Last Egypt post

We spent 2 days in Cairo after leaving the boat on the Nile. I had been really looking forward to seeing the pyramids and Sphinx, as well as touring the 2 big museums in the city. It was interesting to me to see how close Cairo is to these “Wonders of the Ancient World”.

The largest pyramid, the Great Pyramid of Khufu, is the left most one in the picture above and dates to 2700 - 2500 BC (4600 years old!). The center one still has the limestone casing at the top, which all three originally had covering all four sides, to make them shine immensely brightly in the sun.

I don’t know why, but I was just kinda disappointed in how rough the pyramids looked.

We got to go into the middle pyramid, but again, I was unimpressed (I guess since we had seen Luxor and Valley of the Kings). It was a somewhat claustrophobic passageway…

… and the only thing to see was a stone sarcophagus:

The Sphinx was something I have always wanted to see -

… but the reality disappointed, due to all the “stuff” around -

I just wanted the Sphinx and the pyramids with empty desert surrounding them…

We then headed to the Step Pyramid at Saqqara that is the oldest monumental structure ever built -

I’m sorry that I don’t have any people in that enormous courtyard, or against the pyramid for scale.

We then headed to the site of Memphis, which was the ancient capital of Lower Egypt, and were impressed with the colossal granite statue of Ramesses II -

It was originally 30 ft tall, and the anatomic detail was amazing -

Now here was a sphinx I could really appreciate. It is one of the largest monuments made from alabaster.

Before I relate our last day in Cairo, I don’t want to forget to mention our first day in Cairo, before we even went to Jordan. We took a tour of “Coptic Cairo”, checking out the Old City and a number of the churches in the area.

The “Hanging Church” is called that because it was built over a Roman fortress and is one of the oldest churches in Egypt. It was built about 690 AD and has some gorgeous mosaics on the walls of the courtyard leading to it -

It happened to be Good Friday in the Greek Orthodox liturgical calendar, so we couldn’t go in most of the churches due to services being held. However, The Church of St George…

… was open…

… so we could peek in and marvel at the beauty -

Now, for some pictures of daily life in Cairo.

I couldn’t get all those stalls, as well as the tuk-tuks, donkey drawn carts, and tons of cars and pedestrians, into one picture.

The Old City Bazaar was filled with people in all manner of dress, and shops with an amazing variety of “stuff”.

So, I’ll finally end with our last day in Cairo, that we spent at The Egyptian Museum, and the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. The former felt like a garage sale or attic of a hoarding grandparent. The building was simply enormous and stuffed, almost haphazardly, with innumerable objects that were centuries and millennia-old.

These were delicately carved canopic jars of alabaster, for the bodily organs of King Tut.

And these are more examples of amazing alabaster carvings -

The lapis lazuli on this golden mask really caught my eye:

There was a room of “King Tut’s Treasures” that were beautiful in both their handiwork and the materials used, but alas, no pictures were allowed.

This was a granite capstone from one of the pyramids:

The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization was where the recent “Parade of Mummies” ended, to exhibit them in a better home than the older Egyptian Museum. In early April this year, 22 mummies were paraded through the streets of Cairo, with a lot of pomp and circumstance. The exhibit hall was very nice and it was interesting to see the actual mummies, and read their history. Again, unfortunately, pictures were not allowed.

I kept being drawn to alabaster statuary -

This is a hint of what had been in Tut’s tomb -

Ok. Enough museum stuff.

At times, I was pinching myself, saying, “yeah, we’re really here!”

More days on the Nile

I knew that our 6 day river cruise on the Nile went from Luxor to Aswan. Silly me to not look up a map before we left. We traveled south on the river, but in the topsy turvy world of the Nile, this is traveling UP river. We were on the Nile Queen, a sailboat that had no motor power. The few hours during our entire time on the river that there was enough wind to put up the sails, the boat looked pretty neat.

However, the reality was that for the large majority of our trip, we were TOWED upriver by a tugboat…

… not nearly so glamorous.

The lushness along the river at times was gorgeous -

One day’s excursions had us using a variety of transportation methods. First up was by tuk-tuk…

… and later by carriage -

The sites we were visiting paled in comparison to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings, but they were still interesting, and beautiful in their own way. The Temple of Horus:

… was completed in 57 BC. Horus is the falcon headed god -

The carvings on the huge pylons were amazingly deep and almost three dimensional -

The next day, we went to a quarry…

… where we could still see evidence of how they moved the huge blocks of stone (ropes through the holes to allow the blocks to slowly slide down to the river?)

The marks on the rock wall on the right in the picture above were made by those sharpening their knives and other cutting implements.

The next temple we saw at Kom Ombo was dedicated to both Horus (the falcon headed god) and Sobek (the crocodile god) -

… and with color still present (see the picture above) after 3,000 years of exposure to the sun and wind!

The museum associated with the temple had crocodile mummies -

On our last day or touring, we went to the quarry where the obelisks were carved out for Hatshepsut. This was intended to be placed in Karnak Temple, but it cracked.

We also drove over the dam at Aswan. I had heard of the “High Dam” at Aswan, but had no idea what it meant. Basically, the Nile was first dammed at Aswan in 1902 by the British, but the Nile continued to flood around it, soon after it was built. The newer “High” dam was started in 1960 with USSR financial support, and completed 10 years later. My picture is not much, but the story was neat.

That picture was taken from the “old” dam, looking upriver at the High Dam.

The Temple of Philae was on an island between the two dams. Before it was flooded, it was carefully moved, piece by piece to a new island.

In that picture above, you can easily see the two pylons that stood as the entrance to the temple (echoing the idea that was used for millennia).

I’ve always liked rows of columns…

… and I especially liked how the tops of each column were different -

Artsy picture with the sun, and showing the intricacy of the carving -

Before we leave the story of the boat, I wanted to show you how secure the handrail was for exiting…

On our last night, the river was so smooth, it offered some awesome reflections.

Next post covers the pyramids.

Valley of the Kings

The second day on the Nile started super early for the rest of our group (0330) so they could do a sunrise balloon flight over the Valley of the Kings. Since we had done a balloon over the Serengeti, we opted to sleep in to 0500. ;) Sunrise on the Nile -

The Valley of the Kings is on the west side of the Nile at Luxor (we were on the east side the day before at the temples). This is where the royal tombs were cut deep into the sandstone hills you see in the picture above. From the 16th - 11th centuries BC, over 63 pharaohs and nobles were buried here, in gorgeously decorated tombs. “King Tut” was a very minor (and short lived) pharaoh, and I’m sure you’re aware of the riches found in his tomb. Imagine what must have been buried with Ramses the Great that was looted over the millennia.

We went into 3 different tombs…

…and were amazed at the vibrant colors still present after 3,500 years.

This huge stone sarcophagus was lowered into a tomb, but the entryway was too narrow, and so notches had to be cut into “doorframes” to let it pass -

We heard all sorts of interesting stories. Many carvings and statues were defaced by later pharaohs to try and erase the memory of their predecessors, or by Coptic Christians to defuse the power of the many gods depicted.

This was a rare (un-defaced) carving with its original coloring:

This was the tomb of Rameses III, and it was huge -

There a number of things to note in the picture above — the multitude of carved hieroglyphs; the vivid colors; the niches and side rooms off the main corridor, and its height; the deep blue color on the ceiling, with stars painted on it.

This tomb also had a rare depiction of musical instruments -

Current Egyptian excavation methods:

Near the Valley of Kings was the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut (my favorite female pharaoh). It looks like a little model, doesn’t it?

From this angle, it looks like the staircase goes straight up to the third level…

… when in fact, there is a broad plaza on the second level -

Hatshepsut was depicted on statues and columns with the ears of a cow…

… as a goddess who nourishes her people -

Words fail me at the intricacy of the carving and the colors still present 3,500 years later -

These were the only statues that we ever saw that had been painted. Even a female pharaoh had the beard depicted -

Even though we were all hot, tired and “tomb-ed” out, we had one more stop before our guide would let us stop for the day. In the Valley of the Nobles, there was some gorgeous carving inside a tomb (I loved the detail on the hair/wigs) -

It was also here that there was evidence of how the carvings were laid out…

… (“chalk” snap lines??) and rough drawings -

We then had a several hour bus ride to meet up with our boat that had headed upstream. In small villages we drove through, I saw metal containers or clay jars with common cups for thirsty passers-by:

We also saw different methods of transportation -

It was so interesting to see the narrow swath of green, irrigated land on either side of the river, and the desert just on the other side -

Next post will have more pictures of the Nile. Sorry, I don’t have any neat pictures to end this one with…

Luxor, Egypt

Luxor is a city in southern Egypt on the east bank of the Nile. It sits on the site of the ancient city of Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt during the New Kingdom (16th - 11th century BC). For those of you not well versed in ancient Egypt (like me), don’t worry…I’m not going to throw a lot of names and dates at you, other than to show how truly ancient the places we saw are.

The first site we visited was Karnak Temple. Most of the complex was built over 3,500 years ago.

That one picture has many interesting points in it — enlarge it to see visitors in traditional garb; rows of sphinxes with ram’s heads (we didn’t see this anyplace else); enormous columns, statues and obelisks.

Ramses II (or Ramesses II as he was referred to in Egypt) reigned for 66 years (died 1213 BC at the age of 90!)). Architecture flourished when he was Pharaoh, and he especially liked erecting statues of himself -

Some statues we saw had smaller people depicted between the legs of the main statue. These were children or wives of the pharaoh.

This Hypostyle Hall had 134 columns, most of which are 33 ft tall, while some are 69 ft tall! Seeing the carvings still present on them after 3000 years was amazing…

…and there are still colors!

We heard so many great stories, but I can’t begin to recall or retell them. I was especially drawn to those about Hatsheput, one of the very few female pharaohs. She had temples and statues built that were bigger and better than those of the pharaohs preceding her, to show how smart and great she was. This obelisk…

…stands at 29 meters (95 ft) and is the tallest of the 8 (still) standing obelisks in Egypt. A pharaoh after her reign wanted to erase her monuments, but rather than pull it down, it was built around to “hide” it -

Recently excavated, the “avenue of the sphinxes” was found to connect the 2 great temples in Luxor, Karnak and Luxor Temple (a mile apart).

The scale of Luxor Temple was quite eye opening (note the men in the shade at the base of the center statues) -

The inscription at the base of a statue is amazingly preserved, and depicts the uniting of Upper and Lower Egypt -

The columns in the central courtyard were made to resemble bundles of closed papyrus. Papyrus was the symbol of Lower Egypt (the Nile delta), while the lotus was the symbol of Upper Egypt.

The statues (of Ramses II, again) were carved of granite, while the buildings were made of sandstone -

This first day was very long, hot (104 degrees!), and exhausting. We just wanted to walk away…

… or at least, walk like an Egyptian.

I’ll tell more stories in the next post. ;)

Better Dead than Red?

The Dead Sea was our last stop in Jordan. On the way there, the hills had interesting layers of different minerals -

We were surprised at how blue the sea was -

The stillness of the water allowed some neat reflections:

As we stepped into the water, we saw some neat shimmering (salinity-clines,, like thermoclines?)

It was so fun to walk deeper into the water and find that when you were submerged to chest level, you suddenly weren’t walking on the bottom anymore, but suspended. Because the salinity is 33% (10x saltier than the ocean), you cannot sink. If you didn’t consciously keep your legs vertically under you, your feet literally popped out of the water.

Our next stop was to fly back to Egypt, to join the group from our local dive shop in Nashville, for a week of diving in the Red Sea. We stayed in the southern region of the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt.

The Red Sea has higher salinity than other oceans, so I needed to carry more lead weights in order to descend. Also, because the water was relatively cold (for me) at 75-78 degrees, I had a really thick wetsuit (7mm), necessitating yet more lead. Including the weight of the wetsuit and lead I needed to descend, I was carrying an extra 35 pounds over what I’ve needed on other dive trips. it really was exhausting. Steve dove without a wetsuit and carried 13 pounds of lead.

Our boat:

That picture was taken from a lighthouse on a reef out in the middle of the Sea, that we climbed to watch the sun set.

I know you’re just dying to see fish pictures, so here goes…

Blue spotted stingray

Arabian boxfish/bluetail trunkfish

Masked butterflyfish

Indian Sailfin tang

Those are all creatures that we had never seen before, and are only found in the Indian Ocean or Red Sea.

This Napoleon wrasse was huge (as big as me), and quite friendly -

We saw tons of giant clams with gorgeous mantles -

Now for some videos from our first night dive. I don’t usually dive at night because I get so cold when I get out. However, because of all my neoprene, I was toasty on every dive, and really enjoyed this dive because of all the things we saw. Underwater was all lit up due to everyone’s flashlights, so please forgive all the moving lights…

We thought we had seen some pretty big moray eels in the Caribbean, but the Giant Moray eels in the Red Sea put them to shame. This guy’s body was at least as thick as Steve’s thigh -

Now for some artsy photos…

Plate coral

A huge school of barracuda that met us as we ascended from a dive -

We would occasionally see Nemo (anemone fish)…

… and really enjoyed the babies -

This was the highlight of our diving, as we hadn’t ever had a leisurely swim with them before…

Good night from the Red Sea…

Wadi Rum

(be sure to open this post in a new tab so you can appreciate the colors and see the video)

Wadi Rum, also known as the Valley of the Moon, is a protected desert area in southern Jordan.

On our drive in, we had a welcoming committee -

One of their buddies was at the community watering hole -

There are no roads, so you are picked up by a Bedouin in a 4 x 4, and driven around to the sites, as well as to your tent camp.

If you enlarge the picture above, you can see 2 camps up against the rocks.

There are some canyons or crevices with greenery that we hiked into…

…to see petroglyphs. (our guide didn’t speak much English, so we didn’t learn too many details about the sites we stopped at)

Some of the rock walls on the way in looked like they were melting -

We hiked up and over an arch, to get spectacular 360 degree views -

The red sand everywhere was gorgeous, and made even more striking when compared to pale areas.

Another interesting hike we were sent on, was a bit daunting. Our guide dropped us off at the opening of a canyon, and said to follow it for about 20 minutes, and he’d pick us up on the other end. (what???)

We were hoping that the correct path was the sandy one off to the right…

… and happily, we came out the other end, sandy and hot, but successful.

Our guide said there are about 100 tent camps scattered through the desert, but very few are open right now, due to lack of tourists. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any specific pictures of the Bedouin tent camp that we spent the night in (with a handful of 20-somethings), but you can see the tops of most of the tents, in this picture I took in the early morning:

We did a super touristy thing of a camel ride in the desert at sunrise. It was actually quite fun, as the coolness was nice, and the changing light was neat to see. Our trusty steeds:

Watching them unfolding was interesting, but riding them while they stood up was pretty “rocky” (make sure you have your sound up to hear the camel grumbling) -

Yes, I’m still into shadow pictures -

Wind carved rocks in early morning:

Goodbye from the desert!

Petra day 2

So when our guide met us the next morning, he said he had been trying to figure out what he was going to do with us, after Steve had sent him a selfie of us at the Monastery the day before. I knew there were several trails I wanted to explore, so I was pretty sure we’d see a lot and stay busy.

On our way through the Siq again, he pointed out the remains of a carving of a man and a camel…

… as well as 2 camels:

Seeing the sights in different light was pretty neat (this was about 0730):

Forgive the slight blurriness of the next picture, but it’s the only one I have that shows where the current level of the “street” is, and what may still be hidden.

Many of the tombs were topped with a double staircase, signifying going up and coming down from the heavens:

“You want me to go where?”

Our first big hike was up to the High Place of Sacrifice, along gorgeous multicolored walls again -

Looking down on the Royal Tombs…

… and in more detail -

In the picture above, you can see a person for scale in the bottom right corner. You can also see the double staircases adorning the tops of the tombs.

A bird’s eye view of the valley and part of the complex:

The Theater could seat 8500, and again, was carved, not built.

Inside a tomb, you could see amazingly straight lines…

…on enormous scale (remember, carved by hand).

More beautiful colors -

A Byzantine church was built in Petra in the fifth century AD, and the mosaics on the floor are well preserved -

I loved the color of the columns from the “blue church” (the stone is blue Egyptian granite) -

As we left for the last time, the Treasury had yet a different lighting around noon -

Petra

Having a UNESCO World Heritage site to yourself is a traveler’s dream, and one that we were very pleased to receive. We arrived in the modern city of Petra around noon, and were scheduled to have a guide for the next day. We did some quick research and decided to try making it to the Monastery and back before the entrance closed at 7 pm. The afternoon light was supposed to be optimal for that site. The confounding factor was that it was 6+ km to get there, including 800 steps at the end. We were some of the last tourists (we’re guessing) to enter the gates at 3:30 pm. [you definitely should open this post in a separate tab to be able to appreciate the colors]

You enter the ancient city of Petra by walking through the Siq, which is a 1 km long slot canyon. The wind and water carvings in the rocks looked like laser etching sometimes -

The Indiana Jones moment…

The Bedouins leave their camels for the photo op.

We didn’t tarry at this site, as we had “miles to go…” before we could rest. It felt like heresy to fly past this, but we knew we’d be able to spend as much time as we wanted tomorrow. (that photo has not been retouched at all - the sandstone was really that pink)

I was mesmerized by the multicolored layers in the rocks of the Royal Tombs. I had never read anything hinting about how gorgeous they were.

The Colonnaded Street looking back at the Royal Tombs:

Ok, some history… Petra was once a thriving trading center and the capital of the Nabatean empire between 400 BC and 106 AD, before it was swallowed up by the Roman Empire.

Now on with our story… :) In the next picture you can see the women on the stairs in the bottom right, and the men on donkeys. We were pestered constantly as we trudged on, to accept a donkey ride, including up the 800 steps.

The vivid colors in the surrounding rocks kept me climbing…

This was my favorite shot of the Monastery. We were never sure how much farther we had to go, and kept turning corners, until…

Steve for scale, yet again -

All of these monuments were carved (not built) as tombs, and only given their names due to legends or stories.

We allotted ourselves only 5-10 minutes at the Monastery, in order to make it back to the front gates by closing time. We actually didn’t know if they would lock the gates or if they knew who might still be in the site near sundown.

The colors were even more vivid on our back out…

…and I couldn’t stop taking pictures.

The constructed (not carved) arches in the picture above are the remains of a Roman prison. There is also a glimpse in the lower left corner of the ratty souvenir stalls that the “Bedouins” are allowed to have at the site. The guide we had on our second day said that the people populating the site and the surrounding hills aren’t truly the nomadic Bedouins, but squatters/gypsies who appropriated the name to use in bargaining with the Jordanian government to remain in the area (and pester the tourists by selling junk).

As we were leaving the Treasury for the day, I got some fantastic shots of the detail in the carving:

The depth of the facade was pretty amazing -

For the last hour of our time in Petra, we were literally the only ones there (barring a very few vendors). Even the camels were gone at the Treasury. So, I’ll close with my hand held video (please forgive the lack of smoothness) of our version of discovering the Lost City.

You’ve probably already figured out that we weren’t locked in for the night. We passed through the entrance gates at 7:02 pm.

Castles and Jordanian countryside

Even though the title says otherwise, the first place we visited upon driving south out of Amman, was Mount Nebo, said to be the burial place of Moses. He was led there by God and allowed to see the Promised Land but not enter it. The view from the mountain looking down to the Dead Sea (on the left side of the picture), with the far hills being Israel:

In the Byzantine church, there were beautiful mosaics that were completed in 530 AD.

The Brazen Serpent monument was sculpted to represent the bronze serpent Moses created in the wilderness, and Jesus’ cross. That’s an olive tree beside it (and for some reason, steps leading up to a stand where one can give a speech if one is so inclined) -

St. George’s Greek Orthodox Church in Madaba was our next destination, to see the Mosaic Map made in 560 AD, that originally depicted all the major biblical sites in the Middle East (and you can see the fish in the river).

I was entranced by the more recent mosaics on the walls, with their vivid colors and details:

Every town we passed through, no matter how small, had at least one mosque with speakers on the minaret, calling the faithful to prayers 5 times a day.

It was challenging at times to find food to eat on our travels through a Muslim country during Ramadan and amidst COVID restrictions. The faithful fast from sunup to sundown during the month of Ramadan, and then there was a curfew that closed restaurants at 8 pm (sundown was about 7:30 pm). Luckily, hotels were able to serve food any time, and there were a few restaurants open during the day.

Continuing south, we crossed Wadi Al Mujib, which is Jordan’s Grand Canyon.

Once back up on the other side, you could easily see from which direction the wind blew:

As we were driving on the “highway”, passing through towns, we marveled at their parking patterns (there was always one lane left open for traffic - barely) (that minivan is parked):

Next up was Kerak Castle. It is one of the largest Crusader castles in the Middle East and was started in 1142.

It was a warren of multiple levels and numerous rooms.

Again, Steve for scale -

We really enjoyed wandering all over by ourselves.

As we drove through the desert…

…we would occasionally encounter bright spots -

We stayed overnight in a guesthouse…

…perched on the edge of a canyon in Dana nature preserve.

As we hiked down a short ways, we picked up some friends -

The last castle that we visited, Shobak Castle, was the least preserved and we were led around by a local guide (not given a choice to do without).

It was built in 1115 by a Crusader king. Like the others we had seen, there were various levels -

I’ll close with a sunset from our balcony back at the Dana Guesthouse:

Next post is Petra!

Jordan

Yes, we are visiting the Middle East for our latest adventure. After flying from Atlanta to Cairo (with a short layover in Istanbul), we spent a day in Cairo touring various houses of worship. However, our first full week was spent exploring Jordan, so that’s where I’ll start (and I’ll add our “Coptic Cairo” pictures to a later post).

We spent our first 2 nights in the country’s capital, Amman, with our first day heading north to Jerash. According to Wiki, it has been inhabited “since the Bronze Age”, but it is mainly known for its very well preserved Roman ruins.

This is Hadrian’s Arch, built in the 2nd century. The detailed carving still present was fantastic -

The whole site was huge and spread out, but one of my favorite areas was the forum, surrounded by 56 columns:

The main street, the Cardo, led out from here, and the original Roman road is still present:

Up the hill were the Temple of Zeus and the South Theater -

The Theater could seat 5000. When we wandered in, a Jordanian in traditional garb was serenading some tourists with a bagpipe (??).

This is a good bird’s eye view of the forum, the Cordo leading away, and the columns on the right from the Temple of Zeus -

Sorry I don’t have people in there for scale, but you can see the height of the columns next to the full size trees. We actually didn’t cross paths with many tourists throughout all our wanderings. Now on to Ajloun Castle -

That is only one corner of a very large castle, but I liked how you could see the “drawbridge”, the slit in the wall out of which they could shoot arrows, and the rock base of the mountain top where they built this 12th century castle. This was looking out over the countryside through one of those slits:

You might end up seeing Steve in a fair number of shots, because he’s there for scale, not Instagram. ;)

Before you start harumphing…I won’t bore you any more with pictures of ruins (for this post), but I’ll share a view of the surrounding countryside. Remember this greenness when you’re seeing later posts of our travels in southern Jordan:

So this was our first day of driving through Jordan, visiting all the top sites. I’m stopping now so I can send this out and leave you wanting more.