From the Philae Temple to the Edfu Temple, the revenge story of a god is complete~ The Egyptian mythology is that two gods, brother and sister, got married and had four children, and then these four married in pairs, killed each other, and resurrected each other... chaos...
There is a famous basalt statue of the Eagle God in the Edfu Temple, which is famous because of its expression, a standard revenge expression. In addition, there was a religious ceremony here in ancient times. A few days a year, the statue of the Eagle God's wife, the Bull God, would be carried here by boat from a temple in Luxor, so that the couple could reunite for a few days before being sent back.
When we returned to the ship, we took the same carriage we had taken. Since the driver took photos of Nalan Shiqi and Yunluo on the way there, he kept asking Nalan Shiqi and Yunluo to give him money when we returned. He kept asking them to give him money all the way. . . Nalan Shiqi and Yunluo refused to give him money, but he didn't bother them. It was said that someone in the same group just pulled the reins when they were riding in the carriage the day before, and the driver asked him for a tip. 5 Egyptian pounds was not enough, so he even gave him a box of cooling oil.
Today we only arranged to visit two temples, and the rest of the time was free to spend. In fact, it was quite comfortable to take a boat on the Nile. The river was very calm, and there was no shaking feeling when sailing on it. Sometimes I couldn't tell whether I was in the river or on the shore.
Lying on the deckchair on the top of the boat, you can bask in the sun, read a book or write something. The shadows of the sand dunes and oasis on the shore are reflected on the surrounding river surface. From time to time, a few birds fly by. The river breeze blows on your body, which is very comfortable - except that the sunburn is a bit severe in summer.
Around 5pm, the cruise ship will pass through a sluice gate, and there will be a 6-7 meter drop between the upstream and downstream. The principle is very simple, so I won't explain it. What's more interesting is that when you reach the sluice gate, vendors rowing small boats will immediately come to both sides of the cruise ship. They hold up their scarves and robes for you to see, and keep shouting "onedollar! onedollar" in Arabic. If a tourist likes one, they will throw it up for you to choose carefully, and will also throw a few more up. If you don't pick it, just throw it back. If you pick it, put the money in the unwanted things and throw it back. Sometimes there are times when they fail, such as when the vendor throws it onto the awning. Or when the tourist throws it into the water, they don't care.
Don't be lazy when you are in the Nile River. Sometimes you have to go to bed late and get up early. For example, the sunrise in the morning is around 4 or 5 o'clock in the summer. If you want to see it, you have to get up early. However, Nalan Shiqi and Yunluo didn't get up, and the sunset hardly fell.
It is difficult to access the Internet on a cruise ship, and transoceanic calls are a bit outrageous, 20 Egyptian pounds per minute. So if you need to contact your home country when traveling in Egypt, it is best to get an international phone service in your home country. For example, Nalan Shiqi and Yunluo were on the train for the first day and on the cruise ship for the next three days, and they were unable to contact their home for several consecutive days (in fact, the Internet access in all the hotels where Nalan Shiqi and Yunluo stayed with the tour group was relatively expensive).
We are leaving the cruise ship today. What is surprising is that Milad still arranged the Valley of the Kings for Nalan Shiqi and Yunluo, but it is a self-funded project. Although it is self-funded, Nalan Shiqi and Yunluo still decided to go. So today will be more difficult, because the adjustment of the cruise time before. The Temple of the Queen and the Stone Statue of Memnon on the west bank of the Nile River were postponed for one day, and the Valley of the Kings was temporarily added. So today we need to go to 3 temples and 1 Valley of the Kings, and we have to leave for the Red Sea before 3 pm. So Nalan Shiqi and Yunluo got up at 5 o'clock again.
Luxor was the capital of ancient Egypt for a long time. At that time, it was called Thebes, which means the city protected by gods. It is now called Luxor because the Arabs came here and saw countless temples and thought they were palaces. So they called it the city of the palace, which is Luxor.
After the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt ascended to the throne, they were keen on two things in terms of architecture - building temples and tombs. Therefore, as an ancient capital, Luxor is naturally full of temples and tombs. Milad said that 2/3 of the world's cultural relics are in Luxor, which may need to be verified, but it is certain that there are many cultural relics here.
There are more than 60 tombs in the Valley of the Kings, including those of pharaohs, princes, and priests. Milad's explanation was very interesting. He said in his Arabic Chinese: "The original pharaohs chose the pyramids as their burial sites, but this was easy to be discovered and robbed. So when it came to Thutmose I, he found this situation and said that this was not allowed, so he began to choose the Valley of the Kings as his burial site" - I don't know who taught him.
The temperature in the desert on the west bank of the Nile is really not to be underestimated. It was not so hot when I first arrived in the morning, but it was not long before it started to be exposed to the sun and the high temperature made me sweat dripping from my body. The ancient Egyptians believed that the sun rises from the east, so the east is where the living live and the west is where the dead live. Therefore, there are many cemeteries on the west bank of the Nile, and the pyramids are also in the west. There seem to be many reasons for choosing such a remote place, including: it is not easy to find, close to the mountains, the temperature is high, and it is dry and easy to preserve mummies.
One ticket here allows you to visit three tombs. It is not realistic to choose which ones to visit in advance, because some tombs will be closed in turn, and you may not know which ones will be open when you really come.
Nalan Shiqi and Yunluo visited three tombs of Ramses, namely the fourth, third and first in order. The reason why you must come to the Valley of the Kings is because of the murals. The murals in the Valley of the Kings are amazing. The paintings from thousands of years ago still have their colors, as if they were just painted not long ago. Everyone even thinks that they were repainted after the excavation. The tombs are all long passages leading to the sarcophagus. Looking from the outside in, the four walls are all covered with bright murals, which is amazing.
However, almost all the funerary objects in the Valley of the Kings are gone, only Tutankhamun's tomb was not robbed, but it was also moved to the Egyptian Museum. The pharaohs took great pains to leave a huge amount of wealth for their afterlife, but now there is nothing left.
You need to buy a separate ticket for Tutankhamun's tomb. It is said that it is not very meaningful. His tomb is not as good as other pharaohs. The reason for the separate fee is that he is more famous and there are mummies in it. In addition, there are some interesting and speechless phenomena in the Valley of the Kings, such as turning in the middle of the tomb, borrowing the tomb of ancestors, and even digging into other people's tombs.
After meeting up with everyone who didn’t participate in the Valley of the Kings project, we arrived at the Temple of Hatshepsut.
China and Egypt, two ancient civilizations, also have some similar coincidences, including the emergence of a female ruler. Hatshepsut should be the only true female pharaoh in ancient Egypt (Cleopatra was not Egyptian after all, and her period was no longer counted as the Pharaoh Dynasty; there was also a female pharaoh in the transitional period, but she did not rule the entire Egypt), but there are few records about her, because after her death, her temples, statues, and murals were destroyed by humans, perhaps in retaliation. Thutmose III was only 8 years old when he ascended the throne, so his mother Hatshepsut took over the government, and later simply became the pharaoh herself. After her death, Thutmose III became the pharaoh again. There seems to be no record of how she died, and no one can tell whether the destruction was a revenge for her son.
The Queen's Temple is very unique, with three floors in a stepped shape, and the third floor is inside the mountain. A long staircase in the middle of the temple leads directly to the shrine, which is very spectacular. At first glance, it feels a bit like the Forbidden City. The temple mainly records a story made up by the queen herself, that she is the daughter of the sun god and her mother, to show that she is qualified to be a pharaoh.
During these days in Egypt, I could hear the Arabic sound of "onedollar" all the time. Near almost every tourist spot, vendors would shout at you non-stop, or even rush up to you and pull you to show them their wares. There were even some children who shouted the same thing, holding some handicrafts that were not really that fine. It made me wonder, in such an environment, these children have been hawking here since they were young, and they might continue to do so for the rest of their lives.
After leaving the Queen's Temple, Nalanshiqi and Yunluo came to a village selling marble sculptures. To be honest, Nalanshiqi and Yunluo felt that modern Egyptian craftsmanship was not as good as it was back then. Of course, Nalanshiqi and Yunluo could not expect a stone sculpture worth tens or hundreds of dollars to be as fine as the statue of Nefertiti, but the statues Nalanshiqi and Yunluo saw here really felt a bit shoddy... Maybe Nalanshiqi and Yunluo's aesthetic taste was also limited.
It can only be used as a landmark passing by. The Colossi of Memnon were originally located in front of the temple built by Amenhotep III. Later, the temple collapsed, leaving only the severely weathered statues isolated here. Due to severe weathering, the statues make a sound similar to crying when the wind passes through. When the Romans came here and heard this, they whimsically associated it with their mythological hero Memnon, so they called it the Colossi of Memnon. However, the Egyptians later repaired the statue, and it has not made any sound since then. It seems that tickets for the West Bank attractions are sold here, so this is also a must-see place.
There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!
If you follow the itinerary of Nalan Shiqi and Yunluo, most people would probably be tired of the temples by now. People in the same group as Nalan Shiqi and Yunluo have already said that they don’t want to see the temples because they think they are mostly vague and repetitive myths, with similar buildings and reliefs. But in fact, if you do your homework when you come to Egypt, you should know that you are just going to see these, and if you have an understanding in advance, you will not feel that these temples are so repetitive when you see them. Temples from different periods are still somewhat different in style and artistic level.
Back to the point, the morning was mainly on the west bank of the Nile, and the afternoon was on the east bank to visit the temples. Karnak Temple, in fact, it might be more accurate to say that it should be called the Karnak Temple Complex, because it is not just one temple, nor was it completed in just one period. (To be continued...)