Alexandria, Egypt: Day 3

We again were awoken at 4 AM, this time for our plane ride to Luxor. We took the 7:15 AM flight out of Cairo and most of us slept the hour it took to get there. Once we arrived, we immediately set out for the Valley of the Kings, an ancient burial ground created after the pyramids in response to tomb raiders. Instead of building pyramids which everyone could find, underground passageways and chambers were the burial method. The Valley of the Kings houses 64 tombs, including King Tut’s (which I did not enter because that $20 was not in my budget). The tombs were incredible! The colors of the drawings on the walls were still so vibrant that it is shocking to realize they are three thousand years old. We wandered two of the tombs, vastly mystified by the endurance of the blues, reds, and greens. One of the tombs was so far underground that stairs gave way to ramps, which cause us quite extreme exhaustion on our way back up. Luxor was incredibly hot; if Cairo was 95 degrees, then Luxor was generally 107. Valley of the Kings did become miserable after awhile, and Steph and I eventually took refuge in the shade under several fans while we waited for our group to assemble.

After the Valley of the Kings, we journeyed to the seemingly even hotter (is it possible?!) area that encompassed Queen Hatshepsut’s (a significant female pharaoh who considered herself both male and female) Temple. We spent only about a half hour there, wandering the vast temple, built into the side of a giant brown cliff. After Hatshepsut’s Temple, we made a quick stop to view the Colossi of Memnon, two giant statues next to each other. After spending three hours straight in the unbearable heat, I was content to take one picture and jump right back on the bus.

After the majority of our sights for the day had been seen, our buses headed to our hotel in Luxor for a buffet! lunch and free time (YES). The buffets at our Luxor hotel was far superior to those of the other places we had been, in particular the plantains they had for dinner later and the breakfast they served the next morning (mm chicken sausage). I did a little shopping and purchased some papyrus (apparently a must for Egypt) and then took a short nap before our 6 PM departure for the Luxor Temple, which was quite a sight. It was beautiful and intriguing, though the heat really did not add to the experience. When we returned to the hotel, we had dinner (I engulfed about 8 fried plantains…) and then I went with Steph and several others to enjoy a show in the hotel’s courtyard. We ordered shisha and watched women bellydance and men perform the dervish. These performers were absolutely superior to those we’d seen on the Nile riverboat, and when they came to insist that I dance with them, I did not refuse. Later on, they performed a large group dance in which at least ten of us (the audience was largely Semester at Sea) participated. It was quite fun, actually, and I felt it was a very nice way to end the day. Though some went on to a pub across the street, I was content to go to sleep, as it was midnight and we had, of course, a 6 AM wake up call.