November 01, 2022, Safaga, Egypt

Safaga is really just an industrial port city that moves commercial goods along the Red Sea. Cruise ships dock here as it is the closest gateway allowing passengers access to Luxor which is located on the banks of the River Nile, some 3 1/2 hours away. The ships usually dock at about 6 am with an all aboard time around 11pm. There are some black sand dune beaches close to Safaga with the best snorkelling sights in a more northern city of Hurghada. Some guests that have already visited Luxor and the Valley of the Kings went there instead for their day’s excursion. It is known that the sea water here to be of high saline and rich in minerals which are beneficial to the skin which makes this area popular as a curative destination along this Red Sea Riviera.

With my back still screaming at me for sitting for more than 8 hours on the bus we did visit Luxor and the Valley of the Kings. Famous at this entire site area is the Karnak Temple, Hatshepsut’s Temple, the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens. Karnak Temple is a vast complex consisting of three main temples, with several smaller enclosed temples as well as a number of outer temples. Karnak Temple has been compared to Angkor Wat in Cambodia but at half the size. Our visit today covered only a few of these amazing sites which date back to about 1539 BC to about 1075 BC. One could spend much more time here to cover all these sites. How much time depends on you, a day to a lifetime really.

So why the Valley of the Kings and or for that matter, Valley of the Queens? Well the kings of the New Kingdom (1539-1075BC), so after the Great Pyramids era, feared for the safety of their rich burials and adopted a new plan of concealing their tombs in a lonely valley in the Western Hills behind Dayr al-Bahri. There, in tombs sunk deep into the heart of the mountain, pharaohs were interred, as were several Queens, a few officials of high rank, and the numerous sons of Ramses II. The plan of these tombs varied considerably but consisted of essentially deep shafts to baffle robbers and by pillared chambers or vestibules. At the far end of the corridor is a burial chamber with a stone sarcophagus in which the Royal Mummy was laid and stone chambers around which furniture and equipment were stacked for the king’s use in the next world. 

Our tour was entitled, Luxor, Valley of the Kings and Temple and Light Show. From the tour outline it reads and I will add my comments along with this description.

It is an approximately 3 1/2 hour drive from Safaga to Luxor, Egypt’s vast necropolis and a magnificent realm of this country’s intriguing past. What is not in this description is the drive itself is pretty much uninteresting, well for the first 2 plus hours anyway. If I took one picture I could have taken a hundred and they would pretty much be all the same. Then I must mention the billion or so speed bumps (yes, an exaggeration but my back has that number to be about right, lol) and the, at least, 30 police checkpoints, towers with at the ready AK47s . The last hour an half is along a canal leading to the River Nile, this is interesting as you see a lot of daily life along the way. 

Our description continues. Your first visit will be to the Valley of the Kings, the city where 62 magnificent tombs have been discovered. Potentially hundreds of tombs were originally carved into the desert rocks, intricately painted with various mineral and stone dyes which have maintained their rich hues and are filled with treasures for use in the afterlife by the dynasties of Pharaohs. You will have a chance to visit two tombs at the Valley of the Kings. So here we are about 4 hours later and yes our guide, Mohammed, was excellent but after all this build up including a 15 minute chat in from of one of the tombs says, “okay, you have ten minutes in the tomb, shake a leg”. Ten minutes? Really? Yup, get in there. That said, the one we first visited had just been reopened to the public after an extensive restoration, just opened meant, November 1st, we were there on its first day of reopening, so that was pretty cool. Yes, we visited the two tombs with 10 minutes in each of them, and yes they were magnificent. Gobsmacking magnificent. To be able to actually enter these chambers and touch the walls of this history was beyond wow. Our guide did say that at some point that the public will not be able to visit these sites. They are currently working on replicating some of these tombs for a museum setting. They are finding that with all the people going through them is causing a slow erosion of the chambers. People brings humidity and moisture which gets in to the walls etc. So if this is an interest to you, better get over here, I believe this is still some time away but at some point will happen.

We continue. Stop for photos of the Temple of Hatshepsut, rising out of the desert in a series of brilliant white terraces. Hatshepsut was both a female and the (only female) Pharaoh. She often appeared and dressed like a man including the wearing of a false beard to counter the considerable bias against ruling females during that era (c. 1500 BC). Now this is where our guide, Mohammed, comes into play. Mohammed is a studied, Egyptologist and therefore very descriptive in bringing this era to life. So yes, perhaps at times he was a bit wordy in his commentary for some guests but with many wanting this lesson in history he was a great, animated guide. Our stop at this temple was brief but all on board were able to get their fill of pictures. 

Next was our photo stop at the Colossal of Memnon. These are two immense statues of Amenhotep III that guarded the entrance to Amenhotep’s great temple. These have stood here since 1350 BC, and were well known to ancient Greeks and Romans. The statues contain 107 Roman-era inscriptions in Greek and Latin. It was indeed amazing how well they are standing the test of time. 

From here we crossed the from the West Bank to the East Bank. Fun fact, these tombs of the Valley of the Kings and Queens are on the West Bank because that is where the sun sets, meaning the end of day and / or the end of life. The East Bank on the other hand is the dawn of the day or the beginning of life. Egyptians live on the East Bank and are laid to rest on the West Bank. I digress once again. We proceeded to the East Bank for our visit to the Luxor Temple. This temple is connected to the Karnak Temple via the avenue of Human Headed Sphinxes which is more than 1.5 miles or 2.5 kilometres in length. The Luxor temple itself is a fantastic site to see with its 3,400 year history but the story around the excavation of the avenue of Sphinxes is unbelievable. Decades ago there were apartments in this area, enough to house 5,000 people. So blocks and blocks of apartments built on top of this area. Once these underground avenue was discovered, they began excavating and had to make the decision to displace all these residents in order to reveal this ancient past some 10 to 15 below the current street level. Yes, the residents were taken care of and moved into new housing built for them.

After our visit to the Luxor Temple we were taken to a five star, St. George’s Hotel for a fantastic rooftop buffet and had a delicious dinner as the sun set over the River Nile.

Our itinerary then read, A stunning visual encounter awaits you now, as you return to the complex of the Temple of Karnak to witness the marvellous Sound and Light Show. Take  a fascinating walking tour through the history of the world’s second largest temple complex, largest is the fore mentioned, Angkor Wat complex in Cambodia. Our description reads the largest but we know better, lol. Here as you walk you see the ominous shadows and figures lit up against the columns all the while being guided by the voices of ancient pharaohs. For the first half hour you are guided through these enormous columns in the grand Hypostyle Hall on the way to the waiting amphitheater sitting in front of a large man made lake to enjoy another half hour of the various monuments being lit up with more narration. A great way to end our experience here in Luxor. Well, then it’s the almost four hours back to the ship through the many checkpoints and the billion (seems like) speed bumps.

We arrived back at the ship by about 11:30 pm with pretty much the same crew and officers at the gangway welcoming us back that were there in the morning, now that is impressive. Florin then says to that the Lido is still open for a nice snack after that long ride. Well, was not only the Lido open but all the stations on the one side, all well lit up as if it was lunch time. 

So, was this tour worth the time and numb bum experience? Absolutely. It was truly a sight to see, this is our world’s history after all. You can’t go anywhere to see this. It was a great taste that does have us thinking that a future trip to just here and Cairo may be on a future docket…

There will be a few parts to this post, how could there not be. Hope you enjoy our pics…

Quote of the day, “The impulse to travel is one of the symptoms of life.” - Agnes Repplier