Luxor

Sunday March 12
We got up early for our flight to Luxor, about 400 miles south of (and upstream from) Cairo. We were somehow late for the flight, so were just shuffled onto the plane, with little regard for security.

In fact, security was a bit of a joke for most of the trip -- we regularly set off metal detectors, but were waved through. Many people carried guns, but one started to wonder if half the people who had them knew how to use them. The one time I was wanded, they seemed curious about the area between my ankles and knees, but declined to search for potential problems any further up.

Once in Luxor, we transferred to our "cruise ship," the Royal Serenade, our home for the next seven nights. After lunch, we went on our first excursion, to the Karnak Temple in Luxor. This is an immense temple with many pillars, all containing bas reliefs. There are some obelisks and statues, and a sacred lake. I couldn't listen to Essam for long, so wondered about on my own and felt completely overwhelmed (in a good way).

After a short bus ride back to the river, we made a detour to the Luxor Temple, this just as I was feeling that I couldn't absorb any more. By this time, I was fairly hot and tired, and wished I had more energy to appreciate this beautiful spot with city sprouting all around it. There's an avenue of smallish (lion-sized) sphinxes leading back to Karnak, so I spent some time walking up and down between the two rows as far as the current excavation goes. It was quite fascinating to ride over city streets and see other parts of the rows as they are being excavated, again, in the midst of the modern hustle and bustle.

I also discovered that all temples have what appears to be a stone "junk yard" -- a place to toss stones that haven't been placed yet. Some are carved, others contain hieroglyphs and bas reliefs. In the Luxor temple yard, I found a tiny sphinx model, perhaps smaller than a house cat.

That evening, the boat's dining room staff came out at dessert time and sang a special song, complete with much drumming. Our dessert that night was served on plates with "Welcome" written in chocolate.

That evening was also the first night we danced. I was delighted with the musicians and pleased with the callers. The dancers were really good too, and quite supportive, enough so that I started to relax a little about the English part of the dance. (I find English dancers to be critical and mean, which makes me tense up, which usually causes me to make mistakes, which seems to justify all the criticism.)

Monday March 13
Our activities in Luxor had been restricted to the east bank, where most people live. On Tuesday, we went to the west bank, the site of the Valley of the Kings. This is where one finds the tombs of many Ramses, and where Tutankhamun's tomb and treasures were discovered. (The treasures are now in the Egyptian museum; we saw them later on in the trip.) We visited two tombs, which consist of long passage ways and side alleys with rooms off them, all elaborately painted and decorated.

It's cool and a little stuffy in the tombs, but outside, the sun is relentless and the landscape forbidding. I wonder how anyone chose that site for their burial, or how anyone managed to uncover tombs after the fact.

Later, we went to Deir al-Bahri to the Temple of Hatshepsut, a woman who somehow managed to break into the male-only brotherhood of pharaohs and rule Egypt for 20 years. It's a grand temple seemingly springing out of the mountainside, and appearing from a distance like a modern hotel.