DAY 2 - GIZA & LUXOR
Woke up real early to the Perfume Palace in Giza where essences are being made and sold. Essences are the essential ingredient in a perfume and Egyptians claim that they're the biggest exporters of essences in the world and they claim that they export them to France, which is the world's biggest perfume exporters.
However, only 3 essences were not exported out as they want it to remain in true Egyptian fashion.
One of them is called Secret of the Desert, which they claim to be the reason for their over-population, some sort like their egyptian Viagra (naughty thoughts) and Egypt currently has over 81 million citizen 0_o
ho yeah I bought that essence, and also another one called Lotus Flower. And they even taught me HOW to put it on, which is a SECRET...shhhhhh
=P
After we went all crazy at the perfume factory buying big biiiigggg bottles of essences
(which are 100% oil, no alco so they won't evaporate)
we boarded the plane to....LUXOR!
600+ km and 1 hour away where sugar cane is the main agriculture and considered as a state already
and once we touched down, we went straight to Karnaak Temple
oh before that, look at how they transport camels around there -_-"
ok so when we reached the temple entrance, we were greeted with the miniature build-up of the temple and I thought, "meh, ain't THAT big" since they said it was one of the largest temple ever built by man.
that was, until I reached the complex...
HOLYMOLYMAMAOHHLALA that was some HUGE build up.
beats pavillion ANYTIME! haha
And as usual they have scenes of battle on the walls and statues to protect the temple etc but the amazing part is that they have a number of small temples dedicated to all kinds of Ancient Gods inside the Karnaak Temple. This temple comprises of small ruined temples, chapels, pylons and other buildings and it took about thirty pharaohs to contribute to the buildings of the temple.
The most famous part of the temple is the Hypostyle Hall in the Precinct of Amun-Re, a hall area of 50,000 sq ft (5,000 m
2) with 134 massive columns arranged in 16 rows. 122 of these columns are 10 meters tall, and the other 12 are 21 meters tall with a diameter of over three meters. The architraves on top of these columns weigh an estimated 70 tons.
fact.
and they have remaining obelisks that are still standing strong until today.
It was getting dark, so we rushed to ANOTHER nearby temple...the LUXOR TEMPLE
This temple was focus of the annual Opet Festival, where the statue of God Amun was paraded down the Nile from nearby Karnak Temple to stay there for a while, with his Goddess Mut, in a celebration of fertility. So basically, it was their "Love House" 0_o
errrr kayyyy
that lady statue? that's Anck-Sun-Amun
not like the one you see on tv =P
and I was going finger trigger happy doing these kind of shots:
I like experimenting! =D
I guess everyone was so tired they brought us to the place where we were supposed to stay for the next few nights, which is the Nile River Cruise!
Dinner and Sleep on board.
ZZZZZZZzzzzzz
DAY 3 - LUXOR ...still
had breakfast on board and left to the west bank of the Nile River to the Valley of the Kings
The logic of separation of the banks were that the sun rises on the east side of the bank, and to the ancient Egyptians it represents birth or life, so that's where they put all their houses and temples. On the west bank, are all the tombs and pyramids, which represents death, where the sun sets.
However, no cameras were allowed as there were USD400 fine if you're caught taking photos. Dad, however, managed to steal some photos but it's nothing much so I'm just gonna explain more about the Valley.
Basically, Valley of the Kings is a HUGE rock valley that contains burial sites for the kings. The valley was chosen due to its bromidal (triangular) shape that resembles the pyramids so basically they were not buried in pyramids anymore.There were 62 tombs discovered until 2006, in which they discovered another one. All of them were found empty, except for King Tut-Ankh-Amun which was found by Howard Carter in 1922.
All of the treasures found are now kept in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo/Giza
Picture of the Valley, taken from
Wikipedia
and this is a map of the site of burial and mind you, they are all underground and inside the valley so this place is a famous archeological site and excavation works are still being done to look for more tombs.
With the ticket you have, you can enter THREE of any open tombs but you will need to buy an extra ticket to enter King Tut's tomb, which to my guide is not necessary as it's empty and all the drawings are majorly similar.
I went down to one of the tombs, after climbing about 15m up the stairs, I reached the entrance and I thought that was it but noooooo. I had to go 20 m underground -_-"
I gave up after ONE tomb. at least I saw one =P
Next, we took a 5 minute bus ride to a nearby temple, Queen Hatschepsut's temple or known as Deir El-Bahri
Queen Hatshepsut is one of the three women leaders in Ancient Egyptian history and was the longest. Oh, btw Cleopatra is NOT Egyptian, she was Greek. Women leaders were not accepted in the past so she gained power and trust by imitating a man and led them to victorious war and so on...talk about girl power heh?
If you want to read more about Queen Hatshepsut,
click here
I'm scared that if I write the whole story about how she got the throne, everyone will just cripple, foam in the mouth and die now hahaha
more photos:
and look what I found!
Jalapeno flavoured pringles....erk 0_o
And then, off to an
alabaster manufacturer!
alabaster is a kind of stone that they Egyptians use since the ancient times to keep stuff. They found Pharoahs buried with alabaster jars that contained their internal organs, and also perfume!
They still make alabaster the traditional way and those you see on the streets, are NOT real alabaster.
by the way, in Egypt, there will be people pestering you to buy souviniers all over. DON'T entertain them. at first, they will tell you its '1 Dollar'. When you're about to pay they'll ask for more. So it's USD1 to see -_-"
oh and my fave statue of all? is the statue of the God Amon-Men, God of fertility.
cracks me up EVERYTIME. comes in different sizes too!
LOL
Before we get back to the cruise, we dropped by for some photos at the
Colossi of Memnon which are the twin statues of the Pharoah Amenhotep III.
read more, click
here
then it was off to the cruise for lunch as the ship will sail at 1 in the afternoon.
pictures on the cruise that day:
and i managed to catch the beautiful sunset on the Nile River.
that night, we all stayed up til late, on the deck, freezing to death, just to catch the ship passing the lock to Edfu. Locks are used for ships to pass through dams where the water levels are different. that was some awesome shite!
and I fell asleep that night watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre -_-"
ok, guys part 3 coming soon - Edfu Temple, Kom Ombo Temple and the Galabia Party!
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If you missed out on other Egypt Diaries:
