Luxor temple is beautiful, there is no other way to describe it. Built primarily by Amenhotep III and finished by Rameses the Great, with a mid section by Tutankhamun and his successors, it was the spiritual home of Mut, the wife of Amun Ra. Because of the political situation in Egypt, tourists are quite thin on the ground, which is having a devastaing effect on the economy, especially the informal traders who rely heavily on US dollars and Euros.

What this meant for me was that Luxor Temple was deserted. I was able to walk around at my own pace without being moved on by eager snap-shot takers who haven’t a clue what they are looking at. Needless to say that without any tourists I was the main attraction for the guardians, all of whom were keen to show me something for a smalll tip – baksheesh. Repeated “Laa Shukrun” (No Thank You) finally got through and they gave up and invited me to have tea with them.

A perfect moment sitting in the stillness of a Luxor morning in the middle of antiquity, sipping Chai (Sweet Tea). With no-one around it was easy to wander around to the areas not usually visited by tourist, where I found some spectacular examples of stonework from Akhenatens temples. I found a small block with the hieroglyph for horizon on it and the last letters of Nefertiti’s name. Possibly a reference to Akhetaten or at least the full name of the Aten before it was shortened. (Akhetaten means the Horizon of the Aten and the full name of the Aten also held a reference to the horizon). Brilliant!

The peace couln’t last and late morning saw the arrival of various school parties, so I arranged with the guardians to let me back in through the exit and promptly left for downtown Luxor in search of a toothbrush and a razor. I must point out that all this communication has been done through a mixture of bad English and even worse Arabic. Trying to explain to a security guardian with a loaded gun in a language that he doesn’t understand is quite a daunting task, but it all worked.

Luxor traffic is as mad as Cairo traffic, only with more donkey carts thrown in the mix. A cacophany of car horns, mixed with smells of fresh spices and cooked foods from roadside vendors assails the senses. Add to that the insistant pleas to come and look in my shop – no hassle – where from? Welcome – welcome in Luxor. My thoughts are, that you have to let yourself go, and enjoy it, because if you resist it you will quickly come to hate it. Eventually I found the bits and pieces I needed to feel human again. I couldn’t find a hat and bought an Egyptian headscarf to protect me from the sun. I have been wandering around since Thursday morrning in the same clothes – where is my luggage?

Back to the temple, in through the back gate -no hassle. The tour groups had thinned out and I spent another couple of hours studying the wall reliefs of the Tutankhamun section. Then a 5k walk back to the optomistically named Karnak City. It is away from the town centre and is not touristy at all. There are real shops, none of which offer souveniers. The streets are dusty, with the odd stray dog. Children make their way home from school and the old men sit at the coffee shops playing board games and drinking Chai. Motorcycles weave in and out between the old cars and the donkey carts. I saw a motorbike with a man and six children on it. 2 in front of him and 4 behind with not a crash helmet in sight. It really is a different world. I am very aware that I am the only European, yet it is a pleasant journey home with many shouts of “walk like an Egyptian”- because of my new headgear. Shouts of “Welcome – welcome in Luxor” as well as offers of taxis, horse drawn carriages and a quick boat trip accompany me all the way.

My luggage finaly arrived late on Saturday which called for another mad dash to the airport. It is customary to drive at night in Egypt with no headlights on, which is somewhat alarming for the uninitiated. Most main roads are well provisioned with street-lighting, but it is still a nerve-wracking experience to say the least. None of this is really helped by the lack of regard for lanes. The handfull of road signs are all flashing LEDs, and I do like the traffic lights which have a countdown in seconds to when they are going to change.

Sunday, up at 06:00 to spend the day at Karnak. Karnak is the largest open-air temple complex in the world and was the centre of religion for most of the New Kingdom. It is the home of the all powerfull Amun Ra. Archaeology tells us that there was a temple there from at least the Middle Kingdom (4000 years ago) but most of the building work is more recent (3500 years ago).

As you arrive at the temple the first thing you see are the massive towers or pylons of which one is 49 metres high. You walk towards this through an avenue of ram headed sphixes and into a vast opencourtyard. Next is the famous Hypostyle hall as featured in the Bond movie “The Spy Who Loved Me” with its 134columns. The striking obelisks of Hatchepsut and Tuthmose III split the blue sky. I have been told that a recent study has concluded that it would be impossible to make Hatchepsut’s obelisk today, yet the great Queen says that it only took her 6 months.

I was in the company of an Egyptologist and we had arrived at 07:30 to find we had the place toourselves. Again no tourists. We spent a fascinating 4 hours discussing various theories as to what happened to whoand who mudered who, as well as some fairly heavy philosophical stuff on the religious and political aspects of theAten. We went in search of Akhenaten’s temple remains but we couldn’t find anything. I know it is there as I have seen the excavation photographs – some research for tonight as I will go back tomorrow to take photographs. A delightful 4hours and I got to see so much more than the last time I was here. The Egyptologist had to leave and I spent another 2.5 hours walking through the rows and rows of broken stonework looking for anything of interest. This may soundreally boring, but I needed to do it, and indeed there were some small pieces that were noteworthy. I left Karnak in search of sustenance and found a coffee shop that looked out across the Nile, where I spent another couple of hours watching the river. I could live here.
Another good day.