Luxor

You don't have to go all the way to Egypt to see Luxor, you know. Las Vegas has its very own version of Egypt right in the good ol' USA.

But if you want something a teensy bit more authentic, you'll have to make the trip. Luxor was my favorite temple of the ones we saw. It wasn't the grandest, or the best preserved, but it had that iconic feel of ancienct Egypt. Plus, it was smack in the middle of town, which added a little air or the surreal to the visit! We crossed back from the west side of the Nile via a little motor boat and could see the temple rising from the city on the edge of the water.

Luxor, once called Thebes, was the place where the upper and lower kingdoms of Egypt were united. The Luxor temple was built by Amenhotep III, but King Tut, Ramses II, and Alexander the Great also added their mark over time. Later, Romans built a wall around the temple that the Arabs called Al-Uqsur (which is where the name "Luxor" comes from). Early Arabs didn't realized it was a temple. Thinking it was a palace, they added a mosque within the temple in the 1300's.

Luxor was very pretty and very clean. We loved seeing the big gate to the souq (the market), and yes, we did get a terrific kick out of eating at a McDonald's while overlooking an ancient temple!

Ramses II definitely made sure he left his mark. The 2 seated statues are all that remain of the original 6 at the entrance, while a courtyard inside continues the "more of me is better" theme. As I said before, though--the repetition has a very powerful effect on the viewer. It's not hard to imagine the awe that people felt when they saw these temples in full glory!

Most temples followed a similar layout, with the pylons at the entrance, showing a pharoah's defeat of his foes. Obelisks were often placed at the entrances, topped by gold. There was a peristyle courtyard which was generally very sunny and light. The hippostyle hall, with rows of columns, led to inner chambers and finally the sanctuary, with rooms becoming progressively smaller, darker, and more mysterious.

The hippstyle halls were impressive at every site we visited. The symmetry and size focus your attention to the next area of the temple and draw you further in. Of course, no one but the priests were considered holy enough to enter the temples!

Other visitors left their mark. Ancient visiting Romans had painted scenes on part of the courtyard wall. A team of Italian restoration professionals was busy working on this beautiful and surprising scene. Could this be considered an very old form of grafitti?!

I think it would take years of study to fully understand how the ancient Egyptians saw their gods and understood the relationship between life and death. Apparently, the gods used to periodically come out of one temple and want to visit another and wanted a nice safe place to walk. The temple of Karnak is located just outside of Luxor and this avenue of the sphinxes once stretched the distance between the 2 temples--almost 2 miles!

We were warned about "pharonic overload". The kids helpfully dramatized what that might look like to a family approaching the end of a week's tour of Egypt! Truthfully, we wavered between times when we felt a bit rushed and wanted to see more of something and having "deer in the headlights" moments where we didn't think we could possibly absorb one more detail about some guy who built some thing for some god. A reminder that we were also traveling with Mark's parents--and his mother had dislocated her hip and had it put back in while on safari only a couple weeks before. We were proud that we all were able to work together to make sure everyone continued to have a good time and see what they wanted to see without feeling out of sorts.