Where the Kings and Queens started their journey to the afterlife.

Day 73 5 November 2010 Friday

Day 74 6 November 2010 Saturday
Day 75 7 November 2010 Sunday

Day 76 8 November 2010 Monday

An early morning train ride brought us to Luxor (notice a theme here), this travel stuff is almost like work.

But there were some nice views out the rain windows of the agriculture and life in the Nile Valley.

In the afternoon we visited the Luxor museum, which contained a well chosen selection of thoughtfully displayed artifacts from the local tombs and temples. We made a comical connection to one of the mummies on display. Back at home we had seen a documentary about an unknown mummy displayed in a curio museum in Niagara Falls since the 19th century. Recently, a researcher dated the excellently preserved mummy back to the time of Ramses I as well as performed DNA testing. In the documentary they concluded that this mummy may have been one of the great pharos. The Niagara Falls mummy has been repatriated to Egypt and we stumbled upon it in the Luxor museum.

Luxor(Thebes) (and later Memphis) was the base of government for the New Kingdom pharos from 1550-1069 BC (during the 18th-20th dynasties). Recognizing that the great pyramids of lower Egypt were essentially beacons for tomb raiders, the nobles of the New Kingdom attempted to disguise their tombs by placing the entrances to the tombs discreetly in an eroding hillside behind a pyramid shaped mountain. To date the Valley of the Kings contains over 60 tombs, the Valley of the Queens over 75 tombs, and the surrounding area is scattered with dozens more. Unfortunately, the public is not allowed to take pictures anywhere on the site of the main “Valleys”.

New excavations in this area on going.

 

Colossi of Memnon, the remains of the Temple of Amenhotep III, miss named by the Greeks who believed they were statues of Memnon.

The terraced funerary temple of Hatshepsut has been largely restored which exemplifies the architectural importance of this unique temple.

Some hieroglyphs, cartouches and artwork from the temple.

 

Karnak was the religious center of the New Kingdom of Egypt, built and modified over 1500 years.

The 2 sq km site contains two lakes, temples, courtyards, pylons, obelisks, statues, a sphinx lined path to the Nile, and at least a few thousand tourists.

The Hypostyle Hall, a sequoia like forest of papyrus shaped columns covering 6000 sq meters is breathtaking.

Oh and to get to many of these sights at a decent hour (aka, when it wasn’t boiling hot and when there weren’t too many people) we rented bikes for $3 each and left the hotel around 5:00am.

More Red Sea

Day 69 1 November 2010 Monday
Day 70 2 November 2010 Tuesday

We walked 2km out on the dirt road before some Bedouins picked us up and we road in the back of their truck. They dropped us off a few feet from a 4 star resort. We walked inside dusty and dirty and purchased a $9 buffet breakfast. After finishing breakfast we walked outside just in time to catch the 4 times a day over crowded standing room only local bus.

We spent the next two days snorkeling and diving along another pristine reef.

Dam… now we have to move it!

Day 71 3 November 2010 Wednesday
Day 72 4 November 2010 Thursday

After another wonderful over night bus experience we arrived in Aswan at about 5:30am. Checked into a hotel to get a couple hours of sleep before checking out the town.

On the second day we headed down to Abu Simbel, about 50 km from the Sudanese boarder, to see the temples at Abu Simbel built by Rasmses II around 1200 BC. On our return to Aswan we also visited the temple of Philae. Both of these large temple complexes were relocated to avoid being permanently submerged by the Lake Nasser, which was created by the construction of two dams on the Nile River in 60’s and 70’s. One of the fun parts about traveling in this part of Egypt is that you get to wake up at 3:00am to join the obligatory “police” convoy. Aswan in also famous for its rose colored granite used for obelisks and columns, quarried here and floated down the Nile to be disturbed throughout the eastern Mediterranean.

Aswan is still surprisingly rural, just a few streets off of the main drag there are dirt streets and flocks of chickens and herds of sheep between the buildings.

Wadi Elgemal Characters of Egypt/Staying Flexiable

Day 67 30 October 2010 Saturday
Day 68 31 October 2010 Sunday
 

From Dahab we took a series of buses for a very long overnight journey up the Sinai, across the Suez and down the west coast of the red sea to Marsa Alam

At the market we inquired about a dive camp recommended to us. The gentleman at the store was very helpful, but we had difficulty communicating with the taxi driver about the name of the dive camp and where it might be. We went to a café and asked someone who was working with a young Norwegian woman about directions. The Norwegian woman in turn told us about a Bedouin tribal cultural gathering event at Wadi Jimal Protected Area’s Eco-Lodge. She was returning to visit there in 15 minutes. Would we like to go with her? We decided that we were flexible and had nowhere else to be so why not?

The gathering is a three-day event, now in it’s 3rd year that tries to bring solidarity and public awareness to the different (often marginalized) bands of Bedouin around Egypt. (Similar to a Native American Pow Wow) Tribes from the far corners of Egypt sent representatives (mostly only men, unfortunately) to meet, discuss, sing, dance, perform, and compete in fun events. The public was welcome to visit, stay, and socialize for a festival site entrance fee. We shared the ride down from Marsa Alam with a student named Karim from the northern Sinai Bedouin Trib. We were welcomed into the North Sinai camp where we were given tea, fed, chatted and entertained. The festival ended with all the participants chanting and singing and having a great time. Thanks to our new Norwegian friends we were able to use an extra staff tent to sleep in. After almost no sleep the night before we slept as soon as the opportunity arrived. 

Backpacker’s aquarium

Day 61 24 October 2010 Sunday
Day 62 25 October 2010 Monday
Day 63 26 October 2010 Tuesday
Day 64 27 October 2010 Wednesday
Day 65 28 October 2010 Thursday
Day 66 29 October 2010 Friday

Since scuba diving is one of our pastimes, we have been looking forward to the opportunity to dive the renowned reefs of the Red Sea. On Sinai’s east coast Dahab is know as the more laid back backpackers town compared to Sharm el Sheikh (the “Cancun” of Sinai). There are still 5 Star resorts available but more1 to 3 Star hotels and plentiful dive operators make it affordable for the rest of us. Many of the reefs are so close that much of the diving is done directly off shore or by using taxi trucks to shuttle. The diving has been great, free diving is also popular, and if you want to stay on top of the water the windsurfing and kite surfing are very popular due to the prevailing steady longshore winds. We stumbled onto a locally produced magazine, Blue, that celebrates water sports in the Red Sea, as well as supporting the environmental efforts of HEPCA.

As far as underwater photos of diving the Red Sea are concerned, we are going to leave that up to the professionals.

Yes, the coral did look like this for many of our dives. The big schools of fish and Manta Rays are more prevalent in the southern Sinai in the hotter months. (Lion Fish are a dime a dozen here)
 

We would like also to recommend the Alaska Camp hotel for clean affordable accommodation.

Click on the pictures to link to the professionals shots.