Blogs from Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa - page 8

It was crowded at Ramses the Second’s birthday bash, which was strange as up until then it was Hatshepsut who ruled the roost. Wherever I went it was Hatshepsut this, and Hatshepsut that. Every would-be guide seemed obsessed with Hatshepsut, more or less assigning every statue, relief, and temple to her. If you believed them that is. Which I didn’t. Hatshepsut is Egypt’s most famous female Pharaoh. Forget Cleopatra, it is Hatshepsut that is on peoples mind. And in Luxor Hatshepsut reigns supreme. Hatshepsut sounds like a sneeze to me. Every time I hear the name I involuntarily say, ‘Bless you!’ But Hatshepsut is everywhere, you can’t escape her. You visit the Valley of the Kings, go down the tomb of say, Ramses VI, not readily associated with Hatshepsut at all, and you can count on ... read more

Egyptian adventure 2 Having visited the west bank of Luxor aka The Valley of the Kings we spent the next day, with the same guide, visiting the temples of Luxor and Karnac. We set off on the short journey to Karnac and thankfully there were no suggestions of any “shopping” trips. Karnac is stunning, he described it as the Vatican of Egypt and it was certainly a huge site. I sometimes just want to wander round and enjoy looking rather than taking endless photos and the size of some of the stonework took your breath away. As with many places in this part of Egypt it was preserved by being buried in silt and sand from the flooding of the Nile. Although large parts of the site have been excavated there is still a huge amount ... read more

We were up about 6 this morning, finished packing up and checked out of our riverboat cabin. We had a leisurely breakfast, then we said good bye to the MS Dolphin and headed out at 8 am for our tour of Philae Temple. I woke up about 4:30 this morning which a churning stomach, but my friend Immodium has done the trick. Susan has also had similar issues over the past few days which seem to have cleared up now. These types of gastrointestinal upsets are very common in Egypt and hard to avoid. Philae temple (the Temple of Isis at Philae) is dedicated to the goddess Isis. It is a very nice small temple in a very pretty location, perched on Agilika island. It was one of the last pagan temples to operate in Egypt ... read more

We had another early morning this morning, with breakfast at 5 am. We left the boat at 5:30 for the drive over to the West Bank of the Nile. Our first stop was the Memorial Temple of Hatshepsut. Hatshepsut was a female pharaoh, who ruled for around 20 years circa 1460 BCE. She was able to hang on to the throne, despite being a woman, because she invented a story, accepted by the high priest, that she was in fact the result of a divine birth (she was the child of a god, and so was a god herself). Hatshepsut's temple is in a dramatically beautiful location, at the foot of rugged limestone cliffs. It would have been even more amazing in its time because it would have approached by a sphinx-lined causeway, and there would ... read more

Travelling all the way from NZ to Egypt meant we needed to make the most of every minute there due to the costs involved and the fact we would probably never make it back there again. One of the problems was balancing taking photos with actually just standing and taking everything in. By the time we got to Abu Simbel, I had almost stopped trying to take good photos as there were always tourists in the way (and yes, I am sure I am in many of their photos too), we were always being rushed along by our tour guide and many places (such as temples) wouldn't allow photos to be taken inside (although there was usually a guard or two present who would let photos be taken if they were paid). I decided that my ... read more