Luxor : Temple of Karnak and Valley of the Kings

26th August 2018

The ship berthed at Safaga at around 6am this morning, with many excursion groups planning to visit sites at least 3 hours away by bus. We are going to Karnak and The Valley of the Kings, which will take around 3.5 hours each way. It is also going to be pretty hot, in the high 30's, but it is a dry heat.

Whilst Safaga has been the site of a settlement for over 3000 years, it really only became the modern city it now is, from 1911 when phosphate deposits were discovered. Phosphate mining is now the major economic activity here, as well as being a major port for the a number of commodities.

Nice new cruise terminal

The wharf we are alongside

A long day is ahead of us, and we do get onboard our tour buses on time with no delays clearing the port. We pass through a number of metal detectors (which are standard everywhere here), but no-one seems particularly fussed if the alarm goes off. Our guide for the day assures us that after about the first hour or so, the drive will become very interesting as we will pass through many villages along the Nile. This is expected to start when we reach Qena.

The drive between Qena and Safaga is just sand and granite hills. The road is good, and today we do not have a police escort, but do have a security guard on board. Also there are numerous security checkpoints along the road, manned with Police with machine guns.

Scenery between Safaga and Qena

During the visually unexciting part of the trip, the tour guide amused us with stories of his personal life, which was his way of depicting what it is like to live in modern Egypt. He was an Egyptian Coptic Christian, but spoke very frankly about how the variously religions lived in harmony with each other, and how glad they were that they drove the Muslim Brotherhood out, at least for the time being. There really does not appear to be any religious disharmony here, and it reminds us very much of how tolerant Turkey was not so many years ago.

Once we entered Qena, the landscape changed dramatically. All of a sudden everything is green, there are fields of crops and expensive irrigation canals. There are lots of small villages, one after another , and it is clearly not a wealthy area, but the villagers (who are mainly farmers) all have a smile on their face. It is a pretty simple life with still a lot of manual labour, but they all have satellite dishes on their roof tops. We are told that the illiteracy rate in Egypt is 40%, so in these areas it would be much higher.

Typical village scenes in Qena

Farming is intense, with sugar cane being a major crop, as are bananas, mangoes and many other tropical crops. Egypt apparently has the largest (maybe the only), sugar mill in the Middle East.

Sugar Cane farms

All forms of transport are utilised (with donkeys being extremely popular)

Each village we went through, had someone like the gent below, standing by the roadside with as rifle over his shoulder. Our guide explained that he is the village detective, and his role is to help resolve issues between families, or within families that may escalate is not dealt with.

The distraction of travelling through the villages coupled with our guides sometimes amusing accounts of village life, made the time go quickly and we were soon in Luxor, and at the entrance to the Temple of Karnak.

Our guide had put quite a bit of effort into educating us on Karnak and it's significance before we arrived, but nothing could possibly prepare you for this amazing place.

The Temple was constructed during the 18th Dynasty of Egypt, which is the first dynasty of the Ancient Egypt New Kingdom, and spanned the period of 1550 BC to 1292 BC.

It was the period when Egypt was at its peak. Luxor, at the time, was known as Thebes and was the capital of Egypt. Karnak is located on the East Bank of the Nile River, as is Luxor temple. The two temples are linked by an ancient avenue of Sphinxes. Sadly our time only allows us time to see Karnak, the larger of the two.

The part of the Temple open to the public is dedicated to the God Amon-Ra, and all Pharaoh's of this Dynasty contributed to the building of this temple.

As you approach the Temple from the Nile you are faced with these two large pylons, either side of the entrance

Once inside, you are confronted with a "forest" of huge columns ranging from 10 to 21 m high and up to 3 m in diameter

There are 134 columns in this "hall", known as the Great Hypostyle Hall, was commenced by King Seti 1, and completed by his son King Rameses II. They are intricately carved.

It is impossible to communicate just the sheer scale and intricacy of this amazing place, so here are a few photos that show some of it.

A pool for purification was built within the complex, piping water from the Nile

After an hour and a half marvelling at Karnak, we were taken to a local 5 star hotel for a buffet lunch, before heading across to the West Side of the Nile to the Valley of the Kings, where all of the Pharaoh's tombs are located.

The West Bank of the Nile is riddled with tombs of Kings, Queens, Nobles, Artisans etc. This map only shows the Valley of Kings

Walking up the Valley entrance

It is believed the tombs were dug into these hills to prevent flooding from the Nile and also to disguise the tombs from raiders. It is amazing that they were discovered at all, however, all but one (that of Tutankhamun), had been looted.

We will be visiting 3 of the tombs and it was optional (for an extra charge) to visit Tutankhamun's tomb, where his mummy is located. Our guide advised that it is the least impressive of all of the tombs, so it was only worth seeing you wanted to see the mummy. We declined.

Up until recently, photography inside the tombs was strictly forbidden. Now, non flash photography is allowed, but you have to pay USD 18 to get a pass to use a camera. Our guide told us that the preservation of the decorations inside the tombs is so well preserved that it was worth it to get some photos. He was absolutely right.

The first tomb we visited was that of King Rameses IV. The tomb goes deep into the hillside and the decoration starts at the very beginning of the entrance tunnel It is hard to believe you are looking at something that is over 3000 years old and the colours of the artwork are so well preserved.

Entrance Tunnel

Horus, The Falcon, painted on the roof

The above photos are a very small sample of what decorated this tomb

The next tomb we visited was that of King Rameses IX. Once again, as soon as you entered the corridor to the tomb, the decoration is astounding.

Finally, we visited the tomb of King Rameses III, which once again is quite spectacular. Here are a few shots of the decorations.

It is time to head back to our ship, but not before stopping off at one last site in this area, the Colossi of Memnon, two giant statues of King Amenhotep III. They are 3400 years old.

Arriving back at the ship at 7.45pm, it has been a long and very fascinating day, but the air conditioning on board is very welcome. After a shower and a late dinner, we had an early night and look forward to a more relaxing day tomorrow.