First Day at Luxor - West Bank

10th December 2009 (Thurs)

Even though we only reached the hotel at around 9pm the previous night, we had to wake up at around 1plus to catch the domestic flight at 5am.. *yawns*

At 2.30am in the morning at the hotel lobby after we have collected our breakfast bag.. yup yup cause we would miss the breakfast provided by the hotel, they provide a breakfast bag for us with lots of food in it!

Reached the domestic airport at about close to 4am.. one hour before the flight :)

And there were a couple of posters on the wall but i like this the best!

'Perfection is what leads to Eternity' :)

Flight to Luxor from Cairo is just about an 1 hour.. So we reach Luxor at slightly after 6am!

Sun is just raising and that's the airport bus picking us up from the plane to reach the airport..

The domestic flight, Egypt Air, that we took :)

And below is Luxor airport :)

Travelling away from Luxor Airport, we caught the sight of pink limestone mountains, later came to know to be the Valley of the Kings and Queens, and hot air balloons in the air! Was given a chance to take hot air balloons too the next morning but gave that a miss.. it shall be something to be done in other countries! ;) but pretty!

Travelling along Luxor..

and first sight of the River Nile!

For today, we would be travelling to the West Bank of the River Nile where the Valley of the Kings and Queens are located.

"Mainly, the east bank where the sun rises, was the side of the living and the location of two great temple complexes of Luxor and Karnak. Most of the hotels and restaurants are on the east bank, as well as banks and offices. The west bank is the place of the dead, a vast necropolis containing the tombs and mortuary temples of the New Kingdom pharaohs. Fewer hotels and restaurants on the west side."

So during the journey to the Valley of the Kings, only limestone rocks can be seen..
Ticket to the valley of the kings.. with this we can visit 3 out of the 64 tombs inside the valley of the kings excluding visits to the tombs of Tutankhamun and Ramses VI which requires extra charges.

Again no photography is allowed inside the valley so that the tombs can be preserved.. so i only have a photo of the carpark :p

"Mainly, the remote barren Valley of the Kings was the necropolis of the New Kingdom pharaohs. By digging their tombs deep into the Theban Hills, pharaohs from Tuthmosis I (c.1500BC) on hoped to stop robbers stealing the priceless possessions buried with them. It was an unsuccessful strategy. Despite their hidden locations, every burial chamber was raided except for those of Yuya and Tuya, and Tutankhamun, discovered by Howard Carter in 1922, its glorious treasures intact. But for all that, the structures themselves remain, their dramatic corridors and burial chambers stunningly adorned with symbolic accounts of the journey through the underworld and ritual paintings to assist the pharaohs in the afterlife."

Below is the map of the tombs that have been discovered with the numbers that have been allocated to it based on the order the tombs were found.

Even though the tomb of Tutankhamen is the most popular tomb in the Valley of the Kings, but we did not visit it. Notwithstanding the extra charges required, the tomb is actually only popular because it was the only tomb to be found with its contents intact. The tomb managed to escape the attention of tomb robbers because it was dug beneath another exisiting tomb. It's tomb, when found, contained over 5000 precious objects buried with the young pharaoh, whose embalmed remains were still in situ in a complex system of gold and bejeweled mummy cases and coffins within coffins. However, as compared to other tombs, Tutankhamen's tomb is considered small with parts undecorated. And the 'treasures' in the tomb has also been removed to the Egypt museum we have visited earlier, with only the open sarcophagus in the tomb.

So we were brought to 3 tombs that were open to the public that day. (The tombs that are open to the public are often rotated to ensure that they are not overly damaged by visits to the tourists - as in moisture content through the breaths of visitors.) I couldn't really remember which tombs we visited cause i didn't record down :p but if i'm not wrong it KV55, KV6, and KV 16, which is the tombs of Tiye, Akhenaten or Other, Ramses IX, and Ramses I.

These tombs are relatively short as they only have 3 chambers, unlike other tombs i saw on the map which has so many chambers and could be super long.. But generally we would have to walk down relatively steep slope, lucky there was small wooden planks made as steps, to reach the burial chambers.

"In most of the tombs, long elaborately decorated corridors lead down through a series of chambers and false doors to the burial vault. The entrance passage is painted with texts and illustrations from mortuary literature and the Book of the Dead. In this, the pharaoh takes his last journey, passing through the 12 gates of the 12 hours of the night, beset by serpents, crocodiles and other malevolent beings. He arrives at the Court of Osiris where he is met by a delegation of gods; he makes his confession and his heart is weighed for its truthfulness and purity. A hideous monster waits to devour him should he fail the test but, evading the torments of hell, he is eventually received into the company of heaven.–Insight Guide-"

Passage into the tomb is as shown as the picture i found online. Each tomb would differ but at least it is something like this:
And the walls of the tombs are really pretty!! with engravings on both walls and even the ceiling! and as you walk deeper into the tombs, the colors on some of the engravings are still intact! It was a really amazing feeling to be standing inside the tomb and looking at all these engravings! It really felt unreal that i was inside these ancient tombs!!

Some pictures i found online of the interior of some tombs.. pretty pretty!

As we could not bring our cameras in, we bought postcards with pictures of the interiors of tombs as memorial of our visit to the Valley of the Kings..

While travelling away from the Valley of the King, the tour guide pointed to us the house of Howard Carter, the person who found Tutankhamun's tomb, which he lived in during his discover of the tomb! but what an isolated house.. in the middle of nowhere :p

Next is the visit to Queen Hatshepsut Temple (1498-1483BC) which is somewhat different from the other temples, being set back in a spectacular natural amphitheatre!

"Apart from Cleopatra, Hatshepsut was the only woman to rule as pharaoh. Hatshepsut ruled for 21 years [about 1473 - 1458 BC] during the early part of the New Kingdom, before the vastly successful imperialism of her nephew/stepson and successor Thutmose III. Hatshepsut named her temple "Djeser Djeseru", a hieroglyphic expression meaning, the Splendour of Splendours."

"By the banks of the Nile, across the river from Thebes, a three-tiered temple was found beneath hundreds of tons of sand tens of centuries after its construction. The temple is a reflection of the mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II, and was constructed alongside that eleventh-dynasty structure. However, the temple of Hatshepsut is far larger than that of Mentuhotep. The architect was Senmut, Hatshepsut's lover and a member of her court with more than 20 titles. Senmut designed the temple with rows of colonnades that reflect the vertical patterns displayed by the cliff backdrop. In this way the temple is a successful example of architectural harmony between man and nature. The temple is dedicated to Amon and Hathor, Hatshepsut's claimed parents, although there are chapels dedicated to other gods, like Anubis, the god of embalming. The sanctuary lies within the mountainside with two ramps connecting the three levels."
Below is the plan of the whole site.. from left to right.. Temple of Montuhotep II, Temple of Tuthmosis III, Temple of Hatshepsut

The first temple built at this site was 500 years earlier during the 11th dynasty, a mortuary temple for Montuhotep II; little is left of this structure as it is not nearly as well preserved as the Temple of Hatshepsut. Moreover, restoration works is currently still being carried out for the Temple of Hatshepsut.

Also discovered at Djeser-Djeseru were the intact roots of frankincense trees, which once decorated the front façade of the temple. These trees were collected by Hatshepsut in her travels to Punt; according to the histories, she brought back five shiploads of goodies, including flora and fauna.

Pictures taken from the second terrance..

The walls of Djeser-Djeseru are illustrated with Hatshepsut's autobiography, including some coloured inscriptions depicting Queen Hatshepsut’s holy birth and her marine expedition on the Land of Punt could be seen.

Didn't know about this when i was there..

"This temple was built by Queen Hatshepsut, stepmother of pharaoh Thutmose III, who became regent for the adolescent Thutmose III when Thutmose II, her brother died. As the first known female monarch, she ruled for about two decades, thus delaying the kingship of Thutmose III. Moreover, to delay handing over the reign, she also wore male clothes, as well as the false beard made of wood and leather worn by all pharaohs. It is not known how she died or was superseded. Many of her portraits were destroyed after her death, no doubt on orders from Thutmose III. Therefore, her name and images were chiseled off throughout the temple, and the surviving portraits of her is those whereby she appears as a male pharaoh with royal headdress and kilt and sometimes even the false beard. Thutmose III also built his own temple to the west of Hatshepsut's damaged temple at the same time."

The second ramp leads to the upper terrace. This portico has columns decorated with Osirian statues of the queen (Queen Hatshepsut represented as a male ruler, in the shape of the god, Osiris). Many of these statues were destroyed by Thutmose III. So the statues that are seen in the picture below are actually those that have been restored over the years..

Views of the top terrance..

The Hatshepsut temple itself is located on the top terrace and it is built into the rock.. but when we were there, it was closed to visitors.. so only can take photo of the entrance..


Trying to take some artistic shot :p

Views of the surrounding areas from the top..

Snap shot of the ruins of the Temple of Montuhotep II..

"Mentuhotep 2 is often called Nebhepetre Mentuhotep, He was the 5th ruler of the 11th Dynasty, but managed to unite Egypt in the middle of the 21st century BCE. With him the Middle Kingdom start, and would last 400 years. This was a period of peace, prosperity and great monuments, although never at the levels of the Old or the New Kingdoms."

Last final look at the Temple of Hatshepsut...

We then proceeded to this Alabaster Factory.. where they showed us how they make alabaster pottery by hand..

"Alabaster is a fine-grained, massive, translucent variety of gypsum, a hydrous calcium sulphate. It is pure white or streaked with reddish brown. Like all other forms of gypsum, alabaster forms by the evaporation of bedded deposits that are precipitated mainly from evaporating seawater. It is soft enough to be scratched with a fingernail and hence it is easily broken, soiled, and weathered. Because of its softness, alabaster is often carved for statuary and other decorative purposes.
The use of alabaster in Egypt dates well back into the Pharaonic period of Egyptian history, and this is very evident when one visits the temples, tombs and museums in Egypt. The ancient pharaohs used this wonderful material for many purposes, including household items, ritual objects, and for a number of different funerary purposes such as sarcophaguses and canopic equipment. Some of the finest ancient artifacts made from alabaster can be found in the Tutankhamun collection of the Egyptian museum, where we find a variety of different items made from this material."

They even had grow-in-the dark alabaster which was really pretty when they turn off the lights! didn't expect them to show us.. else could have taken a photo..

We then continued our journey and we drive past some site which they were still excavating or conserving..

and then we reached Colossi of Memnon (Site of the Temple of Amon-Ofis III)
The two Colossi of Memnon, standing in the fields by the side of the road, are the most visible reminder of the Temple of Amenhotep III, the famous Memnon. They originally guarded Amenhotep's mortuary temple - thought to have been the largest ever built in Egypt - which was plundered for building material by later pharaohs and gradually destroyed by the annual floods. All that remains are tthe two faceless colossi, which, despite the ravages of time, are an impressive sight.

After the one on the right was hit by an earthquake in 27BC, it made a gentle singing noise at dawn which the Greeks believed to be Memnon singing for his mother Eos. The Roman emperor Septimus Severus had it restored in AD199, after which the singing stopped.

This was the last attraction that we would visit on the West Bank. Next we travelled to the cruise ship that we would be staying at for the rest of the trip as we travelled down the River Nile~ :)

More sights of the West Bank..

And another sight of the River Nile with the many cruise ships that would be sailing down the River Nile together!

One of the cruise ship.. not ours though.. cause ours is parked behind this and another boat. We had to walk on that wooden plank and through 2 other boats to reach the cruise ship that we would be sailing on~
And this is the interior of the cruise ship - the lobby that we stayed at! nice ceiling!


And the study, billard room, the 'pub' area, and the potholes looking into the mini-swimming pool..


The deck with the small pool..

Actually the cruise ship is not very big.. other than the above places there's no other place to walk around.. 4 levels + deck

Our room for the next few days :)

And our little balcony :)

Views from our balcony..

And than it's off to lunch at the only restaurant in the cruise :) located right at the lowest level..

lucky the food served was not bad! totally dispel the stories that we heard that Egypt's food was not nice to eat.. guess we were really lucky! :D many of the tour members brought instant noodles to eat but ended up not eating it.. loll.. but then again, we didn't really get to eat real Egyptian food which the tour leader say we would not be used to because it will be more beans and stuff just as food in Turkey..

but here's my lunch and dinner respectively!

and what did we do in between lunch and dinner? hee.. we napped, watched movies (as we played our own mini dvd player), and did sudoku in our room :p slack slack! :p

And here's a short clip of the restaurant staff celebrating some other tour group's member birthday! *happening and super funny*