Valley of the Kings

We met our fellow travelers at the Colossi of Memnon, two statues on Luxor's west bank that had been visible from the ballon.

Although they're considerably smaller than the Colossus of Rhodes, they're still here after 3,400 years.  Imagine if Stephen Sondheim wrote their song!

Howard Carter discovered King Tut's tomb in the Valley of the Kings, our next stop.  The Egyptian Museum in Cairo displays the contents when they're not traveling the world to promote tourism.

But the tomb vacated by the 19-year-old Tut is hardly the most impressive.  Ahmed, our guide suggested we visit those of Ramsesses III, IV and  IX.  Rules prevented him from accompanying us inside.  Imagine the underground traffic jams in peak tourism season if tourists stopped for lectures.

If burrowing deep into a mountain didn't always deter tomb robbers (or archeologists!), it did preserve the wall paintings and hieroglyphics that pharaohs commissioned to decorate the final resting places of their sarcophagi.

It's hard to imagine how the artists created their colorful work using only oil lamps and mirrors to reflect sunlight illuminating the entrances.

 

Turbaned men bar entry to the tombs if you have a camera but no photo pass.  It cost almost as much as admission.

They also use their flashlights and lascivious giggles to solicit tips by pointing out Min, the god of reproduction, on the ceiling.

Luxor Sunrise

Rising at 4 a.m. dimmed the appeal of another reasonably priced Memphis Tours add-on ($99), but riding in a hot air balloon was something Thom wanted to do.

Under cover of night with our second "breakfast box" of the trip, we crossed to the west bank of the Nile in a boat with with dozens of tea-sipping Chinese tourists.  The organizers asked us to write down our weights before herding us into vans.  We met our crew in a rushed blur.  They issued minimal safety instructions:  "don't look at the captain, who always will be facing into the wind, and bend your knees when the balloon lands."

We climbed into a straw gondola along with more than a dozen other giddy passengers.

The maestro of the propane tanks prior to boarding.

Game-of-Thrones dragon breath gently lifted us into the sky as dawn broke over the Nile.  I ignored the burned side of our pilot's face, no doubt the real reason we weren't supposed to look at him.

Airborne with Mamita, a journalist from Calcutta!

Mamita persuaded us to have our picture taken.  "The light is really good right now."

Queen Hatshepsut's tomb glowed in the desert below.

The green swath that the Nile cuts through the desert is unmistakable from 500 feet.

While pick-up vans chased us from the roads below, we gradually descended over sugar cane fields fields and unfinished farm houses.  Egyptians build up to accommodate new generations in their families.

"I don't like to land in the fields because it makes the farmers angry but I'm at the mercy of the wind," our captain explained as we touched down on a road.  Well done!

Isn't It Ironic?

Before touring Egypt, condoms were the first thing that came to mind when I heard the name Ramses. But it turns out the randy old goat had more than 150 kids!

Ramsesses II repurposed Luxor Temple, where many pharaohs were crowned, as his own shrine.  He's pictured here with Queen Nefertari, the first of seven royal wives and his favorite.

We visited the beautifully illuminated temple at night.

Ramsesses II included Nubia to the south in his realm.  Some of the temple carvings depict subjects with African features.

Karnak The Magnificent

I always thought Carnac the Magnificent was just a silly character that Johnny Carson did on "The Tonight Show" with Ed McMahon.  Our arrival in Luxor, once known as Thebes and the capital of the ancient world, changed that ignorant notion.  The late afternoon sun bathed Karnak Temple, one of the world's largest religious sites.  Many pharaohs added their own stamps over hundreds of years.

During construction, Egyptians worked their way up by elevating themselves on temporary mud walls.  And like most Egyptian temples, Karnak was built from the inside out.  That's why this eroded mud wall remains behind the entrance. 

A  sacred lake, deep inside the Precinct of Mut, an early earth and creation deity,  first marked the spot.  You'd worship water too if you lived in a desert.

More than 100 columns supported the missing roof of the enormous Hypostyle Hall.  Built on a north/south axis like all Egyptian temples, it reflects the centrality of the Nile in ancient culture. 

Colorful paintings, protected from the relentless Saharan sun, remain along with deep carvings.

Obelisks and smaller temples, too.

Dozens of sphinxes vie with statues of Ramesses II for camera love. 

 If the pharoah's feet are wrapped, he's dead. 

Left-food forward, his heart still beats.  And I'm not being sexist.  Few women ruled ancient Egypt. Cleopatra came much later, during Roman times.