Day 2 - luxor east bank

luxor, river nile cruise

karnak temples

luxor temple

We flew to Luxor, checked into our cruise ship on River Nile, and visited the Karnak temples and the Luxor temple. Will be on the cruise for the next few days heading to Aswan. Should be fun!

luxor, river nile cruise

Had to wake up at 4:30am for this flight, that was brutal. This is definitely the least amount of leg room I’ve seen on a plane.

The MS Mayfair cruise ship will be taking us down the River Nile.

We had to book two cabins since they don’t allow four people in one room. This is one of the two.

The sun deck looks nice with swimming pool, jacuzzi and lounge chairs.

After Cairo, we flew to Luxor to start our 4-day River Nile cruise from Luxor to Aswan.

karnak temples

Our tour guide throughout the cruise is very knowledgeable.

Obelisks are built to commemorate individuals or to honor the gods.

This body of water is used to purify people, similar to Christian baptism.

A fallen obelisk.

These columns are huge!

Weird-looking sphinx.

The Karnak Temples, a vast complex with 250 acres of temples, obelisks, columns, and statues. This temple of the sun god is the second most visited historical site after the pyramid.

luxor temple

The Luxor Temple.

This path lined with Sphinx used to lead to the Karnak Temples in ancient times. There’s a major project to restore this path.

All temple entrances symbolize the map of Egypt. Left wall symbolizes the left bank of the River Nile, right wall is the right bank, and the path in the middle is the River Nile, the source of life.

The left-foot-forward stance of the Pharaohs signify they’re powerful and ready for war.