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

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

one of which was on its side and the famous beetle (walk around 7 times and your wish comes true) but we couldn't escape more pictures of hieroglyphics until we took a picture of Suzanne taking this picture

Then it was time to go to the temple of Luxor where we were again greeted by Ramses 2

sometimes with obelisks, sometimes with the dreaded hieroglyphics and sometimes with just his head on. From here, we entered and saw the mosque that had been built on the site then more Ramses more hieroglyphics and then a statue of King Tut and his bride then more statues more columns

and a painting from the Christian times followed (of course) by more hieroglyphics

one of which depicts Alexander the Great's attempts to get his wife fertile with offers to the Egyptian gods.

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