Denial
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.
halftime
April 19th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
wow! that’s amazing. there was a 9th Ramses and a female pharoah?
April 20th, 2009 at 3:47 am
Wow, you guys are seeing some real history! Looks amazing. Want to hear all about Cairo and Luxor.
Just had a chance to catch up on the New Zealand photos… the scenery is beautiful… the beaches look so pristine. How was the water temp?
What’s Dubai like? Artificial?
April 20th, 2009 at 11:52 am
I thought I knew a decent amount about Egyptology, but there were a whole bunch of pharoahs and dynasties that I never of until we got there. They started in 2500 BC, so I guess I missed a few in my reading.
On NZ – the water at the beaches was not freezing like I expected. However, it was still too cold to swim without a wetsuit. Some of the rivers/lakes were acutally colder, but it’s because of the glacier/mountain runoff. Then again, there’s always the thermal pools from the volcanos on the north island – steaming!