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The basic rule is, temples on the East bank, tombs on the West. So on the east bank in Luxor are the temples of Karnak and Luxor, with an avenue of sphinxes running between. We stayed in a good in-town hotel, the Emilio, and walked or took caliches everywhere there. As in Aswan, the east bank is lined with cruise ships. It's impossible to describe how out-of-place these ships appear, and how annoying it is to have the whole riverside occupied by them.
The town of Luxor is nice enough, although the people in the souk are probably more agressive and annoying and persistant than they are even in Khan-al-Khalili in Cairo or certainly in the rather laid-back souk in Aswan.
The guide gave us a two hour tour. I stayed for three more, renewing acquaintance with all those art-history slides come to life. And I still didn’t see all of it.
There are still 3-4 digs going on, as well as people working to preserve and rescue the columns and walls from salinization.
On the east bank, the Luxor temple still has one of its obelisks; the other is in the Place de la Concorde. Or maybe Rome.
The Avenue of Sphinxes runs between Karnak and the Luxor temples. Ramses II was here, too.
New Gourna (actually on West Bank)
New Gourna (actually on West Bank)
OLD Gourna (Sheikh abd el-Qurna) is the location of the Tombs of the Nobles, and its residents have a certain renown for being able to bring up suspiciously authentic Egyptian relics from their cellars.
NEW Gourna is about five miles downhill towards the Nile. Built by the Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy in the 1950's-60's, it was intended to lure the residents of Old Gourna away from their family homes and the continuing looting of the Nobles' tombs. It didn't work, though today descendents do live there. Perhaps part of the problem was that Fathy didn't allow for indoor plumbing, preferring to watch the straght-backed Egyptian women walk up from the Nile with their water jugs on their heads. Today there's a mosque, a theatre, and Fathy's home, as well as more modern buildings - WITH plumbing.
Our hotel, with comfortable rooms and a good buffet, had a floorshow. It hadn't really occurred to us that belly-dancers might be not-quite-young, or whirling dervishes not-quite-caught-up-in religious fervor, but there they were, and actually the show was quite entertaining!
And seeing the sun set over the West Bank of the Nile from the Corniche at Luxor is not to be forgotten.
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