Nile River Cruise

The highlight of my time in Luxor was the Nile River cruise we took from Luxor to Qena, a city north of Luxor, where the Dendera Temple is located.  Although we saw the rare felucca boat or two, for the most part, the Nile was void of river traffic.  Instead, the water was quiet, reflecting the sun which gave the river the appearance of ruffled silk when a wave moved through the water.  Along the fertile Nile, groups of children waved at us and chased the boat down the Nile, whereas the livestock grazed dumbly, not paying us or the children any heed.  It was my first time observing such green land exploding with cabbages and other vegetables so close to the desert with the mountains not far behind.   

West Bank

We crossed the Nile River to the West Bank where the majority of Luxor’s sightseeing is located: the Valley of the Kings (the site of King Tut’s tomb), the Valley of the Queens, the Colossi of Memnon, the Temple of Hatshepsut, Habu Temple, Valley of the Artisans, Valley of the Nobles and King Ramses II’s funeral temple. The tombs of pharaohs and their queens are buried, practically hidden, in the desert. I never expected to see such vivid colors on the tomb walls and the hieroglyphics that are inscribed so deeply and clearly as if carved recently rather than thousands of years ago.

 

East Bank – Luxor Temple

It was already nightfall when we visited Luxor Temple, the “smallest” temple in Luxor. Lights were strategically situated to illuminate Sphinx Avenue which used to connect Karnak Temple to Luxor Temple. Luxor Temple’s columns are carved the shape of papyrus, and ancient stories of pharaohs offering food and ointments to the gods are a common story on the temple’s walls.

Built inside of Luxor Temple is a mosque and further along is a fresco of the Last Supper, painted on the wall by Coptic Christians. Only a few yards to the right are Greco-Roman columns. I was reminded of our trip to Andalusia where we visited Cordoba’s Mezquita, a mosque with a cathedral placed in the centre. It always amazes me that communities chose to appropriate a religious site as their own.

Two impressions, both admittedly rather dull ones, of my trip to Egypt are the scale and the age of the country’s temples and tombs. To visit temples built thousands of years before the birth of Christ and behold statues ten times my height is a humbling reminder not only of my youth and diminutive size, but also that of American culture.

East Bank – Karnak Temple

Our plane followed the Nile south to Luxor where we would spend most of our holiday. Peering down from my plane seat, Egypt appeared as how I imagined on another planet would look: people-less but covered with smooth hills, wind-swept sand and cavernous mountains. My first time this close to a desert, the only proof that I was in Egypt was the surprisingly narrow Nile River sneaking its way from Cairo up north to Aswan in the south and the drowsily-floating felucca boats.

We began our tour of Luxor on the East Bank, the residential and less historic side of the Nile River. The Karnak Temple is a sweeping complex built to pay homage to Amun. Our arrival to Karnak Temple, the largest temple in the world (it covers sixty-two acres), coincided with the mid-afternoon call to prayer. Egypt is a much more conservative and religious country than I had expected. The local men uniformly wore long robes and turbans, their faces a rust color from spending their entire lives out in the sun. The women often wore burqas and are rarely seen out on the streets along with the men. M and I visited Egypt expecting to blend into the crowd, but instead we found ourselves singled out almost immediately after stepping off the plane. Locals—tour guides, hotel bell hops, waiters, spice merchants—would often smile and wave at us, nodding at us with a look of recognition. We were seen as “Indian” tourists, a stark contrast to all the white British and German tourists in Egypt. In some ways, visiting Egypt reminded me of our trip to Istanbul in the ways locals approached us as if we had something in common with them because we are dark. As soon as we introduced ourselves to the hotel staff, tour guides and merchants we met during our week in Luxor, the locals would often gravitate towards M and ask about his religious background, recognizing his name as a popular one in Egypt.