Luxor

It is now Monday March 2 and we have headed south to Luxor. We did indeed depart the Hilton at 5:00 to catch our 8:00 Air Cairo flight to Luxor. So far we have a very favourable impression of Egyptian people - with the exception of the overly determined street merchants. We have found them to be very kind, gentle people with big hearts. At the airport we had to go through 3 pat downs and x-rays. These guys are security crazy. I guess it goes with the territory.

As you fly over the Sahara you wonder where the 100 million people in Egypt actually live because this is absolute desolation. Actually I know the answer to that question. They live along the Nile, but mostly from Cairo to the Mediterranean. You can see all kinds of signs of erosion from the flooding of the Nile in this land. Of course the Nile had been flooding for thousands of years until just recently, about the 1970s. The topography here is astounding and I swear I saw Lawrence on his camel. All along the Nile you can see signs of irrigation and then all of a sudden it’s just desert again.

As soon as we deplaned in Luxor, we were off to tour the Temple of Karnak. This temple built about 4000 years ago is the largest of its kind. There were one or two tourists here.

I would say this temple is at least 1sq. Km. and it is in constant rediscovery and rebuilding. In fact it is significantly larger than in 1978. These ancient Egyptians certainly liked things on a large scale. They were also masters of graffiti in its earliest form.

Next we were checked into our river boat, the Royal Princess. This boat was one of about 10 docked here. We will stay in place until tomorrow when we head south. The boat in this picture is actually similar to ours is parked beside it, four boats away and there are still two more stacked next to us before the open Nile.

We enjoyed one of the better lunches that we have had so far. After finally unpacking our suitcases for a while anyway, we headed out to check out one business typical to this area - an essence factory. You had a good opportunity to drop a fair chunk of change here. Next was a visit to the Luxor Temple, small in comparison to Karnak but definitely finished in the same style. One of the highlights here is the Sphinx Avenue, 3 km in length. Our boat is actually moored right beside this temple.

All the colour you see in any of this stone is original, by the way - we’re talking thousands of years old. Of course when you get into a place like this people go crazy with their cameras and start wandering off here and there and our Nexus guide describes his job keeping everyone together as herding a bunch of cats. The longer that we were at this temple the better the lighting was for photographs.