I’ve certainly taken my time writing about my trip to Egypt! It’s time to wrap it up, considering it was about 10 months ago now. After our few days around Luxor, we hopped on a short flight back to Cairo to spend our last day. We stopped at the bazaar for an hour. We wandered around, taking in the mixture of sights. We went to bed early that night because we had an early morning flight to London, where we would spend the next couple days, mostly taking in the British Museum with all its Bible-related artifacts (including a large […]
Category Archives: Travel
The Temple at Twilight
After the sun dipped below the horizon, we set off on another walk along the Nile to another site: the Luxor Temple. Technically, this temple was part of the greater Karnak Temple a couple of miles away, connected by an avenue of sphinxes. Visiting at night gives this temple a different aura than during the day.
Are You My Mummy?
After spending the morning at the Karnak Temple, we had free time for the rest of the day. This gave us a chance to visit some places within walking distance of our hotel. First, a couple of museums: Luxor Museum and Mummification Museum. These are not the same caliber as the Cairo Museum, but they do contain a variety of interesting objects. The Luxor Museum has a variety of artifacts from throughout ancient Egypt, much as we had already seen. Unlike the Cairo Museum, it was laid out much better with better signage. (It’ll be nice when the Grand Egyptian […]
Karnak
The next day our destination was the mother of all Egyptian temples: the temple complex of Karnak. Its construction spanned a few centuries during the New Kingdom, as pharaoh after pharaoh added something new. From pylons to obelisks to walls depicting battles, conquests, and other events, this place has it all.
I See Dead Pharaohs
We awoke docked outside Luxor. Leaving early, we drove to the Valley of the Kings, passing by hot air balloons lifting skyward. Pulling into the parking lot, we were greeted with a nice surprise: we were the first ones there! Time to visit some tombs without other pesky people popping into my pictures! What is the Valley of the Kings? Remember the pyramid fad? That eventually went away. Building gigantic structures with treasure inside was a thief magnet. “Buried treasure here if you can figure out how to get in!” The New Kingdom pharaohs decided for a more subtle burial, […]
Life on the Nile
Arriving back in Aswan, we were transferred to our next accommodations aboard a Nile cruise boat. Don’t imagine the large vessels on the ocean. We’re talking about 100 people. This would be our home base for the next three nights. That night while we were fast asleep the boat started north. When I awoke the next morning, we were in a new location! We hopped off just as the sun peaked over the horizon to walk to the nearby site of Kom Ombo. Split down the center, it’s a double temple, dedicated to two Egyptian deities: Sobek the crocodile god […]
Abu Simbel
I awoke in Aswan, ready to hop on a plane. No, the trip wasn’t over. We drove over the river and through the desert to the small Aswan airport. We had a short flight farther south to the remote site of Abu Simbel. Carved by Ramesses II, it demonstrated the extent of his kingdom, how far south he had exerted control. Abu Simbel is actually a pair of monuments with one dedicated to Ramesses and the other to his favorite wife Nefertari. Besides the facades out front, each was carved back into the cliff-face, decorated from floor to ceiling. When […]
When in Nubia
As the sun drifted closer to the horizon, we walked across the street from our hotel and climbed into our second small boat of the day. Cruising around the Nile, we eventually docked at Elephantine Island. During Biblical times, a group of Jews settled in this area. They constructed a temple to the Lord on Elephantine Island around the fifth century BC. We tend to think of idolatry, but what about worshipping the Lord at another temple? I would’ve enjoyed exploring whatever ruins there are on the island, but that wasn’t the purpose of our visit. There is a village […]
Flooded Ruins
As our train pulled into the station in Aswan, we hopped off and weaved our way through the bustling crowds. Our van brought us near the bank of the Nile. Winding our way past the trinket-selling merchants, we hopped on a boat to Philae Island. Actually, it was Fake Philae Island. The real island is now submerged under the waters of the Nile thanks to a couple of dams (see below). The island was deemed important enough that they took all the structures apart and moved them to a higher island. The temples here were from the Greek and Roman […]
All Aboard!
Departing Alexandria, we stopped at a mall on the edge of the city before beginning our trek back to Cairo, where we’d catch a train to head south. I couldn’t help but ask, “Who shops here?” because the majority of the signage was in English, selling expensive Western brands. The only exception was the grocery store, which clearly catered to locals. It’s like ancient Alexandria: international mixed with local. We bought some snacks for the train ride while we were there. We drove to Cairo and stayed just long enough to wait at the train station. We watched with some […]