Making Mummies

On our way out this morning, we decided to have a look at the hotel pool (it was dark when we arrived last night) to get us excited for a refreshing swim after a hot morning touring around. We went outside and saw a huge, algae green cesspool dug into the concrete. Talk about disappointment! We were so sad. And we were not going to suffer at the creepy Redrum Hotel if we couldn't use the pool (the whole reason we were here anyway). So, we grabbed a 2 Egyptian pound breakfast of felafel and looked around for another hotel. We found a reasonable place, went back to the other one, packed up our bags and moved.

Finally organised, we headed out to the Temples of Karnak, a huge complex of sanctuaries, temples and chambers. It's an immense site, and we spent a few hours wandering around getting stiff necks from constantly looking up. Nearly every inch of wall or column is covered in carvings and hieroglyphs, added to and modified by several different pharaohs over a period of 1500 years between 1570 BC and 1090 BC. The most impressive part is a huge hall, supposedly covering an area large enough to contain both St. Paul's Cathedral in London and St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. There are 134 huge columns towering over us as we walked among them. Each column is completely carved from top to bottom, and many of them still have paint on them. We sat there amazed at how everything is carved so precisely and so perfectly. We also sat there amazed at how clueless alot of the tourists are in foreign countries in what they wear.

Desperate for food, water and somewhere cool to relax (it was about 45C), we went to the only air-conditioned restaurant in Luxor that we can afford: McDonald's. And let me tell you, we were definitely not the only ones who realised it would be the best place to have lunch! Walking in, nearly everyone looked as if they'd just been through a war or something, haggard, sunburned and exhausted from the heat. We fully enjoyed our meal and once again have that newfound appreciation for the Golden Arches.

We spent some time on the internet and in our hotel room before going out in the evening (cooler, but still uncomfortable) and walking around the Luxor Temple. It's a fairly large complex built in 1390 BC, and now in the heart of Luxor surrounded by busy streets, souvenier shops and wandering touts. We walked through an avenue of sphinxes leading up to the temple, where most of the sphinx sculptures are still decently standing. This avenue once stretched all the way to the Temple of Karnak, 3km away. We wandered around the courtyards, hallways, temples and shrines, finally starting to recognize some of the carvings of gods, kings and hieroglyphs.

We then walked down the river to the Mummification Museum, a small (air-conditioned!) collection of all things having to do with the process of making mummies. There are paintings to show what they Egyptians did once a noble died and what they believed happened to the body. Also on display are some of the tools used in the process, another creepy mummy, some coptic jars (they contain the viscera of the body and were usually buried with him/her) and all sorts of interesting things. Grusomely enough, we really enjoyed it.

In need of some liquid amber, we found a place to have a few beers, then had dinner and returned to our hotel room and to bed.