Egypt - January 29

Arrived at 5am, on time, to Luxor. Looked quiet. Took the bus to the hotel, beautiful on the East bank of the Nile. Left before 6am to our daily work. Danny was as energetic as any day, as if he didn't sleep only 2 hours on the train, and people followed. I apologize, but it was amazing! We crossed the Nile to the west side and started with the temple of Memnon. The only two structures already dug-out are the two enormous statutes of Memnon, son of Aurora.



From there, we went to queen Hatchepsut's (a female Pharaoh!) tomb. In general, we found that architecture here predated lots of ideas that we saw all over the world, but this was so modern, so elegant, so nature-respecting that it takes your breath away. Of course, then you find out there is much more to it. There is a grand staircase leading up to three stories, with 2 galleries each, all in perfect alignment with the base of the mountain. Each gallery describes different parts of her life in beautiful art, again in wall reliefs. Danny was extra thorough as usual, touring each and every gallery, telling us about her remarkable life, being the only woman-king, and how Thutmose III, her step brother, cousin, nephew,...(through a remarkable complex of inter-marriages) tried to completely erase her memory, physically, from history.(e.g. most of her engravings are "erased" by chisel).



Then to a well deserved lunch and rest, where a TV was showing the riots in Cairo, such a contrast to our experience here. From there to Ramose's grave. He was the prime minister of Achnaton (Thutmose IV) who is unique for formally establishing the first monotheistic religion documented - worshiping only the sun-god Aton. Thus the life-story of Ramose (grave-temples are built throughout a man's life) depicts classical scenes from the time, with all gods involved, and suddenly it switches to sole depictions of Aton and his sun disk and sun-ray beam. We could not take pictures there...

Final adventure - the bridge back to the East bank was closed by the police, so we took a small boat across the Nile. It is so beautiful and picturesque and calm on the water.





Back to the hotel for another switch in this schizophrenic trip. From the balcony of our hotel room, besides the Nile, we observe the local police preparing for the evening riots, complete with shields, tear-gas guns and water hoses. Our hotel borders the mayor's office so they cordoned off the street from both sides, and declared curfew at 6pm. We didn't see much action, but other group mates claimed to have seen one dead and one wounded on the street. We definitely heard gun shots late at night.



All this, the news from home, and our travel agent's fast action got us a reservation on tomorrow's flights Luxor-Cairo-Tel Aviv. With a heavy heart, we decided to separate from the group and return home. As all flights were for the evening, we decided to still join the group in the morning to Karnak temple.