Riphenburg/Egypt: Luxorالأقصر

Overnight Train to Luxor: For $60.00 each complete with dinner, Mike and I took the overnight train to Luxor. It takes 10 hours. The name Luxor comes from the Arabic al-quṣūr (القصور), literally. "the palaces," which is what the invading Arabs called the monuments when they conquered the area. Luxor was the ancient city of Thebes, the great capital of Egypt during the New Kingdom (1292-1069 BC), and the splendid city of the god Amun-Ra. The New Kingdom is also known as the Ramesid period, after the eleven pharaohs that took the name of Ramses.

Second Time for Me: This was my second trip to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings–but after 43 years. The first time I had been with a student group from the American University in Cairo, where I was studying Arabic. The temperature in Luxor is always about 10° hotter than that in Cairo. However, the second day following our arrival, the region got cloud cover and about two hours of rain. It was interesting to hear my tour guide warn me of the hazardous conditions on the roads and to listen to people talk about how cold it was. It was fascinating to see the countryside change from the congestion, pollution, and traffic of Cairo to a slower pace with donkeys as a major means of transportation, many irrigation canals, and green vegetable, sugar cane, and banana fields. For tourists, it's a great time to visit. Following the 2011 Arab spring, tourism to Egypt has dropped significantly. To make up for the downturn in income, many locals grow their own food. Their diet includes goat cheese, pigeons, subsidized and homebaked bread, and home-grown tomatoes. For tourists, there are still too many hyper and aggressive salesmen (most are men). Vendors from tour guides to taxi and horse and carriage drivers can be real pests.

Contrasts in Style: I wonder how much Mike and I confuse people. Mike can blend in and be taken for an Egyptian. The picture shows how much he even resembles the Egyptian president, Muhammad Morsi. I, on the other hand, have blond hair and wear slacks with no hijab (head covering), so definitely stand out. Shop owners in all of Egypt often display their religious affilation. Muslims may wear a white prayer cap, display plaques of Qur'anic verses written in calligraphy, or have a straggly or fuller beard. Christians have pictures of Christ or important Coptic or Greek Orthodox saints. A river front restaurant we visited, Al Kebabgy, had a rack of books on discovering Islam in various languages. Groups of feluccas were tied up only a few yards away. What we lost in sophistication, we gained in location. We got to eat in the open, paying quite a bit to be on the Nile. Service was on the slow side. Yet, since we were eating outdoors on the Nile, we weren't in a hurry.

Dendera: On our first day of sightseeing, Mike ferried across the Nile and set off for Deir al-Medina, home to the artisans who worked on the tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Since seeing a display of the treasures of King Tut's tomb in Chicago, Mike has been fascinated by Howard Carter's discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 and the culture it represents. He has even learned a lot of hieroglyphics. He wanted to enter the Valley in the same manner as the workers who constructed the tombs. I took off for a Ptolemaic temple of the Graeco-Roman period dedicated to the goddess of love, Hathor. This scene depicts Cleopatra and her son Caesarion, the only temple in Egypt to portray the famous queen and her son. Hathor is commonly depicted as a cow goddess with head horns in which is set a sun disk with a stylized, upright form of an Egyptian cobra. My guide was a Coptic Christian named Michael. We stopped for some of the small round loaves of bread baked by Coptic churches for distribution for those in need during the week. It is leavened bread, and each cake is about three inches in diameter and one inch in thickness. The same type of bread when used for communion must always be freshly baked on church premises on the morning of the Mass. Every church has its own little bake-house where the bread, made from the finest flour, is carefully prepared on Sunday morning, and stamped with a device of crosses.

Valley of the Kings (Wadi al-Muluk): Mike again set out on his carefully researched approach to the Valley of the Kings; and I met up with him later at the Tomb of King Tutankhamen. I first visited the Colossi of Memnon, two massive stone statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. The original function of the Colossi was to stand guard at the entrance to his temple. Then I visited the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut, (also known as Deir al-Bahri [Northern Monastery]). She was the fifth pharaoh of the 18th dynasty and is regarded as one of the most successful pharaohs, reigning 22 years. In the Valley of the Kings, I entered three tombs before that of King Tut–Ramses IV, Ramses IX, and Ramses III (considered to be the last great New Kingdom king to wield any substantial authority over Egypt). No pictures are allowed in the Valley of the Kings.

The Tomb of Tutankhamun: Finally, I met Mike and we entered the tomb together. Since Mike had read about and studied the expanse so long, this was the culmination of an emotional journey. Although all of the precious artifacts have been removed, King Tutankhamun's mummy and one of the nesting coffins in an open sarcophagus still rests in his tomb. The western wall is covered with 12 baboons that represent the 12 hours of the night that Tutankhamun must pass through before getting into the afterlife. To the left side of the mural of the northern wall is Tutankhamun embracing Osiris and showing the pharaoh being accepted into the afterlife. Behind him stands his Ka (his spiritual representation) embracing Tutankhamun.

Karnak: Our last day was spent visiting Karnak. Here I am between two ram-headed sphinxes on an avenue of them. In ancient times, religious processions moved between the Karnak Temple complex and Luxor Temple along a 1.5 mile-long paved Avenue of Sphinxes. The entrance was lined with a thousand larger-than-life-size ram-headed sphinxes. The key difference between Karnak and most of the other temples and sites in Egypt is the length of time over which it was developed and used. Construction of temples started in the Middle Kingdom and continued through to Ptolemaic times. Approximately thirty pharaohs contributed to the buildings, allowing it to become unrivaled in size, complexity, and diversity. One famous aspect of Karnak is Hypostyle Hall, which has 134 massive columns arranged in 16 rows. I thought it the most impressive part. Return to Cairo: After Movenpick ice cream at a shop outside Karnak, we again boarded the overnight train–this time headed for Cairo. We arrived about 8:30 AM in plenty of time to reach my apartment before the Salafi groups would begin demonstrating in Tahrir Square. Later, we learned that about 10,000 Salafists turned out for the demonstration, calling on Morsi to immediately implement Sharia law.

West bank of Nile in Luxor.

How many men necessary to prune trees?

Temple at Dendera.

The 23 crowns of the pharaoh depicted at Dendera.

Me on the roof of Temple of Dendera.

Staircase built to highest point of Dendera Temple by the Khedive Ismail for the Empress Eugénie of France, when she visited Egypt for the opening of the Suez Canal in 1871. The area is now closed.

Staircase priests descended after carrying statue of Isis to highest point of Dendera Temple in a renewal ceremony. There is also an ascending staircase on the opposite side.

Women vendors in Luxor.

Traditional dress of the Saeed (Upper Egypt).

Motorboat to the West bank of the Nile and the Valley of the Kings.

Me on the way to the West bank of the Nile.

Memnon was a king of Ethiopia and means "Ruler of the Dawn." The name was probably applied to the colossi because of the supposed cry (sound) at dawn of one of the statues.

Balcony of King Farouk's Winter Palace, which is now a 5-star hotel. Mike and I had refreshments in what seemed like the former library. King Farouk was deposed in 1952.