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.

Karnack Temple at night

Luxor Temple at night

Luxor Temple at Dusk

Colossi of Memnon - Massive statues!

Local Restaurant for lunch

Dave waiting for his camel dish - yum!

Passing a Mosque along the Nile

Nile river scenes

Nile river scenes

Nile river scenes

Nile river scenes

Nile river scenes

Vendors trying to sell their wares!

Nile river scenes

Karnack Temple

Avenue of the Sphinxes

Karnack Temple

The unfinished obelisk

Nile river scenes

Nile river scenes

The ladies wearing there newly purchased head scarves!

Temples and cruising the Nile

Our third and fourth days were  spent visiting numerous temples.  We flew down from Cairo to The Abu Simbel temple which is only 60 miles from the border of Sudan - smack dab in the middle of the desert.  There are really two temples - one built for  Ramses II and one for his wife - Queen Nevertari.  Both were hewn out of the rock cliffs - moved to higher ground block by block in the 60s to avoid rising flood waters caused by the construction of the Aswan Dam.  These structures are amazing to see.  No space is left untouched by ancient writing.  The two temples are surrounded by Lake Nasser, a man made lake created by the dam.  So beautiful.  We then flew up to Aswan, a town in middle Egypt.  There we boarded our cruise boat.  It is a smaller cruise boat but our rooms are very spacious.  We have not spent much time on the boat as every time we dock, we are off to see another temple.  The third day found us at the Philae Temple, which is dedicated to the Goddess Isis.  This was also rebuilt because of rising waters.  To think that these were ever built in the first place is amazing, but to think that they were rebuilt is incredible.  We traveled to an overlook on the Aswan Dam and learned how and why it was constructed. We ended our day by visiting the unfinished Obelisk.  The next day we visited the Temple of Kom Ombo which overlooks the Nile and the Temple of Edfu which we visited by taking a horse drawn carriage ride. The Kom Ombo Temple is unique because it worships two gods, Horus, known as the good doctor and Sobek, the crocodile god. The nearby sandy banks on this part of the Nile were a favorite resting place for crocs, until the construction of the dam.  Part of visiting this temple included a tour of a mummified crocodile museum. We saw it at night and it was very eerie to see! Crocodiles were an important part of Eqyptian  mythology. After visiting the Edfu temple, which is the most complete of al the temples,

we toured a botanical garden, which is located on an island in the middle of the Nile. Very cool! We are learning lots about Egypt history, Egyptian writing and symbolism, and today our guide will be telling us about the social and political life of today's people. We have seen much in the way of life here as we pass through the small towns.  We can tell we're definitely in the Middle East.  Woke up this morning to one of five daily calls for prayer.  They only complaint is the peddlers, who are like pesky flies trying to sell their wares.  They do not listen to the word "No, thank you!" We are currently enjoying a little down time as we cruise along the Nile to our next destination of Luxor.

Abu Simbel temple - built during Ramses II's reign Awesome!

Philae Temple (relocated to an island to avoid being flooded by Lake Nasser

Philae Temple walls with gods and kings

Massive columns

Very detailed carved scenes

Our boat used to reach the island

Abu Simbel - Queen Nevertari's Temple

A Cartouche (contains the King's name inside)

Cruising along the Nile

Cruising along the Nile

Botanical Gardens

Botanical Gardens

Edfu Temple - Awesome!

Crocodile god - Sobek

Horse and carriage ride

Botanical Gardens

Botanical Gardens

Felucca sail boat

On top of the Aswan Dam 

Egyptian Museum, Pyramids and the Sphinx

Hi everyone-

We are a bit behind on our blogging as we have been on the go and were w/o internet for awhile.

So, Sunday we toured the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square and the three major pyramids and Sphinx at Giza. Totally AWESOME! The museum was unbelievable - we were looking at items over 4,000 years old and they were in excellent condition! We saw the real items of King Tut including his death mask, which alone is worth a half million- pure gold! Lots of other very cool relics spread throughout the museum - it has over 120,000 items split up into three periods of Egyptian history. We barely made a dent in seeing everything. Then it was off to see the pyramids and the Sphinx - something Jan has dreamed of seeing since fifth grade.  They were unbelievable standing there so majestic on the sand. The scale is huge - note how small we are in comparison to the pyramid. Also note that no mortar was used. Each block was cut to fit perfectly next to and on top of each other. The main pyramid of Cheops stands 230m x230m square by 140m high. The only disappointment was the peddlers who were relentless in trying to have us buy their wares.  They reminded us of a bunch of flies that would not leave us alone.   Right around the corner from the pyramids, was the Sphinx.  Walking up to it we saw where they had excavated a carved bigger then life size statue of Ramses II.  On our return to Cairo, we stopped at a perfume factory. A presentation was made to us on how the oils are extracted from the flowers and how their essence is captured in a bottle. The perfumed oils are blended or kept as a single scent. A few of the scents included Lotus Flower, Desert of the Valley, Lily of the Valley, and mint, among many others. The oils are claimed to help with various aliments! The factory also had a wonderful display of uniquely designed perfume jars. All in all, the day was complete in that we felt we had finally arrived in Egypt seeing these things up front and personal.  Now on to bed.  Wake up call comes at 6:00 tomorrow morning.

Note the Coke machine - The Egyptians love their cola!

Here are some pictures-

Tahrir Square - all quiet!

Outside the Egyptian Museum

Pyramids at Giza

Sphinx

We let our fingers do the climbing!

Egyptians love Coke!

Climbed up on a few 250 ton rocks!

Whew, this is tiring!

Find the little people!

No mortar - finely cut and sculpted to fit perfectly

A taste of Egypt

A taste of Egypt

After landing following twelve and a half hours in the air, two hours on the bus, and five hours of hanging around O'Hare,  we ventured out to see Cairo.  We were astonished by the crazy traffic.   There are cars all over and no traffic signals.  It was not surprising to see five cars across in three lanes of traffic - mixed in were some motorcycles, bicyclists and pedestrians.   Cars honk to let other cars know that they are merging in.  We were so happy we did not have to try to drive there.

Finally we got to the restaurant where we tried out some authentic Egyptian food.  We had enough food to feed an army including lots of stuff we had never tasted before along with some that Jan had but Dave had never sampled.  It was really yummy - Mediterranean salad with up awesome vinaigrette, stuffed peppers, eggplant, sausages, phyllo dough stuffed with meat, and roasted dove with accompanying rice.  The restaurant was so beautiful and authentic, too.  Waiters were super friendly so overall, a great start to our trip to Egypt!
We stayed at the Fairmont Towers - very luxurious - we were treated "royally"

Our first Egyptian meal, Jani showing some jet lag!

Wonderful salads and spreads!

Digging in!

Grape leaves, sausages and lamb - delicious

One of our waiters

Seating for guests

Welcome sign at the Fairmont

Fresh flowers at the Fairmont - Gorgeous!

Dove, a delicacy!

Arrived safely!

Arrived at Cairo International Saturday evening around 6:00 pm. Our plane was delayed out of O'Hare and then they had to hold our flight out of Munich as we arrived late. The group was doing the OJ Simpson thing from one terminal to another. We even did a direct check in, in order to speed us up. Whew, glad we made it. The first leg was tough as we had a little baby right behind us and she did not care for the long flight! Jan also dealt with little feet kicking her seat back. But we did manage to get a bit of shut eye. The Egyptian Air leg was smooth and they offered very good service!

Cairo airport sign

More to follow.......

A new adventure!

Hi everyone-

It has been three years since we last posted to this blog. So, in two days we are ready for a new adventure and will be sharing our experiences. We hope you will follow along as we travel Egypt!

Hmmmmm, leaving cold and snow for 70 degrees doesn't sound too bad!

Look for our next post soon

D&J

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