The East bank

We went through the Esna Lock at 10.30am this morning. We watched the engine crew working at the front and edging forwards in the queue of traffic going through the lock. It took a good hour to start queuing and actually get through. The engine crew must be suffering! We think its hot just standing on deck but image if you were working inside with all that steam from the engines around you all the time. Its just unthinkable working conditions.
Here in Luxor you have the East and West banks. The East bank contains Luxor itself and all the temples, shops, hotels etc. The West bank is where all the farmers and alabaster shops are, as well as the Valley of the Kings, Queens and Hatsheput’s Temple.

So it’s the East bank today and we went to Karnak temple and Luxor temple this evening. Both were amazing but unfortunately I feel a bit ‘delicate’ – Egypt is notorious for causing diarrhoea, no matter how careful you are - so didn’t enjoy them as much as I normally would have.

Karnak temple had a sacred lake and scarab statue, and a walk seven times around the scarab anticlockwise brings you good luck. Hope it brings me good luck as being dehydrated through a stomach virus in a very hot country does not make a happy Clare!

Luxor temple was beautiful and has a Coptic church tucked away in the back but it wasn’t in the best of conditions. Most of the decorative paint had come away and the stone looked very worse for wear.