Luxor and the Valley of the Kings

Temple of Habu

Colossi of Memnon

Temple of Karnak

Luxor Temple

Karnak Temple

Early yesterday morning we headed out from El Gouna to Luxor by car. The drive took 4 hours. We had a really great guide with us named Mohammed that told us so much information about Luxor and the people and all of the ruins and mummies that have been found. We started out at the Temple of Karnak which was just a huge temple built for the Kings. There were lots of columns filled with ancient hieroglyphics. From there we saw Luxor Temple with its two huge statues of Ramses the King in front. We continued on to the Colossi of Memnon and then ended the day at the Temple of Habu. They have so many stories written all over the temples, depicting different acts of war, how they mummified the bodies, etc. But the story I guarantee you that Collin and Olivia will remember is the one written in pictures that says the King of Egypt heard that some armies in Syria killed women and children, which was a cardinal sin in battle, so he sent 10,000 men to march to Syria and found those responsible and cut of their hands and thier penises. This was clearly shown by the piles of hands and penises carved in stone. I guess he got the job done!!

After the temples we checked into our hotel, let the kids swim and had a cocktail while we watched the boats sailing on the Nile River. Fantastic! Then we prepared ourselves for Luxor's shopping bazaar, and took a carriage ride to it...haggled for scarves and souveniers and then had a great dinner at an Egyptian restaurant looking down on the Bazaar. The power went out in the city during dinner so we had dinner by candlelit--a lot of fun!