These are some of the buses in our caravan. You now know why there were so many tourists at each of the sites. We all arrived together. I guess it is safer for us that way.
A desert settlement.
The desert
The Nile
Karnak Temple, statues of Karnak
Beautiful scultures
Karnak Temple entrance
Canal Settlement
Valley of the Kings , no pictures allowed in the tombs, so this is it
Luxor Temple
Canal Community
Heiroglyphics everywhere
April 3
Wow, we are in Egypt. We had a really long day. We had to get up around 5 am to leave on the bus at 7 am and did not return to the ship until 11:30 pm. We rode on the bus for 3 1/2 hours to go from Safaga to Luxor. We rode across the desert in a caravan of about 20 buses and escorted by armed guards, and there were armed checkpoints very often. We felt very protected. It seems there was some trouble in the late 1990's where tourists were kidnapped and killed, so the Egyptian government is protecting us. There were even guards on little bridges in the towns we passed thru, along with the guards we saw at each attraction.
The first place we went was the Karnak's Temple. It is the place where you might have seen pictures of the huge amount of pillars. We only had about an hour to walk around, but we could have spent a whole day walking around and a whole lifetime with info on what is in there.
Then we went to lunch in a posh hotel restaurant. It was a little of a lot of Egyptian food. Then, off to the valley of the kings. We were able to see 3 different tombs. Unfortunately, we were unable to take pictures in the tombs. So we can't show you what we saw. We saw Ramses III and Ramses IV and Sapith. At Ramses IV 's tomb the walls and ceilings were covered with paintings and carvings in amazing colors. They protected the walls with glass. Then at Ramses III, the walls and ceilings were even more amazing, but they were not protected at all. We wonder why. The third thomb was totally different from the other 2. The walls when you come in where decorated a little, but the rest of the walls and ceiling were totally empty of anything. The walls were rough, not even smoothed. We wonder, was it left this way, was it desecrated by tomb robbers or by the Egyptologist to take the walls to a museum?
Again, the time we had for seeing the tombs was not nearly enough. We were unable to see Tut's tomb, which was OK since they had removed Tut from the tomb last month. They sell tickets for the Tut tomb separately. We need to go back and see everything else there is to see.
Then we returned to Luxor to see the Luxor Temple. Another amazing temple, and right in the city. By now, we were getting a little templed out. But, at the same time, it was awesome. I would love to know what all the hieroglyphics mean.
Then we got back on the bus for the 3 1/2 hour caravan back to the ship. The ship was scheduled to leave at 10:00 with a last call "all aboard" at 9:30. We, all 7 buses, did not get back on the ship until 10:30. Luckily they wailted for us.
Since all the buses arrived at the same time, we were stuck on the dock for about an hour to get back on the ship.
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