The final stopping point for our Nile boat trip was Luxor – home of multiple ancient Egypt sights including the Valley of the Kings that Gina describes. The last day here we stayed in the city and saw the massive temple of Karnak and the temple of Luxor as well as the Luxor Museum. All three were super stops. We particularly liked the statues we saw with complete, beautiful faces. My favorite was the face of Thutmosis III.
Thutmosis looks at you directly, with a hint of confident smile, and intelligent eyes. That pharaoh was well-named, because the name of Egyptian god of wisdom and knowledge is Thot – the ibis-headed god who invented writing on papyrus and who records knowledge by writing it on the leaves of the Tree of Life. His name is recognized in English as well – it is the origin for the word “thought”. Thutmosis was the son of the first female pharaoh, Hatshepsut, and he was by all accounts a military genius. About twenty years after he became pharaoh however, he destroyed all of the images and obelisks of his mother – some say he wanted to eliminate the chance that another pharaoh’s wife would attempt to become pharaoh. The story echoed with one we learned about the Ottoman Empire, where they trace their Empire’s decline to the date when one of the wives in the harem was able to collect enough power to kill off the children of rival wives and to take control of the country while her son was young. After that the harem became so politicized that the court focused inward instead of looking to its borders. In any case, we missed his tomb at the Valley of the Kings and so that will be tops on the list for any future return to Luxor.
We left Egypt satisfied to have experienced the last of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Visitng both the Upper and Lower Kingdoms, we drank in the buildings, objects, beliefs and art of a 4,500 year old culture that was light years ahead of the rest of the world in its time. And we were fascinated by modern Egypt as well, from its noisome crowded Cairo streets to its sun-drenched cities along the Nile riverfront, where greenery turns to desert in a matter of meters. It is time now to move further East… to another set of ancient civilizations and new religions… to India.
