Luxor, Egypt

The Nile as seen from my hotel. The Valley of the Kings and Queens are in the mountains in the background.
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I wanted to take a boat down the Nile from Aswan to Luxor - but they don't really have boats that do this as day trips.  It would've taken about 3 days to do the trip and unfortunately I already booked Luxor and Dahab and couldn't reschedule easily.  So I ended up joining into a minivan that was heading to Luxor.  It left at 1:15pm.  I wanted to leave earlier but the minivans don't leave earlier.  Why?  Because to drive tourists around Egypt, we must be part of a Convoy with police!  Apparently it isn't overly safe to allow cars to drive the countryside here.  In fact, a policeman with a crazy big automatic rifle got into our minivan and did the ride with us.  Craziness!  At least I felt safe ;-)

Karnak Temple
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Luxor isn't much of a town.  It seems to only exist because the Valley of the Kings and Queens are nearby.  And of course Karnak and Luxor Temples.  The temples are awesome!  Ridiculous.  Amazing to think they built them 4,000 - 5,000 years ago!!!  Jeez.  The Valley of the Kings/Queens are tombs.  The best part (in fact the only part) of the tombs are the hieroglyphics on the walls.  Some of them still have color (since the sun doesn't shine in a tomb). The colors are amazing to see.  King Tuts tomb was actually a let-down.  Its the smallest of all the tombs, just one room.  Some of the others are quite large and you have to climb through tunnels to get into them.  Pretty cool - but not for the claustrophobic!

The temples are awesome! Ridiculous. Amazing to think they built them 4,000 - 5,000 years ago!!!

So cool
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It is crazy hot in Luxor... it felt even hotter than Aswan.  I guess that is because there is no shade when you are walking around the temples.  And the tombs aren't like caves where it is cool inside.  It is so hot and stuffy inside you can only bear them for about 10 minutes.  Then you must exit.  Iryna would've never been able to enter them.  My Dad wouldn't have liked it either.  They are good to see - but it's definitely not for everyone.