Hi –
Today’s blog (or now yesterday’s, actually) may be rather confusing, and I apologize for that. I’ve been dealing with migraine issues the past week or so, and of course, one arrived just as we went down for breakfast. This was also our day to change hotels from the luxurious Hilton Luxor Resort to the quaint and supposedly charming Winter Palace, the historic hotel – built in 1899 or thereabouts, in Luxor.
Our plan for today was to see the two temples actually in Luxor – Luxor and Karnak, allegedly the world’s largest (per square foot) temple. Up early to meet our driver, Abdul, at 7:30, and we were off to Temple #1, Luxor. This is in accord with Margaret’s dictum of getting to a place early and it really paid off. There were no – zero – tourists at the site. (In fact, we actually woke the ticket seller up – he’d been sleeping on a cot in his office! Surprise!) We spent about an hour and a half exploring the site, and it was quite impressive!
Many people have heard about the “Avenue of Sphinxes” in Luxor, and it really is something to see. Turns out, that when the temples were built, the sphinxes lined the roadway between the two temples – a distance of 3 kilometers! Now truly, that’s a lot of sphinxes – something on the order of 1400+! Well, over the past thirty or more years, the government has been literally moving people out of the area and reclaiming the land – with the ultimate goal of putting back all 3 km of statuary! It’s already colossal – and now it’s going to be even bigger!
The temple was originally built by Pharaohs Amenhotep III and Ramses II (He who LOVES statues of himself, like at Abu Simbel!). The temple was built for the annual Opet celebration, which took place every year during the inundation of the Nile. The three Gods of Karnak, Amun, Sun God, his wife, Mut and his son, Khonsu, were brought to Luxor Temple on their “barks” (boats) to be reunited as a family. Also, once again, on the first (entry) pylon, Ramses II celebrated (rather inaccurately, in my opinion) “victory” over the Hittites at Kadesh, as well as some of his other military exploits.
From Luxor Temple, Abdul drove us to the Temple at Karnak, just a few (3 exactly) kilometers down the road. Unlike the Luxor Temple, we most decidedly did NOT have the place to ourselves. Even though it was still fairly early (9 am) the place was packed with people. But, oddly, the crowd pretty much stayed on the central axis of the temple. The shrines and chambers on either side were almost empty of tourists and almost no one went past the sixth pylon. I guess their tour guides didn’t have the time or inclination to go that far – but we did.
Karnak is a work spanning centuries, with additions, modifications, destructions by the pharaohs and their successors, from Hatshepsut, to Ramses II to the Ptolemies, to the Romans and to the Muslims (who built a mosque in the middle of the compound). [Ramses II, as usual, has his cartouche everywhere. I think he as the Egyptian version of “Kilroy was here”]
Back to the hotel about 11 for me to try and get a quick nap and to pack in preparation to move to the Winter Palace Hotel which is right on the Corniche in the center of town. (The Hilton, while stunning, is a bit out of the way, at the south end of town.) Our original plan when we left had been to drive from the Luxor Hilton to Al-Amarna (the city built by Akhenaten, the Heretic Pharaoh), a 5½ hour drive north of here, stay two nights there, then back to Luxor, staying at the Winter Palace. Somehow, though, the prospect of that many hours on the Egyptian roads with heaven knows how many speed bumps was too much, so that part of the itinerary was changed when we got to Aswan. That still left us with a reservation at the Winter Palace, though.
The Winter Palace is an old, iconic hotel in Egypt – put the emphasis on “old”. Our room (336) is small and dumpy, albeit very clean and attractive. There is no desk, the other furniture is in poor repair and there is a general feeling that the place needs a major renovation. We even contemplated cutting our stay here to one night (instead of five) and going back to the Hilton.
I want to add here that our last night at the Hilton, I found that I was getting very, very congested. Of course, Covid sprang to mind, but turns out, that wasn’t it at all. As a person with allergies – the very worst of which happens to be DUST, Robert finally pointed out that I was probably suffering from a major allergy attack. Bingo! (Not being very perceptive, it’s always hard for me to see – but the same thing happened once in Italy (olives, that time) and again on the plateau of Turkey (Pink Eye!) – which is very dusty. Egypt as a country – and Luxor as an area, are incredibly dusty. So much so that it’s difficult to see clearly most days, as the air is so hazy. I took some allergy meds to help (plus using the amazing Netipot), and it did, but unfortunately, either as a result of – or a corollary to – the allergy attack, my migraine returned as well, just as we went down to breakfast.
We both have come to the conclusion that the prospect of another two weeks of travel was not at all attractive. So, we decided to cut it short and spent the afternoon arranging for a return home on Monday, 30 January. (Thank heaven for computers and the internet!!!) Again, we’re both okay with this. It is certainly not the first time we have returned from a trip early – occasionally it’s medical (broken leg in France; bronchitis in Turkey) and sometimes (like the RAINY summer in the U.K.) it’s weather related. Our thinking generally is that it’s not worth being somewhere when you’d really rather be somewhere else. So … we leave tomorrow (Saturday) morning to return from Luxor to Cairo, and then will fly on Monday, the 30th back to the U.S. That’s the plan, actually!
Robert, Sweetheart that he is, started the blog, as I headed straight to bed after dinner. (We actually taxi-ed back to the Hilton and went to Silk Road Restaurant for an excellent dinner of Asian-inspired food!) Today, our plan is to head to the Valley of the King tombs on the West Bank – but who knows where we’ll end up! Inshallah, as Abdul says – “It is as God wills!”
I’m posting this as an update, and when we have time (hopefully this afternoon) I’ll do the photographs! Until then!
Lots of love,
m
xxx
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