Luxor and The Valley of the KingsLuxor, a city on the Nile River, stands at the site of the ancient pharaonic capital of Thebes. On Luxor's East Bank is the Egyptian township proper with the popular Temple of Luxor and the Temple of Karnak. On its West Bank are the harsh desert visages, the burial place of pharaohs, and the stark archaeological iconography of so many people's imagination. Karnak Temple... If the must-see of Luxor’s West Bank is the Valley of the Kings, then the must-see of the East Bank is without a doubt the Karnak Temple Complex. Now, I readily admit that I have a penchant for exaggeration in my descriptions. I pop on my travel-tinted lenses and suddenly everything’s a little ‘beautiful this’ and ‘amazing that’, but I think that even without such worldly biases this place is awe-inspiring. An immense religious site that first began life 4,000 years ago, Karnak is primarily dedicated to Amun-Re, the supreme patron deity of ancient Thebes (along with areas dedicated to his wife Mut, the divine mother goddess, and Mont, the falcon-headed god of war). To enter its Great Hypostyle Hall is to enter a forest of colossal stone columns. It is to truly become a human-ant surrounded by the workings of towering and ageless pagan gods. Immense. Colossal. Towering. How much further can I strain the thesaurus in search of fancy ways to say ‘very stupidly big’? I’m not certain, but they all apply to Karnak. To appreciate just how powerful this place is, one should reach Karnak as soon as it opens (i.e. before any tour groups arrive) in order to become fully consumed by its enormous pillars in the chilly, honey-yellow morning light. How much backbreaking labour went into this place! Consider the slavishly carved hieroglyphs, the heroically erected obelisks, the monstrous pylon gateways, the broad sacred lake, and the careful rows of sphinxes and headless god-kings. Can you feel the endless toil of craftsmen? The snap of ropes and the crush of wheels? The dust and sweat and the want of shade and water? Labour of labours for the king of kings. Located away from all the tourists milling inside the Great Hypostyle Hall is the smaller, but no less impressive, Temple of Khonsu. Here you can admire ancient colours that have endured layers upon layers of neglect. Here you can listen to the small birds that nest and flitter within a canopy of aching stone. Here you are finally alone. Let the sound of birds wash over you. Let it restore you like a sigh. This world can still be peaceful sometimes. Photos of Luxor Temple, day and night... This ancient complex sits on the Nile’s east bank, surrounded by busy shops, cafes, and restaurants. It’s been kicking around since 1400 BC and may or may not have served as the coronation site of new pharaohs. The temple was partially converted into a Christian church by the Romans, was occupied by Arab villagers in medieval times, and now has an active mosque in the middle of it. In other words, oodles of history. Many people opt to walk around it, peering in from the outside. But if you have the time and budget, I recommend purchasing a ticket to go inside — especially after dark, when the imposing columns and timeworn statues are lit up for dramatic effect. Cycling towards the Valley of the Kings on the West Bank of Luxor... Now it is time to venture across the Nile to Luxor's West Bank. A stark desert landscape. Barren limestone hills. The dry morning heat and a solitary bird of prey in the sky above. Like venturing across another planet. Exploring the West Bank with a janky, rented bicycle certainly isn’t the easiest way to do it! But for some reason, cycling around ancient ruins has just become a thing I do now. I did it at Angkor Wat, at Ayutthaya in Thailand, and I did it recently in Hampi. I guess it’s the joy of setting your own pace, of having to work for your tourist attractions, and of exploring a locale in an economical, old-school manner. No reason to stop now. The Tomb of the Nobles... Filed under photos-I-technically-shouldn’t-have. Turns out a small, ahem, tip to the guards can turn a ‘no photo’ area into a "my friend, take as many photos as you want" one. Baksheesh, baby! These are the 18th dynasty burial chambers of Sennofer, a royal gardener, and Rekhmire, a vizier of ancient Thebes, in a barely visited part of the West Bank known as the Tomb of the Nobles. Their decorations are sensational. Bright grape arbour ceilings. Scenes of craftsmen hard at work. Harvests, banquets, offerings. The colours pop like they were painted not that long ago. Unlike the sepulchres of the mighty pharaohs, which are mainly painted with religious themes, these tombs provide wonderful insights into everyday ancient Egyptian life. 10/10, would bribe again. The Temple of Hatshepsut... The Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut on the West Bank was built for a powerful New Kingdom pharaoh. What a panorama with those timeless cliffs and that vivid desert sky! It should be noted that the monument has undergone heavy restoration and reconstruction and there’s not a terrible amount to explore within. Still, you can’t beat that frontal view. It completely seizes the imagination the first time you see it. Hatshepsut, you may be interested to know, was a woman. She was (to the best of our knowledge) the second-ever female pharaoh and is considered one of Ancient Egypt’s most successful rulers. On more than one occasion during my temple visit, I overheard female travellers talking excitedly about the fact that Hatshepsut was a woman and about her enduring legacy. History is evocative. It says as much about our present hopes and wants as it does about our distant past. Ah, at last — the world-renowned Valley of the Kings... Or as the ancient locals used to call it back in the day: “The Great and Majestic Necropolis of the Millions of Years of the Pharaoh, Life, Strength, Health in The West of Thebes”. Catchy. Photographed in this section is KV2, the tourist-swamped resting place of Ramesses IV; KV6, the pleasantly uncrowded burial site of Ramesses IX; and KV8, the sparse and claustrophobically deep tomb of Merneptah. This was my katabasis, my descent into the underworld. There are over sixty chthonic tombs (only around a third of which belong to actual kings) from the 16th to 11th century BC spread throughout this area. Many of them are opulently coloured and meticulously decorated. A number of them plunge ridiculously deep into the bowels of the earth. Hieroglyphs as far as the eye can see. Hexes and spells. The Book of the Dead. Mythological scenes and deities galore. And don’t forget tomb robbers, King Tut, and the curse of the pharaohs. Death has inspired an unparalleled art form within these chambers. A brave and highly qualified archaeologist stands baffled before his discoveries in an ancient Egyptian tomb... Welcome to KV9, the Tomb of Rameses V and Rameses VI. It is marvellous. The tomb is spacious, sensationally preserved, and sublimely colourful — the sepulchral highlight of my trip to the Valley of the Kings. And it’s also weird. Really fucking weird. Some of the paintings on the walls are genuinely quite freaky looking, like something out of an unhinged fever dream. Elongated beings. Decapitated bodies. Serpentine and/or vermiform beasts. Man-animal hybrids. Wacky limbs and sinister grins. Maybe it was just the odd mood I was in, but this tomb seriously felt like a plunge down the rabbit (hieroglyph sign no. E34) hole. And finally, a nighttime visit to Luxor Museum... “Did I do the right thing, trying to escape into history? Did this ambition make any sense? After all, we encounter in historical accounts the very same things such as we thought we could flee in our time... we are never in the presence of unmediated history, but of history recounted, presented, history as it appeared to someone, as he or she believes it to have been. This has been the nature of the enterprise always, and the folly may be to believe one can resist it.” — Ryszard Kapuscinski
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Seven True Facts About Darwin Fact #1: Contrary to popular belief, the famous British naturalist Charles Darwin never visited the city. Instead, Darwin was founded in 1869 by his cousin, Gary Darwin, a beagle breeder who discovered the harbour after making a 2,100 nautical mile wrong turn at the Strait of Malacca. Fact #2: For a brief period, between 1990-1994, the Northern Territory legislature was suspended and replaced by a large boab tree (Adansonia gregorii), making the Territory the first-ever dendrocracy in recorded history. Fact #3: You may be familiar with Darwin's notorious 'The NT News' headlines (e.g. "Horny roo stalks NT women"). But did you know that no human actually writes them? The headlines are, in fact, the product of a malfunctioning mechanical haiku generator: "Basho Gone Troppo" as it's affectionately called by locals. Fact #4: If you squint really hard, you can see Indonesia on the horizon. Fact #5: When walking through the George Brown Darwin Botanic Gardens, you may notice signs warning you not to pick up chunks of asbestos on the ground. This is because asbestos is used as a nesting material by the rare and endangered Australian white ibis (Threskiornis molucca), which requires it for successful egg incubation. Fact #6: In July of 2017, in an innovative attempt to stimulate the slumping Darwin property market, the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory offered free Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) F/A-18 Hornets for first-time homebuyers. Fact #7: Common wifi passwords in Darwin hotels: box_jellies, buffal0, crocodil3, salt!water, kAkadu
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AuthorMing is an economist, traveller, and creative writer from Melbourne, Australia. He’s a nebulous collection of particles on the lookout for a good corner to sit with a book and a cup of coffee. Archives
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