LUXOR

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The first night we went to the huge Luxor temple at sunset. It is beautiful, well-lit and big. Tom got some great photos! We also had a tutorial on Islam from our trip leader; he is extremely anti-Israel and aggainst the Shiite Muslims, but his description of the basics of Islam was good. Next morning, we went to the Valley of the Kings, where 62 tomb sites for the many pharaohs, nobles and priests have been identified. They still hope to find the tombs of at least two other pharaohs somewhere here, since hey have a list of pharaohs and there are two more pharaohs than there are known tombs. What if the archaeologists were able to find two more undisturbed tombs? We also saw King Tut’s tomb (from the outside since all the good stuff is now in the museum) and learned that it almost was not found by Howard Carter in 1921 - the entrance to the tomb turned out to be under the place where Carter had placed his toilet! We next went to Hatshepsut’s temple, largely destroyed by her stepson, and skipped another temple to rest from the heat. I guess we’re not the best Egyptologists, since we don’t spend enough time and attention on the history and meaning of the carvings - I just love the way they look!

We took the night train back to Cairo from Luxor, really happy that Tom spent the extra money needed to upgrade us from a car with seats to a sleeper car for the seven-hour trip. I forgot! A high point of the Valley of the Kings was (for me, of course) riding cute little donkeys from the road to the site. Tom’s donkey was (of course) the alpha male and kept trying to mount all the other males. Surprised?

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Photos

LUXOR
The Luxor temple is one of the most beautiful -- Luxor's "old" name is Thebes.

Traditional Egyptian Lunch
This family invited us to their home for lunch -- the wife made more dishes than Vivian does!

Felluca
I forgot to publish this photo from our felluca trip on the Nile. The mast is made in two pieces so that the boat can go under bridges.