Today was moving day. The group took an early morning charter flight to Luxor, 355 miles away in Upper Egypt. Cairo was in Lower Egypt. Our busses met us at the airport and took us to the Karnak Temple Complex.
The Karnak Temple Complex is quite large and was built from 1971 BC (Middle Kingdom) to 305 BC (Ptolemaic Kingdom). There are four major parts to the complex but only one is open to the public. Thirty pharaohs contributed to its construction, which accounts for its size, complexity, and diversity. One of the most impressive areas of the complex is the Great Hypostyle Hall which is comprised of 134 columns measuring 33-69 ft tall and 3 m in diameter.
Our busses then took us to our boat, the Viking Aton, for check-in and lunch. More on the Aton later.
After lunch, we had a try-to-catch up nap before going to the afternoon briefing explaining life on board, what was going to happen Thursday and the mandatory attendance at the safety drill.
Late afternoon, we visited the Temple of Luxor. Built around 1400 BC, it was particularly impressive with the accent lighting. The Temple of Luxor is connected to the Karnak Complex by a 1.5-mile-long Avenue of Sphinxes featuring approximately 600 human-headed sphinxes. One unusual feature on the temple grounds is an open-air museum with thousands of carved stone artifacts arranged chronologically over thousands of years.
The mountains on the west bank are illuminated at night.