Today was another very, very early morning so we could beat the crowds to the Valley of the Kings in Luxor. Out of the 62+ tombs in the valley we only saw four, but those four were spectacular. King Tut’s tomb doesn’t have much in it because all of the treasures are in the museum in Cairo.
Probably my favourite was the tomb of Ramses V and Ramses VI. Yes, that’s right, this tomb belonged to two kings. When Ramses VI was looking for a great tomb for himself he just gobbled up the space in the tomb of Ramses V. You walk down a wide, colourful corridor with thousands of hieroglyphs and bright paintings on every wall and even the ceiling. When you get to the burial chamber there is a partial sarcophagus of Ramses VI and a giant painting of the goddess Nut on the ceiling. She swallows the sun each evening and burps it back up the next morning. The other special things about this tomb was that there were only four of us in it—that was a really cool experience. After the valley of the Kings we bused over to the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut. It is built into the side of a cliff. It is so massive that we took a little train up to see it. Interesting fact: Hatshepsut was a FEMALE Pharaoh. Did you know there had been a female Pharaoh? Off to the country of Jordan tomorrow. You are always in my Prayers. Love Mom.
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An overnight train, a bus, a boat, and a ride in the back of a pickup truck brought us to a Nubian Village just outside of Aswan. After our home-hosted meal with a local family we hurried back to our hotel to snuggle in for a very short night’s sleep. We had to start out to Abu Simbel at 4 a.m. this morning.
The temples at Abu Simbel are just shy of the Sudan border. They only open the road from five until four; so you have to make sure you are ready to go right when the gate opens. The temples are worth it. Originally they were carved into the side of a mountain. Which is unbelievable considering how enormous they are. Rameses II had it built to celebrate his power—I’m convinced. Even more remarkable is how Abu Simbel arrived at its new location. When the High Damn was built in Aswan the temples were in danger of being submerged under water. An international team of experts put their heads together and rock by rock moved both the temple for Rameses II and the temple for his wife Nefertari to higher ground. The back story makes these temples even more interesting. Of course Dad loved that Rameses II had his wife’s image chiselled into the wall as a cow. Apparently this makes her a god, and apparently it is a compliment. If Dad decides to refer to me as his special cow there might be words. You are always in my Prayers. Love Mom. Just after sunrise we headed of to Giza to view the Great Pyramids. They were even bigger and more incredible than I imagined. Our guide suggested that we take a camel ride into the Sahara Desert to get the best panoramic view. How can you say no to a camel ride? My camel’s name was KFC (Kentucky Fried Camel)—I really hope they were joking. Anyways, our guide was right, you can see all three large pyramids lined up beautifully from out in the desert.
We rode all the way to the the Great Sphinx. King Khafre was one lucky Pharaoh. Imagine having your own pyramid plus a Sphinx. Also imagine the amount of limestone and granite that were used to build these magnificent structures. Off to Aswan by overnight train. You are always in my prayers. Love Mom. Navigating Cairo on our own has been insane—full of missteps and successes—tonight we join our group. #EgyptianRevolutionDay
The population of the greater Toronto Area is just over 6 million. Greater Cairo has over 25 million people! Imagine the giant traffic jam when we first arrived—we were so glad we had arranged for someone to pick us up. The 30 km to our hotel took over two hours. We were involved in our first fender bender 10 minutes out. Road markings are merely suggestions here and everyone talks on their cell phones while they drive. There was a lot of yelling and honking, but no one was hurt. Our guide discovered dad liked street food so not once but twice, as we snaked through traffic, he jumped out of the car and bought us snacks along the road. The fresh squeezed sugar cane and roasted sweet potatoes were a taste treat for tired travellers. By the time we reached our home away from home Egyptian House Music was blasting through the car and we were learning local dance moves. Indeed the adventure had started.
This morning we headed off to our first pyramids. Although the pyramids at Sakkara and Dahshur are less known than the Giza pyramids they are actually older. In order from oldest to youngest are: The Step, The Bent, The Red and then The Great. Of course there are actually many, many other pyramids, but those are the Biggies. In Fact I haven’t even listed one of the lesser pyramids we went in today which was actually my favourite—The pyramid of King Teti. But let me tell you the story of our first adventure into a pyramid—the Red Pyramid: Before you climb down you have to climb up—really far up. I’m too excited to notice that the winding pathway is actually cut into or built on the side of the pyramid. I am ahead of Dad....I don’t want to look back. I hope he isn’t thinking about that moment when we will go from the bright daylight through the opening into the narrow dark tunnel. I remember the first passageway will be just over 60 metres down at a steep angle. Here I go. I’m very glad to see that they have put small boards across the path to help you from sliding—although that would be quite a ride. It is becoming very dark. Sometimes I have to bend over to get through...sometimes I have to squat. I think there is someone ahead of me—I’m not sure. Someone behind me gets out their cell phone to light my way. It’s Dad—he is conquering the pyramid and his fear of small spaces like a champ. A couple more horizontal passages and chambers and we are in the third chamber—the burial chamber. We are both so excited to be in a pyramid, but especially Dad😄 One really cool thing is that the chambers have super high ceiling that are pyramid shaped. I didn’t expect that. One not so cool thing is that it smelt like really strong cat pee inside. I didn’t expect that either. Our day was amazing. From the pyramids to the hieroglyphs to our incredible guide Sayid. This is only really day one and already we have seen so much. You are Always in my Prayers. Love Mom. P.S. We also discovered what you have to do when an Egyptian bank machine eats your bankcard, but that is a story for another day. |
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Ray & Diane
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