our guide told us how they built these great pillars, using slaves to fill the chamber with tonnes and tonnes of sand, up which each layer of pillar would be raised - each pillar is made up of several layers stacked one on top of the other...you can see the joins between each layer in the photo above.
Before leaving, we were introduced to a gigantic stone scarab beetle. Locals believe that if you walk anti-clockwise around the beetle a certain number of times, it will bring love, marriage or children your way.
Stop 3: Hatshepsut Temple
This temple was built for Queen Hatshepsut, but has a turbulent history. Hatshepsut took charge of ancient Egypt as regent because her son, Thutmose III, was too young to become pharaoh when his father died. After seven years as regent, however, she decided she quite liked running the country and crowned herself Pharaoh. This was a bold move, and so she built this grand temple to reinforce her power and authority and prove the haters wrong!
We were particularly grabbed by the ancient paintings on the walls inside the temple, still showing their original plant-based inks.
Stop 4: Valley of the Kings
This was the place that made me really stop for a minute and realise what a privilege seeing these ancient Egyptian relics really is - not to mention the privilege of having an incredibly knowledgeable expert tell us all about them! The Valley of the Kings is made up of a huge network of Pharaoh's tombs, carved out below the earth. The deeper the tomb, the longer the pharaoh lived, as workers began carving out the tombs as soon as the pharaoh was crowned, and stopped when they died.
We were able to visit three of the tombs in the Valley - the tombs open for visits are rotated regularly to ensure they aren't damaged by tourist traffic. I've never before felt like I did when descending into these ancient tombs - seeing the hieroglyphs covering the walls, the colours still vivid thanks to being protected from sunlight, I regressed back to being nine years old, learning about the ancient Egyptians at primary school. I couldn't keep the wide grin off my face.
It was our third anniversary while we were in Egypt, and it might not have been the most traditional way to celebrate it, but it was perfect all the same! We celebrated with a big pile of mezze!
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