Exploring Luxor

 Sunday, February 8, 2026

Exploring Luxor

First, a map for context:


We began in Cairo, in the north, and adjacent Giza.  We then flew to Luxor where we are now, and will take a boat from Luxor to Aswan.  We will fly roundtrip from Aswan to Abu Simbel in a single day; it's on Lake Nasser and close to the Sudan border.  At the end of the Egypt portion of the trip, we'll fly from Aswan to Cairo and connect there to Amman, Jordan.

So, we awoke this morning on the west bank of the Nile, with this view across the river from our Luxor hotel room: 

The balloons go up every morning before sunrise, and we have the opportunity to go tomorrow.  However, our big day begins early and it would require getting up at 4:00 AM, and it’s just too much. 

Luxor (Thebes) was the necropolis of the greatest Egyptian rulers.  There are two major city sites, the Karnak Temple complex and the Luxor temple, about 2 km. from each other.  They were connected by a sort of causeway lined all the way, on both sides, with sphinxes.  We began our day at the Karnak complex; here’s the causeway of sphinxes at this point, ending at the entrance:

The Karnak complex is enormous—the largest in Egypt, almost 250 acres.  It was constructed over a period of 2000 years as 30 pharaohs added to it.  Here is one of the many courtyards: 

The columns in the Great Hypostyle Hall (54,000 square feet) are truly massive—note the person in this photo under the 65-foot tall constructions: 

And the decoration on the columns is phenomenal, with many columns full of color: 

It took a long time to see it all, but after we did, we went to the Luxor Museum with a collection of items recovered from excavated tombs.  Here’s a tiny sample of things which I found most fascinating or beautiful.  A statue of Tuthmosis III: 

A frieze of Tuthmosis wearing the Atef crown.  The colors are as is—I didn’t enhance them at all: 

An alabaster statue of the god Sobek with Amenhotep III: 

A statue of a prisoner, thought by his dress and hair to be a native of Syria/Palestine: 

And an 11th dynasty model of a boat: 

We went back to our hotel for a late lunch and a break, and then went out to see the Luxor Temple at sunset.  It was gorgeous.  Here’s the other end of the sphinx causeway: 

A massive statue of Ramses II, who unified Upper and Lower Egypt:

On the side of that statue was this beautiful depiction of that unification; there’s lots in here with meaning, but basically there are two visions of the Nile God, Hapi, one from Upper Egypt with papyrus, and one from Lower Egypt, holding a lotus, and the two are intertwined with a knot.  It’s quite lovely:

We ended at the large courtyard which is lit beautifully: 

Tomorrow, tombs as we visit the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, the tomb of Queen Hatshepsut, and more.  It’s all quite overwhelming.

Comments

  1. Ralph P. LockeFebruary 11, 2026 at 2:06 AM

    Utterly astounding! I had no idea that so much grand architecture and statuary survived, and so well preserved! Yes, the carvings are, variously, grand, imposing, graceful--and even colorful! There's more color on some of these carvings than on the walls of the Alhambra or on nearly any marble statues from ancient Greece and Rome. Yet these Egyptian artifacts are immensely older! I gotta ask--why do the numerous balloons go up in the morning? As a visual display? To take tourists up in the air so they can look down at the sights? I noticed one family wearing red hats. Makes sense to me--to help keep track of each other in the sometimes vast spaces that one visits.... I suppose the largely dry air and lack of freezing temperatures has helped keep all these carved stones from wearing away and cracking across the millennia? Another world from what we know in lands with wildly varying climate (I say, after two weeks of freezing rain and whipping winds and snow that refuses to melt).

    ReplyDelete
  2. MarciaFebruary 11, 2026 at 7:07 AM

    I agree with Ralph - utterly astonishing! There is so much more here than I had imagined.

    ReplyDelete

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