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Egypt Luxor with its temples is probably one of the biggest open museums in the whole world. There is no other place on the Earth with such number and preservation of monuments. Unfortunately, today is not the best time to go to Egypt, so all I can do is thinking back of these wonders, lost in sand by running over some old photos of them.

The columns of Luxor Temple, Egypt

Egypt Luxor Temple
It seems like Luxor has always been a tourist center. Even during the Greek and the Roman times Luxor Temple attracted foreigners from all over the world. Millenniums are gone – nothing changed 🙂

The entrance to Luxor Temple
This small town located on the bank of the Nile 650 km to the south of Cairo is still filled with a spirit of the almighty ancient civilization. Once upon a time this place was a grandiose capital of Ancient Egyptian Empire, which was called Uaset by the Egyptians, Al-Uqsur by the Arabians, and Thebes (which means “Palaces”) by the Greeks.
In the ancient times Thebes were located on both banks of the Nile. There were two grandiose temples on the Eastern bank – Karnak and Luxor – connected to each other by the great sphinx alley.

The Great Sphinx Alley
Mighty temple complexes were founded here side by side with rich palaces, houses of aristocrats and gardens of rare trees. Conquered nations of Syria and Palestine brought here countless vessels of vine, leather, lazuli beloved by the Egyptians, and from the distant provinces of Africa came caravans full of ivory, ebony, fragrances and gold.
Today Luxor Temple neighbors with the houses of not too wealthy Egyptians, the building came close to the monument. Local population tries to keep cleanness and as much as possible to keep all ancient treasures, which can be found here under every single house and every single street.
There was a Royal residence and huge necropolis on another bank of the Nile in the western side of Luxor , located on the amphitheater of rocks. And still this place keeps vales of kings and queens, Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, the female pharaoh, guarded by the giant statues – Colossi of Memnon. There were dozens of burials founded in the lifeless rocks around.

Death Valley, Luxor
The history of Egypt Luxor lead us far back in the ancient time: first references of the city are kept in the texts dated by the III millennium B.C.E. The beginning of the New Kingdom in XVI century B.C.E. symbolized the period of the best prosperity. Even as the centuries passed and the capital was moved to Alexandria during the Greek-Roman period, the city still kept its role of the biggest and religious center of Egypt.
So, Luxor. We are in the City of the Living. The buses drove up to the biggest yard in front of the entry to the Karnak temple. Tourists exhausted by the far trip are going out of them, getting a little exercise and stretching. They are bunching up into small groups. Now, above all is a good guide!
The tour begins in front of the entry to the hall of columns with two rows of perfectly preserved statutes of rams. A ram was a symbol of ancient Egyptian God Ra (Amun Ra), in whose honor Luxor Temple was built.
The temple complex is huge.
Luxor Temple was built by many pharaohs, who attached columns or put obelisks – and here is the masterpiece. As the guide told, notably Ramses II and female pharaoh Hatshepsut had a hand in this event.
Such an interesting statue of Ramses II and his wife is located close to the entry; where the pharaoh is quadruple to his wife. The guide cracked a joke that probably Ramses loved short women.
Well, jokes aside, Ramses was a pharaoh and his wife, though beloved, but not the one, was just a women. That’s why he is illustrated as a giant and she just in full length. There is another one statue of the royal couple a little further. The name of Ramses’s II wife was Nefertari; many coevals consider her the most beautiful woman in the world and the pharaoh really loved her madly and even idolized her.

The statue of Ramses II and his wife Nefertari, Luxor Temple
A narrow corridor leads us inside the temple. All groups, all nations and languages mix in here. We enter the temple. Amazing columns. Huge, large-tonnage, colossal, they seem to stake the sky.
Why the sky? – You may ask. Because the temple has never been covered with the roof. It seems unusual for us, inhabitants of rainy and snowy latitudes, but this was a common practice for ancient Egypt. The guide is telling about the images on the columns, pharaohs take turns, gods, cartouches, falcons, scarabs…

The ancient hieroglyphics
Very interesting, but you can hardly remember such an information flow. Two hours slide passed. We walked among the passages, statues and huge and the guide announce a down time for 45 minutes. Well, let the real heat begin! We have to see everything, mostly off the beaten tourist tracks.

The ruins of Luxor Temple
We even found some partially-preserved Roman frescos! It looks like there was a Christian chapel on the territory of ancient Egyptian Luxor Temple.

The Christian’s fresco in Luxor Temple, Egypt
That’s all – our time is up! We take our seats in the bus and drive to the Nile. Here is the moment when I will see the great African river! My expectations were not met. I imagined the Nile a huge river. But it is far from it, the river is wide, of course, but it is not Volga or Rhine. )
We cross the river on small boats. Luxor stays on the right bank of the Nile, on the left we can see some mountains, but still it is kind of deserted. The guide waved his hand to the left bank: The City of the Dead, to Luxor – The City of the Living. Now the well-deserved lunch and we will move further.
Surprisingly, I would say ordinary, two giant statues shown up – these were the Colossi of Memnon, which are more that tree thousand years old.

The Colossi of Memnon, Luxor
The ruins of the ancient building are all around; inactive excavations are here and there. Practically nothing is well-preserved. Meanwhile we can see the mountains ahead. We drive up to the Death Valley.
Egypt Luxor in September – scorching heat up to 50 degrees. The sand seems to melt beneath your feet. We go the tombs. Here they take away the cameras and the mobile phones, so there are no pictures. We notice the security posts here and there in the rocks. The pillboxes, I would say. It seems like the piece of the City of the Dead should still be guarded from the raiders.
We examined three tombs. They are 10-30 meters in the deep with the side branches, low ceilings and the smell is unpleasantly sepulchral. There are some ancient Egyptian frescos on the walls; many of them are covered under the glass. We walked and watched, well, what can be said – if all those pictures managed to remain preserved through all these years without any reconstructions, it is amazing. And the real artifacts and priceless findings have been a long time ago taken from here to Cairo Archeological Museum, Luxor Museum and Mummification Museum.
Here is the last item of the program – The Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. It is located apart and a bit aside. We experienced an amazing day in Egypt Luxor. God willing and someday we will see the Pyramids of Giza…

The Temple of Queen Hatshepsut
More about Egypt:
Abandoned Villa of Sheraton Sharm El Sheikh
Our first trip to Egypt: Sofitel Sharm El Sheikh
September 10, 2012 at 9:53 am
Victor… I always love your photos! You do a wonderful job, I felt like I was really there! Egypt is on my bucket list… perhaps one day when the region is a little less volatile. Thanks so much for sharing!
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September 10, 2012 at 11:09 am
Thanks a lot. God demet this revolution! We have had a big plans for Egypt, but all was ruined! Now we are forced to fly to Maldives for warm sea and underwater photos, and this is much more expensive. 😦
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September 10, 2012 at 9:55 am
Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful photos. We so want to travel to Egypt; however, the political unrest makes us wary and we decide to stay away. Thank you again.
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September 10, 2012 at 11:14 am
Don’t worry. Some of my friends returned from Egypt say the things are not so bed in hotels on the coast.
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September 10, 2012 at 10:04 am
Outstanding post and pictures! I don’t know when or if I will ever get the chance to go there due to stability issues, but this is the next best thing. Wow!
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September 10, 2012 at 11:15 am
I hope you will do it in the nearest future. And thank you very much!
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September 10, 2012 at 10:14 am
It’s fantastic today, but imagine how magnificent it must have been when it was all relatively new. Very impressive.
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September 10, 2012 at 11:16 am
I hope some things in this world don’t change.
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September 10, 2012 at 11:50 am
great post here, love it!
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September 10, 2012 at 1:03 pm
Sadly we didn’t had the chance to go there last year, but I hope we can next year. Great post, stunning photos 🙂
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September 10, 2012 at 1:15 pm
Try, Frauke, people say it is safe now.
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September 10, 2012 at 1:18 pm
It was just too hot for us last year 😦 Luxor is safe, but I would not go and visit Kairos these days…
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September 10, 2012 at 1:25 pm
Oh yes, agreed about Cairo. But I am interesting in this city only in Cairo’s museum. My wife have been to there.
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September 10, 2012 at 3:11 pm
OMG!. this is number one on my bucket list…..since a child…Im afraid to go in 2012….call me crazy…..is it safe?
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September 10, 2012 at 10:31 pm
I think it is safe by now.
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September 10, 2012 at 7:52 pm
Wooooow That’s amazing 🙂
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September 11, 2012 at 6:41 am
I love Luxor! I love your photos and of course I love your blog!
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September 11, 2012 at 7:22 am
Very emotional. Thank you. And I don’ t mind if you’ll include it in your blogroll 🙂 🙂
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September 11, 2012 at 7:36 am
sure sure…
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September 11, 2012 at 7:32 pm
Thanks for the memories! That was one of our best trips. I was just saying to my husband today (the US emabassy has been attacked) how fortunate we were to go to Egypt several years ago. Hope we get a chance to go back.
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September 11, 2012 at 10:48 pm
Revolutions broke our plans. The same with Syria. We wait and hope.
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September 13, 2012 at 7:57 pm
Lovely photos. Makes me want to pack my bags and head to Egypt. Maybe one day… Thanks for the post, and for visiting my blog.
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September 14, 2012 at 10:28 am
Thank you too.
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September 19, 2012 at 2:17 am
Great post! You’ve reminded me just why Egypt is number 1 on my bucket list! Thanks for sharing 🙂
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September 21, 2012 at 1:06 am
That’s an incredible looking temple! You really captured it well with your photos – especially the diversity in your collection.
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September 21, 2012 at 1:22 pm
Thanks a lot, Samuel 🙂
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September 26, 2012 at 5:44 pm
These are the clearest, most amazing photos I have ever seen – you must have some fantastic camera!
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September 26, 2012 at 7:33 pm
Thank you Maria, but no – these are the simplest amateur cameras.
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October 11, 2012 at 3:19 am
hey Victor, great photos and great post. Brings back memories of my “week in Egypt”, a river-cruise on the Nile a few years ago, it is an amazing and extraordinary place. And I want to see the pyramids too!! Thanks for the memories.
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October 11, 2012 at 11:04 am
It is hard time for Egypt right now, but I believe in this country and hope to return.
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October 16, 2012 at 12:52 pm
Your photos are fantastic. This is a great post.
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October 16, 2012 at 1:00 pm
Thanks a lot to my wife 🙂
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November 12, 2012 at 8:29 pm
Wooow, you made me miss Egypt so much man
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December 29, 2012 at 11:53 am
Stunning photos.But those Roman frescoes you show are not christian at all.They clearly depict an adoration of imperial cult.Those figures are roman soldiers,one of them is holding a military standard also blue shield is visible and next to that soldiers(not shown here)are representations of four pagan co-emperors:Diocletianus,Maximianus,Galerius and Constantius I,father of Constantine the great,all depicted as Roman gods.
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December 29, 2012 at 12:10 pm
Thank you Pavel.
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