Luxor. Everything you want to experience in Egypt is here from the banks of the Nile to the endless checklist of must-see temples and tombs, fancy hotels and hyped tourist markets, balloon rides and desert treks and made to order adventures. Whatever you want, they are prepared to make it happen here for you. All at a very “special price”.
Ancient history exists in modern day Luxor. The Luxor temple is in the midst of the busy main street, cars and buses and life chugging around it, think downtown Rome, and it’s slowly undergoing varying stages of reconstruction. Sadly, construction sites leave open pits and open pits around many of these countries quickly become dumping grounds for trash but you learn to look past that. When I can find a second to just stand and imagine, replacing the paved streets with dirt passageways and the speeding cars with horse-drawn chariots, you can see the magnitude of magnificence, the reign of resplendent royalty, the reasons why even after thousands of years, we still keep coming.
And as it’s definitely one of the more frequented tourist spots due to the crazy amount of significant finds around Luxor, the touts here are of a different caliber than I’ve experienced so far.
Mido had warned me, telling me that the people in Aswan were very nice but in Luxor, not so nice and that I must “take care in Luxor”. I had forgotten about this warning until my first wander about. Again, understanding that the tourism has been very slow and everyone is desperate for money, I attempted to handle the incessant approaches to buy this and come see that with the small smile and shake of my head. Remember that ignoring technique that I had mastered along the way? Yeah, that doesn’t work here. When you ignore them here, they get even more aggressive and unfortunately, downright angry. Please understand, I don’t ignore EVERYBODY, not by a long shot, and I have a sense of humor about it with them most of the time, mocking their calls and laughing it up with their attempts or simply shaking my head and saying no thank you, but eventually, you just want it to stop. Traveling as a single girl (even with a brand new wedding band!) isn’t necessarily the nicest experience in this town. Funny thing is, the people in other parts of Egypt know what the people in Luxor are like and worry for the tourists heading there. For all the time that I’ve been here though, really, this one disappointment is easily overlooked and LUXOR is wonderful!
I’m starting to have to pick and choose what I can do and see around towns as I obviously didn’t anticipate the fees for everything I want to see and do. My hotel owner was desperately trying to get me to join his tour group going up to see the Valley of the Kings, Queens, and Hatchepsut, all of which I really wanted to see but hmmm… tour group, not so much. But we have A/C bus and it’s too hot for you. I know, I know, but I’m really not so keen on the group thing. So I decided to rent a bike and cycle up to see the ancient mighty tombs. It’s only like 10kms, how hard can it be?! *sigh* (have you noticed I sigh A LOT at some of the decisions I make?!) Plus, if I’m on my own, I can go early early, it won’t be so hot, and maybe there will be less crowds. So 5:45am and I’m off to the Valley of the Kings, hucking my bike on the little ferry to cross to the West Bank and on solid ground, I start pedaling.
At first it’s so nice! Farming fields and green pastures with mountains off in the background. Nice, flat road and it’s hot, but not too hot. Then as I gaze towards these impressive mountains far off in the distance, the black, gaping holes of excavation sites, like the spaces of missing teeth, dotting the hillsides, I suddenly realize, oh, oh no, I still have to make it to and then UP those mountains! No big deal, I can do this. Really. Well, this short, chubby ass huffed and puffed her way up the 8km gradual, steady incline, pushed on by the knowledge that any 6 year old could easily do this route so suck it up and get going. 7am and the sun is hot, hot, hot. I arrive at the entrance and am thankfully rewarded to see only a very few tourist mini buses. This might be worth it after all.
There are presently something like 62 tombs that have been discovered or are in the process of being excavated in the Valley of the Kings but only a small handful of them are actually open to the public at any time. Your ticket buys you entrance into 3 tombs of your choice but you must pay extra to get into King Tut and Ramsses V & VI (the Ramsses boys share a tomb). I saw most of the King Tut treasures at the Egyptian museum so decided to just pay the extra for Ramsses. The Valley is spectacular, made even more mysteriously spectacular by the fact that no cameras are allowed inside the Valley. It’s this massive hoodoo valley carved out in the midst of arid, ancient mountains but you’re not allowed to photograph any of it. SUCH a shame! *Ahem* As you can tell from my facebook photos, I lied about not having a camera when they asked me at the entrance. Whoops.
So not sure what I should do for tombs to see first, and just chanced stopping in at the special Ramsses one as it was before 7:30am and not too many people around. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! These tombs aren’t for the claustrophobic and worth every single step up and down. You trudge through a long tunnel deep down into a cave, hieroglyphics and carvings adorning the walls and ceilings, full bright original colour of black, red, blue, and yellow softly illuminated by the florescent tubes they have running throughout. The stairs and walkways they’ve created make the journey of course feel a little less authentic but so much more accessible. I thump my way down, down, down to the small open chamber of Ramsses V & VI… there’s no one there but the guard. No one!
The guards always start chit chatting away, instructed to tell you this or show you that and practice their usual “what’s your name, where you come from?” but here, I smiled, shook my head, held my finger up to my lips and sshhh’ed him very politely. Look, I said, there’s no one here, no tourists, just me. This is very, very special. VERY special! Ssshhhh. Smile, smile, smile. He wasn’t quite sure what to make of that or of me. So he stood around in my awestruck silence for a few minutes, got bored, and then decided his buddy at the top of the entrance way would make better company. Yep. Me and the boys, personal, private, and up close for a good 20 minutes. Heart racing I snapped off a few pictures (with no flash!) and simply giggled and breathed in my unbelievable good fortune. How can I possibly explain what these places look like, FEEL like, and then to experience them without another single soul around is spooky, energizing, inspiring, overwhelming, and quite simply… wow.
I hung around until I could hear the footsteps of an approaching tour group thumping their way towards me, hot and sweaty and really not looking all that impressed as I grinned my way past them. Sadly so many people that I’ve seen being shuffled around by their “Egyptologist” tour guides just don’t seem to really want to be where they are. Sad but not gonna bring me down, baby! This is AMAZING!
My three remaining tombs, equally impressive and some “alone time” with each sarcophagi but nothing like my early morning rendez-vous with the Ramsses boys. I got myself into a bit of trouble as I saw a stairway leading up and away into a deeper part of the mountains and there was a sign posted saying that apparently there was a tomb up that way. I started walking and a man started shouting. He said I couldn’t go up, was trying desperately to convince me that he was the “Chief”, and that it was closed. I told him I just wanted to walk around, would not go near the tomb, just wanted to look. Shaking his keys at me, no! no! closed! Okay, okay, I get it, but can’t I just walk up that way a little bit? The mountains are so beautiful. I just want to walk. Plleeeeeeezzze? He sighs quite loudly, shakes his head, and stomps off so I hustle my way up there. I managed to snap two pictures before I saw some people walking by. I wasn’t sure how far I should push my luck but I’d come this far… so I started to climb the stairs. Got half way up before Chief Man had returned and was frantically shouting for me to come back. He was in the process of stringing a line of knotted rags across the pathway to keep other pushy peepers like me out and prove that he really was in charge. I wonder what they were hiding up there…
Oh! In one of the tombs entrances there was a little section carved out of the long hallway where a modern day restoration was taking place. This man was standing there, sorting a bunch of fist sized rocks/rubble into various buckets. I’m nosey so I started asking him who he was and what he was up to. Mr. Ted Brock, 25 year veteran Egyptologist, was in the process of sorting and identifying new finds in the tomb we were presently standing in. I just love this! Egypt is famous for its already uncovered pyramids and treasures of Kings and Queens but there’s still ongoing exciting archaeology happening all around here. I want to be a digger! Very nice, very interesting man. Said I should come back next year to see what his puzzle pieces actually turn out to look like.
Two and a half hours wandering through the intense and unforgiving heat of the Land of the Dead and at 9:30am, the sun is almost directly overhead. Giddy but tired, I drag myself back to that ratty tatty beat-up bicycle, watching the over-heated, red-faced tour groups pouring out from an endless line of tour buses. I was thankful for my good sense to come very, very early and that the ride was going to be mostly downhill from here.
I really wanted to see the Valley of the Queens as well but as I approached the turn off, at the bottom of yet another climb uphill, choking on the diesel of passing tour buses that had finished their race through the Kings and were on their way to the Queens, I decided against it. I opted to head back to the East Bank and see Karnak Temple instead. Navigated cars and traffic that hadn’t yet started up on my early morning venture out and was near fainting when I arrived at my next big sightseeing hotspot. Karnak is endless. You could take days to wander all of it. I wanted to cram in as much as I could. The sky was clear, the sun was merciless, and there is very little respite in the small sections of shade to be found. Push on, push on. Since the temple complex is so huge, I again gleefully bounded around in solitary bliss, and was happy with my choice to not follow the crowds. Headache and dizziness settling in, time to head back.
A full day out in the hot Egyptian sun, drenched in ancient history, and I know how extraordinarily special my experiences have been. My universe continues to be so good to me.
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