World Cruise – Day 23 – Egypt

When I woke up this morning, I was excited that I was going to be able to see Egypt for the second time. The first time was when I was with my parents when I was in my 20’s.

Our bus left in a caravan of 11 buses with a police escort.

And we're off!

We had a 3.5 hour bus ride ahead of us to get from Safaga to Luxor. There were at least 20 armed police checkpoints along the way. It was nice riding through the countryside, and seeing what Egypt was like outside of the bigger towns. Here are some pics of what it looked like - from desert to farms.

We crossed the Nile just before we arrived at the Karnak Temple in Luxor. We also crossed the path of ram-headed Sphinxes that connect the Karnak and Luxor Temples (I think the distance is over a mile).

The Karnak Temple is in the middle of the city (there are residential homes right next to it) and was built in the honor of Amon-Ra, the Sun God around 1400bc. Over the next 2000 years, many Pharaohs enlarged and enriched the sanctuary to make it what we see today. Everything is covered in hieroglyphics and the size of the pillars and obelisks are impressive.

After Karnak, we had a photo stop at the statues of Amenphis III, which once flanked the Temple nearly 5000 years ago.

We crossed back over the Nile to the West Bank where we visited the Valley of the Kings, known as the City of the Dead. This is where many famous pharaohs, including King Tut, were buried. 64 pharaoh tombs have been found, but they are still excavating and who knows how many more are there. It was extremely hot (even for someone from Arizona). The bus driver has 48 degrees Celsius registering on his gauge, which I think translates to over 120 degrees Farenheit!

Needless to say, after our 4 hour bus ride back to the ship (the entire excursion was 13.5 hours), Leslie and I were ready for the coldest beer we could find, and it tasted amazingly great!