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Luxor: home to loads and loads of ancient temples, and the finest modern Egyptian touts! Nice combination? Maybe not... Anyway, here are a few images of Karnak and Luxor temple at night. These structures really went in for large pillars and statues.
The Nile looks fantastic, almost making the rest of Cairo look good. But unfortunately when you get closer to the buildings on either side you see one of the key darwbacks to living on the edge of the desert - vast quantities of dust. And a nice flat region of land where strong winds can build up, good for blowing al that dust around.
Saying that, sunset is especially pretty. For some bizare reason teenage locals seem to spend evenings paying to go on neon-illuminated boats on the river, blaring modern-eastern music. Er, none of the groups we saw seemed to have much fun!
The View from the top of a luxurious hotel where you can lurk in a cocktail bar!
The pyramids of Giza are by far the most impressive of those around Cario - but there are loads more if you have the energy / time / taxi bartering skills to explore. They are huge - this is only really apparent when you stand at the bases though - from a distance they look almost unimpressive.
The great Sphinx: a mans head with a lions body. Well, you can't say the ancient Egyptians weren't imaginative...
Going inside one of the pyramids to see a buerial chamber is an interesting experiance. You have to crouch through 1m high tunnels for long descents and ascents. Don't try it if you've got claustrophobia! (the tombs of the Valley of the Kings have far more impressive burial chambers and are much more accesible).
Unfortunately we couldn't find time (or a ticket) to go to Africa on our trip around the world. A real shame, but we'll have to go again some other time.
To make up for it we decided to go to Egypt on holiday - to see the pyramids, temples tombs and Nile. We organised our own trip as usual (no tours or guides or anything like that), and arranged to stay for about 5 days in Cairo followed by a few days in Luxor. When I looked around for hotels on the internet I realised we could get brilliant 5 star ones for less than £50 a night, so why not? We'll be roughing it next year! What I didn't realise was that the hotel I'd found in Cairo offered suites only, each one approximately 5 times the size of my Cambridge flat (2 bedrooms, 1 study, 1 lounge/dinning room, 1 kitchen, and 4 bathrooms!!!!!). Oh, and the one in Luxor was very nice too...In Cairo we spent time wandering around town - much more than we originally intended. Cairo is impossible to navigate - I doubt it even has any totally accurate maps. You can drift from the relatively organised down-town areas and regions next to the Nile to chaotic backstreets where they keep goats and sheep in the streets in about 20m. Well, at least we learnt to navigate by sense of direction, the Nile, and the sun! Saying that, by wandering around and refusing the frequent calls of 'You want taxi? You know how much?' I think we saw a lot more of Cairo. But by the end of the holiday we calculated we had 'wandered' 101km!
Things to see in Cairo, well, the obvious but impressively old pyramids of Giza of course were the highlight. Unfortunately they are a good 15km out of town (beyond even our wanderings) and so we had to catch a taxi, bargain with the driver to get a reasonable fare (about 1/2 the original asking price), and then get rid of the tout who jumped into the car beside the driver half way there and tried to sell us 'official government camel rides' to enter the site. Everything is that much more difficult than it should be! But at least to reward our effort we saw the 3 great pyramids and the sphinx. All huge, and exuding oldness. Very difficult to describe - see pictures instead!We wandered around the site for a few hours - its a large site due to the scale of the pyramids, and also includes the neighbouring dessert which you can walk over for an impressive view (or be bussed over if your on a tour). If you look to the south when you're on the dunes above the pyramids you can see many more pyramids in the distance. We also went inside the 2nd pyramid to the burial chamber - interesting, but I couldn't recommend it to anyone with claustrophobia.We travelled to Luxor by sleeper train (just because it sounded fun - and was kind of, but a bit wobbly to sleep properly), and spent our time there wandering around temples like Karnak and the Valley of the Kings. The highlight of the trip was probably our walk back from the Valley of the Kings - its situated high in at the edge of the desert mountains that boarder the lush Nile valley. Walking up and over the mountain edge gives the strangest views I've ever seen, where the desert just stops to produce fertile farming land near the river, and then starts again! Weird. Also during this walk was probably the only time we weren't hassled by the ever present touts - this time for 'feluccas' (boats) or horse and carts - 'you know how much?'! Worse in Luxor than Cairo.All in all it was a fun trip, we certainly saw things I haven't before, but Egypt isn't the easiest place to travel independently without hassle. Saying that, I can't think of anything I'd hate more than being herded like sheep - as we saw most tourists were into buses and around sites. That would take the joy out of seeing some really remarkable sites. But I swear the next person who says to be 'You know how much? Very cheap today!' will get throttled!
In Luxor the strangeness of the Nile valley is much more obvious than in Cairo: Egypt is essentially a green strip of fertile land around the Nile, surrounded by vast, huge deserts. And if you wander to the edge of the desert, it just stops. Not gradually, but immediately. Weird. This image is taken from the mountain above the valley of the Kings (where the tombs of the New Kingdom Pharaohs lie) towards the Nile in the distance.
Continue along the same mountain top, and you can look down on one of the many temples in the Luxor area (Thebes). This one was built by a Pharaoh-ess with a completely unpronounceable name (Hapshepsheput I think).
Sunset over the Nile while on the local ferry. A much more relaxing way to travel than by the small motor boats and fellucas - although to get to the ferry port you do have to fight your way past 20+ touts trying to get you only their boat...
