We bid a sad goodbye to Cairo to continue our visit into the southern part of Egypt. We arrived in Luxor after a short airplane ride and we were taken to our ship on the Nile. This would be our home for the next four nights.
The area is so different. It is lush and green in stark contrast to the dusty, desert like conditions in and around Cairo. Also Cairo is home to 20 million whereas Luxor has only 500,000. It is therefore much quieter and not crowded at all. The traffic alone is much calmer and more like I am used to.
After we settled into our cabin we had a quick lunch and the we left for a tour of Karnak. This is a huge complex and we only visited a small area of it. I was absolutely awe-struck. When built, over q period of over 1,000 years it was both a temple and a fort. It offered protection in the event of invasion and has a lake which is fwd from the Nile to ensure a water supply. It is a magnificent place. One of the temples has more than 130 columns and, amazingly the colours in the plaster reliefs and on the lintels is still very evident.
It is a huge complex and we saw but a small part of it. Of particular interest is an Obylisk that commemorates the reign of Hatsheput who was a powerful female ruler of Egypt at a time when only men were permitted to do so. Her successor attempted to erase all evidence of her existence but this artifact was only covered in a casing which effectively preserved it!
This we followed up with a visit to the Luxor temple. This was built by Ramses II who wanted to create an annex to Karnak and who built a 2 km road connecting the two places, lined along its length by sphynx statutes. This temple has been used also by the early Christians who remastered the walls and added their own icons. We could see a rendition of the last supper in one faded corner.
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