Egypt - Luxor

Karnak Temple

Edfu Temple

Kom Ombo Temple

Kom Ombo Temple


Kom Ombo Temple

Kom Ombo Temple


Karnak Temple

This is how they occupied themselves at the temples

Fresh noodles

Sofra Restaurant

Huge cabbages

Street-side falafel place

Young boy on the felucca

Views of the Nile from the felucca

On our drive to Luxor, we visited two temples along the way, Edfu and Kom Ombo. Both temples were built by the Romans in ancient Egyptian style. Edfu temple, better preserved than Kom Ombo temple was dedicated to the god Horus, it was hidden under the sand for many years. Kom Ombo was more dilapidated, it seems many of the pillars and parts of the temples were used in kingdoms in the later years. One interesting section we saw at the Kom Ombu temple was a hospital, they had separate rooms for operations and mummification, the first stethoscope was discovered at that hospital. They have drawings of the medical tools they used and details of the procedures that were performed. Tourists are not allowed to stay in Edfu and Kom Ombu so there have very limited restaurants and no hotels. After looking around, our only option was a street-side falafel place in Edfu (4 falafel pita sandwiches for less than a $1).

We reached Luxor that evening and had Indian food at a restaurant near our hotel called "Taste of India". Although that restaurant was not listed in our guidebook, it must have been in some guidebook as most of the customers were foreigners. The food was pretty decent. Even though Luxor is not known for its restaurants, we had some of our best meals there. Sofra's, one of Lonely Planet's favourite picks, had delicious baba ghanoush, soup and vegetable stew. Oasis Cafe, another Lonely Planet recommendation, is more of a lunch place and I would recommend it as they have a non-smoking section. We had a full course meal at El Hussein our first night, decent food but there are probably better choices out there. We also had some great street food, delicious falafel sandwiches and kushari for lunch. We really enjoyed the food in Egypt more so than in Bali and Malaysia.

Luxor was our favourite city in Egypt although Aswan was a very close 2nd. It's a fairly small town so it's easy to walk from one place to another. Our hotel was right across the street from the Luxor temple so we passed the temple daily. Luxor has been beautified for tourists, they have a lovely boardwalk where you can can rent feluccas (sail boats), and caleches (horse drawn carriages) , they cleared the stores and homes in front of the Luxor temple to create a large open courtyard and the plan is to create a walkway to Karnak Temple with sphinx lined up along the street.

Our first day, we went to West Bank, to see the Valley of the Kings, and the Valley of the Queens. Even though many of the tombs were well hidden, most of them were looted, even all the mummies were found in one tomb and not where they were intended to be. We saw a few of the tombs and what was most impressive was how well preserved the carvings and the paint were on the walls. Since many of these tombs were buried in sand and not exposed to the sun and wind, they did not erode. After you have seen a few of them, the novelty wears off pretty quickly. We did however learn about Egypt's first female "king" Hatshepshot and her fascinating story.

On the second day, we covered the East Bank, mainly visiting the Karnak Temple and the Luxor Temple. Karnak temple had by far the most impressive pillars in Egypt and the pictures do not do justice at all. The temples in Luxor are dedicated to Amun-Ra, a local Luxor God. We had a wonderful guide who walked us through both temples and then later took us to a great falafel and kushari joint.

There are other sites to see on the West Bank but we decided to relax our third day. We visited the Luxor musuem which is worth a visit since many of the statues from the temples are on display at the museum. We also watched the sunset on the Nile on a felucca. The owner of the felucca hired a young boy to help him. I asked the boy if he went to school to which he answered yes but I have my doubts.

We spent a couple of hours at bookstores and purchased some wonderful books for the children. Rushil picked out a book on mummies, Sindhura a book on "100 Facts on Egypt" and myself a book about Hatshepshot. Prasad also bought me a couple of bestseller English novels written by Egyptian authors, "The Yacoubian Building" and "Khul Khaal, Five Egyptian Women Tell their Stories". On this trip, I read "The Alchemist", Khul Khaal and I finished the last book in the Twilight series on a Kindle (which was very easy to get used to) so it was a productive vacation.

Luxor is a lovely town and I would love to go back one day.