Tag along to the heart of History in Luxor & the must Visit Karnak Temple(not visiting would be a sin)
Day 1: Visit Karnak Temple
We boarded the early morning local train from Aswan(Ticket Price 30EGP per head) which took 3.5hrs to reach Luxor. We welcome you to the Valley of Kings!! The city of Luxor is separated by the river Nile which is split into East & West Bank. Our stay was on the Western side. We had to cross the river as we approached from East. The West Bank holds the treasure called ‘Valley of The Kings or valley of the dead’, which seemed very calm & quite in comparison to East which is called ‘The valley of livings’. The eastern side was more of city lights and also has the Karnak temple and other ancient remains.
At around 3pm we reached Karnak temple(Entry Ticket: 200EGP per head) riding a horse carriage(give it a try). The day we went was Monday and the place was packed with crowd to our surprise. We would recommend you to avoiding this place on Monday as most of the cruise ships remain docked. The entrance to the Karnak Temple appeared to be a movie set featuring chain of Sphinx on both sides of the aisle, which symbolize the gods Amun-ra, Mut & Khonsu. Once you enter, the temple has gigantic pillars also called the ‘Forest of Pillars’, which looked pretty identical & daunting. Riju & me wondered how the ancient artists managed to in script those humongous pillars with such perfection. It has the largest twin ‘Obelisks’ erected at middle of the temple. The temple also had world’s largest open air museum(included in the entrance ticket price). We managed to stay late and were amongst the last batch of tourist leaving. We were adamant to get some satisfying clicks.
Later with the sunset we walked around 3 kms along the concrete stretch of Nile enjoying the breeze and burning some calories!! You can also visit the Luxor museum if you wish though we avoided the same as we were of the conclusion that the Cairo museum had it all. We ended the day facing the Nile over a coffee break at one of many random cafes.
Day 2: Entering the digs of treasure
- Valley of The Kings &
- Glare the Luxor temple in moonlight
We reached Valley of The Kings by a local cab. The entry ticket costed us 160 EGP per head which includes access to any 3 tombs out of the 8 tombs open to public. You need to pay purchase additional tickets to view the tombs of Tutankhamun, Seti I and Ramesses V & VI. We entered Valley of the Kings riding a tram which is free but you can also chose to walk but the sun might get really harsh during the day, so be prepared.
Out of the 8 tombs we chose to visit KV2 – Ramesses IV, KV 11 – Ramesses III and KV 6 – Ramesses IX. Those are the most attractive tombs and we would recommend those to you. To our knowledge, Valley of the Kings was the burial ground of the Pharaohs. It is said that the burial places are in the West bank of Nile where the Sun dies every day and the temples were built on the East bank where Sun rises. We later learned the Kings and the Queens never lived in Cairo instead Luxor was their home capital.
Note: Clicking photos are allowed inside for free so you can really get good hands at pictures.
There are 60+ discovered tombs but only few are open to public. Beside we purchased additional tickets for tomb of Ramesses V & VI(100 EGP), which was our favourite of all. The interior view was breath-taking – bright and colourful. Every passageway inside the tomb had its own unique pattern connecting multiple chambers and it’s impossible to spot any brick of the room without hieroglyphs inscriptions. Every single walls and ceilings of the tomb depicts the life cycle and possibly everything about the Pharaohs during their reins. The ancient Egyptians believed in after life so they were mummified and buried with all the valuables and fixes they used during while alive. They believed in carrying everything with them into the afterlife if they could make it through various test of characters, which ensures that they reached their destination. The tomb of Tutankhamun is one of the most famous and intact tomb which was discovered in recent times. The burial box and its treasures are now moved to the Museum of Cairo but his mummy still lies there in Valley of the Kings.
What we did in the moonlight on New Year’s eve:
We reached by 8pm as Luxor temple(160 EGP per head) is the only temple which remains open till 10pm. The guided tour bus had just left and we found the temple to ourselves. The surroundings of the temple at night felt refreshing on skin with the mild wind. From the entrance to the end the entire temple was illuminated with lights in the night sky. We soaked into the full moonlight. Though the pillars and structures are pretty similar to Karnak temple but here is something more to it because of the lights which made it more attractive and gorgeous.
The sky was clear and the weather got windy giving us the 31st vibe. We exclaimed “let’s celebrate’’. Coming out and after a short walk we made it to the local market which sparkled in the night and the entire city seemed busy in welcoming the New Year. We took the corner of a café overlooking the city lights and enjoyed our Hookah and some good food(temperature literally went down but we enjoyed in our own unique way). By mid-night the whole of town gathered on the Nile stretch cheering & lighting fireworks. It gave us cold shivers, we missed home!
We cheered ‘Happy New Year’ to the top of our tonsils!!
