Weeks Six and Seven - Egypt

Day 35, Friday, January 7th.  We toured all day with our guide Mona.  Today was the day of the pyramids – Memphis, Saqqara, the step pyramid, the pyramids at Giza and the Sphinx.  Everything was simply spectacular and amazing – 4500 years old.  The sad thing is that with all the grandeur and achievements of ancient Egypt, the country is bathed in absolute poverty. Tears came to my eyes as we drove by the poor villages leading to ancient Memphis. The children and the animals were bone thin.  The photos don’t really show the extreme poverty.  We had lunch overlooking the Giza pyramids.  One of the highlights was a camel ride to the pyramids lead by a very delightful boy who took some great photos of us.  We had an exciting camel race - Izzy rode Charlie Brown and I was on Michael Jackson.  Izzy and Charlie won by a nose.  You can see how much fun we had by the photos below. In the evening, we went on a dinner cruise down the Nile complete with a belly dancer and whirling dancers.

Love at the Pyramids

My dad in Egypt in 1992

Whirling Dancers

More love at the pyramids

The Sphinx

Day 36, Saturday, January 8th.  Mona took us to the Egyptian Museum in the morning.  This museum has some of the best treasures of the ancient world, but all the objects are jammed into every nook and cranny. It is a very hectic place crowded with thousands of people and screaming guides.  It is impossible to look at anything without being pushed around. In spite of this, we were impressed.  The royal mummies and the mask of King Tut were the highlights for us.  Egypt is building a much-needed new museum to replace this one which was built in 1897 however, the completion date has not yet been announced. We spent a half a day here, but you could easily spend 2 full days.  In the afternoon, we toured the Citadel and Alabaster Mosque which availed a beautiful panoramic view of Cairo. After battling the horrific Cairo traffic, we visited the Grand Bazaar where we were bombarded by vendors. In the evening, we went to the Sound and Light Show at the Sphinx and Pyramids.  The lighting and narrative gave a magical prospective to these ancient monuments.

Alabaster Mosque

Driver in Cairo

Day 37, Sunday, January 9th.  We had a 4 am wake up call for our early morning flight to Luxor.  The one-hour flight covered 250 miles.  In Luxor, we checked into the Winter Palace our home for only 1 night.  We were upgraded to a lovely suite overlooking the Nile. This hotel is an icon visited by European aristocracy in the early 1900’s.  It is the former winter palace for the King Faruk, the last king of Egypt, and has marvelous gardens.  The furnishings are impeccable as you can see from our photos. It reminded us of the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego. Our first stop in Luxor was the Luxor Museum.  This museum holds a few treasures beautifully displayed.  It was such a relaxing experience compared to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (photos were not allowed). We then took a long walk to the Karnak Temple complex and got a little lost on the back streets. This amazing complex covers 60 acres and was built over 1000’s of years by various Pharaohs.  However temples and statues built by Ramses II dominate.  There are no words that can do justice to this maze of temples. Back at the Winter Palace as we enjoyed a gin and tonic in the English bar we wondered how many European archeologists from the early part the 1900’s had done the same. We returned to Karnak at night to view the dramatic Sound and Light Show.  This show was different than the one in Cairo because the show progressed as you walk through the complex.  The last part of the show took place on the Sacred Lake where you could look over the Nile to the Valley of the Kings where Pharaohs were buried in their tombs.

Local girls on the street

Karnak

 Bar at the Winter Palace in Luxor

 Gin and Tonic at Winter Palace

Day 38, Monday, January 10th.  After a wonderful brunch at The Winter Palace, we took an hour long horse-drawn carriage ride through the city.  The highlight was the hustle of the local market and the little children waving at us.  At noon, we went to the Nile Goddess, the ship that took us on a four-day adventure down the Nile.  Following lunch on board the ship, we took a guided tour of the Karnak and Luxor Temples.  Our guide for the next four days is Hanny.  He is a great guide with passion for his country and its treasures.  We had visited Karnak on our own on Tuesday just to admire its beauty, but today it was interesting to learn its history.  We arrived at the much smaller Luxor Temple at sunset when the lights were just coming on the structures.  The lighting gave a mystical feeling to the temple. This site had many uses through the centuries. The temple was taken over by Alexander the Great in about 300BC.  He had himself shown as an Egyptian god on the temple walls. The temple was used by ancient Christians.  A mosque, which is still used, was built over parts of the temple about a thousand years ago.  Before dinner onboard the ship, we saw belly dancing and another whirling dervish dancer.

Karnak

Karnak

Karnak at night

Day 39, Tuesday, January 11th.  We had a 5:30 wake- up call to make an early tour of the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens and Queen Hatshepsut’s tomb.  We visited a total of six underground tombs.  To reach each tomb, you follow a shaft down to the burial chambers which held the sarcophagus.  The walls and ceilings are decorated with colorful hieroglyphics and pictures.  The colors are still vibrant after more than 3000 years.  No photos were allowed in any of the tombs.  Since this is the height of the tourist season, all the sites were very crowded. There are about 60 tombs, but you need to choose only 3 tombs in the Valley of the Kings to visit with your ticket.   I visited the tomb of King Tut when I was here 32 years ago, but our guide discouraged us from visiting today because it is not as impressive as the other tombs.  After visiting the tombs that he recommended, I agreed.  We were both very impressed today with what the ancient Egyptians built here.  In the afternoon, our ship sailed along the Nile past sleepy villages and lush green farmlands. We saw children playing and sometimes yelling “money, money” as we sailed by.  We heard donkeys braying and mosques announcing the call to prayer.  We set on the top deck and enjoyed a gin and tonic with Jan, our table mate from Melbourne.  In the evening, we attended the Captain’s cocktail party before dinner.  The food on this cruise is excellent with lots to choose from.  We were told to be careful about eating any raw fruits or vegetables, but we haven’t always followed that advice – we are hoping not to suffer the “curse of the pharaohs”.

 Queen Hatshepsut’s tomb

Queen Hatshepsut’s tomb

Sunset on the Nile

 Holy of Holies

Day 40, Wednesday, January 12th.  Happy Birthday to Izzy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. I got up early to enjoy a spectacular sunrise over the Nile. I was the only one on the top deck to welcome the new day. In the morning, we went to Edfu which is the most well-preserved temple in Upper Egypt.  It was built by the Greek pharaohs around 300 BC.  Following lunch, we cruised to Kom Omo, which is another beautiful temple built by the Greek pharaohs.  We were lucky to see this temple in the evening with soft lighting.  It is the only temple where they have found an intact Egyptian calendar.  It is dedicated to two gods – a good god and a bad god – the bad god is the crocodile god.  Before the Aswan Dam was built, there were many crocodiles along the banks of this part of the Nile.   In the evening, everyone dressed in their finest Egyptian attire (which, of course, was available for sale in the gift shop).  It was a fun evening and you can see how authentic we both looked.  The waiters sang a special Egyptian birthday song for Izzy and presented him with his own birthday cake.  He looked especially handsome in his Arab headgear.

Note baby being born - woman is sitting on birthing chair.

Jo, Birthday Boy and Jan

Etti and Jack

Joe, Jack, Gerry,Sandy, Jo, Jean, Jan and Izzy

Shadows of our group on the Unfinished Obelisk

Lake Nasser from the Aswan High Dan

Temple of Love

Temple of Love

Day 41, Thursday, January 13th.  We arrived in Aswan early in the morning.  The first stop on the morning tour was to the unfinished obelisk which is still lying in the granite quarry where the ancient Egyptians got most of their granite.  It cracked before completion so they just left it there.  It would have been the largest one in ancient Egypt.  Next, we went to the original Aswan Dam and the Aswan High Dam.  The High Dam was built at the height of the Cold War by the Russians to buy their friendship.  It is the second largest dam in the world after the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangzi River in China (which we visited in 2009).  Our next stop was the Temple of Love on Philae Island.  The remarked thing about this temple is that it was completely submerged by Lake Nasser when the dam was built.  Forty years later, a team of British archaeologists disassembled the temple block by block and reassembled it on a new island.  The main damage caused by the 40 years under water was the loss of color on the structures.  There is a lot of graffiti on the walls from the ancient Greeks, Romans and Christians and even from tourists in the early 19th century. In the afternoon, we sailed on the Nile in a felucca – a boat with a very large sail that has been used by the Egyptians for thousands of years.  Little children came up beside our boat and offered to sing.  When one started singing, Izzy gave him a dollar to go away. In the late afternoon we took a small boat to a Nubian village on the West bank of the Nile.  The highlight was going into an elementary school room and learning to count in Nubian and Arabic.  Each of us was taught to write our names on the white board in Arabic. We said farewell to the members of our tour group at dinner. We had a wonderful time cruising and touring for four days with the 13 members of “Hebebe” (this was the nickname of our group and means sweetheart in Arabic).  In seems like we have known them for much longer than four days and we hope to meet them again on future travels.  The members of the elite Hebebe group are:
Sandy and Gerry Katz from Philadelphia and Cape Cod
Jean and Joe Nixon from Philadelphia
Etti and Jack Elaad from Tel Aviv
Connell and TaMikka Lewis who are in the Army in Egypt and Afghanistan
Bruce and MaryAnne Tilt from Sydney
Jan Law from Melbourne

This is the high season in Egypt and often the temples are very crowded so each group has to wait in line to see the most important things.  Our leader, Hanny, would say “Hebebe attack” when it was our turn to go to the front of the line. We were particularly close to Jan.  Jan was supposed to come with her daughter, but her grandson fell ill in Bangkok and her daughter had to leave the trip in Cairo to be with her son.  We let Jan use our phone to keep in contact with her daughter.

The vendors are very aggressive in Egypt.  I know they have to make a living but it can be annoying.  Also, everyone wants you to show “appreciation” (give a tip) if they do anything for you.  Sometimes even the tourist police will pop out from behind some statue and offer to show you something special.  We fell for this the first time.  Izzy offered the guy $1 US, but he came to me and said not enough, so I gave him another $1.

There are over 300 cruise ships on the Nile – sometimes it seems like a superhighway.  The amazing thing is when 50 ships are in one port, they tie up next to each other and to get to your own ship you may have to walk through the lobbies of 5 other ships.  After dinner, I had a nice conversation with the captain.  I just asked him why his English was so good and he asked me to sit down and talk.  It turns out his mother was British and they spoke English at home.  Oddly, he was working on oil rigs until 6 years ago when he became a captain.  I even saw pictures of his wife and two children

Felucca boat captain

 Hanny, our guide

Young singer

Sandy and the captain dancing

Sandy, Gerry, Joe, Jean, Izzy and Jo on voyage to Nubian village

Football at the Nubian village

Nubian girl

Writing my name in Arabic

Izzy writing his name in Arabic

Hebebe students

Day 42, Friday, January 14th.  HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!! Sixteen years ago today, we were married in Las Vegas – seems like yesterday.  Our life has truly been an amazing road trip since then.

We were the last ones to leave the ship this morning because we had a late morning flight to Abu Simbel.  Most everyone else was gone by 6am.  We set upstairs on the deck overlooking Aswan sipping cappuccinos while I updated the blog. After the 45 minute flight, we were escorted to the Prince Abbas, our floating room for the next three nights.  We were upgraded to a junior suite which gave us plenty of room to spread out and re-organize all our bags. At lunch, we met the two other couples who would be in our tour group – Dorothy and Don from northern England and Lula and Charlie from Melbourne.  Abu Simbel is a small town 24 miles from Sudan.  Most of the 5000 inhabitants work in tourism or the fishing industry. In the afternoon, we went to the two temples at Abu Simbel which overlook Lake Nasser - the Great Temple of Ramses II and the smaller temple honoring his wife, Nefertari. The temples were carved out of the mountain around 3200 years ago. Up to 5000 people visit these temples each day – and since it is the only thing to do in Abu Simbel most people fly out within a few hours of arriving.  In the 1960’s, these temples came to world-wide attention when they were rescued from Lake Nasser by UNESCO before the waters rose after the completion of the Aswan High Dam.  It was a Herculean effort to move these massive temples. The four giant statues of Ramses II guarding the temple are iconic symbols of ancient Egypt, but the hieroglyphics and pictures inside the temple are equally magnificent.  In the evening, we were treated to a spectacular sound and light which told the history of the temples from antiquity to their relocation.

Abu Simbel

Abu Simbel

Graffiti 

Looking inside Abu Simbel

Our shipt - right out of Murder on the Nile

Abu Simbel at night

Day 43, Saturday, January 15th.  At 7:30 in the morning, we were treated to one more spectacular view of the Abu Simbel temples - this time from our ship as we started our 3 day cruise.  In mid-morning, we cruised by Qasr Ibrim.  This important Nubian archaeological site has ruins from the Pharaonic Egypt, and the Christian and Muslim eras. Because there is ongoing work, landing is not permitted, but we did take photos.  In the afternoon, we took small boats ashore to visit the Temple of Amada, which is the oldest surviving monument on Lake Nasser and has many beautiful and colorful reliefs.  There was also interesting graffiti from the 16th century placed there by traveling camel caravans.  At the same site, is Temple of Derr, built by Ramses II and the small Tomb of Pennut.  All of these monuments were moved by UNESCO from their original locations on banks of the Nile before the creation of Lake Nasser. We also spotted a magnificent vulture gliding high over the temples. Most of the temples have vultures painted on the ceilings and entry ways to protect everyone who enters. Crocodiles are found in this region and we saw a sun-bleached skull lying in the sand.

Etti and Jack, from our Nile cruise are Israelis and they encouraged us to visit Israel.  Our last stop in Jordan, the Dead Sea, is only one hour from Jerusalem.  Well, we are always up for a new adventure, so after several phone calls, we delayed our flight home by 10 days and are in the process of arranging tours of Israel. We are calling this surprise trip Izzy’s 69th birthday present.

Abu Simbel from Lake Nasser

Qasr Ibrimtion

Shore of  Lake Nasser

Camel graffiti

Holding hands with th4e gods

Temple of Amada

Vulture

Temple of Amada

Leopard skins draped over shoulders

Day 44, Sunday, January 16th. We had an early morning wake-up call to visit the temples at Wadi As-Subua  (“Valley of the Lions”).  There is an amazing avenue of sphinxes leading up to yet another Temple of Ramses II.  This temple was unique in that it is built on beautiful pink sandstone. At the same site, are the Temple of Dakka and The Temple of Maharraqa.  While all of these temples were great, we are both “templed-out” – we are happy that this is our last Egyptian temple stop.

We spent the rest of the day cruising the tranquil green-blue waters of Lake Nasser back to Aswan.  Lake Nasser is the largest man-made lake in the world (about 300 miles long and 3 to 20 miles wide).  The lake was created when the High Dam at Aswan was built in the 1960’s.  The surrounding desert and mountains create a place of austere beauty.  Cruising on the lake is so relaxing compared to the madness of the 300 boats on the Nile River.  With the wooden cabin doors facing the water, our ship looks more like the passenger ships of the early 18th century than the floating hotels on the Nile.

Wadi As-Subua

Baboons

Armed security on all of our tours

Wadi As-Subua

Day 45, Monday, January 17th.  Well, we were fooled by Mahmoud, our guide, – there were more temples to see this morning.  We weren’t disappointed and we were happy to have something to do in the morning since we weren’t scheduled to fly out until 1:30 in the afternoon.  Just south of the High Dam, are some temples and other interesting artifacts that were saved by UNESCO. This includes the Temple of Kalabsha and the Temple of Beit al-Wali (yet another temple built by Ramses II because he loved himself so much, as the guides say), but the highlight of this visit were cave drawings of animals that date from over 5000 years ago.  Afterwards, we flew 300 miles to Cairo and another 300 miles to Amman.  Both Egyptair flights were about one and a half hours.  We were met in Amman by our driver and transferred to the Le Meridian Hotel for a two-night stay.  We were upgraded to a terrific room.  I was so happy to finally have the Internet again – I think I went into withdrawal pains without it for almost a whole week!  What did we do before?!  We had a quick dinner at the cocktail hour in the hotel club room.

Elephant cave painting

Celebration at Amman airport

Izzy blocking out sound of celebration