Along the River Nile
An old capital of Egypt, the ancient city of Thebes is our next stop. These days the city is known by its Arabic name, Luxor, but it still holds some amazing ancient ruins. The 300 mile journey from Cairo gave us another chance to take an overnight train. This time we even had a dining car, but the outrageously priced cup of Nescafe kept us from getting too excited. The train arrived early in the morning, we found a hotel, and set out to see some temples right away.
The main attraction is the temple at Karnak, just a couple miles up the road from the Luxor Temple downtown. The two were connected by an “avenue of sphinxes”, most of which is covered by the modern city streets but new excavations seem to be in process. Both temples were very impressive, they featured giant columns, tall obelisks, many statues of gods and pharaohs, and imposing walls, all covered with hieroglyphics. It was particularly interesting to see all the layers of history in one spot. In addition to the original remains of the ancient temples there is evidence of Greek and Roman constructions, churches built into the ruins, and a currently-used mosque on top of it all.
On day two we signed up for a bus tour of the west bank of the Nile. It was a good sized group, and surprisingly, half were Americans. It was nice to have such a good group to hang out with for the day. The west side of the Nile was traditionally associated with death, this is where they put their tombs, including the famous Valley of the Kings. Unlike the pyramids, the inside of these old tombs are decorated inside. They are covered with paintings of the gods, the journey to the afterlife, and scenes from the pharaohs life.
Other than seeing remains of the ancient world, another significant event occurred while we were in Luxor. It is the beginning of Ramadan. We had assumed there would be some sort of celebration the day before, but it turns out they save that for the end. It probably makes more sense that way, to celebrate the completion of the fast rather than a Mardi Gras type party before the hard part even starts. Luckily this is a tourist oriented town and there is a big enough Christian population, so we were still able to find food during the day. We even found a nice cafe overlooking the Luxor Temple and the Nile that had a good deal on the local beer. It was a nice way to finish the day and enjoy the sunset.