Category Egypt
Aswan – sandstorm and a change of plans
Aswan was the last stop on our cruise, and while there are certainly things to see here, we had planned to use it as a jumping-off point for a more ambitious journey to the great temple of Abu Simbel (an additional 3-hour drive away). We got up at the ungodly hour of 4am and were […]
Temple at Kom Ombo
We sailed from Edfu up the river to Kom Ombo where another temple from the Greco-Roman period of Egypt stood on the shore. Despite the blistering heat — at 3pm we were at the worst time of day for this, with temperatures well over 100 F — we climbed out and went exploring. We didn’t […]
Temple of Horus at Edfu
Our first stop up the river was the Temple of Horus at Edfu. We arrived sometime during the night and took a horse buggy into town to see the temple. The temple here is the best preserved of all the temples we saw. Aside from the early Christians’ attempts to deface the “pagan idols” the […]
Cruising up the Nile
As anyone who has read Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile knows, the best way to travel up the Nile is by boat — so of course that’s what we did. We used Luxor as our starting point and then working our way south toward Aswan aboard a river cruiser that may not have been as […]
Valley of the Kings
Next morning after visiting the Luxor temple, we got up early (this was not a trip for sleeping in!) and crossed the Nile and made our way through the lush farmland to the arid hills where the ancient Egyptians made their tombs. First stop was Hapshetsut’s memorial temple, which lies at the base of impressive […]
Luxor temple at night
We visited the Karnak temple early in the morning to beat the heat. After lunch and an air-conditioned nap back on the boat, we headed out again to see the Luxor temples at dusk. The Luxor temples aren’t quite as old as Karnak (only 3,000 years instead of 4,000 years) and are on a slightly […]
Catching up! Let’s start with the temples of Karnak
Sitting here in grey, rainy London (I flew back from Cairo yesterday) the sun and heat and sand of Egypt feel very far away! But before the memories dim I want to linger a bit longer on the highlights of our journey last week — let’s start with the temples of Karnak . . . […]
We’re back in Cairo!
Between the last post and this one, we visited temples and sweated in tombs and cruised up the Nile and wrestled a crocodile — all without Internet. So more on that stuff later. But we’re finally back to Cairo and Internet for one last night. It’ll be an early morning tomorrow as we head out […]
Egyptian museum
Before visiting the pyramids we spent the morning at the Egyptian Museum, which is a late 19th Century museum stuffed to the gills with more mind-blowing antiquities than you can believe. In a whirlwind tour with our guide, we all all the greatest hits. Rameses, Hatshepsut, Tutankamen, the pet mummies, and all the other fascinating […]
Pyramids!
I saw and touched and went inside one of the seven wonders of the ancient world! Pretty incredible. The Great Pyramid was built some 4,500 years ago. That’s mind-blowing to me. I mean, woolly mammoths were around for roughly another 1,000 after it was built. That’s farther before the birth of Christ than we are […]
A More Gentlemanlike Manner 