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Denial

Sunday, April 19th, 2009

Our last day in Egypt started out busy, but ended on a relaxing note. We spent the early part of the day on the West Bank of the Nile trying to see a much as possible before it got too hot.  We visited the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut, who was the only female pharaoh.  It backs up to a high mountain wall in the desert and is the stuff of Indiana Jones – this is what I always imagined Egypt would look like.  We also went to the Valley of the Kings where here are over 60 tombs and probably more that still haven’t been discovered.  Only a  few are open at any one time, so we went into those belonging to Ramses VII, Ramses IV, and Ramses IX. They are basically empty because all of the treasures are in the museums in Luxor and Cairo.  However, the paintings on walls are preserved and very colorful.

We finished off the day with a ride on a felucca (like the one below) down the Nile just before sunset – the perfect way to end our time in Egypt.

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Luxor (Not the hotel in Vegas)

Saturday, April 18th, 2009

After a visit to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, where we saw all the treasures from King Tut’s tomb, we headed south to Luxor. The city is smaller and much more touristy with touts everywhere pushing taxis, feluca and carriage rides, and tours. Luxor is situated on the East Bank of the Nile River, the same side on which the sun rises and where the temples are. The sunsets and tombs are on the other side.Our first stop on the east side was the Karnak Temple. It’s hard to describe without using similar adjectives to the pyramids, but this site is totally different and equally impressive at the same time. The columns in the hypostyle hall are towering and make you feel very tiny. The temple had many additions made by various Pharaohs, so the sum of all of their work has a big “wow” factor.

Next up was the Luxor Temple, which is right next to the Nile in the center of town. At one point in ancient times, the two temples were connected by a 3km long “Avenue of the Sphinxes” which were statues about 10 feet apart all along the street. A few are still left, but it must have been incredible to walk there. In addition to carvings from a lot of different periods, there is even a section built by Alexander the Great, spelling his name in hieroglyphics. Another interesting thing about the entry is a tall obelisk on one side. There is a base on the other, but the obelisk itself is missing. However, we found out we’d already seen it – it’s the one at the Place du Concorde in Paris!

Aside from the historical sights, we’ve been getting used to how things work in Egypt and starting to enjoy it. The taxis in Cairo were the oldest cars I’ve ever ridden in that were not “restored or antique.” However, they are always around when you need them and so cheap that I don’t know how they cover the cost of the fuel. The food is simple and good – I love the tahina and kebabs – and generally pretty inexpensive too. I had the best falafel sandwich I’ve ever had at a takeaway stand and it cost 1 Egyptian Pound (about 20 US cents) Eric was pretty jealous because his chicken sandwich cost 4 times that.

More soon from the West Bank Tombs, but first here’s my favorite carving so far.  It’s sort of an ancient form of Excel with a listing all of the items and quantities offered up to the gods.  Ahhh spreadsheets!

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Giza

Tuesday, April 14th, 2009

After a long day of traveling that took us through Jordan, we finally arrived in Cairo. Of course, the first thing we did was head out to the Pyramids. I’ve been amazed by them since before I can remember – even before I could read, I’d stare at the photos in my dad’s National Geographics. I think I’ve seen just about every History Channel or Discovery TV show ever made about them too.

The three at Giza are really impressive, so I wasn’t disappointed. It was incredible to stand next to the huge stone blocks and know that someone stood in the same spot and carved it 5000 years ago. It’s hard to think that anything we build today will be around 500 years from now, let alone thousands.

We also paid a little extra to go into the middle-sized one, the Pyramid of Khafre. It’s not for the claustrophobic. The tunnel is only about 3 feet high, so you have to bend down and sort of squat-walk about 200m into the main chamber. There seems to be very little oxygen inside, so it’s best to just take slow deep breaths and not think about the weight of the 2 million stones over your head.

We also stopped by to say hello to the Sphinx and spent this morning at Memphis and Saqqara seeing the Step Pyramid and some other tombs, all very old and fascinating.

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