Luxor

March 27 and 28, 2021

By Hector Gonzalez

April 5^th, 2021

We traveled to Luxor, site of the New Kingdom capital of Thebes, for a bit of sightseeing. I won't get into too much detail about what we saw, because frankly I don't know all that much and I would hate to spread misinformation, but I did manage to take tons of pictures so I'll put some of the best of them here.

Before getting into the cool stuff, though, let me point out that we stayed at the Winter Palace Hotel, pictured here, which is said to be where Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile and is where Howard Carter announced the discovery of King Tut. So that's pretty cool.

We did nothing as grand as that. Mostly we hung out by the pool.

The modern city of Luxor is quite pretty, straddling the Nile as it does. On one side is some faded elegance and a fun walkable town; on the other is the ancient necropolis, including the Valley of the Kings. Oh, and there's a McDonald's in front of the Temple of Luxor. How can you miss that?

Temple of Luxor

The temple sits right in the center of the city, immediately beside our hotel. It is illuminated at night, which is a perfect time to go.

The Necropolis

On the opposite side of the river is where the ancients buried their dead. Although it is literally directly in front of our hotel, the bridge to the west side is inconveniently located, and there are no obvious signs in English along the way. However, once you find the Colossi of Memnon, you know you are on the right path.

Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut

Our first destination was the funerary complex of the great queen Hatshepsut. I've seen this in pictures so many times; it's mind-boggling that I took these pictures myself.

The Ramesseum

Down closer to the valley, we paid quick visit to the Ramesseum, a temple with a poetically toppled statue in front (okay, I'm sure there's more to it than that, but if you want to learn about you'll have to read somewhere else).

Howard Carter's House and Tut's Tomb Replica

I only took one picture here, and it wasn't of Howard's house, though it was a pretty cute house. Interesting is that behind the house is a full-scale replica of Tutankhamun's tomb. The idea (I think) is that too many people visit the real one, and don't even know what they're looking at. At the replica, you can really get in there and explore. Plus the real tomb has a closed-off room, which is open at the replica. I don't know. I visited both. I took a bunch of pictures of one, and only one of the other. Go figure. I guess I'm not as responsible a tourist as I think myself.