The mysterious world of the pharaohs in Luxor, Egypt
Luxor is the capital of ancient Egypt, and exploring it will let you understand, at least in part, the mysterious world of the pharaohs. Luxor means mighty temples and tombs, the world of the living and the world of the dead, centuries of oblivion and the slow-flowing, life-giving Nile.
Karnak Temple - the nilometer, obelisks and the scarab
Your first stop in Luxor will undoubtedly be Karnak Temple. Although for centuries the stone once used to build the temples was quarried and reused to build new houses, the temple has survived in remarkably good condition and makes a powerful impression. That is probably also because most of the complex lay buried under desert sand for about 1,000 years. From today's perspective, many of the figures describing the scale of the construction are hard to grasp. Each successive pharaoh, and there were 30 of them, wanted to add a new, precious architectural element to the complex, and this went on for some 2,000 years, during which at times as many as 80,000 workers were "on site". Today the whole archaeological area covers more than 120 hectares and is considered the largest ancient religious site on earth. What is hard to picture, and what stops us from fully travelling back in time, is the lack of colour. The temples were once covered in vivid paintings. Today we can only make out their faded remains here and there (look at the ceilings).
Watch on YouTubeWalking among the statues, looking at the hieroglyphs carved into the walls and raising our heads to see the pointed tips of the obelisks, we try to understand the world when the pharaohs ruled this land. Every year the Nile flooded, depositing fertile silt on the fields. The pharaohs wanted to collect taxes from their subjects fairly. At Karnak you will see a "nilometer", which measured how high the Nile had flooded in a given year. When the fields were optimally flooded, taxes were at their highest; when there was too little or too much water, the burden was reduced. Since the great dam was built, the Nile no longer floods, but it is still vital for Egyptians: more than 90% of the country's population lives in its delta. Looking at the tall obelisks, we may feel a sense of déjà vu. We have the impression we have seen an obelisk like this somewhere before. And no, it is not a heat-induced hallucination: there is an Egyptian obelisk right in the centre of Paris, on the Place de la Concorde. According to an anecdote, one of Egypt's presidents gave France two slender ancient stone monuments. France accepted one of them, repaying the generous donor with a Rolex watch.
Visitors to Karnak Temple look for the scarab statue. Slightly off the beaten track, by the sacred lake, it stands on a pedestal. According to beliefs passed on by word of mouth, walking around the stone beetle seven times will make your most secret wish come true. Remember: 7 times, anticlockwise and in complete silence.
The Great Hypostyle Hall and the secret of hieroglyphs
For many people the most impressive part of the temple complex is the forest of columns in one of its halls. 134 mighty columns stand side by side, forming the so-called Great Hypostyle Hall. Some of the columns are topped with closed stone papyrus buds, others are shaped like an open chalice. Many of them bear clearly visible texts carved in hieroglyphs. The ability to read hieroglyphs was lost for almost two thousand years. It was only in 1822, thanks to a breakthrough discovery, that it became possible to understand what the ancient Egyptians had written. The key to the mystery was a stone slab dug up 23 years earlier in the Nile Delta. On it, the same text was written in three languages. Two of them were understood by scholars of the day, and the third was written in hieroglyphs. Painstakingly, step by step, they managed to work out the rules of the language and the meaning of the individual signs.
The Valley of the Kings and Tutankhamun's tomb
In the time of the pharaohs, everything in the city on the right bank of the river belonged to the world of the living, while the left bank was the domain of the dead. To get to know this other fascinating world, I cross by boat to the opposite bank. That is where the famous Valley of the Kings lies, hiding 62 tombs of pharaohs and the most important members of their entourage. For a pharaoh, life after earthly death was just as important as life on earth. As soon as he became pharaoh, he would order preparations for his funeral, choose his resting place, and before long construction work would begin.
Watch on YouTubeAnd here it is worth mentioning the riddle of Tutankhamun's tomb. The intact tomb was discovered in 1922 by a British archaeologist. How did all the treasures gathered there survive the upheavals of history and escape the danger of looting? Two reasons are given. Firstly, Tutankhamun died very young (he was not yet 20) and his proper tomb was not yet ready. He was buried in a tomb prepared for one of the dignitaries, which misled robbers looking for the king's grave. Secondly, by coincidence, this tomb lies beneath another tomb. Nobody expected two different tombs to be so close to each other, especially when one of them held such a prominent person. Today the young pharaoh's tomb is empty and everything found in it has been moved to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Nevertheless, though stripped of its contents, it still captivates visitors, like the other tombs, with its stunning paintings depicting the journey to the afterlife, the grave goods and the retinue that would accompany the king after death.
The Temple of Hatshepsut and the Colossi of Memnon
Not far from the Valley of the Kings stands the Temple of Hatshepsut. Once mighty and monumental, it was later ravaged over the centuries. Taking revenge for the intrigues of the woman pharaoh, her successors tried to destroy her legacy, and further damage was done by Christians, who set up a monastery in its ruins. Today, thanks to the efforts of the Polish-Egyptian Archaeological Mission, it is regaining its original shape. Interestingly, as you approach the temple, you pass the archaeological mission's building on a hill. Some people reach for their cameras, because in size the so-called Polish Palace is not far behind Hatshepsut's creation. Looking around at the harsh, inhospitable desert landscape, we must remember that in the time of the pharaohs this area looked different. Back then, instead of desert, there was savannah teeming with animals. Elephants and gazelles quenched their thirst on the riverbank, and cheetahs and leopards roamed the plains.
We end an intense day with a brief stop at the Colossi of Memnon. These two huge, heavily eroded 18-metre statues give an idea of how vast the mortuary temple of one of the pharaohs must have been, since they stood at its entrance. Around the turn from BC to AD the area was struck by an earthquake, and from then on a mysterious acoustic phenomenon appeared. At every dawn one of the statues would make sounds resembling sad singing or wailing. This was linked to mysterious hidden powers slumbering in the stone figure. Today we know that the stone, stretched by the change in temperature between night and day, made these sounds. Since the damaged sections were repaired, the spell has been broken and the colossi stand in silence.
Luxor Temple, organised trips and Nile cruises
One day is definitely not enough to see all of Luxor's monuments. I didn't have time for Luxor Temple, and I really wanted to see the mosque built on the roof of the old temple... It sounds absurd, but once only the solid stone roof stuck out of the sand and rubble. The builders of the mosque, back in the 13th century, decided it was the perfect foundation for their new place of worship. Today, with the buried parts uncovered, we see a real curiosity: a temple on the roof of another temple. On top of that, it is definitely worth seeing the Mummification Museum and the Avenue of Sphinxes, visiting more of the royal tombs, gazing calmly at the slow-flowing Nile with a cup of coffee in hand, and in the evening watching the sound and light show at Karnak...
As it is quite difficult to get around Egypt independently, there are two ways to reach Luxor and discover its secrets. You can combine a trip to the ancient capital of Egypt with a beach holiday on the Red Sea coast. Organised excursions leave almost every day from resorts such as Hurghada or Marsa Alam. Whether you book such a trip with a local travel agency or through your tour operator's rep, you will be picked up from your hotel at dawn, follow an interesting programme and be dropped back at the gate of your resort in the evening. A more interesting way to discover Egypt's secrets, though still not very popular in Poland, is certainly a Nile cruise. Huge multi-deck ships sail between Aswan and Luxor, mooring at spots from which it is easy to reach the next archaeological sites. If I come back to see the rest of Egypt, I will do it by boat on the Nile.
Luxor is to Egyptians what Kraków is to Poles: a former capital and a treasure trove of historical knowledge, and its monuments will help you understand the mysterious world of the pharaohs. Luxor, divided by the mighty Nile, with its temples and tombs, is in every way worth a visit.
