June 29, 2015 by carrievijil

Cruising the Nile River in Egypt

June 26, 2015

Well, it’s hard to believe, but we are getting ready to leave Africa and start our adventure in Europe! The last few days in Egypt were great (although it was a little toasty.) After our day in Abu Simbel, we boarded our cruise ship on Tuesday afternoon for a 4 day cruise on the Nile River. That first day on the cruise, we just relaxed and hung out at the pool on the top deck of the ship. It was nice to have a do-nothing day after so much running around. We did go on a felucca ride around sunset which was a fun experience.

Felucca ride on the Nile

Sunset on the Nile River

In the evening, we got back to the ship in time for dinner and to get all settled to start sailing. We were very lucky that the ship ended up being really nice. We weren’t really sure what we were getting into because there is not a lot of info online about booking, so we put our trust in the Marriott in Cairo to book us a good one, and they definitely did! The ship is only about 6 months old, so everything was immaculate and the food was great too.

The first morning, we got an early start to the day to try and avoid some of the afternoon heat. We visited the High Dam and the Philae Temple in Aswan. The dam is pretty amazing, it is the second biggest dam in the world (only the Hoover Dam is bigger) and it makes power for about 30% of Egypt. After the dam, we took a ferry out to Angel Island to see the Philae Temple. Just like Abu Simbel, they had to move this temple complex in the 1960’s when the dam was built so that it didn’t end up under water. The temple itself was in decent shape, but many of the hieroglyphics have been destroyed. At one point (3^rd or 4^th century AD), the temple was turned into a church and they scratched off all of the carvings of the gods. All in all, it’s pretty amazing to think that this has been around for almost 3,000 years!

Aswan High Dam

Philae Temple

We were back on the ship in time for lunch and to set sail for Kom Ombo. The sailing was great, the views of the Nile on the ship were great. We got to Kom Ombo in the early evening and decided to go see the temple at that time to avoid the heat in the morning. Once again, the temple was very cool. Hayden absolutely loves Egypt, so he is having a great time going through all of the temples. He has taken it upon himself to learn hieroglyphics, so he has been telling us all about the letters as we go through. They also had a museum for the God Sobek next to the temple. Sobek was a crocodile, so there used to be a “divine” crocodile in each temple and when it died, it would be mummified. Many of the crocodiles that have been found are here. There are all different sizes and even some mummified eggs.

Temple of Kom Ombo

Sobek Museum

First thing the next morning, we went to visit the Edfu temple. Edfu was a lot like the Philae temple, but with less damage to the carvings. I think the highlight of Edfu was that we took a horse carriage out to the temple. The driver even let Hayden sit in the front and drive on the way back…he loved it! That afternoon, we sailed up to Luxor and went through a lock on the way up. Inside of the lock, there were guys on boats selling souvenirs to the tourists…it was crazy. They would throw towels, blankets, and stuff up on the boat and try to get people to keep it and throw them back money. At one point, the guy sold something to some people, but they were taking forever to pay so he had to tie his tiny little raft on to the boat and get drug along until they paid. I think I would be afraid of getting smushed!! That evening, we had an Egyptian dinner and it was very good. There was a belly dancing show later, but we were pooped and fell asleep before it even started. (I know, we’re party animals).

Temple of Edfu

Carriage Ride

The final day of the cruise was touring Luxor. Luxor was really awesome. We visited Karnak Temple which had tons of great statues and two large obelisks. It is seriously amazing to think of the work that was put into building these places. We also went to the Valley of the Kings (where many of the Pharos were buried) and the Valley of the Queens (where many of the children/wives/parents of the Pharos were buried). In order to preserve the paintings inside of the tombs, no cameras are permitted which kind of stinks, but is understandable. The insides of the tombs were amazing…the paintings look like new in some of the chambers. It’s crazy to think that they were buried in the sand for 3,000 years!! The last place we were in Luxor was the Temple of Hatshepsup. It was a smaller temple, but was different because it was built into the side of the mountain. Again, it’s amazing to think about how they did all of that without the technology we have today.

Karnak Temple

Temple of Luxor

Temple of Hathepsup

Temple of Hatshepsup

Hatshepsup Temple

After our afternoon in Luxor, we got to the airport early to try and get an earlier flight out (we have a short layover in Cairo), but there is only one flight out, so we’re camping out in the Luxor airport for about 8 hours. The worst part about it is that it is Ramadan, so the restaurants are all closed!! Luckily, an employee at the airport took pity on us and gave us one of the Ramadan meals that they have for the airport employees…the food was great, so we were very thankful to him! After a quick layover in Cairo, we will be on our way to Athens, Greece to start our time in Europe. We don’t really have much planned, but will figure it out as we go.

June 23, 2015 by carrievijil

Amazing Temples in Abu Simbel, Egypt

June 23, 2015

We spent yesterday in Abu Simbel, Egypt…it was awesome! We flew to Aswan from Cairo and after a very early flight we got here and got checked in to our hotel. We had pre-arranged a day trip to Abu Simbel for the afternoon, so we had a few minutes to get in, get settled, and have some breakfast before we needed to get ready to take off again. At 10:30 we met up with our driver/guide to head down to Abu Simbel. For security reasons (we are very far South in Egypt and close to the Sudan border), they require police escorts for the convoys down to Abu Simbel. We went over to the police station to meet up with the convoy and it turned out that we were the only ones going for the day! We ended up having our own personal escort with us. 🙂 The drive was long, but uneventful. The government is very serious about ensuring that ISIS can not come across the border from Sudan (or Libya to the West), so they have closed the road south of Abu Simbel and there are tons of check points along the way with armed guards.

From Aswan to Abu Simbel

Aswan to Abu Simbel

It took about 3 hours to get to Abu Simbel, but it was totally worth the drive. The temples are amazing and what’s even more amazing is that they were moved back in the 1960’s so that they would not be covered by Lake Nasr with the building of the High Dam in Aswan. The largest temple was built for Ramses II in 1240 BC and is a pretty amazing thing when you consider how they built it with no technology and just manual labor! The second temple was built for his wife, Nefertiri. We were not allowed to take pictures inside of the temples, but we bought a pack of postcards, so here are some pictures of the pictures. 🙂

Temple of Ramses II

Inscriptions on the mountain

Temple of Ramses II

Ramses II as a God

Temple of Ramses II

The stories that are told inside of the temple is about how Ramses II defeated his enemies and was made into a God. It is really amazing how well preserved the site is after all of this time. Even more amazing is the fact that they relocated the entire structure in the 1960’s when they built the High Dam in Aswan. The entire site was moved 300 meters West and up 65 meters on to a hill and rebuilt into a fake mountain. It cost $15 million which was paid for by Egypt, the US, and the European Union.

The second temple is smaller, but just as impressive. It was dedicated to his favorite wife, Nefertiri.

Temple of Nefertiri

We had an awesome guide who is an archeologist that works for the Ministry of Culture, so he knew everything about the temples. He gave us more info than we could remember and Hayden has decided that he is definitely coming back and that he’s going to be an archeologist. It was probably the highlight of the country, so far! For anyone who is interested, here is a link about Abu Simbel, it is really a fascinating history of the temple.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Simbel_temples

Two Temples of Abu Simbel

After about 2 hours of going through the temples, we had to drive 3 hours to get back to the hotel again. Luckily, there is a McDonalds right next to the hotel, so Hayden had a perfect day of looking at temples and having his favorite dinner!

This morning, we are packing up to go over to the cruise port where we will get on our ship to spend the next 3 days cruising to Luxor and stopping at several temples along the way.

June 22, 2015 by carrievijil

Cairo, Egypt…Day 2-4; Egyptian Museum and Old Cairo

June 21, 2015

After spending our first day here visiting the pyramids and sphinx, we spent Friday visiting more of the historical areas of the city. We started off our day on Friday by going to the Citadel and the Coptic Churches in Old Cairo. First off, the Citadel was pretty amazing. It was built almost 1,000 years ago and is just as strong today as it was when it was originally built. Inside of the Citadel is the Muhammad Ali Mosque which was built in the early 1800’s. Even today, it still has much of the original decoration. The chandeliers, wall hangings and even some of the carpets are original.

The Citadel

Citadel Mosque built by Muhammad Ali

Citadel Mosque

The Citadel is no longer the working capital of the country, so it has been turned into a historic site (although the Mosque is still active) and has some really awesome views of the city.

View of Cairo

After spending some time going through the Citadel and the Mosque, we went into Old Cairo to see some of the oldest churches. Well, we didn’t realize the Friday (especially Friday during Ramadan) was like our Sunday in the US, so the Hanging Church was closed to tourists. We were also pretty limited where we could go in since there were prayer services going on in most of the churches. We were able to go to one of the oldest Christian churches still in existence (dates back to the 4th century) and it is said that Joseph, Mary and Jesus lived at the site of this church for some time while they were traveling through Egypt. (The church was built over the site where they stayed). There is a hole in the ground with a viewing port to where they stayed. Since there was a church service going on, we could just go down the steps to look, but couldn’t take pictures inside. We also went to the Ben Ezra Synagogue which is over 1,000 years old. It’s pretty amazing to be inside of these places when you think about how long they have been around and the history in each place.

The Hanging Church

Path of Travel of Mary, Joseph and Jesus

Saints Sergius and Bacchus Church

We also walked through the local bazaar area which was pretty cool…it kind of reminded me of the alley ways in Aladdin. 🙂

After that, we spent the afternoon at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. They had some AMAZING artifacts from King Tut. We saw his coffins, sarcophagi, tons of jewelry, and his burial mask that was 11 kg of solid gold!! The only complaint that I have is that we were not allowed to take cameras into the museum, so we don’t have any pictures from the inside. In terms of a museum, it is very different from anything in the US. We are used to everything being behind glass and labeled, but this was more like a store room with everything just sitting out. We could touch just about anything (except the jewelry and Tut’s exhibits), and it was all just sitting around. Not a lot of organization and lots of the stuff wasn’t even labeled. I suppose that they don’t know what everything is and that’s why so much is still a mystery.

Egyptian Museum

Right next to the museum is Tahrir Square where all of the protests took place when President Mubarak was overthrown. There is also a government building right there that was burnt down after he left office. The guide told us that they burnt the building down in order to try and hide many of the documents before they could be discovered. (Basically like a corporation illegally shredding incriminating documents). When the building was burning, they were afraid that it would damage the museum, but luckily, they were able to keep the fire at bay. They are now getting ready to tear down the building to expand the Egyptian Museum and build a garden area.

Government building burned down after Mubarak was overthrown

Following our days of touring, we spent Saturday and Sunday at the mall in town, then just at the pool at the hotel. There was an awesome wave pool with a waterslide at the hotel, so Hayden as perfectly happy just hanging out for the day. We were also able to find a Toys R Us and a Cold Stone, so everyone was happy! 🙂

Cold Stone!

McDonalds!

Tomorrow we leave first thing in the morning and fly to Aswan where we will be visiting Abu Simbel and then going on a Nile cruise up to Luxor. Lots of fun still to come!

June 18, 2015 by carrievijil

Cairo, Egypt…Day 1; Pyramids, Museums, and the Sphinx

June 18, 2015

We just finished our first day of touring in Cairo and it was awesome! First off, the Western media is doing a HUGE disservice to Egypt and the public in general making this seem like a dangerous place. The people have been nothing but nice (except the guys at the pyramids that are totally trying to scam you into taking a picture/handing you something and then asking for money.) Everyone we met has been wonderful and thanks us for visiting. Yes, of course there are some problems, but seriously, we have our own issues in the US with violence.

OK, ranting over…our tour today was great. We started in Saqqara where we saw the Step Pyramid of Djoser. This is the oldest known stone building complex in the world…pretty amazing! We came in through the only remaining part of the complex wall which they are currently restoring. You can see the difference between the original blocks and what has been replaced. The inside contains “rooms” separated by columns that used to house statues of the king. Unfortunately, most of the statues have been missing for quite some time. Also, due to the risk of collapse, they have started putting steps/scaffolding around the pyramid in order to maintain it.

Remaining wall at Saqqara

New (left) and Old (right) stones in the pyramid complex

Columns that contained statues of the king

Step Pyramid of Djoser

Saqqara

In the same complex as the pyramid, there is an ongoing excavation of some of the nearby tombs. Our guide slipped a few bucks to the guy guarding the entrance and we got to go in to see the tombs (seriously…she handed him a balled up wad of cash once we came out). It was really cool…as they work to recover the writing from the walls, they preserve the top layer with the writing and put it onto a newly constructed wall to keep it looking as close to original as possible.

Hieroglyphics

Inside of the tomb

False door inside of the tomb

This area was designed by Imhotep, who you may remember as the bad guy from “The Mummy”. In this time, he was actually NOT a bad guy and was a very famous architect and counselor to the king. He was buried at this same site, but his body is also missing. They do have his inner sarcophagus on display in his museum along with some other pieces from the area. Unfortunately, we were not able to take pictures inside of the museum.

After the museum at Saqqara, we went to the museum of Ramses II in Memphis. They had a 13 meter high statue of Ramses II on display, it is still in very good condition except for the missing legs. There were several other items on display here including the 2nd largest sphinx in the world and several other statues of Ramses II.

Ramses II Statue

2nd largest Sphinx

Ramses II Statue

On our way over the Giza to see the pyramids, we stopped at a Carpet School to see how they hand make the rugs. The carpets are really amazing and can take up to a year to make…crazy! Kids as young as 5 start working here while they go to school in the afternoons. They were a little out of our price range, so we won’t be bringing one home. After that, we went to see how they make paper from Papyrus. It was really cool because they let Hayden make a piece of his own. We ended up getting a cool map of Egypt that was painted on the papyrus that they made there.

Hand made silk rug

Making Papyrus

Our last stop was to Giza to see the pyramids and the Sphinx. They certainly did not disappoint! The pyramids are huge…much bigger than they look in pictures. Actually being here is really awesome because you can walk up them, touch/sit/take pictures right on the pyramids! The three pyramids belong to a son, his father and his grandfather. The tallest pyramid belongs to the grandfather (147 meters), the next belongs to the father (144 meters, but it was built on higher ground, so it looks taller) and the son’s is only 66 meters tall (he ran out of money and couldn’t afford to make it taller.) Additionally, there are 6 smaller pyramids for the queens.

Great Pyramids of Giza

Great Pyramid of Giza

Great Pyramids of Giza

3rd Pyramid of Giza

1st and 2nd Pyramids of Giza

Right down the street is the Sphinx of Giza. I have to admit that I thought it would be bigger. It has the head of a person with the body of a lion, it was built to symbolize intelligence (the head of the man) and power (the body of the lion).