Luxurious leisury life in Luxor

In Luxor we stay at hotel Venus. Here a friendship with the best host on the whole of Egypt quickly develops: Eid el-Wzan. Being responsible for the hotel's kitchen, within two days he knows our preferences and wishes and honours them. Besides being a great host, he has an enormous heart. Despite the low wages he earns, he spoils us with all kinds of nice things he pays for himself. Once in a while we return the favour by buying sweets at a bakery for him and his staff.
Eid informs us about the 'Egyptian' prices in Luxor: being a tourist most of the times people ask too much money for their products. When you're an Egyptian, you pay about ten eurocent for a delicious sandwich falafel; for thirty cent your stomach is completely stuffed. If you long for some variation, there is a meal of soup, rice, salad and chicken or pigeon for about one or two euro.
Being a traveller it's important to pay the exact amount of money. At our favourite falafel-stand we do so and the salesman readily accepts that we know and pay the Egyptian price. One day we're enjoying a sandwich, when four French tourists, accompanied by an Egyptian 'friend', order a sandwich as well. We observe that they have to pay four times the amount we do. A lot of salesmen try to do the same to us; then it is a question of having guts: lay down the exact amount of money and walk away.
The most outspoken situation we experienced in a juice-stand. Like usual we pay at the special cashier, this time we do not have the exact change. The cashier refuses to hand us our money, so Peter takes the right amount out of the drawer himself. As we walk away they yell at us: "He, you are Egyptians!"

For the first time during our journey we take part in a guided, organised tour while we're in Luxor. Our aim is the west bank of the Nile, where the extensive necropolis of Thebes is situated. In the Old Kingdom the pharaohs were buried in pyramids. This way of burying didn't protect the mummies against tomb-raiders, so the rulers of following dynasties decided to have their graves sunk into the barren hills of Thebes. On the huge plain between Nile and hills the pharaohs constructed immense burial-temples.
Under the somewhat military guidance of mister Moonshine, our company of two Czechs, two Asians, a Greek, an American and us two, we visit the Valley of the Kings. There we see the tombs of Rameses III, IV and IX (fourteenth to twelfth century BC). Walls and ceilings contain relief and paintings of war-scenes, the pharaohs and the gods, symbols and sacrificial-scenes. Again we're impressed by the amount of work once was carried out to honour the dead and appease the gods. Our guide, also Egyptologist, has an enormous knowledge, but speaks so fast that even the American man has trouble understanding him.

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The temple of Queen Hatshepsut, the only female pharaoh, is restored in its old splendour. The building is perfectly suitable for making detail-photographs, because everything is in the open air. Since the most special and beautiful tombs in the Valley of Queens are not open for visitors, we head for the Valley of Workers: Deir el-Madina. On this site the constructors, painters and sculptors of the big tombs and temples lived. Some of them, like Sennutem and Ankherha, were buried in their own tombs. These tombs are small, the paintings on walls and ceilings seem to be painted only yesterday, the colours are very bright and lively. Here also many daily life scenes and a lot of symbolism. It's nice to hear how the workers went on strike and held sit-ins when they didn't receive their monthly wages consisting of grain, meat, fish, onions and beer (in time). Unions are of all ages.
On our way back we admire the Colossus of Memnon: two enormous statues built by Amenhotep and the last remains of his temple. Just before our era both statues have been heavily damaged by an earthquake. The erosion caused by the huge difference in temperature didn't do them a lot of good either. As a result the wind made the statues 'sing', blowing through the cracks, for hundreds of years.
An inevitable visit to an alabaster-shop teaches us the difference between real alabaster, real granite and fake. Later on this knowledge comes in handy at a souvenir-stall. A pushy salesman swears that his statues are the real thing: granite and nothing else. Peter challenges him: if it is the real thing, the salesman won't mind throwing the statue on the ground; real granite will stay unharmed then. A fellow-salesman accidentally 'helps' him by dropping the black Anubis. The statue breaks, Peter has a laughing-fit. The owner isn't very happy about it and scolds his colleague.

In the centre of Luxor you find the Luxor-temple, built by Amenophis III during the eighteenth dynasty. Following pharaohs changed the construction and added to it, according to their wishes for immortality. The complex consists of colonnades, pylons, statues, different courtyards, chapels and sacrificial rooms. On virtually every wall there are relief-scenes that depict battles, hunting-scenes and the many gods and symbols. Originally there was a three kilometre road connecting the temples of Luxor and Karnak, with statues on either side: the Avenue of Sphinxes. After restoration a few hundred metres of the avenue are visible, which is quite impressive. How impressive must it have been in the original state!

The Karnak-temple probably is the biggest Egyptian monument, after the pyramids. Originally it existed of three temples: from Amun, Mut and Mont. Only the temple of Amun can be visited and that's quit enough, because this terrain already is as large as ten enormous cathedrals. We're in awe at the sight of the Hypostyle Hall. This is about 6.000 square meters big and is filled symmetrically with 134 enormous columns 23 metres high. All the columns and surrounding walls contain relief in the shape of cartouche, hieroglyphics, sacrificial scenes, battle scenes and scenes depicting every day life under the rule of the Rameses-family. Also conquered nations like the Hittites, Nubians and Libyans are depicted in hundreds of tiny relief. Some of the relief even still have the original colours. We feel very small in this huge hall.

In between visiting all those fascinating temples and tombs life isn't bad in Luxor. We enjoy our rest and eat and drink anything we like after having spent three weeks in the desert. Everywhere are stalls where people sell fresh fruit-juice. For the first time in our life we drink sugarcane-juice: it's like drinking fluid cane-sugar, but with a very fresh taste. The long stems are being put into a big square machine, that flattens them and presses all the juices out. Other delicious tastes are orange, guava, strawberry, lemon and combinations of them all.
In the restaurants we amuse ourselves with the menu-card and especially the English translations (not that our English is perfect). English turns out to be a difficult language: foot (food), chiken out shoping (take-away chicken), getables (vegetables), slad (salad) and meet (meat).