Braby Expeditions: Temples, Cruising and Valley of the Kings

Temple at Luxor

Making of Alabaster stone pottery

Valley of the Queens

Awesome!

The next Queen!

Colors are still vivid!

We cruised the Nile for the better part of the day- what a treat to see the local life and wonderful scenery along the banks of this great river. Jani B caught some nice sun rays. Last night we went to a sight and sound event at Karnack Temple - it was Awesome! We also toured Luxor Temple in the city of Luxor. More "awesomeness". The Avenue of the Sphinxes is 2 miles long. The Obelisk is over 70' tall! The temple is massive and is located in the heart of the city. We were lucky enough to see this temple at twilight which created wonderful effects. As night fell, the effect looked like one from Disney, but this was the real thing! It is amazing- these temples continue to get larger. We cannot believe it!

The weather has been lovely with highs in the seventies. It is chilly in the mornings which have been early. Our wake up call is usually around 5:45 AM which makes for a long day. Our guides, who are very accommodating, want to show us all they can in the twelve days we are here, so they keep adding more and more to our itinerary.

Today we had an early start as we had to disembark from the ship and headed out to the west side of the Nile to see the Valley of the Kings and Queens and a visit to see the statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep, known as the Colossi of Memnon. These sites are totally unbelievable! The size alone defies one's imagination! We could not take any pictures in the Valley of the Kings, but have some in the Valley of the Queens. Then we re-visited the Karnack Temple to see it during the day. This is the largest temple and most sacred temple sprawling over 200 acres!! Lunch was fabulous. Dave had Camel, which tasted like his mom's pot roast and Jan enjoyed wonderful homemade hummus. She also purchased a number of spices that are super fresh. After lunch we visited the "unfinished obelisk" It is still laying in the quarry where it was carved but never finished due to several major cracks that had developed. Lastly we visited an Alabaster factory to learn how it is made - all the rock comes from the area - very cool!
We then had a 3+ hour bus ride to Hurghada, a city on the Red Sea. Tomorrow is the Safari and Red Sea excursions.