Luxor: Day 3, Karnak Temple (January 5)

Not wanting to get ripped off, we woke up early in the morning and stood on the corner by our hotel to catch a microbus. It took us a while to figure out how they worked, but eventually we decided they had no predetermined route and when one stopped by us we asked if it would take us all to the Karnak Temple for 5 pounds.

The driver was very willing. Later we learned that was because we had paid him double what the locals were paying. We were sure to only pay 50 quirsh each on the way home.

It was neat to take the microbus, though, because we got to see more of the Valley of the Sphinxes while we were driving. It really does stretch from the Luxor Temple to the Karnak Temple. We know because we saw it. A lot of it isn’t uncovered and/or is destroyed, but it was still really interesting to see.

We saved the Karnak Temple for last because we were so impressed with it the first time we went to Luxor. It was the crowned jewel of our trip and we wanted to repeat that this time around as well. Unfortunately, we were less impressed this time around. We’d already seen so many other temples and things that I think we were a bit tired of the same old, same old. Karnak is also one of the more famous sites in Luxor and, therefore, is more expensive and more frequented, which is both unfortunate and fortunate. It’s unfortunate because you “have” to go see it and there are way cooler things to see. It’s fortunate because all the tourists go there, leaving the cooler places (like Madinat Habu) relatively empty. Karnak is always awash with people.

All that aside, it was refreshing, once again, to be back to our old “stomping grounds,” so to speak. We “knew” our way around the complex better than at Madinat Habu so we could more quickly show David and the Schillings the cool sites—at least, the sites deemed so by both Lonely Planet and our previous tour.

We spent a lot of time in the colonnade, which is huge, and made sure to find the Holy of Holies, the sacred water pond, and the good luck scarab. Those, from what we remembered, were basically what we looked at the last time we were here.

Rachel pretended that she was the tour guide; she was always holding someone’s hand and dragging them along to find more stairs and other exciting things like that.

But we all know that, of course, Andrew was the real tour guide and told us everything we needed to know (or at least everything that he knew). When we didn’t know what things were, or when Andrew’s infinite wisdom ran out, we’d listen in on other tour groups…

In the Holy of Holies we found a rather interesting tour and tagged along for a bit, somewhat accidentally. Everyone in that group thought Rachel was adorable, and after we ran into them in several chambers they asked us if we wanted to join their tour. We declined, but it was nice of them to offer, even if they were only after more of Rachel’s smiles.

Near the end of our visit we ran into an Italian tour group that was completely blocking the way out. They were all huddled together around their tour guide, listening intently, and oohing and aahing. We couldn’t help but listen in again.

Andrew used his superb Italian skills to tell us that the blue line above David and Josh’s hands in the picture marks as high as the Nile would flood. I don’t know how they managed to use the temple during flood season. My gut instinct is that they probably didn’t use it…because that’s really pretty deep.

We found a statue that was missing a foot and took a picture, in honor of Patrick, who took pictures of his foot in front of famous places when he went to Ghana because I told him to be sure to take pictures of himself in Ghana. Andrew’s foot is relatively small compared to the gargantuan size of the statue’s foot.

We did some other silly things, like sticking Rachel on top of ancient things, which we never got in trouble for…and pretending to make sacrifices on altars, which we did get in trouble for (which is why David looks so awkward on top of the altar—the guards were yelling at him). The guards are really quite biased over here. If you pay them, you won’t get in trouble. If you have a baby with you they encourage you to stick the baby on things for photo ops. If you’re an American, they’ll get you in trouble hoping that you’ll bribe them away. It’s an interesting (read: broken) system.

I simply can’t think of much else to say right now, and the pictures tell it so much better, so it’s going to be a little picture heavy for a while.

I feel bad that I blasted Karnak at the beginning of my post. Obviously it really is worth seeing. It isn’t my favorite thing in Luxor, but it is worth seeing. It is huge, and popular, and filled with interesting hieroglyphics.

And where else can you walk around a giant scarab statue for good luck? We couldn’t remember if you were supposed to walk around it 4 times or 7 times, so we all did 7 times just to be on the safe side. My favorite part was when some random Russian tourists (без tour guide, без guidebook) showed up, watched us walk around a few times, and joined in. I wonder if they had any idea what they were doing or why.

Rachel also invented a new way of walking while we were in Luxor. She holds onto your hand and then bends over until she’s completely parallel to the ground and perpendicular to her legs. And then she’s full speed ahead. We crashed into so many things. It was impossible for either of us to keep our balance very well.

We all had a great time and Uncle David was especially happy that Rachel had finally, finally warmed up to him enough to allow him to pick her up and carry her around a bit. She had a hard time trusting him the first few days he was here.

And that, in a nutshell, was our visit to the Karnak Temple.

Luxor: Day 2, The West Bank, Part II (January 4)

Our last stop for the day was Madinat Habu, and was definitely the crème de la crème of what we saw on the West Bank. The Lonely Planted touts it as “one of the most underrated sites on the West Bank,” but we couldn’t decide between it and another place nearby. We asked our driver which was was cooler.

“They are both very interesting places,” he answered, although the likelihood of him having ever been inside either is rather slim. Most Egyptians aren’t up for tourism, even though the cost for a local to get inside any tourist site is amazingly inexpensive.

Our friend Patrick said that some of his undergrad Egyptian students don’t even know where Dashur is, and it’s just outside of Cairo. They’ve neither been to it or heard of it.

So we doubted that our driver had been to either place, especially because he gave such a laissez-faire answer.

“But if you only had time to visit one place, where would you go?” Andrew pressed further.

“Definitely Madinat Habu,” our driver answered quickly, “Definitely.”

He answered with such passion that we simply had to take his advice. Plus, he was driving. And that’s where he was currently going.

We stopped at a ticket booth in a small, sleepy town, that sold tickets to all the surrounding sites. They didn’t have any tickets left for Madinat Habu, but gave us a ticket for another destination and wrote a note on the back explaining that we actually wanted to go to Madinat Habu. They said it would work out fine because the cost of the two sites was the same so we paid a fair price.

The minute we got to Madinat Habu we were all in awe. And it was only the outside!

Andrew had to explain to the guards, dressed casually in galabias, why we didn’t have the right tickets and got stuck conversing about why we were in Egypt, the weather, and Rachel. The guard left us exclaiming that he “wish[es] that [Andrew] should be a professor, a mighty professor, and a wonderful professor.”

I happen to wish that, too. So long as it comes with a steady paycheck.

Madinat Habu not only is remarkably well preserved, it also is remarkably unpopulated by tourists. In fact the place was virtually empty which meant that we had a lot of fun. Not that you can’t have fun when there are a lot of people around, just that sometimes it’s easier to take your time and enjoy things without a crowd jostling around you.

It also means that the tourism police aren’t nearly as involved as they are in a place like, say, Karnak. Instead of actually doing their jobs they’re off smoking their hubbly bubbly so we can put Rachel in ancient tombs and do other things that we wouldn’t get away with in a more visited area.

Rachel’s enthusiasm for the ancient world didn’t last long, however, and she soon retired from running around and popping out from behind ancient pillars to cuddling in my arms.

It’s really rather unfortunate because there were so many neat things to see. She won’t remember it, anyway, but it still would have been neater for her if she had been awake.

The ceilings of many of the pylons are still intact so the paint on both the ceiling and walls is still very vibrant, and there is so much of it!

The hieroglyphics are very well preserved and were all over the place. They seriously covered almost every visible surface in the whole complex. It was amazing to see. I can’t imagine how much work it took to construct something like this!

Unfortunately we didn’t have a lot of time at Madinat Habu because we had only rented our van until 2:00 and had to get back to the hotel. We would have liked to spend more time there. At the same time, we were dog tired and wanted to get back to the hotel to relax. We’d been tramping around ancient tombs and temples since 7:00 AM and we were wiped.

Next time we go to Luxor we will be sure to go to Madinat Habu earlier in our trip so we’re not so exhausted when we get there. I that since we found Madinat Habu so impressive even after being to several other impressive sites is further evidence of how amazing Madinat Habu really is.

Even Carolee, whose “history-span” is very delicate and short enjoyed herself immensely at Madinat Habu. And she was not on board when we initially decided to visit one more thing before heading back to the hotel.

Rachel, having napped all while we were at Madinat Habu and in the van, was all napped out by the time we got to the hotel, so while everyone else relaxed in their rooms, we decided to try out the pool on the roof.

There were three little boys playing in the pool making the water look rather inviting, but when I stuck my toe in to test the temperature I began to wonder if the boys weren’t crazy. The pool was freezing cold.

“Come on! Get in!” they cheered me on in their beautiful little accents, “It’s not cold once you get in!”

“It feels really cold,” I said.

“But once you’re all the way in it’s not!” they insisted.

I sat on the deck and put my legs in the pool. They agreed with my big toe. The water was cold.

“Hi!” said a little boy, coming up to Rachel and me.

“Hello,” I said.

“Where are you from?” he asked.

“America.” I said.

“I thought so,” he said.

“Where are you from?” I asked.

“Ireland!” he chirruped.

“I thought so,” I said.

“Are you going to get in?” he asked again.

I’m a sucker for accents, I guess, because I ended up in the pool. But only for a few minutes.

Andrew watched, laughing, while Rachel and I tried our very best to “get used to the water,” something that was only supposed to take “a few minutes.” We gave it our very best shot but ended up shivering with goose bumps, so we got out.

“Cold?” Andrew asked.

“Very.” I answered.

He had come up to the roof with us, in his swimsuit, but suggested that he take some pictures of the view while we tried out the water. Isn’t he chivalrous?

We ended up moving our pool party inside to a steaming hot bath, leaving the little Irish boys with the icy cold pool all to themselves. Rachel and I found it a little squishy, but much more pleasant!

The day really wore her out, though, so even though she wasn’t ready for a nap when we got back to the hotel she fell asleep long before we expected her to at bedtime.

It’s hard to enforce bedtime when you’re on vacation. Sometimes we’d leave her alone in the dark (because that’s how she’s used to falling asleep) while we hung out in the Schilling’s room next door. Sometimes we’d turn off as many lights as we could do without and would sit quietly on the other side of the bed, hiding from her. And other times we’d put her in her crib with some toys and tell her to play until she wanted to go to sleep and then to just lie down.

This particular evening she conked out mid-imaginary-phone call. She’s too cute.

Luxor: Day 2, The West Bank, Part I (January 4)

We worked with our hotel to reserve a van to take us around the West Bank for our second day in Luxor. That meant that we had to be up early, but I suppose early is good. It meant that we beat the crowds and the heat.

The weather wasn’t terribly hot—it is January, after all—but by the time we hit the Valley of the Kings we were taking off layers.

Our first stop was at the Colossi of Memnon, two gigantic statues that used to guard Amenhotep’s temple. Ironically they are still standing guard while the temple was reduced to inexcavatable rubble.

When we were visiting the Colossi back in 2006 our guide told us that you could hear the wind whistling through one of the statues if you listened really closely. We had the Lonely Planet with us this time and they say that, while this used to be the case, the Romans patched up the hole in the 3rd century AD so there no longer is a whistle. Obviously tour guides still tell people that it whistles because it’s fun to see how gullible people are, and how cute their faces look when they’re straining to hear the non-existent whistle.

Andrew was acting as our tour guide and, although he read that there was no longer a whistle, he suggested that we all listen for the whistle, anyway, just so that the other tourists didn’t feel bad for craning their necks toward the statues and cupping their hands behind their ears.

He was also acting as photographer, which is why there are a lot of pictures of me and Rachel and hardly any of him.

From there we were rushed off to the Valley of the Kings. All of our preselected tombs were closed, which was kind of a disappointment. They periodically close the tombs to allow for restoration and preservation work, which is probably a good thing, but still a disappointment.

Interestingly enough, we ended up going through the exact same tombs that we went in with the BYU tour. It would have been nice to see something new, but since we couldn’t remember which ones we had seen the first time we came I guess that’s our own darn fault. And nothing there is really “new.” In fact, it’s all pretty old, so seeing something new would have been quite impossible.

I was a little nervous about going down inside the tombs because it had been so long since I’d been inside them and I’d forgotten how it was like. The last ancient thing I had been down was the Dashur pyramids, and I was carrying Rachel, and that was harsh. I happened to have Rachel strapped to me on this day, as well, and the first tomb we ventured off to was that of Tuthmosis the Third, which happens to be up a tall, steep staircase. It’s on the Lonely Planet’s list of best tombs though, so we figured we should go see it. The minute we did, we knew we had been inside before, but it’s well worth the visit, anyway. It has the first tomb in the Valley of the Kings to be painted. Plus, the sarcophagus is still inside, which is pretty cool if you ask me.

Personally, I think they should have more things inside the tombs and less inside the Egyptian Museum. The museum is brimming full of ancient stuff that is so uncatalogued it is rather overwhelming to visit, and impossible to see in one day. I think it would be more interesting to see some of these relics in their natural environment. Like a theme park for ancient Egypt.

They could do rides and things through the tombs. Just load people up on a wannabe rollercoaster and zoom them through the tombs, popping out a real mummy every now and then, showing off treasure, statues, and sarcophagi. In my mind I’m seeing a Disneyland Indiana Jones/Pirates of the Caribbean-esque ride, only more educational, natural, and realistic.

I’m always so disappointed when I go inside things like pyramids and tombs. And Petra? What a joke. The Treasury is completely empty and uncursed. There is a fantastic facade and you walk up the steps expecting axes to start swinging at you and instead, rather anticlimactically, you see an empty, square room. Blah. If they had some treasure heaped up in there it would have been way cooler.

But I digress…that isn’t how it is at all. I found myself hauling Rachel up a long flight of stairs dangling over a crevice, trying to keep up with a crowd of people not lugging a quarter of their body weight in baby, wishing that rollercoaster-type ride would suddenly whisk me to the top of the stairs.

The stairs are a bit of a climb, but it really wasn’t that bad. It’s nothing compared to climbing inside a pyramid. And Rachel could have walked down the ramps to get in the tomb. In fact, the ramps were so not-steep that we let Rachel walk everywhere else after we made it back down the stairs.

After visiting Tuthmosis’ tomb we meandered down to see Amenhotep the Second and Horemheb. Both were closed. So we went to plan B, backtracked a little, and visited the tomb of Tawosret/Sethnakht instead.

This tomb is a little humorous. Apparently Tawosret started building it and had her name and cartouche all over the place. Later, Sethnakht decided that he’d take over and covered up her name with plaster and replaced it with pictures of scarabs or his own cartouche. There are two burial rooms and two mummies were found inside. This tomb is definitely interesting and well worth a visit.

After we’d come up from inside the tomb, Rachel started dancing around like a little person that needs to go to the bathroom so we figured we should find one. We looked at a map and found that the bathrooms were on the opposite side of the valley that we were (not that we expected them to have bathrooms out in the middle of no where, or at all) so we trekked on over there.

We didn’t feel like walking around trying to find another open tomb and Ramses IX was right there, so we decided to go see that one and be done (you’re only allowed into three tombs and they actually mark your tickets). This one was the epitome of anticlimacticity.

It seems fairly interesting at first and is, in fact, the most-visited tomb of the valley. The reason behind that little fact, I’m guessing, is because it’s located right by the WC. It’s really nothing special.

The walls, on the way down, have some interesting hieroglyphics depicting animals, people, the Book of Life, yadda, yadda, yadda. They’re all behind Plexiglas so that no one can touch them (which is fine…and I think they could really use Plexiglas to their advantage by employing my theme park idea) and it seems like the corridor is going to go on forever.

There were two lines, one going in, and one going out. And they stretch as far as the eye can see. So we just knew it was going to be neat.

Suddenly the line we were in, the one going in, slowed to a crawl and I spent most of my time trying to keep Rachel focused on pointing out cows on the wall instead of screaming. We were inching forward, waiting to see whatever spectacular thing it was everyone was stopping to stare at for so long. And then we got there!

We stopped and stared. This? Was it? This empty room that is equally wide as the corridor, only decorated far less-enchantedly (read: not at all) was it? We’d waited in line for this?

While we stared, in slack jawed shock, at the dismal emptiness in front of us, we were holding up the line. A “guard” in a gallabia yelled something to prod us on. We turned around and left, still in stunned silence.

I wanted to warn everyone still standing in line that this tomb was not the best tomb of all the tombs. There are other tombs, that are more interesting, that have no line to go in.

It was fine, though. Still good. I was just expecting more, I guess. At least for the burial chamber to be fairly huge, or at least bigger than the hallway. What was Ramses IX thinking?

He should have been thinking bigger. Had he been thinking bigger he might have thought of building a whole temple instead of just a measly burial chamber. Queen Hatshepsut did that.

It’s a pretty impressive temple but I’m still torn about whether or not to recommend visiting it.

On the one hand, like I said, it’s a pretty impressive temple. On the other hand, it’s in the middle of no where and all that is at the complex is the temple, so it’s kind of, dare I say, boring, and not worth the trip. On the other hand, there are some interesting hieroglyphics there with some excellent color and the bird statues on the staircase are cool. On the other hand, there are interesting hieroglyphics in more interesting places that are cheaper to get into and less filled with tourists. On the other hand, Queen Hatshepsut’s temple is a really popular tourist destination so you kind of have to go. On the other hand, it was the sight of a terrorist attack.

There are good parts, like the amazing hieroglyphics mentioned.

And not-so-good parts, like the non-existent tree that is so clearly labeled. I don’t know why they label thing like this when there are only like 3 labels in the whole Egyptian Museum (I kid. There are probably 5 or 6 labels in there).

I’ve been there twice, but I don’t think I really want to make it a third. There are other places I’d rather see but I won’t judge you if you still want to go.

Rachel was borderlining on misery by this point in the day, but she managed to be pleasant for most of the visit. That’s because she spent most of her time picking up rocks and rolling around in the dirt. I stopped trying to make her not get dirty because it was either dirt or tears. I usually choose dirt over tears.

After everyone had had their fill of gaping at hieroglyphics and/or tasting rocks we went back to find our van. While we were walking through the “gauntlet” of vendors, Andrew realized that he didn’t know where our Lonely Planet book was. A tragedy, I know.

We thought that perhaps we had left it at the ticket booth after we got in a huge fight with them about our status as students, but it wasn’t anywhere on the desk, that we could see, and no one wanted to go up and ask them about it because we were worrying about something else we had lost.

The van was no where to be found. Andrew, who was terribly worried about our book, went off in search of the van while we sat on the curb and waited for him to return. I gave Rachel some juice and cookies from the backpack, which she found much more satisfying than rocks and dirt, and Andrew arrived a few minutes later with the van, our driver, and the Lonely Planet. He had left it in the van, thank goodness. I don’t know what we’d do without that book.

We all piled into the van and settled in for our drive to Madinat Habu. It was only about 11 AM and we were all exhausted. Rachel fell asleep, and I was just about to doze off, when the driver pointed out the Ramesseum, launching a discussion, piloted by Andrew, about the Ozymandias. We were almost there…and most of us just wanted to go back to the hotel and nap.