---

Well it has been awhile since I've updated this and there has been so much happening but I'll give a brief description of what has been going on sine last time and the places I've been to.
First of we went to the Valley Of The Kings after a donkey ride up the valley. Those things are so uncomfortable and 40 minutes on the back of it I had enough! The Valley Of The Kings is a huge place and didn't expect it to be near that size, as long with everything else in Egypt. We were able to go into three tombs the first was for Ramsses IV and the tomb is 60m long underground but most of the colors has faded over time but had engravings all the way down and was interesting. The second was the tomb of Menenptah was this was my favorite. It is 180m long underground, now when out really think about it that is a fair distance for a tomb when the entrance a walkway is about 3 by 3 meters. It was built that long to fit in all the gold that he had, first it wasn't long enough so they made extensions! But over the years grave robbers found most of the tombs and cleaned them out. The colors on the walls were still there but unfortunately photos are not allowed in the tombs. The last tomb was for Ramesses I very small compared to the others but we went to this one because all the colors inside are still intact which was nice. There is a total of 62 tombs that have been found so far and there are missing tombs still so maybe more around the place. They are all so close together it is remarkable some on top of others it was very good.
We went o a few other temples over the next few days but I will just put up pictures of those but the one I was looking forward to was Abu Simbel and the Great Temple Of Ramses II. This was amazing really was. The four statues of him out the front over looking the Nile River and inside the detail that went into the engravings is brilliant. The most interesting thing I found about this place is that a the back of the chamber is a small room with four statues of Gods. Twice a year, not to sure why the dates, the sun rays enters the temple goes all the way to the back of the chamber and a light ray his the statue of Ramses II in the face then grows until covering the two beside him but it doesn't' touch one of the Gods, Ptah who is the God of evil! Even today the don't know how they managed to make it happen when the chamber is 40m back in the temple and on them two days.
After we were all tombed out and really after awhile, they all blend into one and don't know what the guide is saying most of he time. Weheaded to our felucca for the cruise down the Nile River which was very nice. Soo relaxing for 3 nights and there is nothing at all to do on them things so we just sat, slept, eat, play cards (I lost heaps) and slept some more. It was really good though to go swimming in the Nile, which was freezing, and just laze about.
The group of people that was in my group made it all so much better though and for the 15 days I've had a great time with all of them. It wasn't really good saying goodbye today because they were the first people that I got to spend some time with since India and was dying to talk to someone about it all, Jake mostly got it all, and spending all that time with them then saying goodbye and then I'm alone again. Traveling you meet heaps of people which is great but the same time there is just as many goodbyes! I'll be defiantly seeing some of them again soon though. Charlie when I get to the UK and hopefully Helen gets into uni at Edinbrough so will see her again. Had a great time with a fantastic group and going to miss them all.
I'm really glad that I did a tour Egypt, saved so much hassle and organizing and went to some amazing places that other tours don o to. I was surprised about the weather; it has been fantastic and not near as hot as I expected and was perfect sunny day's everyday so was very nice.
Unlike India I didn't really get the chance to meet o man locals as was doing a tour and I spent most of the time with them. The only ones I meet were at the tourist traps as you leave many of the temples along the way and as the group knows I had enough of them by the end!
But overall had a brilliant time there and made some great friends. Can hardly believe the places I've been lucky enough to go to still but will sink in eventually I know.
Got to run and catch a plane to Amman.
Cheers for now
Chris

---