day 4 Luxor

15 February day 4 LUXOR CITY Today it was a walk around the city and temple of Luxor. First was the museum of Luxor that drew our attention, sited on the banks of the Nile the museum holds many, many treasures from ancient Egypt including items taken from the tomb of Tutenkamen the golden head of Hathor is displayed in splendid isolation and looks stunning.

There are many statues of different types and sizes, different Kings and Queens all displayed very well indeed and we spent an hour and a half easily inside just spellbound. I should have expected some grease but not in the manner of a guard saying “psst, look at this statue very beautiful no? …. You want to take a photo? Photography is not allowed but…. I resisted the temptation.

MOSQUE of LUXOR we were privileged to be able to enter the Luxor temple Mosque, a mosque built right on top of the temple 800 years ago, the huge columns of the temple form part of the structure of the mosque. It is the only mosque in the whole of Egypt built onto an ancient temple.

PAPYRUS GALLERY – we spent a little time at a papyrus gallery saw a demonstration of making the stuff and yes we did buy some original art work, genuine and Egyptian.

DINNER- we had dinner on a roof top restaurant overlooking the temple and watched the sunset over the east bank of the Nile eating some delicious food watching the boats along the river.

LUXOR TEMPLE- after the sunset we walked around the magnificent floodlit temple. It was breath taking in scale and drama. The uplighting brought the reliefs all along the walls to life, the Pharoahs on their chariots doing battle with the enemies on the front of the temple was dramatic enough but walking down the avenue of the columns of the old temple was simply jaw dropping. The place was built to impress and it still holds that power 3500 years later.