Egypt – Luxor

2009 March —–

After a few days in Aswan we took a 3 hour train ride to Luxor to meet up with Len & Michaela.   In Luxor we went to the Valley of the Kings, but the best tombs were closed for repairs – they ARE old and with all the tourist traffic I can imagine that they are deteriorating fast.  A lot seem to have plexi-glass over the wall carvings to keep curious fingers off. Amazingly, a lot had fake stuff in them, the originals being in some museum, but I guess that makes sense too, if you think about it.  If they hadn’t said the items were replicas we would have been none the wiser.  The tunnels leading into the burial chamber were just covered with hieroglyphics and drawings.  The walls, ceilings, pillars; every square inch.  Some of the colors are still very brilliant.  They all tell a story and I can understand how people spend their whole lives interpreting this stuff.

We also went to Hatshepsut’s Temple.    Again, another huge, almost modern looking temple cut into the side of a cliff.   

We also went to Karnack Temple in Luxor; it is huge; something like 60 acres.  It is the grand impressive stuff one imagines to see in Egypt. As was the Habu Temple and Luxor Temple.  But after a while we got templed out and quit going.  They are all huge beyond belief and grandiose, but after a while they all looked the same.     

We met a young farmer in Luxor who explained all about his mango farm and how they are slowly planning mangos as sprouts come up and in the meantime growing chickpeas and some kind of grain.  When he is tired he rests in his air-conditioned place (palm leaves spread over a wooden frame in the middle of his field) and when he is hungry he has a mango or milks his cow for some milk… once in a while if a donkey drawn cart is going down the road with fruits or vegetables, he snags an orange from them.  But he doesn’t just take it – he talks with the fellow, and then gradually works his way to being offered the orange, and if none is offered he tells them he is collecting a tax and they must pay him an orange to pass by.