Luxor has the Valley of the Kings and Queens on it's West bank, The Luxor Temple, and Temple of Karnak on it's East. The Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens was alright, it was packed full of tourists. Luxor temple was nice. The Temple of Karnak blew my mind. My pictures don't do it justice, google the great hypostyle hall of Karnak. I rank it up there with Abu Simbel and the pyramids at Giza. I'm realizing that Egypt is the land of package tours. It's interesting to stay in a hotel in the city, (especially downtown Cairo) and see absolutely no Westerners, and then when you go to a monument or museum there's thousands of them. They all stay on these big Nile yachts that stop at a port, then they get off the yacht and onto a bus, the bus takes them to the Monument/Museum/Authentic Egyptian Resturant or Super Special Low Price Papyrus and Jewelrey Outlet, and then takes them back to the comfort and security of their ship. It's kinda sad. The Valley of the Kings was just ok, all the tombs were emptied, they're contents scattered across the Western World. They were sterile, with plexiglass covering the carvings so you couldn't touch the Heiroglyphs with no photos allowed. You stood in line and filed in and then out of each succesive tomb. I love to travel, but signing up for something that tells you where to go, what to look at, when and where to eat, and keeps you effectively seperated from the general populace does not count as tourism. Besides, I think I've played that game for long enough. It might scare the living shit out of me sometimes but I kind of enjoy walking down the street and not seeing another white face.
