Memnon statues, Alabaster factory, Valley of Kings, Hatshepsut's temple, Karnak and Luxor temples:
I know ... it was a jam-packed day! Also the day when we checked out of the cruise and met with Amal (guild in Luxor) with a driver and a van. Xferred the luggage into it and started a busy day.
Visiting Memnons: Their story here.
Alabaster: commonly found stone in the local quarry + at Aswan. This is the main stone used inside the tombs of kings/queens to build statues as well as their sarcophagi. Extremely light material yet very sturdy. The factory we visited also had artists working with basalt.
Valley of Kings/Queens(also children)/Nobles/Workers: If you are wondering what they stand for... they are the (not so) secret spots to find tombs of Egyptian pharaohs and their families. Nobles would be famous Egyptian scripts and other artists; while workers mostly consisted of people working inside the royal tombs among others.
We visited 3 tombs: those belonging to Ramases I, III, IX. Saw the tomb of King Tut from outside (it was under restoration).
Amal explained very interesting story behind each of these tombs: The pharaohs/queens, right after coronation ceremony had to have an idea of where to build their tomb. They would order hundreds of workers at a time after choosing a secret place (inside the valley of kings). The workers would be slotted (each group with their own task), some wall-painters, some architects of the tomb itself to decide interior, some actually building the sarcophagus, etc etc. The depth (underground) of the tomb would be proportional to # years the king ruled Egypt. King Tut (distinctly famous for his wealth found intact inside his tomb) died very young (age 17) and ruled Egypt only for 7 years. So his tomb was one of the shortest ones. Sadly this theory behind the depth was unknown to the robbers and thieves during that time who turned a blind eye to King's tomb and so all the gold remained intact unlike rest of the tombs.
The paintings inside the tomb were not very different from what we saw inside various temples except lots of them showing: boat of life, Anubis(god of mummification), starry ceiling and Nut(goddess of night/day), carefully crafted designs/pathways towards the holy sarcophagus.
Right after this visit, we went to see Queen Hatshepsut's temple; one of its kind! Simply gorgeous! This is located right behind the mountain of valley of kings. Most interesting fact: This is a queen(ruled for 20 years) who called herself a pharaoh and was very brave and powerful too. Queen's sarcophagus was found inside the temple but not her mummy... archaeologists found out a secret underground passage connecting her temple to the valley of kings where the queen's mummy was found next to mummies of other pharaohs! Hats off to her!
Later in the day we arrived at Karnak temples: collection of 16 temples built over a period of 400 years of history, first dedication starting with God Amon Ra (Sun god). Most noteworthy monuments include: statues of Ramases II, Hypostyle Hall (134 columns:simply unique and awesome), 2 of the remaining 5 obelisks (in Egypt), The statue of scarab, the cachette where 23 mummies were found by archaeologists.
Luxor temple: Located very close to the Karnak temples this temple is famous for its sitting colossus of Ramases II, multiple columns all made with single piece of granite imported from quarries in Aswan, an obelisk and near the holy of the holiest wall paintings full of Alexander the great shown as a Egyptian pharaoh (offering goodies to different gods). There are 2 beautiful marble statues of King Tut and his wife Ankh. Today was truly memorable ... So much history and such a clairvoyance of the old Egyptian Pharaohs and their Queens... we were totally impressed!
We had a day-use hotel room close to the railway station ..which was very helpful to relax after a long day! We were booked in a first class cabin in an overnight train to Cairo tonight. The journey was good.
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