Egypt February 2-17, 2025 |
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Saturday, February 8, 2025 - Luxor Temple, Luxor MuseumWe got up at 6:30 a.m. and went to an early breakfast. Craig got a cheese, mushroom, and onion omelet, and I got a cheese and onion omelet. Shady had arranged for us to put our bags out in the hallway at 10:45 for collection by the bellman. We then went downstairs to check out.We were excited to continue our travels in Luxor, but it's bittersweet to leave the Four Seasons in Cairo after 5 nights. The hospitality has been superb! Everyone is so nice and takes care of your every need and then some! The food was amazing, and our room was extremely comfortable with a stunning Nile view. Everyone in Cairo and its environs has been very welcoming and friendly. Even the hawkers that we encountered were playful rather than intimidating. The only intimidating thing we've seen so far is the traffic! But luckily our driver Abraham managed that safely and efficiently for us. Abraham drove us to the airport, arriving at around 11:40. Shady helped us to check in and got us through the first security checkpoint. We said goodbye to him for now, knowing that we will see him again when we return to Cairo at the end of the trip. We went through another security checkpoint and got to gate with 50 minutes until boarding. We were going South to "Upper Egypt." It seems counterintuitive to me that upper Egypt is in the South, but it has to do with the direction of the Nile, which flows South to North. We boarded EgyptAir (business class) for the hour-long flight to Luxor. They had a really cute safety video which had hieroglyphs depicting a seat belt, a no smoking sign, etc. The short flight was interesting because it basically followed the Nile South. We could really see how much the Nile defines the landscape of Egypt and why 95% of the Egyptian population live along the 5% of Egyptian land that borders the Nile. On either side of the river, the landscape is green and lush, with man-made canals perpendicular to the river to bring water further away from the river to irrigate crops. But once the canals end, there is stark contrast and the landscape becomes desert. We arrived in Luxor, formerly known as Thebes, shortly after 3 p.m. We were met by Amir, our new DAI representative. Luxor has a very different vibe from Cairo - it's a much smaller city with more green space and the traffic is nowhere near as crazy. As we drove to the hotel, the road passed between Luxor Temple and the Nile River. The temple was visible from the road, and was just about a mile from our hotel. We checked into the Winter Palace and met our Egyptologist guide Bassem at around 3:45. The hotel is dripping with Old World charm, and dates back to 1907. Lord Carnavaron, financier behind Howard Carter's discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, was a frequent guest at the hotel. Other famous guests include Howard Carter, King Farouk I of Egypt, Winston Churchill, Agatha Christie, Aga Kahn III, and King Albert I of Belgium. The lobby was quite stylish, with grandiose chandeliers and fancy furnishings. Even the room keys were old-fashioned actual keys (as opposed to key cards) and were fitted to a large brass keychain in the shape of a cartouche with an engraving of an Egyptian statue on the front, and the words "Old Winter Palace Luxor" on the back. We would only have today and tomorrow in Luxor before departing on our Nile Cruise, and the itinerary contains quite a bit to pack into a day and a half. We discussed the itinerary seated on couches in the lobby over a cup of hibiscus tea. The only scheduled activity for today was a visit to Luxor Museum. But Bassem suggested that we might want to visit Luxor Temple (the one tat we had passed on our drive from the airport) today, so that tomorrow's itinerary would be more manageable. He said that if we wanted to, we could go during daylight or after dark, when the site is illuminated for nighttime viewing. After discussing the pros and cons, we decided to compromise and go for sunset, so that we would get to see a little of each. Then we could go to Luxor Museum afterwards. Bassem gave us about half an hour to get settled in the room, and then we would meet him to tour Luxor Temple. The staff gave us a tour of the hotel. There is basically one long corridor on the ground level lined with Egyptian art which contains all of the restaurants and bars. Their main restaurant has a dress code (jacket and tie required). Craig had a jacket but no tie, and they said that he could borrow one if we wanted to eat there. After getting the lay of the land, we went to quickly get settled in our room. The elevator was very old-fashioned. It has no sliding doors and you can see the floors going by as you go up and down. It's a bit disconcerting / vertigo-inducing. We rode it to the third floor where we walked down the long, wide hallway to room 326. Jim Berkeley's team had purposely booked us a garden view room, which is quieter than the Nile side. (Later we would hear from fellow travelers Mark and Jenn that the Nile side was extremely loud, not the least because of the horse drawn carriages clip clopping down the street at all hours blaring music.) The garden view was gorgeous, and the room was quite comfortable. Once we were settled, we went back down to the lobby to meet Bassem at 4:30. We walked down the grand stone staircase lined with a red carpet which led from the lobby down to the street level. The hotel looked gorgeous, its yellow facade against the bright blue sky made for a nice photo. We were driven by Karam the mile or so to the entrance of the temple. Luxor Temple was originally built in 1400 BC but was added on to by successive kings over the next 175 years. Most of it can be attributed to Amenhotep III and Ramesses II, though there are significant contributions by Hatshepsut, King Tut, Alexander the Great, and others. The temple is dedicated to the triad of Amun Re, his wife Mut, and their son Khonsu. We were very excited; this was the first temple that we had visited in Egypt. Pharaonic temples are built from the inside out. The sanctuary, or "holy of holies", is the oldest part of any temple, and the rest of the temple was built outwards from there. Outside of the sanctuary is a hypostyle hall, which had a roof supported by columns. A pylon, or large gateway, separated the hypostyle hall from the open courtyard (or peristyle court), where the public were allowed to enter. And another pylon denotes the entrance to the temple. As you first approach Luxor Temple, in front of the first pylon wall are six colossal statues of Ramesses II along with smaller representations of his wife Nefertari. There is also a single 25-meter-tall obelisk (this was initially part of a pair of obelisks, but the second one was gifted to Paris and is currently located at the Place de la Concorde). The obelisks used to have their tips coated with electrum (an alloy of gold and silver) so that they would shine in the sun as a beacon for the temple. The sun was starting to set, and its waning rays were visible peeking between the columns. The golden color of the sunset made the stone of the temple glow orange. Along with the setting sun, the moon was also visible in the blue sky. The walls and columns of the temple are covered with hieroglyphs and depictions of rulers and gods. Some columns are shaped like a papyrus plant, others like a bundle of papyrus plants. Papyrus is a symbol of Lower Egypt (in the North), but this temple also depicts carvings of papyrus and lotus plants bound together, signifying the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. We saw a statue of Amun Re and his wife Mut, but their facial features are those of Tutankhamun and his wife Ankhesenamun. King Tut and his wife Ankhesenamun as Amun Re and Mut There is a depiction of a man with an erection and only one arm and one leg. He was Min, and his story is similar to that of Maximon in Guatemala. The men were all sent off to war, and left their women behind with Min to protect them. When they got home, their women were all pregnant. So Min was punished, and they cut off one of his arms and legs. He is the god of fertility. As more of these sites were taken over by Christians, many depictions of Min have had the phalluses chiseled away, ancient censorship akin to the blur in TV or movies today. Min and Alexander the Great When Alexander the Great came to power in 332 BC, the Egyptians feared that he would destroy their statues, so they buried what has been known as "the Luxor Cache" of statues. But it turned out that Alexander the Great was shrewd and rather than disrespect the Egyptian religion, he embraced it. The Greeks revered Egypt and he wanted to be a Pharaoh because it would mean that he was a god. He went to the Oracle at Siwa in the Western Desert and asked who his father was. The Oracle told him what he wanted to hear: that his father was Re the sun god. This meant that he was the Sa-Re, the son of the sun, and was given the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. Alexander the Great built a new sanctuary in the Luxor Temple, removing several columns from the shrine built by Amenhotep III to house the barque (ceremonial boat) of Amun-Re. He is depicted as a pharaoh in carvings, and even wrote his name in a cartouche. He founded Alexandria on the Mediterranean (a city that we will not visit on this tour). Upon Alexander's death, control of Egypt was ultimately given to his trusted general Ptolemy I, who would begin the Ptolemaic dynasty. One interesting thing about this site is that later, after the Egyptian religions had run their course, Christians turned part of the temple into a church. They covered some of the walls with plaster and painted frescoes of the apostles. Some of these paintings are still visible. The site was covered with sand over time. The Muslims built a mosque here in the 13th century (Abu Haggag Mosque, which still functions today), not realizing that the temple and church were underneath. When they realized that the mosque was on top of the temple site, they dug out the temple, and had to build a set of stairs so that the mosque could still be accessed. So the temple area has been the site of worship for pagan, Christian, and Muslim religions for over 3000 years. Frescoes of the apostles on the walls of Luxor Temple There is an "Avenue of Sphinxes" connecting Luxor Temple with the Karnak Temple Complex, nearly 3 km away. There were thought to have originally been 1350 sphinx statues. This road was used once a year during the Opet festival when the Egyptians paraded along it carrying the statues of Amun and Mut in a symbolic re-enactment of their marriage. At Luxor temple Amun was magically transformed into Min, the god of fertility.After Bassem showed us the highlights of the site, he gave us some free time to explore on our own. He asked how much time we would like. This is also something that Galel had done at the GEM and the NMEC museums. Of course, it is very difficult for us to determine how much extra time we need. We could spend as much time as possible in any of these places. We are the type of people who like to soak it all in and see as much detail as possible. But we are also aware that we have a schedule to keep. We need to go to the museum tonight, so we can't just stay here indefinitely. So we picked an arbitrary time (5:45) to meet Bassem and move on to the museum. We knew it would not be "enough" time to fully absorb the place, but it would have to do. As we prepared to leave, it was getting dark and the site became illuminated for nighttime viewing. Though we would have liked to stayed longer and enjoyed the illumination, we had to go. After Luxor Temple, we went to Luxor Museum. There were many fascinating displays and Bassem gave us many interesting insights. There were 2 mummies on display, Ramesses I (1291 BC) and Ahmose (1546 BC). Unlike the royal mummies, we were allowed to take photos of them. Unfortunately, the display of the Luxor Cache of statues (discovered in 1989) was under renovation, so we couldn't see them. Bassem taught us a lot about Akhenaten, the heretic king, and father to King Tut. Akhenaten was born Amenhotep IV, which means "Amun is satisfied." But he decided to turn Egyptian society on its head. He threw out the gods that had been worshipped in Egypt for 2000 years, and instituted the world's first monotheistic religion, worshipping the sun disk (Aten). He changed his name to Akhenaten, which means "Servant of the Aten." All of the priests of ancient Egypt were made redundant. There was no place for them in this new religion. The Aten interfaced directly with the Pharaoh, so there was no need for a class of priests. Akhenaten removed all references to Amun-Re, the chief deity of Thebes (Luxor) from every monument. He also moved the administrative capital of Egypt from Thebes 200 miles northwest to Tell el-Amarna (then called Akhetaten, which means Horizon of the Aten). Here he built a capital city from the ground up. Akhenaten married Nefertiti, the daughter of his vizier Ay. There was a new style of art developed in Tell El Amarna. Art had been unchanged in Egypt for almost 2,000 years. Creativity in art was not valued; there were certain proportions and standards in art which were recognized, and artists did not deviate from them. Idealism was valued; people were always depicted in an idealized manner. Pharaohs were depicted as larger than other people, and figures were depicted on defined planes or "registers", rather than floating in space. But art in Tell El Amarna was not idealistic; it was in fact quite stylized. Akhenaten is instantly recognizable, as he has a very distinctive look. He has an elongated face and a paunchy stomach. He even seems to have breasts and broad hips. Scholars disagree about the reason for this. Some think that it is realism, that Akhenaten may have had some kind of illness, such as Marfan Syndrome. They think that the famous bust of Nefertiti (currently on display in Berlin), which has one eye which is completely white, may be a realistic representation of a cataract. We had assumed that the bust was damaged or unfinished, but that may not be the case. In addition to statues of Akhenaten, the Luxor Museum also contains talalat limestone blocks from the Aten temples at Karnak. All of the people depicted in these carvings have a stylized look, though not quite as exaggerated as Akhenaten. This may be that they were depicted with the same characteristics as Akhenaten, since he was their Pharaoh. But some scholars feel that none of these depictions are literal realism, but instead symbolic. Everyone, including Akhenaten, was meant to look androgynous, like the Aten sun disk itself, which is described as the mother and father of humankind. Art from Tell El Amarna also shows family scenes of Akhenaten playing with his children in a loving manner. No other kings in Pharaonic art are depicted in everyday activities like that. When Akhenaten moved the capital to Amarna, his high priest and father-in-law Ay went with him, and went along with his change to a monotheistic society. When Akhenaten died, King Tut took over at the age of 9. He was too young to have had much say in what happened next, high priest Ay was probably pulling the strings behind the scenes. But the cult of the Aten was dissolved, and Egypt went back to its historical polytheistic religion. Tut changed his name from TutankhATEN to TutankhAMUN to reflect this, as Amun-Re was now once again the major deity of Thebes. Thebes was reinstated as the capital of Egypt. King Tut was only around 18 or 19 years old when he died. He was succeeded by Ay, which naturally brings up the question of whether Ay had something to do with his death in order to gain power. But it seems more likely that Tut died as a result of genetic disease, malaria, a chariot racing accident, or a combination thereof. There was backlash to Akhenaten's heresy, and, by association, King Tut. Their names do not appear on the famous Kings Lists in Abydos and Karnak. Just as Akhenaten had attempted to remove Amun from history, subsequent generations tried to erase Akhenaten. There were many other interesting exhibits at this small museum. The size of this museum makes it much less intimidating than the GEM or the Egyptian Museum Cairo. With a couple of hours, you can see everything here. Well, except for the Luxor Cache of statues, which are currently under restoration and not viewable. We saw mummies, shabtis, sarcophagi, coffins, statues, model boats, jewelry, gold coins (coins were introduced to Egypt by the Greek Ptolemies and the tradition was continued by the Romans), stelae, bows and arrows, tools, and clay vessels. The museum was closing as we finished up, so there were fewer and fewer people looking at the exhibits as we made one final round to make sure we had seen everything. Bassem said that there was a really good book store next door and asked if we wanted to visit. My first reaction was no, since books are my Achilles heel. I had already bought several in Cairo and Saqqara. But Craig convinced me that we should look. And of course, we would up buying several books, about Luxor Temple, Akhenaten, and the Giza Pyramids. Then we went back to the hotel. In the room, I had a lot of posting to do to Facebook and Instagram. We were hungry (we hadn't had lunch today), but didn't really want to take the time to have a fancy meal in one of the hotel's restaurants. We wanted some functional food that we could eat as our leisure. So we opted for in-room dining. A cheerful and playful man named Mohamed Saad was in charge of room service. Craig got a chicken sandwich with mozzerrella cheese, fries, and salad. I had a cheeseburger, fries, and salad. Mohamed brought up an entire wheeled table, got an extra chair from the hallway, lit a candle, and presented our dinner to us. I had a Sprite from the minibar and Craig had a Stella beer. Unlike many places, here the cost of items in the minibar was not inflated; a beer cost the same as it would in the hotel bar. The food hit the spot and was delicious. When we were done, Mohamed offered us dessert, but we were stuffed. He came back to get the table and encouraged us to get room service breakfast in the morning. When I finished my posting, we went to bed. It had been a busy day! Winter Palace Luxor Temple |
Winter Palace Hotel Luxor Temple Luxor Temple Luxor Temple Luxor Temple Luxor Temple Moon above Abu Haggag Mosque, Luxor Temple Luxor Temple Luxor Temple Abu Haggag Mosque (left) at Luxor Temple Luxor Temple Avenue of Sphinxes, Luxor Temple Mummy of Ramesses I, Luxor Museum Thutmosis III, Luxor Museum Akhenaten, Luxor Museum Talalat limestone blocks from the Aten temples at Karnak, Luxor Museum
See all photos from Cairo February 8
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