After I unpacked, I put my swimsuit on to spend some time in the pool before I needed to get ready to visit Luxor Temple that evening. I had a couple of hours, so I figured I could easily spend one of those hours sitting with lovely, cool water up to my neck and a wide-brimmed sun hat on my head. I got to the pool deck to find that the pool was actually a hot tub. A very hot, hot tub.
Even at my short height, I would not have been able to sit in it for long as it was in the sun and the water would have only reached mid-chest. My upper chest, shoulders and back would have fried.
Nobody was in it. One brave man decided to test it out. He was in it for a very short time before he was back out and looking quite red. He said he felt like he was being par boiled. He looked it too.
I thought about sitting on the veranda of my stateroom. But we were docked and my side of the ship (port) was against the dock. Instead, I ventured up to the sun deck and sat for a while in the shade looking out at the Nile. Then I went back to my stateroom.
On the way back, I stopped by the front desk. There were a few people gathered around. The fellow behind the desk was saying he would soon know everybody’s names and titles. I said, “Titles?” He said, “Yes, titles.” I don’t know what got into me. Maybe it was the heat. I said, “You can call me ‘Your Majesty’.” Then I giggled. He and the others near the desk laughed. Thing is, he actually did call me ‘Your Majesty’ from then on. When he made my morning wakeup call (“Good morning, Your Majesty, this is your wakeup call”). Whenever he saw me anywhere on the ship (he even added a little bow to which I added a royal wave). It became a running gag that amused us both.
We set off for Luxor Temple at 5:30pm. This temple was smaller than Karnak. It was constructed around 1400 BC. Unlike Karnak, this temple wasn’t dedicated to a particular deity. It was instead used for the crowning of many of the pharaohs. Even Alexander the Great claimed to have been crowned at Luxor Temple.
Parts of the temple were built by Amenhotep III, Tutankhamun (a statue of him and his wife, Ankhesenamun, is shown in photo 013), and the ever-busy Ramesses II. The Romans used it as a fortress for Roman government in the area. Part of the temple was also used for a Roman cult and later turned into a church.
Luxor Temple was built in sandstone. Beginning in the Middle Ages, the population of Luxor (the city) had settled in and around the temple. Over the centuries, the accumulation of rubble buried about three quarters of it. After 1884, excavations began. One of the obelisks which used to flank its entrance had been removed and now stands at the Place de la Concorde in Paris. Most of the buildings that had been built within the temple area (such as homes, shops, etc.) were relocated. But one mosque remained.
Although Hanaa told us much more about the goddess Hathor the following afternoon in Dendera, she began telling us about Hathor and her children while at Luxor. Amun-Re had subdued Sekhmet by tricking her into drinking some beer that had been dyed red to make her think it was blood. She was transformed into Hathor. She was the goddess of love, beauty, music, motherhood, and the sky. She was also the goddess of joy as she represented love, dance, pleasure, and celebration.
Hathor was sometimes depicted as a cow, although her most common form was as a woman wearing a headdress of cow horns and a sun disk.
Hathor gave birth to four children, fathered by Amun-Re. They were: 1) Osiris, who was the god of the underworld, fertility, and resurrection; 2) Nephthys, who was the goddess of night, mourning, and the protection of the dead; 3) Seth, who was the god of chaos, deserts, storms, disorder, violence, and foreigners; 4) Isis, the goddess of magic, healing, motherhood, and the afterlife. Hanaa had various people portray these gods and goddesses. I was Isis and this was just the start of the story.
When we arrived back at the ship for dinner, I sat with my friend from Australia and a male couple with whom we were both also friends. My appetite is no longer as it once was (which is a good thing) and so I asked for half portions. We had a starter, a main course and a dessert. Wine was poured throughout.
That evening we had an onboard musician who played piano. I chose to go back to my stateroom instead. My Australian friend had booked the optional balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings, which began at 5am. Since I don’t like heights, especially heights from which I could possibly fall, I would be sleeping in until 7:30am.
The nautical term for the day was Buoyed-Up, which describes the action of using a buoy to raise the bight of an anchor cable to prevent it from chafing on a rough bottom.
Next – The Mysterious Dendera Temple
