Where there's smoke, there's hotpants...
Traveling by bus again, we arrived at the famous city of Luxor. Our first stop upon arrival was a visit to Karnak Temple. This is MASSIVE site that each ancient Pharaoh built upon during his (or her) reign. The site was continually expanded/added to/defaced/rebuilt for a span of 1300 years. It is the largest religious complex in the world. Our awesome guide, a local girl named Shaima, explained the long history of the temple, and how certain elements were defaced or destroyed by both political and natural forces. Like most of the ancient sites here, it was awe-inspiring to walk through these ruins and imagine them in their glory at the height of the Egyptian civilization. We also had a pretty funny moment when we were walking through the temple and spotted a European girl (French, I think) wandering around in just a tank top and hot-pant style underwear. Everywhere here, foreign women are strongly encouraged to cover knees and shoulders... and here is this girl with her entire ass hanging out. We were shocked, and then we turned around to see two local men sitting on the bench, staring and laughing. We started laughing with them and the one said, through near tears of a laughing fit, "I want to look away, but I just can't!!" hehe. The pic of us walking through the columns below was obviously another "documentary" attempt by Wai!
The following morning, we headed out to the famed site of the Valley of the Kings. Along the way, we stopped by the Colossi of Memnon... two giant statues that were excavated and repaired... just standing on the side of a village road!
We arrived at the Valley of the Kings and were thankful to discover that, yet again, our old Western student card worked for half price tickets! It has worked everywhere but Giza, and has saved us a small fortune... thank you Western for not putting an expiry date on it! After grave robbers plundered the pyramids, the later Pharaohs wanted to ensure their tombs weren't discovered, so they used a remote valley, that had a natural rock pyramid at the centre, to hide their tombs. We went into the Valley of the Kings and saw 3 tombs: Ramses III, Ramses VI, and Horemheb. Each tomb was vastly different, and really interesting. All of them were raided long ago by tomb robbers (often robbed by the artists that built the tombs when the Pharaohs refused to pay them for their work!) but the beautiful hieroglyphs, carvings, and paintings, are still very well preserved. Since the tombs are underground in a dry place, many of the vivid colours used on the wall over 4000 years ago still remain... crazy! Finally, we went to see the famous tomb of King Tut. He was not at all a famous Pharaoh, but is famous in modern times because his tomb was the only one in the entire Valley that was found intact. All of his burial items and his mummy were inside. We saw all of his treasures in the Egyptian museum, and now we got to look at his really small tomb and his mummy that was on display. An amazing experience. (unfortunately, we weren't permitted ot take photos...)
While we walked back, on our way to Hatshepsut's temple, we talked with Shaima about life for women in Egypt. She wore the traditional head scarf, and told us that it was forbidden for her to spend even one night outside the family home. When she went to university in Cairo, she had to live with her uncle. Now, as a very smart, funny, and well educated tour guide, she longs to see some of the other sites that are more than a days journey away, but she is not allowed. It was heartbreaking, but very interesting to hear about her life.
On the way back to Luxor, we visited the temple of Hatshepsut.... the only female Pharaoh to rule Egypt (Cleopatra did it too, but she was given the throne by the Romans). This was quite and impressive lady... some say the first feminist icon (even though she went to great lengths to dress as masculine as possible). She had her lover build this massive temple, which was later destroyed by her step-son when she died and he took power. (This is also where a massive terrorist attack that killed 58 tourists took place in 1997!)
The rest of our time in Luxor was spent at a casual pace. We walked through the market, and the super aggressive shopkeepers almost put me off shopping completely.. shocking, I know. That's how bad it is! To get around the city, we tried taking the "local taxi", which is actually a minivan that drives around with the door open and locals just hop in (price per person is 20 cents each, and I think we actually overpaid!). We jumped in one and all of the passengers (mostly female) looked shocked but also highly amused that white girls were in with them. As is universal with girls, one of them turned around and showed us a picture of her dressed up for a formal photos and one of her and her husband. We "oooh'd" and "ahh'd" at the photos, and the girls loved it! I think they were sad to see us get out of the van :) Arriving at our destination, we spent time walking around the Luxor temple, enjoying the views, and smoking some shisha at a local tea shop with our guide Ahmed (we had the apple flavour). We tried to take photos of us smoking it, but Ahmed was saying that we weren't getting enough smoke. Among my favourite 2 photos of perhaps our entire travels are the ones below. In the first one, Ahmed is getting smoke ready to blow for Marissa's photos, so that the effect would look like she blew out lots of smoke from the pipe. Below was the actual result. I still laugh every time I see these!
The following morning, we headed out to the famed site of the Valley of the Kings. Along the way, we stopped by the Colossi of Memnon... two giant statues that were excavated and repaired... just standing on the side of a village road!
We arrived at the Valley of the Kings and were thankful to discover that, yet again, our old Western student card worked for half price tickets! It has worked everywhere but Giza, and has saved us a small fortune... thank you Western for not putting an expiry date on it! After grave robbers plundered the pyramids, the later Pharaohs wanted to ensure their tombs weren't discovered, so they used a remote valley, that had a natural rock pyramid at the centre, to hide their tombs. We went into the Valley of the Kings and saw 3 tombs: Ramses III, Ramses VI, and Horemheb. Each tomb was vastly different, and really interesting. All of them were raided long ago by tomb robbers (often robbed by the artists that built the tombs when the Pharaohs refused to pay them for their work!) but the beautiful hieroglyphs, carvings, and paintings, are still very well preserved. Since the tombs are underground in a dry place, many of the vivid colours used on the wall over 4000 years ago still remain... crazy! Finally, we went to see the famous tomb of King Tut. He was not at all a famous Pharaoh, but is famous in modern times because his tomb was the only one in the entire Valley that was found intact. All of his burial items and his mummy were inside. We saw all of his treasures in the Egyptian museum, and now we got to look at his really small tomb and his mummy that was on display. An amazing experience. (unfortunately, we weren't permitted ot take photos...)
While we walked back, on our way to Hatshepsut's temple, we talked with Shaima about life for women in Egypt. She wore the traditional head scarf, and told us that it was forbidden for her to spend even one night outside the family home. When she went to university in Cairo, she had to live with her uncle. Now, as a very smart, funny, and well educated tour guide, she longs to see some of the other sites that are more than a days journey away, but she is not allowed. It was heartbreaking, but very interesting to hear about her life.
On the way back to Luxor, we visited the temple of Hatshepsut.... the only female Pharaoh to rule Egypt (Cleopatra did it too, but she was given the throne by the Romans). This was quite and impressive lady... some say the first feminist icon (even though she went to great lengths to dress as masculine as possible). She had her lover build this massive temple, which was later destroyed by her step-son when she died and he took power. (This is also where a massive terrorist attack that killed 58 tourists took place in 1997!)
The rest of our time in Luxor was spent at a casual pace. We walked through the market, and the super aggressive shopkeepers almost put me off shopping completely.. shocking, I know. That's how bad it is! To get around the city, we tried taking the "local taxi", which is actually a minivan that drives around with the door open and locals just hop in (price per person is 20 cents each, and I think we actually overpaid!). We jumped in one and all of the passengers (mostly female) looked shocked but also highly amused that white girls were in with them. As is universal with girls, one of them turned around and showed us a picture of her dressed up for a formal photos and one of her and her husband. We "oooh'd" and "ahh'd" at the photos, and the girls loved it! I think they were sad to see us get out of the van :) Arriving at our destination, we spent time walking around the Luxor temple, enjoying the views, and smoking some shisha at a local tea shop with our guide Ahmed (we had the apple flavour). We tried to take photos of us smoking it, but Ahmed was saying that we weren't getting enough smoke. Among my favourite 2 photos of perhaps our entire travels are the ones below. In the first one, Ahmed is getting smoke ready to blow for Marissa's photos, so that the effect would look like she blew out lots of smoke from the pipe. Below was the actual result. I still laugh every time I see these!
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