The Temple of Luxor

Travel to Luxor last night was quite easy. After catching the 9:30 sleeping car train at Giza Station, we had a smooth 11 hour ride some 600 miles south to the Valley of the Kings. The first class travel arrangements came complete with our own coachman who served both dinner and breakfast to us in our private room. The room easily turns from sitting room into sleeping coach for a comfortable night of rest. It's as close as we've been to knowing how Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot felt on the Orient Express.

Nancy settling in for a night on the train.

 After a week in Cairo, what a change it was to arrive in Luxor. This, by all standards, is a small town. It is estimated that 85% of the livelihood of Luxor is based upon tourism (sounds like Lake Placid). Traffic is very manageable. We were easily ,able to walk from the train station to the ferry crossing the Nile and then on to our hotel, the Sheherazade. As lovely as all the horse drawn caleches are, there are far too many of them for a town this size. It's hard to imagine how many of them make a decent living due to the competition. Athough we've stayed away from such tourist  indulgences, we may opt for a carriage ride some evening along the Nile after a visit to McDonalds (just kidding!). We're staying on the West bank so we cross the Nile by ferry for the pultry sum of 1L$ (15 cents).

Our ferry across the Nile.

The Temple of Luxor is one of the gems of ancient Egypt. It is very understandable why so many people visit here after their stay in Cairo to see the pyramids. One is immediately struck by the size of the numerous columns and hieroglyphic art still as it was 3300 years ago when one pharaoh, Amenhotep III, built most of the complex.

Central courtyard at the temple

The front of the temple originally displayed six colossi of the pharaoh Ramesses II. Today, only one seated statue and two standing ones remain.

A tribute to the pharaoh

In the 19th century, most of Luxor temple was covered by meters of dirt and debris. It wasn't until the late 1800s that excavations began to bring the light of day once again to the marvels of Egyptian architecture, art, and design.

A visitor is immediately awed by the size of the temple columns.

As impressive as the colossi and columns is the hieroglyphic art. Many of the walls are still covered by floor to ceiling hieroglyphs and bas-relief carved images of pharaohs, the royal court, and scenes of life in ancient Egypt.

Just one of many bas-relief carvings on the temple walls

Rare painted hieroglyphs at Luxor

In such a mystical spot, there is always time to sit and contemplate how things may have once been or what archaeologists, like Howard Carter,  may have thought the night before he discovered Tutankhamun's tomb just a few miles from here.

Indiana Jones spotted in Luxor

Tomorrow: On to the Valley of the Kings