The next day our group planned to fly done to Luxor. The next few days were going to consist of visiting many different sites while cruising up through the Nile. But as we got to Cairo airport things got a bit interesting. First, my dot matrix airplane ticket had the wrong first name (Andy, not George) on it. I also was able to get through security without needing to take off my shoes or belt. It was kind of nice. However despite clear skies and an early flight, our flight was delayed by a few hours. Go Egypt Air!
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Luxor
We had to readjust the itinerary a bit. And despite night falling on us quickly, our guide took us to the Luxor temple. The pictures didn’t turn out as well in the night but it was a really cool temple to visit. The Luxor was built after the the pyramids and was a giant temple with many hieroglyphics inscribed in the wall. Also, they discovered a road that connected Luxor to Karnak, a distance of 3 kilometers. This entire road was lined with sphinxes which they’re still excavating today. Despite arriving their late, it was interesting to see the temple with the night lights. I even had a security guard tell me to go into the restricted areas so I could get a great shot of a sphinx statue, (which I didn’t capture with it being dark at night) and then he asked for a tip. Police And security here are easily paid off.
Also, despite what you may think, Luxor does not have a pyramid shooting a ray of light into the air. But if it did, it’d be a perfect place to house slot machines.
Karnak
The next day we started early in the morning and visited Karnak. The entire place is filled with gorgeous, gigantic pillars which led into great pictures. You are initially greeted with a giant entry way which leads into the pillared courtyard. Quite an amazing ancient city to see and to only imagine his city was well connected to Luxor.
Valley of the Kings
Our next stop took us out to the Sahara desert in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere. On our way, we crossed a bridge that had armed guards with their machine guns watching every move. Our guide then warned us that wee couldn’t take photographs when we entered the tombs.
We initially entered one tomb, maybe Ramses II, which still retained the colorful hieroglyphs on a paper white plaster wall. Walking down the tomb was like walking down book of Egypt history with all the un-interpreted text.
Rob must not of heard the tour guides warning: he got caught taking a photo with his iPhone, but a quick payoff of 45 egyptian pound ($9) saved him from being arrested. We visited two more tombs that were similar in nature, which held the ancient pharaohs of Egypt. They were still excavating the site as they believe 150+ royal tombs are yet to be found there.
The next stop was the Temple of Queen Hatscheput who could be known as one of the most powerful women in history. The palace is nestled underneath a giant cliff with a staircase leading up to the palace. We had time to see two more palaces that day, Kom Mambo and Ed Fu.
After that day, I was definitely ruined. Hey yo. That night we docked into Aswan, but also saw our boat go through a lock system when we hit a small damn.
Aswan
The next day the majority of everyone flew out to Abu Simbel, while Rob, Shayna, Jason, Bridget, and I explored a bit of the city. We took a horse carriage to the market and did some shopping. This was the best market, as the people weren’t overbearing and the prices were cheap… after some tough negotiating.
After the rest of the group returned, we visited Philae temple, a ruin that we traveled on a boat to see. Supposedly this ruin had been found under water once they reverted water after they built the damn.
Our trip ended with a quick stop to the botanical gardens on a sail boat, which was the final place we visited to finish our cruise down the Nile. And the next morning we took a delayed flight back to Cairo, to begin anew in Jordan.