What an awesome cruise! And, it's all because of the God time I spent. I'll get to that part, but first the cruise itself.
I'm on a boat called the M/S Beausoleil. Our guide's name is Emile. Nice guy. There's a great boutique on the boat run by a guy called Peter. I bought a few things from him - good prices, and no haggling. I compared some of his prices to what I could reach after haggling. It's nice to know you don't have to worry.
Let's see if I can remember all the sites we visited. The first day was the Valley of the Kings, which is where the Pharaohs were buried. They've found 62 sites so far, with King Tut's being the last and most well preserved. Then Queen Hatchepsut's temple. She's one of only 3 women who reigned over Egypt. She portrayed herself as a man in all the artwork and dressed like a man so that the Egyptians would accept her reign. That qualifies her as the very first feminist ever !!
The next day, we visited Karnak and Luxor temples. The Karnak temple is huge and was built over hundreds of years. Every Pharoah built and added on to it because it was used to worship their main god - Amoun-Ra. There are areas where there is still color (right) and obelisks that are over 20 meters high carved out of a single piece of granite(below).
Think about this - they carve out of pure granite a piece without lasers, or power drills, or power saws. Then they float (yes FLOAT) it down the Nile, get to their destination and stand it up. There is some serious math, physics, and geology involved combined with massive creativity.
Then we visited the Luxor temple(right) - smaller, but still cool. The guide told us that back in the day, there was a 3km long line of sphinxes between the two temples.
Then, the temples of Edfu, Kom Mombo and Philae. There is history and description to all of them, but I'd never finish if I tried to write it all down. The major points are that they are huge, they are full of history. Egypt is finally working hard at gathering and safe guarding its treasures.
I'm on a boat called the M/S Beausoleil. Our guide's name is Emile. Nice guy. There's a great boutique on the boat run by a guy called Peter. I bought a few things from him - good prices, and no haggling. I compared some of his prices to what I could reach after haggling. It's nice to know you don't have to worry.
Let's see if I can remember all the sites we visited. The first day was the Valley of the Kings, which is where the Pharaohs were buried. They've found 62 sites so far, with King Tut's being the last and most well preserved. Then Queen Hatchepsut's temple. She's one of only 3 women who reigned over Egypt. She portrayed herself as a man in all the artwork and dressed like a man so that the Egyptians would accept her reign. That qualifies her as the very first feminist ever !!
The next day, we visited Karnak and Luxor temples. The Karnak temple is huge and was built over hundreds of years. Every Pharoah built and added on to it because it was used to worship their main god - Amoun-Ra. There are areas where there is still color (right) and obelisks that are over 20 meters high carved out of a single piece of granite(below).
Think about this - they carve out of pure granite a piece without lasers, or power drills, or power saws. Then they float (yes FLOAT) it down the Nile, get to their destination and stand it up. There is some serious math, physics, and geology involved combined with massive creativity.
Then we visited the Luxor temple(right) - smaller, but still cool. The guide told us that back in the day, there was a 3km long line of sphinxes between the two temples.
Then, the temples of Edfu, Kom Mombo and Philae. There is history and description to all of them, but I'd never finish if I tried to write it all down. The major points are that they are huge, they are full of history. Egypt is finally working hard at gathering and safe guarding its treasures.
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