Travel

Our Day 8

Flight back from Hurghada to Cairo

Egyptian Museum

We got picked up from the airport and came directly to Egyptian Museum. Our guide met us at the museum. There is no camcorder allowed in the museum. We have to leave that at the locker near the entrance.

Egyptian Museum, we covered high level and so many things to see here. There are so many statues, sarcophagus, tools, jewelry, fragments of tombs and doors, vases, pottery and statues with inlaid eyes – so realistic.

Mask of different Kings. These are also gold ones.

Different sarcophagus in the museum. There are so many different types from wood, marble, stone and many more..

Only statue that is available for Khufu. Great Pyramid of Giza is built by King Khufu.

King Tut’s Treasure

King Tutankhamun was the son of Akhenaten (formerly Amenhotep IV) and one of Akhenaten’s sisters, or possibly one of his cousins. As a prince, he was known as Tutankhamun.

King Tutankhamun, was probably 19 years old wen eh died. He ruled for six years during 1323 B.C.E. He became famous because there is lot of treasure found in his tomb by Carter.

Real mummies

Lunch

Egyptian food for the lunch.

Synagogue

Building where Jewish assembly meets for religious worship and instruction.

Coptic Church

Coptic Cairo is a part of Old Cairo which encompasses the Babylon Fortress, the Coptic Museum, the Hanging Church, the Greek Church of St. George and many other Coptic churches and historical sites.

Tahrir Square

Dinner

Last dinner in Cairo before we start back home.

Our Day 6

Drive from Luxor to Hurghada is around 3 hrs 50 mins. We started around 8AM in the morning. We had a driver and another Memphis tour person with us.

Almost every mile had a security every where with guns at check points.

We got upgraded from Hilton to Continental Hurghada, heard this way better than Hilton. Thanks to our Tour manager, it was a beautiful resort.

Our package includes breakfast and dinner at the resort. By the time we reach Hurghada, it was 2PM and we decided to eat the lunch at the same hotel. They only had buffet at that time. I guess we had enough buffets already by now. All of us are picky now to eat the items in the buffet.

Relaxing day at resort today. A Private beach at continental and walk in the beach.

Dinner time..

Sugars..sugars…sugars…Egyptian Desserts for dinner

Our Day 7

Exploring Hurghada. Hurghada has both water activities and dessert activities. We decided to go on Semi Sub Marine and in the afternoon a Quad bike and jeep safari in the Dessert.

Red Sea here we come…

Tired of buffets we ordered room service before we get picked up for the 5 in 1 Dessert Safari.

Desert Adventure Safari

Fun filled after on the Dessert with Quad Bike, Spyder Buggy drive in the dessert. Krish drove the quad bike with our guide sitting behind and Indy first time drove the Spyder buggy.

Lonely Tree

Rolling down the Sand dunes, sand every where in the kids dresses, socks and shoes.

Camel Ride

Bedouin village in desert

Bedouin women making roti in the dessert using all natural source for making fire.

Dinner in the dessert…

Entertainment during dinner with Belly Dance, Egyptian Tanoura (Spinning) Dance and few other dance performances.  A magician show as well included.

Dessert craving after a Desert Safari….

Good night folks….

Our Day 5

Luxor an ancient city of Thebes. the great capital of (Upper) Egypt during the New Kingdom, and the glorious city of Amun, later to become the god Amun-Ra.

Luxor West Bank has Valley Of Kings – used as cemetery for Pharaohs and East Bank for huge temples Karnak and Luxor temples.

Luxor is also a World’s largest out door museum.

As usual our day started with a nice breakfast. Don’t forget to take water bottles to the dinning hall in cruise. Water bottles are expensive in the cruise and our guide suggested to buy some before sailing. We bought around 5 or 6 big water bottles in Aswan before the cruise started.

Luxor – West Bank – Colossi of Memnon

A quick stop to Colossi of Memnon.

There are two huge statues originally built in the 14th century B.C.E. as part of a mortuary temple for Egyptian ruler Amenhotep III. The Colossi are located in what’s now Luxor, Egypt, but it was called Thebes, the capital of the Egyptian empire at the time. And if you’re wondering why we’re calling them the Colossi of Memnon instead of the Funerary Temple of Amenhotep III or something, when Alexander the Great came into power in 332 B.C.E., he pretty much took over everything (including Egypt). Greeks and Romans started to come in to see the sights, and that’s how the Greek figure Memnon came to be associated with the place and the mysterious dawn-song.

Memnon was a mortal Greek from Homer’s “Iliad”. After his death, his mother Eos (the goddess of dawn) lamented his death by shedding tears or dew drops every morning. The Colossi at Memnon were named because there really was a time when, on some days at dawn, one of the statues would give off a high-pitched sound. Greeks, and later Romans, attributed the “singing” to Eos, Memnon’s mother, mourning for her son.

There is still some excavation going on here..

There were so many Hot air balloon rides near Valley of Kings…

Luxor – West Bank – Valley of Kings

Valley of Kings is a cemetery for Pharaohs and Kings. Valley has mostly limestone and sedimentary rock. There are more than 1000 tombs in this valley and until now around 100 tombs are identified. These tombs are built by excavating deep in the mountains and valley. Lot of tombs are robbed by Tomb robbers in the olden times. Kings and Pharaohs tried their best to hide their tombs from tomb robbers, but even with technology we are trying to find out these days..

Ancient  Egyptian Pharaohs believed in life after death. They start building they tombs after they are born. The pharaohs were expected to become one with the gods.  As a result, they built elaborate tombs in preparation for their afterlife.

Tombs are filled with cloths, furniture, beds, food, gold and all the things they need in their after life. In Egypt when Pharaoh dies, they make slaves statues and put it in the tomb along with them.

Mummification was a method done to preserve the bodies of the dead kings.

The modern abbreviation “KV” stands for “Kings’ Valley”, and the tombs are numbered according to their order of ‘discovery’, from KV1(Rameses VII) to KV64 (discovered in 2012).

There is a small tram that takes the tourists form visitor center to the main tomb area. There are always not all the tombs opened and they list which tombs are opened on that day. Some tombs have ramps up and some have down, they are all small walks and not that strenuous.

Our ticket is allowed for any 3 tombs that are open on that day. King Tut’s tomb entry is a separate ticket, which we bought. Also, bought photo pass for camera, so that I can take pictures peacefully. There are guards every where checking, do you have photo pass? They expect people to take pictures and give them money, if you don’t have photo pass.

Out guide talked about some of the tombs, things to look at in the tombs like snakes, Monekys representation, Kings after life details and more . He also recommended 3 tombs , KV2 – Rameses IV, KV6 – Rameses IX, KV11 – Rameses III.

KV11 – Rameses III

Rameses III – This is the first tomb we visited and quiet surprised to see the colors of the paintings in the wall. It tells story of their life and how much importance Pharaohs give to after life.

Usimare Ramesses III was the second Pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty. He is considered to be the last monarch of the New Kingdom to wield any substantial authority over Egypt.

His Red granite sarcophagus is in Louvre Museum now.

KV6 – Rameses IX

Neferkare Ramesses IX was the eighth king of the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt. He was the third longest serving king of this Dynasty after Ramesses III and Ramesses XI.

Lot of tombs has spells captured from The Book of Dead. This book has a collection of spells to assist a dead person’s journey through the underworld and into the afterlife.

KV2 – Rameses IV

Heqamaatre Ramesses IV was the third pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. His name prior to assuming the crown was Amonhirkhopshef.

This is highly recommended tomb and very crowded because the colors are so vibrant and art work intricate. These colors are applied thousands of years and ago and they are still so bright beautiful.

Tomb of King Tut

King Tutankhamun tomb is a separate ticket and it is LE200 per person. This is the only tomb that has line to go inside. There is no pictures inside the King tut Tomb. There is his mummy also in the tomb. He is so short. There is security and monitoring camera’s inside. Also, there is baboon pictures on the wall that our guide talked about. We were lucky to see his mummy as some times his mummy is sent to UK or Framce to take care and process.

This is where 700 kgs of gold is found and so much history with this king.

Temple of Hatshepsut

The Temple of Hatshepsut is not only a memorial temple that honors Queen Hatshepsut, it is also one of the greatest Egyptian architectural achievements. It has 3 levels.

I read some where in the net that “The temple is considered one of the incomparable monuments of ancient Egypt.  Also, the temple is aligned to the winter solstice sunrise, which makes it popular with spiritual people and yogis who come to the temple and sit there all day soaking up its energy and meditating. ”

We were waiting for shopping in Luxor for buying some Granite Souvenirs at Alabaster factory. After a long bargaining we bought a Pyramid , Anubis status, Horus status and Blue Nefertiti in lapis lazuli. Everyone were waiting for us in bus while we were shopping.

Reached our cruise and had another buffet lunch. There was Egyptian special dishes every day in the buffet like small okra curry, green leaf curry, Califlower fry, Duck curry one day, Egg plant curry. There was also atleast 2 items of  either fish/chicken/pork/beef. Taste was good as well.

Luxor – East Bank – Karnak Temple

Karnak Temple is the – Largest Religious Site Of The Ancient World

While the oldest structures date back to around 4,000 years ago, most are considerably younger, keeping in mind that the city of temples formed over a period of 2,000 years. Originally, it was actually also part of Thebes, the ancient Egyptian capital. Today, it is also a protected UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Karnak was the official home of the god Amun.

As with so many things at Karnak Temple complex, the hypostyle hall is massive, covering an area of 54,000 square feet, and home to no less than 134 huge columns measuring 23 meters in height. It is only when you actually stand inside the hall amongst its forest of columns that you truly get to appreciate just how wealth the New Kingdom had and to what extend Amun was revered.

There is a path way for 3KM from Karnak Temple to Luxor temple lined on both sides with carved sphinxes.

Luxor Temple

Luxor Temple is one of six ancient temples found in the vicinity of Luxor. It was built by Amenophis III for worshiping the gods Amun, Chons and Mut

Luxor temple was built in 1400 BCE during the reign of Amenophis III and was known to the Egyptians as the Southern Sanctuary. Later, Tuthmosis III and Alexander the Great both built chapels on the grounds, located just to the rear of the main temple. The temple, as well as the other structures at the site is all built from Nubian sandstone that was transported to the site from quarries in southwestern Egypt. During the Roman period, the temple was used almost exclusively as a fortress as well as serving as the headquarters of the Roman Government.

One of the most awe-inspiring features at Luxor Temple is it imposing colonnade comprising a total of 14 columns that are topped with papyrus shaped capitals. Each column is roughly 23 meters high, with a circumference of around 10 meters. Both sides on the colonnade are enclosed with masonry walls that are covered with reliefs showing scenes relating to the festival of Opet. The colonnade, along with the decorated walls was completed during the reign of King Tutankhamun and King Horemheb.

That’s our Luxor west and east bank trip.

Another dinner buffet in Movenpick Sunray cruise.  Last dinner in cruise..

Live music with Belly Dancer and Egyptian Tanoura (Spinning) Dancer. Tanoura dance is done by men spinning with some drums, and lights. He was almost spinning for more than 15 mins non stop in same direction doing something. For me spinning 3 or 4 rounds will make fall…15 mins no way..

Our Day 4

Cruise sailed at 12 to 4AM and reached small town of Kom Ombo is situated on the East side of the Nile, 45 kilometers to the North of the city of Aswan, about 800 kilometers to the South of Cairo. Seems like all the cruises have same schedule. A 5 min walk to this temple called “Temple of Kom Ombo”. Temple is shared by 2 gods. God Sobek – God of strength and power, God Haroeris (Horus) – God of light

Temple of Kom Ombo

The people of ancient Egypt worshiped crocodiles while both loving and fearing them. They were a symbol of power, virility and fertility. As the Crocodile God, Sobek protected the Egyptian army, the pharaohs, and the ancient Egyptian people. His strength and courage allowed the Pharaoh to overcome obstacles and also protected him from evil magic.

Horus the falcon god was Egypt’s first national god worshiped by all of Egypt. Horus was also known as: Sun God or War God or falcon God. Horus is always seen as the ruler of the gods represented by a falcon.

Medical kit for Doctors and a women delivering baby

Slaves tied  and a falcon all over the temple…

Pedestals of Sobek and Horus

A quick stop to a crocodile museum near by the temple, where mummies of huge crocodiles are there.

Shops while walking to the cruise

Relaxing break on the cruise while sailing to Edfu.

A 5 course meal served for Lunch. Awesome food taste wise and variety.

Temple of Edfu – Temple of Horus

Reached Edfu by the time we finished lunch on the cruise. A small ride to Temple of Horus in a horse driven cart.

The temple, dedicated to the falcon god Horus. The Temple of Edfu is the second largest temple in Egypt built with sandstone blocks.  It seems it took close to 180 years to complete the construction of the Temple of Horus.

The Temple of Edfu is comprised of a main entrance, a courtyard and a chapel.

The most striking features of the Temple of Horus are the gigantic pylons that stand at the entrance to the temple. At 118 feet high, they are decorated with battle scenes of King Ptolemy VIII defeating his enemies for Horus. As the tallest of the surviving Egyptian temples, the pylons also contain four large grooves that would have been used to anchor flags.

Pillars are huge and imagining the temple is build around 200BC .

Edfu town

Few experiences in the Nile Cruise today.

1. Cruise crew bring down the Gazebos on the top deck as it is high tide and while going under the bridge. We try to touch the bridge by jumping, but timing was not there…:)

2. Esna Lock : Sail through the Esna lock in Upper Egypt, where the water level is high on one side and low on other side. so cruise goes in to a small gates and they bring the water down or up to match the level. In our case we were going form high to low, so cruise went 3 levels down.

3. Beautiful evening light for photography

Crew Performance

Crew performance and Oriental show “Gallabia party”.

Dinner Time

Entering the Esna lock and the water levels in the net pictures shows the cruise going down.

Day 3 of trip was started with traveling to Aswan.

Our pick up time for airport is at 4:30AM. Thanks to jet lag we didn’t had problem waking up at that time. We requested for a box break fast from hotel and ate at 4AM at the hotel. Our Memphis Tour pick up driver was on time and there was one more person from Memphis tour got in our car near airport. He came with us inside and got us the boarding pass for Aswan flight with Nile Air and left us at the gate. What a service?

There were so many Chinese group travelers for Egypt, 3/4th of the flight is filled with them.

We were early to the airport for our flight NP 0081 (NILE AIR ) CAIRO to Aswan at 7:10Am. we got a small snack in the flight as well a Veg sand witch, beef sand witch with juice. We reached Aswan on time at 8:35AM.

There was Memphis travel manager at the airport for gathering and arranging our next step. He handed over to our guide for next 4 days Hassan. We traveled in mini van to the cruise ship location through old Aswan Dam. Guide Hassan is from Aswan and he started telling about our trip Itinerary .

We were supposed to be in Steigenberger Minerva cruise, but we got upgraded to Movenpick Sun Ray.  Our rooms were not ready, so we were hanging out at the top deck and bar lounge. Kids were playing and we have been walking and exploring.

Seems like Egyptians eat Lunch and Dinner very late. Our guide at Cairo was also telling that they eat breakfast at 11Am, Lunch at 3PM and Dinner at 9 or 10PM. Our Lunch at cruise was 1:30PM. A nice buffet with some Egyptian specialties. They made Aloo/peas curry thinking that we were vegetarians.

We started our afternoon trip to Aswan with our Guide Hassan.

Aswan – Granite Quarry – Unfinished obelisk

The obelisk’s creators began to carve it directly out of bedrock, but cracks appeared in the granite and the project was abandoned. The bottom side of the obelisk is still attached to the bedrock.

The unfinished obelisk offers unusual insights into ancient Egyptian stone-working techniques, with marks from workers’ tools still clearly visible as well as ocher-colored lines marking where they were working.

We can see how people used to cut the stone and move with flood on Nile river. Red Granite was carried from this Quarry to built the Great Pyramid.

There are modern constructions are closing by this site.. you can see that in the first picture below..

Aswan – High Dam

By the time we reached High Dam kids were so sleepy, second one slept in Van and first one was Zombie walking. 10 hrs Jet lag hit us hard. There is heavy security near old dam , high dam. Check post and security on alert all the time.

Some Background  : The dam is fed by the River Nile and the reservoir forms Lake Nasser. The dam was constructed to regulate the flow of the river, which serves the whole of Egypt.

Flooding of the Nile occurs annually, with almost half of the water being drained into the sea wastefully. The dam controls floods by regulating the flow of river and supplies water for irrigation throughout the year, which almost doubles the agricultural yield.

The dam also improved navigation across the Nile, benefiting the tourism and fishing industries. Water from the dam is used to feed 12 power turbines, which provides half of Egypt’s power demands. The reservoir also helps supply water during droughts.

Below image shows the Nile origin and full flow.

A small boat ride to the the Temple of Isis

The Temple of Philae

The Temple of Philae for Goddess Isis or Temple of Isis (goddess Isis, the wife of Osiris and mother of Horus)

The temple complex was dismantled , marked all the pieces with numbers and relocated to nearby Agilkia Island as part of the UNESCO Nubia Campaign project, protecting this and other complexes before the 1970 completion of the Aswan High Dam. It’s like build a temple with legos, dismantle and build same structure again. Is it even possible? seems like…

There were some pieces left after all the complex is rebuilt, those pieces have numbers, but no one knows where will they go.

first entrance

courtyard pictures are not doing justice to the scale of the pillars.

Trajan’s Kiosk of Philae

Shops at the entrance to the island. Seems like everything is Made in China.

We ended our tout by visiting a perfume and auroma therapy shop.

Cruise Welcome cocktail and followed by dinner..with special Poori and Aloo Paratha for our table…

Good night!!!

Our expedition in Egypt starts… Day 2

We were staying in Grand Nile Tower  along the Nile river. Wake up with very nice view from 22nd floor. We had nice breakfast from the hotel and we tried to stick to hot cooked food. Our guide came on time and was waiting for us in lobby. He showed our passports to the Travel police (seems like they track travelers using passports for safety) .  Our guide name was Osama, aka., Sam. He started saying history of Egypt using the map on Papyrus while driving to Giza. He told us difference between North and South Egypt from food, culture and people. It took us almost 40 mins to reach Giza Plateau.

               Our first stop for the day was the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the seven wonders of the world.

Pyramids of Giza . There are total of 9 Pyramids in the Giza Plateau. The Great Pyramid of Giza also known as Pyramid of Cheops or Khufu. His son’s Pyramid with cap still on it  Pyramid of Khafre. BTW..Son built his pyramid on higher ground to look bigger than his father’s Pyramid. Third pyramid Pharaoh Menkaure’s Pyramid.

It’s huge and massive and can’t believe people build it in 3000B.C., 4500 years back…

Our first look at the Great pyramid was aww…….phone was not able to capture the scale after going little closer.

Look at the size comparison with standing close. Lot of these stone are quarried in Aswan and got it on Nile to build this.

Even though some people mentioned it will be claustrophobic, we don’t want to miss the great opportunity to go inside the great pyramid. We need to buy another ticket to go inside.  Also, no camera’s inside. You have to bend and walk on these wooden stairs to reach a place in the middle.

After the wooden stairs,  there were another bunch of stairs in a narrow place to reach to a chamber.

Inside the chamber, there is still a Sarcophagus – a stone coffin in which they found mummified bull inside the Great Pyramid.

Here we are after little claustrophobic.. outside of the Great Pyramid. There are lot of exploring happening now… Seems like 2 researchers trying to find what is behind the 3 holes where air is coming and they were not able to figure it out. They hit solid wall behind.Imagine the exact size and shape of the rocks put together on top of each other to build this massive structure.

Engineering is at peaks I guess…

The surface of the pyramid has been taken by people , that’s the reason we are not seeing the smooth surface. Only few spots you can see this smooth covering of the pyramid.

We went to a view point after that where you can see all 3 big Pyramids and take some  pictures. We were posing like touching , lifting , jumping and all poses. Our guide was good to suggest and help capture these.

Camel Ride

It’s time for Camel ride. There were 2 variations in the camel ride. Short and long. We took long one which goes along the dessert to the Sphinx and recommended by our guide for best views.  Our guide arranged the camel ride for us. Long one costs around $25 per person. Felt like camels are not well treated. The person who was taking camels stopped at couple of places and took pictures for us. People are very nice. They want to make sure we are satisfied (Guess what that’s how they get good tip).

Great Sphinx of Giza

Sphinx – a mythical creature with the body of a lion and the head of a human…. This is in front of the Pyramid of Khafre. There is a temple with red granite for the entrance in to this place. There is a wishing well, where people put the money inside.

One final look of the Pyramids…

Chairs are for light and sound show in the evening…

We went to shopping place where Papyrus is sold. People are selling art on the papyrus looking paper which is $1. Seems like that is made of Banana tree and it won’t last. Papyrus is paper, made out of a plant grown along the Nile river. It is natural and art stays years together on this. This shop was little pricey, but they said it is legitimate and ready for some bargain. We bought a calendar, map and some empty papers as gift for friends. We paid 2250 Egyptian pounds equals to $130 dollars for this. Pretty expensive stuff.

Our tummies are growling with all the walking and listening. Time for Lunch. Our guide took our choice and ordered food by the time we went to that restaurant. There was power outage and no fans and lights. Even in rest room, no light and it was too dark. That’s where you light helps in phone.

Food was really good and tasty.

Memphis

Memphis is one of the oldest and ancient city of Egypt, capital of the Old Kingdom (c.3100–c.2258 BC), located at the entrance to the Nile River Valley near the Giza Plateau, and about 12 mi from Cairo. It was founded by pharaoh Menes, the first king of united Egypt. What is there currently in Memphis, a small museum with Colossus of Ramesses II, a Alabaster Sphinx, a lot of Sarcophagi , and renovated Ramesses II status.

Colossus of Ramesses II The Colossus of Ramesses is an enormous statue carved in limestone. It is about 10m (33.8 ft) long, even though it has no feet, and is located near the village of Mit Rahina.

It takes about 5 to 6 days to carve this statue as this is carved in limestone. Also there is a lady carved on the statue thigh, representing one person in his life(even though there are more wives for Ramesses) .

Renovated Ramesses II Statue

The Sphinx of the Memphis

Here is Ramesses in ancient hieroglyphics

All the Memphis city has been looted and the stone are used for regular house constructions. It’s a very small place for tourists now. Nothing more than that. We can see some foundation stones under the current houses and buildings. Seems like people do find valuable Egyptian artifacts during their house constructions and most of the them will try to hide as Government will take their land if they report without any compensation. Each artifact might value millions of dollars….

Sakkara

Another 30 mins ride from Memphis to Sakkara. We have seen so many school kids boys and girls while driving to Sakkara. Vegetable markets has all fresh vegetables and they are huge vegetables.

Across the Great Court of the Pyramid Complex of Djoser (2667 – 2648 BC), the second king of the 3rd Dynasty, stands the step pyramid, located at Saqqara close to modern day Cairo. It is believed to have been created by one man, Imhotep. He has been called Doctor, Sage, Architect, Astronomer and High Priest. During an excavation in 1924-26, a pedestal of a statue of Djoser (Zoser) was found. This complex represents the first major work in stone. That is, unless there are other works that have yet to be found.

Time for some Tombs visit

Do you know how they bring the Sarcophagus down 30 feet under ground ? No ropes or wires will work. So what our guide told us was, they will fill that 30 feet hole with sand. There will be a hole at 30 ft down and people will start taking the sand out from under. Which will bring the Sarcophagus down.

We went to Carpet shop after our trip. There were 3 or 4 types of carpets. Pure silk carpet, which takes years to make. last one was machine made, which is faster and cheaper.

2 things:

1. Papyrus and Carpet shop, they offered some drink like Pepsi/Hibscus juice/Tea as Egyptian hospitality.

2. Tipping…. You are asked to give tip every where even for doing their job.

Thanks for joining me!

 — Saritha Kiran Nalagandla