The Nile Really Is A River In Egypt!!

Thank God that we have arrived safely back in Boston! Now that we have recovered a little I can tell you about our last day in Cairo. We started at the Egyptian Museum. The building is beautiful and was built in 1900. On the outside there is a small pond with papyrus and the ever present lotus flower. Inside the museum was crazy!! There are over 120,000 items....it was packed with people and there was no air conditioning!!!! I was overwhelmed....and hot! Thankfully we had our egyptologist to guide us through the maze and make sure we didn't miss any of the highlights. The only room that was semi-cool was the Mummy Room. First, they would remove the brain through the nose, then the internal organs (except the heart and kidneys) are placed into 4 separate alabaster jars with different Gods (like Horus) on them. The body is dried with salts...this entire process takes about 70 days. Queen Hatshepsut and her servant (with hair and teeth!!) are here. The next amazing section was the Tutankhamun (from now on Tut) galleries. He only ruled for 10 years and died at the age of 18. The galleries hold the contents of his tomb which was discovered in 1922. We saw the famous gold death mask....but also golden thrones, his linen underwear!, weapons and jewelry.

Next, we headed to the Citadel. The outer wall was built in the 1100s and the ruling families lived here until the 1870s!! It overlooks the city and houses a couple of mosques and museums. We went into the Muhammad Ali Mosque...not that Ali! This Muhammad Ali was from Albania and ruled in the 1800s.

We had to take off our shoes and I had to wear a green cape.


They thought my shirt was cut a little too low in the back. When we entered one of the guards was performing the call to prayer...there were a number of men praying...but also lots of tourists walking around taking pictures. Muhammad Ali's tomb is in plain sight here as well. The mosque was beautiful...lots of stained glass and intricate carvings.



Outside of the mosque there were some amazing views of the city.

Our final stop was the famous Khan-Al Khalili.


This is a market place that has what seems like hundreds of storefronts in a congested little area in town. There is a main street that then branches off into little alley-ways with more stores. We were given our designated areas that we should stay within....and then we were off. In Khan-Al Khalili locals sell anything: knock-off watches (Rolex, Breitling, Gucci), silver, spices and souvenirs. This bustling market has some aggressive vendors. Imagine 20 different people trying to get you into twenty different shops at once. It can be very overwhelming! They will step in front of you and ask "How can I take your money today?", block your path or grab you by the arm and try to lead you to their shop. The truth is, if we weren't harassed so much, we probably would have actually shopped in more stores. It was an experience none the less. It is still a must see if you go to Egypt. After wandering through the market place, we stopped at a coffee shop (El-Fishawy). The coffee shops are equivalent to the bars in the US. It is usually inhabited by mostly males...talking about current events. We enjoyed a couple of well deserved fruit smoothies and watched the locals smoke Sheesha (flavored tobacco out of a water pipe)....We left the market place, met with our driver and ate lunch and headed back to the Cairo Marriott. We explored the hotel shops a little and headed back to our chambers to ready ourselves for the 13 hour flight on Friday.

Egypt was a really exciting trip! It was educational, picturesque and adventurous. There was always something to do and it never rained!!! The only thing that I would change was the time of year that we chose to visit. July is the hottest month of the year. Temperatures can reach 115 - 125f!! We were fortunate that we didn't experience 125....aside from that it is a must see. I never felt endangered once, the food was tasty and the accommodations were surprisingly lavish. If you can, I would suggest a guide....They are full of information and they can navigate you through this country with a populous of 75 million. Egypt comes highly recommended.

Thanks for reading,
D&N

Hey everybody! Dwayne is going to write about Tuesday....I will cover Wednesday. Sorry that we missed you....we were worn out and had some technical difficulties.

Tuesday was our last day on the Nile Admiral
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We were still in Aswan....we left the boat at 8:30 am and headed over to the High Dam.

It was built in 1960 to replace the original Aswan Dam. It is protected by the military, because if it were ever compromised it would wash away most of Egypt into the Mediterranean. There is a large monument at this site given to the Egyptian government by the Soviet Union. It was made to commemorate the friendship between the two countries. It is a lotus flower.

Next to the High Dam is Lake Nasser (The largest man-made lake in the word). It is 300 miles long and 22 miles across at its widest point. It stretches from Aswan down into the Sudan. There are many types of fish, as well as crocodiles that inhabit the lake.

From there, we then went to The Temple of Philae. This temple was dedicated to the Goddess Isis. It resides on Aglika island and is only accessible by boat. The boats are all controlled by the Nubians. They inhabited the area where Lake Nasser was formed. When the government built the dam and the lake they were forced to move. They are very dark in color and have a language that is exclusive to them. It is only a spoken language, it can't be written. Philae had to be reconstructed on the Aglika island because it was submerged six months out of the year.....so it was moved block by block to a higher location. We got to ride around from the backside of the temple to the front entrance by motorboat.



We got a detailed tour of the inside and headed back to our ship for for a felucca ride.

A felucca is a sail boat that is operated by sails and oars. They are also operated by The Nubian people. The felucca sailors were a father and his young son. It is summer vacation in Egypt, so the young boy was learning how to sail. We sailed down the Nile and were joined by some Nubian children in little row boats that sang us various nursery rhymes along the way....

We concluded our night with a Nubian show, in which I was asked to participate.....We had a nice time, but we were busy the the whole day. The temperature is well over 100 degrees during the day and the sun really wears you down... -D

Wednesday was amazing!! We checked out of the cruise and flew to Abu Simbel. This was my favorite temple by far!!! It is on Lake Nasser and pretty far south...only 50 kilometers from Sudan. Abu Simbel is made up of 2 temples...the small one is dedicated to Ramses' wife Nefertari

and the large one to Ramses. The small figures at his feet are his mother and wife.


The large temple has the tallest monuments in Egypt at 69 feet. This is another temple that had to be moved when the dam was built. I can't believe the Egyptian government was actually going to allow this monument to be submerged underwater!! Thankfully UNESCO convinced them to save it. It took 4 years to move the two temples....they used a hand saw to cut them into 2000 blocks that weighed about 20 tons each!! The other incredible thing about this monument is that inside the temple is a room called the Sacred Sanctuary. There are 3 statues of the Gods Ptah, Amun-Re and Re-Horakhty. There is also one of Ramses who wanted to be a God but who is only considered a demi-god. Prior to relocating, the sun shone on Ramses and 2 of the Gods on February 21st and October 21st. (Ptah is the god of darkness and remains in shadow.) In the new temple, this happens on February 22nd and October 22nd!! These are the alleged dates of Ramses' birth and coronation!!! We weren't allowed to take pictures inside either temple but the majority of the scenes show Ramses defeating his enemies in battle.

We stopped at the Nubian House for a delicious lunch. It's a hotel and a restaurant. The house was decorated beautifully with clothing, necklaces and straw baskets and was built with straw, mud and sand. Dwayne liked the air conditioners....they are run on water only instead of freon.

Then Dwayne saw a fire truck and got excited.....

Anyway, it's 8am on Thursday. Today we will go to the Egyptian Museum, a mosque and Khan Al-Khalili bazaar...a massive flea market free for all.

Well, Dwayne and I stayed up late last night blogging. As you know we were docked in Edfu and at 430 this morning we were awakened by islamic prayer that was being broadcast through the loudspeaker onto the streets!! I wish I could have understood what they were saying...it went on for about an hour. I forgot to say that each day we have traveled with an Egyptologist. They are required to have a bachelor's degree in history and be licensed by the Department of Antiquities here in Egypt. Our first stop today was at the Temple of Horus. Horus is an Egyptian God, son of Isis and Osiris...he is often depicted as a man with a falcon head or as a falcon. He always wears two crowns to signify lower and upper Egypt.




Sadly in this temple some of the depictions have been ruined, allegedly this was done by Coptic Christians many years ago.

We cruised down the Nile for a few more hours

...then stopped at Kom Ombo.

The temple here is different because it is dedicated to two Gods, Horus and Sobek. It was used as a hospital at one point and there are even pictures of one of the Gods holding a stethoscope.
There was also a mummified crocodile here (Sobek is the crocodile God). I'll save that picture for another day! I've also included a picture of a woman giving birth.

This evening was our Galabeya party here on the ship. We had an Egyptian style buffet - I ate a dish called koshari with macaroni, onions and tomato sauce. It's pretty tasty. There was ghulash - a pastry stuffed with cheese and lots of other stuff that I can't remember the name of. There dishes are heavy on tomatoes, potatoes and beef! I had to request vegetarian options! Anyway, the idea was to buy Egyptian style garb (only in the hotel gift shop of course). I wore a little headpiece. Tomorrow we are scheduled for a felucca (a small sailboat) ride along the Nile and a tour of Philae island which has temples dedicated to Isis. Thanks for reading everyone!! We really appreciate all the comments!!

Today all of our exploring was done in the early morning. We woke up, ate breakfast and took a trip to the west bank of the Nile. Our first stop was to the Colossi of Memnon.
At one time these great statues of Amenhotep III were the gateway to a temple that no longer exists. It was destroyed by earthquakes, pillaging and flooding of the Nile. The statues are the the only things left....From this location we headed to the Valley of the Kings. This was a spot on a mountain side where many kings and queens were buried including, Ramses II (exhibit closed), Ramses VII and Tausert (one of the few female rulers of Egypt). These tombs were beautiful. They are trying to preserve the colors in the tomb, so no pictures are allowed . Some people tried to snap pictures, but their cameras were promptly confiscated (HAHA!!). There were way too many to explore......From there we went on to an alabaster factory where they taught us how they make handmade figurines, vases and tablets. We left the factory, after bargaing for a couple of items and headed to the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut. This temple was truly amazing (sorry pic wouldn't upload). Hatshepsut built all of her stautes complete with a beard to show her power and she ruled until she died....From here it was back to the boat for lunch and to cruise down the Nile to Esna. When we pulled into Esna the ship was bombarded by salesmen in rowboats!!! They were throwing items, such as Egyptian style dresses, onto the ship and asking us to buy them. People were throwing these items back and forth for at least an hour. These men tied ropes to the ship and followed us for what seemed like miles. We then cruised some more down to Edfu where we are docked for the night. We had dinner and concluded our night with bingo....most of the day was spent onboard the ship travelling....

Well, I am so glad that the ship has internet service!! Today, Dwayne and I woke up extra early for our flight to Luxor from Cairo. It was short, less than an hour. We dropped our bags off at the Cruise ship and headed to Karnak temple. It was pretty amazing!! It is the largest temple complex in the world at about 250 acres.


It is so difficult to describe...There are numerous chapels, columns 60 feet high and incredible hieroglyphics. There is even a "lucky" scarab. Legend has it...if you walk around the scarab 7 times counterclockwise if you are single...you will get married!!

Then we went to Luxor temple (my favorite). There was this incredible avenue of sphinxes....at one time it was 2 miles long!

What is so fascinating about this site is it was actually buried under sand. There is a mosque that was built on top of the site.
There were tons of statues of Ramses II in this temple. He was so dedicated to his wife Nefertari that many of his statues included her at his feet.

We put our feet in the Nile and laid down for a well-earned nap.
Dwayne ended the evening by watching a belly dancer! That's it for now...tomorrow it's off to the Valley of the Kings and Queens. Sorry this post is short on details....we're exhausted!!