Arriving in Luxor on a Friday was easy…light traffic. The Muslims take Friday and Saturday as their weekend, with Saturday as their prayer day instead of Sunday. Our hotel, The Hilton was located on the East Bank of the Nile with amazing sunsets.

We visited the Karnak Temple which was built over a period of 1300 years by many kings and covers 247 acres. The grand hall is very impressive with has 134 columns, some as tall as 75 ft…. And it covers an area larger than Notre Dame Cathedral. It was originally roofed. The Nile used to flood the bottom portion of temple until they built a damn to contain the Nile…so lots of the hieroglyphics have been destroyed on the bottom of the columns…but full color ones higher up are very well preserved. There’s a
Sacred Lake inside the complex and legend has it that walking around a stone near the lake will bring fortune…once good luck, twice for marriage, three times for children, etc til you get to 7 times around which brings money😉. I won’t mention how many times I walked it😜

The Rosetta Stone was found here in 1801 by the French and presented to Napoleon, but after the English defeated him, in 1802, it was moved to the British Museum in London where it remains today…and under great criticism from many world leaders that it should be returned to Egypt. There is one remaining standing obelisk…which is made of a single block of granite and represented eternity and immortality. Their long, tapering form functioned to connect the heavens and the earth. Their pinnacles were typically covered in gold reflecting the sunlight. This temple is where an Obelisk of Cleopatria was also found.
It now stands on the Thames Embankment in London. It was transported from Egypt to London in 1877. It is one of three similar Ancient Egyptian obelisks, with the other two re-erected in Paris and New York.

After the Temple visits, we toured a papyrus store where we learned about how the first paper was made. This was a repeat lesson for me, but still very impressive. In 2013, a discovery was made of papyrus papers that show in great detail exactly how the pyramids were built 4800 years ago…and dispelled the myth that the pyramids were built by slaves . Over 20,000 workers’ names and payroll journals document that they were paid partly in cash and partly in wheat, ducks, bread, etc.

Next day, we visited the West Bank …one of the largest collections of archaeological treasures in the world…..Valley of the Kings, the famous Hatshepsut’s Temple (the lady king who dressed like a man), and in the Valley of the Queens….the breathtaking tomb of Queen Nefertiti and the tomb of Amen Khopshef (the unborn king). We finished off the day with a visit to an alabaster factory where we found some beautiful vases and then a cotton factory full of handmade gowns and scarfs. Long, hot day, but very educational!

I learned Muslims believe….

✔️All statues show left foot forward representing the first step to eternal life…you always step forward with your left foot…unless you’re going to the bathroom, and you must step in with your right foot to leave evil spirits behind.

✔️Your heart represents your current life..upon death they would remove your heart and weigh it. If the heart is heavier than a feather, you were deemed a “bad” person.

✔️There are 1200 sphinxes leading from Karnak Temple to the Luxor temple guarding the “road of the Gods”… they named it Sphinx Avenue.

✔️The Frog is a sign of eternity and 100,000 years

✔️Mummy…generally take 40 days to prepare…kings 72 days…start by laying out the body on a raised hard slab with steps leading up to the platform. Then they took the brain out with a hook, and took out the major organs put in 4 jars (stomach, kidney, liver & lungs). After they wash the heart they put it back in… cover the body with honey and wrap in linens. They put a gold mask on the once face. Then they put the mummy in a coffin made of gold, then that coffin is put in another coffin made of cedarwood, and finally one of granite. The coffins are placed in the tomb with all the king’s most loved possessions. They started burying in hidden tombs in the mountainside because of grave robbers that were stealing from the above ground pyramids.

In summary, I wouldn’t recommend visiting Luxor in the summer as the temps are 115 F on any given day…but unfortunately, summer is the best time to see wildlife in Africa…so if you’re trying to combine the two destinations while in Africa…be sure to bring “breathable” clothing and LOTS of sunscreen.