Luxor

Luxor stems from the Arabian word for palaces for which the Arabian invaders mistook the plethora of Egyptian temples. The Greeks called it Thebes, but the proper ancient name was Waset.

All this and more we learned from our private tour guides at the Nile-side temples and Valley of the Kings.

In our first 24 hours in Luxor, we hired a car to visit the Temple of Luxor as well as the West Bank, a sprawling desert necropolis containing the Valley of Kings, Valley of Queens, and Valley of Nobles. These burial chambers were carved out well after the pyramids, and are much more descretely situated to thwart tomb robbers.

...In fact, when they opened Tutankhamon's tomb, they had to let the poisonous, stagnant air escape for a whole week before entering - and even after that, Howard Carter and fifty servants died of lungh problems. It sounds one step worse than a road trip with Trevor.

The tourist hassling here is pretty bad; you need to be parmed with patience, humor, and "la shu-kran" - which means "no, thank you" in Arabic.

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A man siting on a ledge hops down to and begins following you as you walk by...

"You want felucca ride?"
"La, shu-kran."
"Is good price. You want to know how much?"
"La, shu-kran."
"Twenty pounds Egyptian. Good price!"
"La, shu-kran."
(His arms flail, his voice with some anger...)
"Why?! Is good price!"
(You quicken your pace, he stops walking.)
"You lucky man - sex lady! Woof-woof!"

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Two-out-of-three times, the man will shout: How many camels for your wife?!?

So that's all good for a chuckle, but it's frustrating if you're amidst an intriguing conversation or romantinc Nile sunset stroll, since this occurs every five minutes as men offer taxis, carriage rides, cigarettes, and cold beverages.

Additionally, it's extremely hot here. We don't have the exact figures, but we know it's well over 100 F, and it's sometimes even hot enough to wilt our ambition and make us say "let's just go sit in the shade for a bit." We've each drained over three liters of bottled water per day, and we're still suffering from mild dehydration. It's almost as bad as a St. Louis Summer.

Our favorite Luxor sight is the Karnak Temple complex, the largest Egyptian religious monument, revised over 4000 years by the Egyptians, Macedonians, Greeks, and Coptic Christians (the latter was unfortunately quite destructive). Some of the temple ceiling is still supported by the forest of massive columns that dominated the temple interior, and portions of original paint still adorn the carvings and the blue-with-yellow-asterisk-stars ceiling.


One wall carving (at left) appears quite frequently on the temple's outer facade - the reigning king holding a dozen foreign prisoners by their long hair - with one hand, simultaneously - and beating them ferociously with a club. Oh, and the king is smiling, too. It must have served as an effective welcome mat to neighboring civilizations.

Having viewed all of our target sights we're going to walk the Luxor streets for the remainder of the day until tonight's "sleeper train" to Cairo, and tomorrow's flight to Athens, Greece.

Care to spend a few thousand on last-minute airfare and meet us there? We'd love to have you.

(This is where you say "La, Shu-kran.")