Where the Gods were at home

Up super early and was able to listen to the quiet of Cairo and the faint notes of the call to prayer, under a crescent moon. It felt really special.

Our 7:30 flight to Luxor left about 8:40 🤣

The real entertainment of the airport came courtesy of Kathy’s carry-on bag. Security paused, frowned at the screen, and called her over because some mysterious metal oval object was causing concern. We all leaned in, imagining what dramatic contraband she could possibly be smuggling.

Turns out… it was her lipstick.

There was a very brief, very awkward moment when we all wondered if the security officer thought it might be… well, something a little more personal than makeup. Once he realised it was just a perfectly innocent cosmetic item, everyone relaxed — and Kathy is now banned from bringing any cylindrical objects through security without declaring them first.🤣

The flight itself was short and over endless hills and wadis.

From the air, you can see the contrast that shapes Egypt: the desert stretching endlessly, and then suddenly the deep, life-giving green of the Nile valley. A ribbon of fertility between worlds.

Luxor

Luxor, once known as Thebes, capital of the ancient world. City of Pharaohs and Gods. The shift from Cairo was immediate – quieter, greener, slower, the air touched by the river and palm groves. You could literally smell the green!

Karnak – City of Temples

We went straight from the airport to Karnak Temple passing where they are working on restoring the Avenue of Sphinxes, a long ceremonial road that once connected Karnak to Luxor Temple.

It will be hundreds of sphinxes, lined up in eternal witness. Imagine festivals, processions, music, incense, offerings. The ancient world was not silent—it was full of sound. And colour! These ancient temples and statues were painted in often very garish colours.

It is difficult to describe without reaching for words like ‘colossal’ or ‘vast’ (or as the kids would say, ‘ginormous’) – but even those don’t quite hold it.

Karnak isn’t just a temple. It’s a complex of devotion layered over centuries, a conversation passed from one reign to the next (except for the part where Thutmoses III tried to wipe out his step-mum’s name and cover her Obelisk in revenge for staying Queen long after he came of age! Hatshepsut surely had some Cersai vibe going on 🤣).

Anyway, the scale of the complex is impossible to capture in photos. The Hypostyle Hall alone holds 134 massive columns, each carved and painted, rising like stone trees supporting the sky. Walking among them feels like entering a world where humans and gods once negotiated the shape of time.

The Hypostyle Hall was the moment where everything felt very still.
No matter how many photographs we’ve seen, stepping into that forest of stone columns – carved, shadowed, impossibly tall – made time slow. The sun traced patterns across the carvings, turning stone into gold for a few seconds at a time.

The air felt ancient there.
Not old – ancient.
There’s a difference.

It was so surreal to be surrounded by the shapes of hieroglyphics that have fascinated me for so long: the Ankh, the Eye of Horus, geese, falcons. bees… I stared in awe at these ancient drawings that are a really a sacred language.

SS Sphinx

Afterwards, we boarded the SS Sphinx, our river home. We were greeted by the Purser with a refreshing drink of lime juice. All it needed was a shot or two of tequila. We headed to our staterooms- yes I am using cruising language now and feel like Rose on the Titanic.
I unpacked just enough to settle…

…opened the curtains and there it was: THE NILE, wide (so wide!) and unhurried, moving with a confidence that comes from sustaining civilizations.

We are cruising to Denderra for our first port and back to Luxor again tomorrow.

Then it was lunch and WOW. I’d heard cruises were all about eating and now I can see why.

Then we had time to rest on the ship. Some read, most napped, and the excited ones, (like me!) simply watched the river drifting by like memory, waving and shouting ‘hello’ back to children on the shore.

Welcome champagne and Ala Carte Dinner on board topped off a wonderful day.

I dreamed of falling asleep to the soft sound of water brushing the hull but in reality it’s drowned out by the room aircon 🤣 Either way, I’ll be lulled to sleep 💤

Small moment I’ll keep: The sun (Amun Ra) setting on the West Bank and listening to the sound of the call to prayer moving through palm leaves and across Nile, to us.