This is the continuing story of our recent cruise on the Viking Pharaohs and Pyramids Nile Cruise last November. The introductory article can be found here, and I plan to write about each day of the cruise and the extension to Jordan in these separate articles.
After a busy day at the Giza Pyramids, we were awoken early the next morning around 3:00 AM to take the coach to the airport ready for the flight to Luxor.
Cairo Airport is large and seemingly full of security checks and other opportunities to spend time waiting for the next step in the process. The guides and Viking staff do a great job making sure everyone makes it through the stages, but it is worth taking a book to read as you do seem to spend a lot of time sitting in small waiting rooms gradually getting closer to the time when you take a coach out to the aircraft on the airfield. In this case, our plane was a Bombardier CRJ-900 and was reserved mainly for our group although there were a few other passengers going to Luxor as well.
The flight only takes about an hour and on landing and collecting our luggage, we were driven to our first tour of the day – the Karnak temple.
The Karnak Temple Complex
The Karnak Temple Complex is one of the largest and most significant religious sites in the world. Constructed over a span of 2,000 years, it served as the primary place of worship for the Theban Triad, particularly the god Amun-Ra. The complex features a vast array of temples, chapels, pylons, and obelisks, showcasing the architectural prowess of ancient Egyptian civilization. Notable structures include the Great Hypostyle Hall, with its 134 massive columns, and the Sacred Lake, although the latter wasn’t as impressive now as it probably was in the past.
As usual the tour to the temple is part guided and then part wandering at your own speed and our guide, Younis, was both knowledgeable and great at explaining exactly what we were seeing in this temple.
The Avenue of Sphinxes, also known as the King’s Festivities Road or Rams Road, is a remarkable 2.7-kilometer-long pathway that connects the Karnak Temple with the Luxor Temple in the ancient city of Thebes, now modern Luxor. This ancient road is flanked by hundreds of sphinx statues and ram-headed figures, creating a majestic and awe-inspiring sight. Originally constructed over 3,000 years ago, the avenue was used for ceremonial processions and religious festivals dedicated to the gods.
In the temple itself there are beautifully detailed columns holding up what would have been the roof of the temple in earlier years. The temple itself was not particularly crowded, and you can basically wonder between the columns and take in the views and just think about what it would have taken to build these massive structures.
After the tour we were taken back into Luxor to visit the museum complex and shown a short film in the basement about Luxor and the surrounding areas which was a good introduction to what we were going to see over the next day or two. And, of course, there are clean restrooms there as well!
We meet the MS Antares
With that it was time to finally meet the Antares itself docked alongside the Nile in Luxor. The Antares is a much older ship than all of the other boats that Viking uses on the Nile as it was built in 2007 and renovated in 2018. It has a truly magnificent interior with everything decorated in distinctive wood – reminiscent of the Agatha Christie story, Murder on the Nile! The rooms themselves are much larger than you’ll find on a traditional Viking cruise boat.
As this picture shows you get the bedroom and a sitting area, but also a dressing area including two wardrobes and a desk for writing your letters home and a bathroom with a step into bath rather than a separate shower.
Lunch was served on arrival and as is common on these types of boat everyone sits and eats at around the same time. The dress code is reasonably relaxed especially during the day and if you are late coming into dinner because you have only just got back from a trip it seems to be perfectly acceptable to have a quick wash and then turn up in the restaurant in your regular outdoor clothes. The Antares only holds 62 guests, and we were split into two groups for all of our tours and excursions, and you stay with the same group of thirty people or so for every excursion. This is great because you really get to know the people in your group as well as the guide who escorts you and stays with you on every excursion throughout the tour in Egypt.
The Temple of Luxor
After a rest in the afternoon, we were out again on a coach in the late afternoon to visit the Luxor Temple which is at the other end of the long path from Karnak.
The timing of this visit was to see most of the temple in the last light of the afternoon and then continue the visit after sunset when the temple is illuminated against the dark night sky.
The Temple of Luxor was constructed around 1400 BC and was dedicated to the rejuvenation of kingship. It played a significant role in the Opet Festival, where the statues of Amun, Mut, and Khonsu were paraded from Karnak to Luxor. Unlike other temples in Thebes, Luxor Temple was not dedicated to a specific deity but rather to the divine aspect of the pharaoh.
Over the centuries, various pharaohs, including Amenhotep III, Tutankhamun, and Ramesses II, contributed to its expansion and embellishment. During the Roman era, the temple complex served as a fortress and administrative center. From the Middle Ages, the population of Luxor had settled in and around the temple. Due to this, centuries of rubble had accumulated, to the point where there was an artificial hill some 50 feet in height. The Luxor Temple had begun to be excavated in 1884 but were sporadic until 1960. Over time, accumulated rubbish of the ages had buried three quarters of the temple which contained the courts and colonnades which formed the nucleus of the Arab half of the modern village. Not only was there rubbish, but there were also barracks, stores, houses, huts, pigeon towers, which needed to be removed in order to excavate the site and there still exists a working mosque within the temple which was never removed. This temple is dominated by two enormous marble sculptures of King Ramesses II which sit on thrones on either side of the entrance to the temple. [Courtesy of Wikipedia]
What amazes me about these statues is that they are carved in one piece in hard stone brought many miles up the Nile. And the detail of the anatomy is fantastic – you can see the sinews and muscles carved into the limbs of the king.
The columns of the temple are extremely well preserved with carvings covering every surface. It is certainly dramatic as the light levels fall and you start to see these objects lit by spotlights from below.
Alongside the front wall is also an Obelisk carved with symbols. The matching one to this is in Paris.
A fantastic end to the day seeing this temple at night and we returned to the boat to a well-deserved dinner that evening. And, as is not unusual for this cruise, an early start for the hot air balloon ride before dawn!
