Aswan and Luxor: Part 3

Sorry for the delay, classes started Monday so it's been a busy couple of days. Anyways, getting back to last week's trip:

Saturday May 10th: For the last event of the trip, we all visited Karnak Temple not far from the hotel in Luxor. This was definitely the biggest temple we visited. An absolutely amazing complex (I feel like I've been saying that a lot!), the temple was started in 2000BC and dedicated during the 30th dynasty to the Egyptian god Amen Ra. The temple was developed for over 15 centuries, all the way until the time when the Greeks inhabited Egypt. Thus, this temple is thought to be one of the last gasps of the survival of ancient Egypt. Amazing architecture and and heirophyphs all throughout the temple. It is so large that a water supply exists in towards the back of the area that was used by those who spent most of the time in the temple.

One interesting piece of information we learned is the common confusion between Upper and Lower Egypt. Most people think that these refer to the northern and southern parts of the country, respectively, but it is actually the opposite. Upper Egypt actually refers to the southern half of Egypt, as this is at a higher altitude that Lower Egypt to the north. This is why the Nile flows from the south to the north and into the Mediterranean Sea.

Later that night, some of us went to the Luxor Museum, which was right down the street from our hotel. I wasn't sure if I was going to go or not, but I am really glad I did. Although small, it was very well put together, containing some of the greatest artifacts I have ever seen in a museum. Amazing statues in excellent condition, dozens of artifacts found in many tombs, including military weapons, fabrics, beds, even a chariot used by one of the kings. There were also two mummies there, one of a king and another of a military general, which were incredible to see. Both were very short people, probably not any taller than five feet. It's amazing how much we've evolved even in the relatively short time of two or three thousand years (compared to the age of the earth). Thanks to Melinda, the museum was even better. I would have paid to get the kind of explanations that we got, on practically every item in the museum. She even wasn't allowed in some of the rooms since she is an archaeologist in the area...I'm not sure why that was, probably because they didn't know whether or not she was providing accurate information. Unfortunately we couldn't take any pictures, but you'll all just have to visit it for yourselves sometime!

After dinner we took the train to return to Cairo. No more vacation! Time to unfortunately get back to class.