Down the Nile: Luxor and Aswan (Family Trip cont.)

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Day 5
The next morning my family and I had an early flight to Luxor. Upon arrival at 6:30am, I arranged for a private tour of Karnak and Luxor temples with a tour guide recommended by other interns. My favorite part of Upper Egypt was Karnak Temple: a lot of credit could be given to our tour guide, Hasan. Hasan did a great job of explaining the general structure that is used to build all the temples in Ancient Egypt, which we would be seeing on our cruise down the Nile River. At the front is the pylon, followed by an open court, which allowed the public inside the temple to offer gifts to one of the gods. After the open court, you will find the great hypostyle hall filled with massive columns. Some temples also have a smaller hypostyle hall, which is after the great hypostyle hall. Only the supreme high priest and the high priests were allowed this far into the temple. Finally, the sanctuary is the final component of the temple. An offering table and a statue of the god (whichever god the temple was built for) are typically found in the sanctuary. Only the supreme high priest is allowed into the sanctuary. The further you go into the temple the rooms get smaller and darker mentioned Hasan. To have us pay attention, Hasan would throw in some pop quizzes and at the end if we would fail the exam, he joked about throwing me into the Nile to be eaten by the crocodiles and marrying my younger sister.

After the tour, we were dropped off at the Nile cruise boat to check-in. We had an amazing start with Hasan and touring the temples on the East Bank, but encountered a huge problem with making the payment for the cruise upon check-in. Both of my credit cards were rejected and we did not have enough money to pay in cash. We drove all over town to figure out what was the matter with my credit cards. We couldn't understand because 2 days ago, I was able to withdraw money from an ATM in Cairo. Also, I never experienced this problem for the 7 months that I have been in Egypt. We finally figured out that there was a maximum on the amount of money I could withdraw and/or charge to my cards. Since the customer service line wasn't open until 8am, due to difference in time zone, we decided to pass the time by the pool on the cruise. After using my mobile to call my back in the US, which ended up costing $10 for 12 minutes, we were finally able to pay with my credit card. Earlier in the day, my family and I was worried that we would have to find a new hotel, and figure out our own itinerary while we were in Upper Egypt if we wouldn't be able to make the payment for cruise. Crisis averted after a lot of headaches!

The rest of the day was spent lounging out in the sun near the pool.

Day 6
The next day we visited the Colossi of Memnon. These two large statues used to flank the entrance of a temple, but what remains today are some low ruins and these large figures. After, we toured the Hatshepsut Temple and then the Valley of the Kings. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed inside the tombs at the Valley of the Kings, but there were some impressive paintings and hieroglyphics. The day was extremely hot even in the morning sun. Once we got back from the tours we set sail to Edfu.

Day 7
We set out to see the Temple of Horus located in the small town of Edfu. As you can draw from the name, this temple was devoted to the god of Horus. Although the temple was impressive, the touts around the temple were one of the worst that I have encountered since arriving in Egypt in August. They were very rude and deceiving which had a negative affect on my perception of the town/people. During the day we sailed to the Temple of Kom Ombo. After touring the temple, my family and did some souvenir shopping and got back to the boat for dinner. The boat set sail for Aswan, our last day of the cruise.

Day 8
In Aswan, we visited the High Dam which was not very impressive to see in person. However, the Dam does provide a good portion of the energy to cities and towns of Upper Egypt and has prevented some of the temples located on the Nile River to be submerged by its waters. The last temple to visit was Philae Temple. By this temple, I was all "templed-out"! Although it was interesting and unique, we had seen so many temples, that it just seemed to blend together.

All-in-all, the experience was great and I was happy to spend the time with my family. We flew back to Cairo that afternoon and my mom and sisters packed up to leave on their 3:00am flight back to Detroit.

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Comments

[mom]

Nile
We have very good time too, that was very interesting trip. thank you Robert