We woke up very early today (430 AM our time) to get to our flight from Cairo to Luxor.
Once we got here, we went for a walk around town where we discovered both
old
and new
styles of writing. We apologize here gentle viewer, for the large
number of hieroglyphics you will see on these pages. There is no
apology for the road signs of Egypt.
This being Egypt, we saw a lot of people practicing perfect posture
Next we stopped at a shop where the proprietor gave us a warm welcome
because he (and every other shop keeper in the country) loves Americans
He even offered to give me 10,000 camels for my wife.
Then there were the obligatory phone booth pictures
While in the market
we noticed this obelisk
in one direction
and this McDonald's
in the other -- signs of the way things are here.
We also met Mohammed (and his friend)
and promised that if
we took a horse and carriage ride, we would hire him.
In the afternoon, we went to the temples at Luxor.
We started with
the Karnak Temple
which is guarded by a row of sphinxes
which were modified by Ramses 2 to show his head.
This was the scene as we entered the temple
and saw our first hieroglyphics
and the ramps that supported the adding of layers to the walls
Next we saw the statues of Ramses
guarding the entry
and with his favorite wife Nefertari
below.
Then more hieroglypphics
after which we went to see the 162 columns that held
up the temple.
Of course many of these had hieroglyphics on them
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gentle viewer -- we apologize for having taken quite so many photos but the scenery was unbelievable and everyone had to take their favorite few photos. Even these photos, of which we are quite proud, do not capture the grandeur of the place as we saw it
From here, we saw the obelisks
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Then it was time to go to the temple of Luxor where we were again greeted by Ramses 2
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We ended by having Jane do a montage of photos showing our path out. As you'd expect there are columns and statues and hieroglyphics. She also captured lots of pieces of the temple waiting to be classified and assembled -- the world's largest jigsaw puzzle
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