Sorry for the delayed Part II - my rescue pup is sickā¦š¤
The second morning we flew to Luxor - not horribly early - bags out by 6:00, breakfast at 6:00 - depart for Sphinx airport at 7:00. The Sphinx airport is relatively new and built to support the new GEM - it was smaller than the Cairo international airport and closer to Giza. Charter flight, but lots of security - three separate scannings and pat-downs - shoes off - females in one line, males in another.
Arrived in Luxor after a 1 1/2 hour flight (roughly) and embarked on the ship, which was gorgeous - huge rooms! Had lunch on board - and the food was pretty amazing - some of the best cruise food I've had. After lunch we went to the Valley of the Queens and visited the ruins of the Workers Village, where the people who made the tombs here and in the Valley of the Kings lived. We had a wonderful Egyptologist with us for all of our excursions who gave running commentary on history and answered any questions we had. On the way we stopped at the Colossi of Memnon, for basically a photo. The Workers Village was interesting and then we went into the tomb of Sennutem - it was smallish but beautifully painted. It was quite warm in Luxor - 95+ - and in the tomb it was stiflingā¦hot AND steamy from the people. You went down some steep stairs - looked and took pictures but then wanted to get out where there was a slight breeze - many of us were dripping wet. There was another tomb you could go into but it was steeper and hotter and I opted not to go into that one because we still had the Valley of the Kings later that same day and I was feeling the time change and heat and didn't want to wear myself out before the "Big" event. It was late afternoon by this point and we stopped at Hatshepsut's temple for another photo op. Then off to the Valley of the Kings!
We arrived at the Valley of the Kings after public hours and literally had the entire place to ourselves. Not even another tour group with privileged access. It was awe-inspiring to stand at dusk in the Valley with tombs all aroundā¦a little bit of atmospheric, Hall-o-ween type feelingsā¦I brought a small flashlight and was so glad I did - the tombs were all fairly well lit, but walking between the tombs outside after sunset was quite dark and you really needed a light. We went into King Tut's tomb first and then 2 of the Ramesses tombs (not 3 like some earlier tours did). They allowed pictures of everything - even King Tut's tomb and it was pretty amazing after having seen all of the Tut artifacts at the GEM the day before. The tombs were everything you have seen on line or on the National Geographic "Lost Treasures of Egypt" show. Just fantastic! But, when we all got inside they had a tendency towards hot and steamy - so you took your time, took pictures, but when you were done you really didn't want to linger. After this we went back to the ship, had dinner and again collapsed into bed. It was a long day.
We moored overnight in Luxor and the next morning we toured the Luxor Temple and Karnak Temple and they were amazing - the huge columns covered in hieroglyphs and the colossi statues - even if you've seen on TV or in National Geographic magazines you can't quite fathom the magnitude of the places until you are standing there. I'm a little bit of an Egypt nerd so I had researched the cartouches of the various pharaohs and had fun searching the walls and columns for them and taking picturesā¦the Avenue of the Sphinxes between the two was beautiful - some of the sphinxes still had very clear carving of the faces and horns and the little pharaohs under their chins. After this we went back to the ship and had lunch and sailed to Esna - delightful afternoon on the sun deck under an umbrella with a slight breeze watching Egypt as we floated by. We overnighted in Esna, but did not do any sight-seeing there.
I will pick up with Edfu in my next installment after I get back from the grocery store.
