Blogs from Egypt, Africa - page 12

Today was the hottest day yet, 44.4 degrees Celsius (112 F, sounds worst in Ferenheit) We docked in Luxor this morning. Luxor in ancient times was known as the “City of the One Hundred Gates”. It was the capital of Egypt twice in the middle kingdom, once in 2050 B.C. and again in the New Kingdom in 1550 B.C. Luxor has one third of the monuments in the world but yet Egyptologists still discover monuments and tombs in the city today. This morning we crossed over to the west bank of the Nile to go to the Valley of the kings. The Valley of the Kings was a great burial ground for the Pharaohs. After around 1500 B.C. the Pharaohs no longer built great pyramids in which to be buried. Instead, most of them were buried ... read more

The internet is not working very well on the boat. That is why I’m so late with this post. And I was having problems downloading pictures. So here is the updated post for September 12. This morning we visited :Philae Temple was built to honour the goddess Isis, the chief deity of the island. The temple sits on Aglika Island just south of the old Aswan Dam and you must ride a water taxi to the island to get to the ruins. It dates from the 26th Dynasty, with additions through the Roman period. It was moved from its original location on Philae Island, to its new location on Agilkia Island, after the flooding of Lake Nasser. It was actually under water for 30 years. A major multinational Unesco team ... read more

Today we flew from Cairo (in the North) to Aswan (in the South). On the way from the airport to the ship we stopped to see the Aswan High dam. « The Aswan Dambenefits Egypt by controlling the annual floods on the Nile River and prevents the damage which used to occur along the floodplain. It provides about half of Egypt's power supply and has improved navigation along the river by keeping the water flow consistent. » Aswan is a small city compared to Cairo, only 1.6 million people. Here also it is an art to cross the street. Fortunately, there are police to help the tourists cross. The Nefertiti is the name of our boat. The rooms are quite nice. Everyone has a balcony And a good size bathroom. The food is great and the ... read more

Our tour title is Ancient Egypt and the Nile River. As an introduction, this afternoon we visited the Egyptian Museum. I usually am not a museum person but still found this one interesting. This famous museum houses the world’s largest collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts (more than 120,000 items on display) featuring the famous Tutankhamun (king Tut) collection with the beautiful gold death mask and sarcophagus, and the royal Mummy room. Interesting King Tut Facts: King Tut ruled for only about 10 years, from approximately 1333 BC to 1324 BC. He was the Pharaoh of Egypt. His father died when he was only seven, and he became Pharaoh two years later when he married his sister. During his reign, Tutankhamun accomplished little. He's famous because his tomb was the first ever nearly intact tomb of a ... read more

Today was a free day as the tour starts only tomorrow. We did not do much today as a lot a places were closed until late afternoon because Friday is a sacred day of worship. We did go for a walk along the Nile. As we passed by a mosque we heard the call for prayer over a loud speaker. We got a lesson on how to cross the street from our program director (PD) : « just grab hold of a local and cross with him ». Even though there are areas marked on the street for pedestrians to cross, cars don’t stop. So crossing the street is an art. After our walk we ran into our PD as we were entering the hotel and we were all proud to announce that we crossed the ... read more