Luxor, Aswan & Abu Simbel

From Cairo, we took the overnight train to Luxor. K and I shared one cabin and R and C the other. We had some problems with the Uber pickup – it didn’t show up for R and K so they almost missed the train! There was a lot of sprinting (with heavy backpacks) and stress – K was crying at the end and the various employees of the train station were trying to help her calm down. But in the end, we settled down into an overnight trip. There was no sleeping though – the train was very, very noisy!

The original idea was that we would spend 4-5 nights in Luxor and then head to either Aswan or Hurghada afterwards. However, on our last day in Cairo, we decided to take a Nile cruise. We decided to take one starting from Aswan as they are only 3 nights and therefore cheaper than the 4 night ones going from Luxor.

Most of the stuff we wanted to see in Luxor was already covered by the Nile cruise, so this meant that we had some days to just relax and enjoy our hotel without really doing much. We were staying in a great hotel on the Nile with an amazing view so we just relaxed and went to the pool every day. We also found a really good and cheap falafel stand a few blocks away that sold falafel sandwiches for only 8 EGP ($0.17 USD).

Pyramisa Hotel

On Saturday night, there were a bunch of weddings happening at the hotel. There were 6 brides that we counted. The brides were wearing similar dresses (although one had a full veil) with varying amounts of sparkles and the groom’s suits were nearly identical.

Karnak Sound & Light show

The sound and light show are Karnak temple was not included in the cruise price, so we decided to do this during our first few relaxing days in Luxor.

We booked a van to take us to Aswan and then the next day to Abu Simbel.

Abu Simbel

This was my third trip to Egypt, but I had never made it to Abu Simbel – it was always just too far away. But, we decided that it was a ‘must see’ on this trip, and it didn’t disappoint. What an amazing temple complex! It was worth the 3 hour each way car ride to see it.

There are actually 2 temples at the Abu Simble complex – one dedicated to Ramses the Great (Rameses II) and the other temple is dedicated to his wife Nefitari. The temples were used as propaganda and scare tactics to the Nubian empire. The temple is covered with images of various battles and Ramses conquering the Nubians (and others) and taking them as slaves. As Abu Simbel is just near the Sudanese border, it was well within the Nubian empire so served as a warning to the Nubians not to rebel.

The temple was moved from lower ground to this higher artificial mountain a few meters higher when they created the great dam at Aswan and needed to flood the area and create a large lake. The temples are just on the bank of the lake.

Aswan

One day we had a walk around Aswan. We walked along the Nile and visited the souq.

Wanas Kato

We stayed at a great little hotel called Wanas Kato. It was right on the lake with a view of the small dam and part of Philae temple. The sunsets were amazing and we spent a lot of time on our balconies and in the main lounge enjoying the view.

Finally, we border our Nile cruise.