Egypt Day 5: Luxor

The ship docked in Luxor at about 1:20 this morning.  The sound of the anchor falling woke me up.  Today, we went to to quite a few places around Luxor or Luxour.  The places we visited were: The Valley of the Kings, an alabaster factory and shop, the Al-Deir Al-Bahari temple and the Luxor temple.

In the Valley of the Kings, we visited three tombs.  They were the tombs of King Ramses 1, 3 and 4.  The tomb of Ramses 4 was the biggest tomb in the Valley of the Kings.  The Valley of the Kings has 63 tombs.  The tomb of Ramses 4 was the place of the first ever work strike in history.  Therefore, the tomb is unfinished.  The tomb of Ramses 4 had to diverted as it collided with another tomb there.  The tomb of Ramses 1 was very hot so many didn't go inside.  The hieroglyphics in this tomb were very complex and  beautiful.  The tomb of Ramses 3 was the only one where you could actually see the sarcophagus.  The sarcophagus was made of hard stone and was extremely intricate and tall.  The tombs in the Valley of the Kings were all made by cutting into the limestone.  There was also one other reason that the Valley of the Kings is where it is.  There is a natural pyramid in the limestone mountain so the Egyptians were convinced that this is where god meant for them to put the tombs of the kings.  

In the alabaster factory and shop, we learned how to tell the difference from real alabaster and fake or painted alabaster.  Alabaster is translucent material so the light will be able to pass through a bit.  Painted and fake alabaster is opaque so no light will pass through.  We also learned that hand made alabaster is much lighter than machine made alabaster.  

At the Karnak temple, there are 134 columns or pillars in one small area.  Each pillar is 23 meters high and weighs 230 tonnes.  The temple is for the god Amun Ray.  The temple is also home to the world's largest scarab or good luck beetle.  If you walk around it 3 times, you will be prosperous in everything.  If you walk around it 5 times, you will be prosperous and you will get a new love in life.  It you walk around it 7 times, you will be prosperous, you will get a new love and you will have good luck in pregnancy.  At the Karnak temple, there are 2 standing obelisks but there used to be 3.  One was fallen in the famous 23 b.c. earthquake.

At the Al-Deir Al-Bahari temple, you have to walk up several stairs to get to the actual temple.  There used to be 26 guard statues of which only 6 are still standing.  The backgroind of the temple is really high and beautiful limestone cliffs.  There wasn't much to see here but it was still beautiful.

The Luxor Temple was right across from where our boat was docked.  The temple has two sitting guards and six standing guards.  The Luxor temple used to have 2 obelisks but only one is still standing.  This temple is quite small compared to some of the others we had seen but it was equally magnificent.