Day 9 - Kom Ombo, Aswan, Philae

Here's our boat:
On this day we started at Kom Ombo Temple. This is the only temple where crocodiles were depicted as gods. 60 crocodile mummies were found near this temple.
Once we reached Aswan, we visited a limestone quarry. This is were much of the building material for the temples/pyramids downstream came from. Here is an unfinished obelisk which they abandoned in place since it had a crack in it:
Later in the day, we went to the Temple of Philae in Aswan. This was one of 23 temples that were saved when the Aswan dams were constructed. It was taken apart, stored in a gigantic warehouse, a new island was built up to create higher ground, and then the entire temple site was reconstructed.
Bob Marley is popular everywhere!Highlight of the day...seeing the Aswan High dam, one of the engineering marvels of the world. When it was finished, it created Lake Nassar, the largest man-made lake in the world.
More photos here:

Day 8 - More Cruising and Edfu

More sailing today. We docked each night at a port, along with a dozen or two other cruise ships:
We stopped at Edfu Temple:
A 'newer' temple where the workmanship wasn't as good:Highlight of the day...Egyptians like to recycle/reuse everything. I found out that when we were at port, these garbage boats would pull up to collect the garbage from the cruise boats. These entrepreneurs would recycle or reuse whatever they could:
More photos:

Day 7 - 1st Day on the Nile, Esna, Galabeyas

One year ago today, I was cruising up the Nile River on the "Nile Adventurer", our home for the next few days. This is how we spent half our time:
We made one stop at Esna Temple:When we got close to port, guys rowed up and started throwing galabeyas (traditional Egyptian wardrobe) up on our boat. They trusted that if you decided to keep one, that you'd put money in the bag and throw that back down to them:
Highlight of the day...I discovered my favorite cucumbers in the world! I ate them at breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the boat:
More Photos:

Day 6 - Valley of the Kings, Habu Temple, Luxor Temple

On this day, we saw quite a bit. Colosal of Memnon, Habu Temple, Workman Village, Valley of the Queens, Valley of the Kings, Hatchepsut's Temple, and Luxor Temple.

Habu Temple was one of the many dedicated to Ramses III (he ruled for over 30 years, so lots of time to build stuff for him). Here's his cartouche, notice how deep it is carved out, no one was going to erase his name!
My only picture from the Valley of the Kings (as we couldn't even take cameras onto the grounds). We did go in King Tuts tomb, which was pretty awesome!
After a carriage ride to Luxor Temple, we stayed there for sunset and to see the illumination of the temple at night (they like to light stuff up for the tourists). You could see the waves of peoples who moved through this land...mosque built on top of a christian church from the crusades, which was built on top of the ancient Egyptian temple.

Highlight of the day - Ramses III's toilet at Habu Temple...the drainage was even piped out of the downwind side of the temple.

See more photos here:

Day 5 - Luxor, Karnak, and a Faluka Ride

We were up early and flew to Luxor. It was amazing to see the Nile from up above, literally just a little strip of green in a vast desert. In Luxor, we first visited Karnak, a huge temple and, if I remember right, the largest/most intact temple site. Probably could have spent all day there, as the 1 1/2 hrs we were there was nowhere near enough.

The color on some of the buildings was incredible (and supposedly not touched up, only cleaned off).After lunch, I went for a walk...the only one I went on by myself the whole trip, because while the men who approached me were harmless I'm sure, I was still a little uncomfortable. But I just *happened* to stumble upon the wastewater treatment plant tho, go figure.

Highlight of the day...definitely the faluka ride. There wasn't enough breeze to actually 'sail', so we were pulled the whole way by another boat. But the sunset was spectacular!

For more photos...

Day 4 - Memphis & Sakkara

On this day, we went to Memphis, which was the site of a previous capital, and Sakkara which had the oldest pyramid - Step Pyramid. Memphis had a collection of items which were all brought to one location. There was a new museum in Sakkara which we had time to visit, and there I saw my first mummy.

Highlight of the day...we got to go inside one of the pyramids, one with lots of paintings and color (more so even than the great pyramids - or so we were told). Unfortunately we weren't allowed to even take our cameras in, so no pictures.

For the days photos...

Day 3 - Dahshur & Giza (The Great Pyramids)

We started our official tour on Day 3. It was too foggy to see the pyramids near our hotel, so we headed to Dahshur instead to see the 'older' pyramids. Then after lunch, we went back to the Great Pyramids and saw the Sphinx.

Highlight of the day...the Solar Boat. A wooden boat found disassembled and in a vault covered by giant stones, buried outside the largest pyramid. It took archeologists years to figure out how to piece it together. All the pieces were well preserved, the only thing they had to replace was the rope which held everything together.

Oh yeah, and I rode a camel...
For the rest of the days photos...

Photos are shown in reverse chronological order (if anyone can help fix this...please let me know, in Photobucket they are in the right order)

For a direct link to Photobucket, click on "View all" above.

First Full Day in Egypt

We didn't do much. It was nice to relax at our hotel and wander around the grounds to get acclimated to the time difference.

Here's the view from my hotel room:
First glimpse of the pyramids, which were across the street from the hotel:
We learned that these sticks represented where the top of this pyramid used to be:
Wandering around the grounds, view of Giza outside the secure hotel walls:Busy street outside of hotel:
Like I said, the pyramids were DIRECTLY across the street:
Walking back to the building where we were staying:
My room was on the 2nd floor:
It was interesting to see how the time of day made a big difference in how well we could see the pyramids from our room:
Sunset:
Fireworks in the evening over the pyramids:

1 Year Ago Today...

...I had arrived in Cairo for a two week vacation!
Since I never blogged about it last year, I'm going to try to now.

We had a layover in Paris, and it was snowing:

Oberoi Mena House, our hotel, in Giza:

They were celebrating xmas on Jan 7th, so the hotel was still decorated for the holidays:

My hotel room:
The snacks waiting for us in our rooms:

New Years Resolution

There's been much debate about whether or not to make new years resolutions, and then whether or not to share them. I don't typically make one officially, but 13 years ago I did. That resolution was to become a vegetarian and I've stuck with it ever since. This year, I decided to go vegan at home. So there it is, now you all can hold me accountable to it.

To help me get a jumpstart, I've joined PCRM's 21 day Vegan Kickstart program (for more info, click HERE).

The first recipe I made - Hoppin John Salad: