NO Womp For US!

Well I said that Mike actually making it on the womp was going to be pushing his luck.

1. The plane arrived early into Cairo
2. He breezed thru customs
3. His luggage was the last bag unloaded...30 minutes after the others
   
4. Sameh was not there to pick him up...some one else was that was asking all the white passengers...Mr. Mike? Mr. Mike? Mr. Mike? Mike? Mike?
5. There were no accidents to slow him down.

He missed the womp by 5 minutes...so I, the loving wife, missed it too!

Mike is in the air heading to Cairo and will arrive Thursday at 2:30 PM (Cairo time). He is hoping that he will be able to make it to the womp at 3:30...that means:

1. Lufthansa needs to depart on time
2. Cairo airport needs to land the plane correctly
3. More than one Customs line is open
4. His baggage actually shows up
5. Sameh is on time picking him up
   
6. There is not an accident involving an 18 wheeler, donkey cart and black & white
7. He can still function after leaving Denver 2 days ago
   
8. He can drop his bags off at home and get to the back gate by 3:30

All of these things I am sure he will overcome in order to spend a few hours with good friends, cool amber nectar and of course ME!

All of out belongings are jammed into a bedroom and will be packed out in the new week. They will then be shipped to CO and hopefully arrive after we do.

We head to South Africa for a week on June 7th with a good friend of ours Wendy. We will be exploring Cape Town - Table Mountain, Penguin Colony, Robben Island (where Mandel was imprisoned) Cape of Good Hope, and a Wine tour. There is even a Worcester, South Africa we might visit.

Off to Zambia to see Victoria Falls and hopefully white water raft the Zambezi with the hippos.

Then on to Worcester and West Gardiner for the 4th of July. Mike officially starts work on July 7th ... and I officially do not. I plan to take some time to catch up on last summer's blogs, photos, friends, family and other interests (not in this order).

So the next few weeks will be spent saying good bye to friends, last minute sightseeing, cleaning out the office and catching up with Mike.

Cheers, Nance

Guest blog from Aurele and Greta Gorneau

Jet lag is different when you are traveling west rather than east. The trip home involved 14 hours of actual flying time from Cairo to Istanbul to Amsterdam and finally Boston. Preparing to leave Cairo, the lay over at airports to change planes and the bus ride home from Boston over a span of 39 hours certainly does wear you down. We took Mike’s advice and got a room at the Murcure hotel inside the airport in Amsterdam for a well needed 8 hour sleep. We arrived home at 4PM Maine time on Sunday which is 11Pm Egypt time. Greta went to work Monday. Jet lag hit us at our 7PM evening meal Monday. Our bodies were telling us it was 2AM Tuesday. The trip was well worth the travel pain. Now let us tell you about our wonderful experiences in Egypt these last two weeks.

We will start with a huge thank you to our hosts, Mike and Nancy. They did a lot of planning to arrange for an ultimate well rounded tour of the major sites as well as enabling us to see how people live in everyday Egypt. We will briefly mention the major tourist sites visited so everyone will believe we were there. Seeing everyday life in Egypt was our prime interest and our hosts could not have done a better job at showing us their Egypt.

The pyramids around Cairo are an amazing sight. They set majestically overshadowing the city and the vast desert area. Camels and horses are a common mode of transportation here and many are seen around the pyramids and traveling in and out of the desert surroundings. The Giza Plateau overlooks the city and is the site of the Great Pyramid as well as two other large and several smaller pyramids. The Sphinx is the guardian of the plateau and is known to the Arabs as Abu al-Hol, the “father of terror”. All of this overlooks the vast city of Cairo. To walk on these grounds knowing that you are stepping in the footprints of millions of people and camels and horses and donkeys stretching over 5000 years is humbling. The awesome size of the pyramids and vast area of the plateau creates a strange almost eerie silence in the area between the pyramids. We were between the second and third pyramids when we noticed a strange and growing sound coming up from the city. It was the call to prayer. It started in one part of the city down below the plateau and spread to other areas and soon was like one huge voice. Millions of people, aided with megaphones and speakers, with one common purpose really can be heard around the world. It certainly does leave a lasting impression on us quite country folk from rural Maine.

The Egyptian Museum is huge and has more than 120,000 items on display with more than 150,000 more items stored in the basement. A new museum is being built in Giza and is scheduled to be open in 2011. The museum contains great items dating from every period of ancient Egyptian history. We spent hours in amazement looking at things from 2,000 to 5,000 years old that were still in very good condition. We were particularly impressed with the tools made to cultivate land and process food. Richly bejeweled items from King Tutankhamun’s tomb fill a large portion of the museum. This whole experience excites your imagination and interest to learn more about this ancient history.

Nancy hired a special cab driver, very familiar with the not so popular sites in Cairo, to serve as our guide one day. He took us thru an area of narrow streets where all of the city’s garbage was hauled to. In the maze of alleys and small shops, the disposed of items from the city were sorted and refurbished by the people who lived here. Some people specialized in salvaging wood and making useful products for resale. Others salvaged cloth which was reworked and sold. One person acquired a metal press and salvaged aluminum which he pressed into blocks and sold back to the aluminum companies. Paper, metal, wood and glass were reworked for sale and the remaining material composted to make soil. We stopped at a small shop area to see people sewing articles and weaving salvaged material. At this shop we met several students and their teachers on field trips doing the same thing we are doing. One teacher got in a conversation with Mike and offered him a job at her International school.

Beyond the recycling community, we came to some very unique churches. They were built into natural caves in the hillside. It is believed that the Holy Family fled thru Egypt and lived in caves to escape King Herod’s “massacre of the innocents”.

Our guide drove us thru the city of the dead next. Sooooo you would ask “whyyyyy”! We soon found ourselves parked in front of a walled tomb joined by more walled tombs extending down the deserted back streets as far as one could see. The city of the dead covers approximately four square miles. Our guide invited us to visit a tomb. He knew the people who lived here as well as the deceased residents who occupied the crypt. We entered the home-tomb and were greeted by a young lady in her early 20’s followed by another young lady doing the laundry in an antique washing machine. Watching and talking with her as she joined the live wires to turn on the washer was interesting. The first lady went to get her mother who was in the next room. They all greeted us and asked if we would like some mint tea. We kindly accepted and the mother proceeded to light a gas burner in the entryway to heat the water while our guide gave us a tour of the tomb.

The tombs were built for use by a family for all time. The tomb consisted of an open 12 foot long roofed entryway with a small room on each side that housed the caretaker followed by an open courtyard about 20 feet square. The actual crypt was buried below ground level. Our guide showed us a concrete wall on the ground that marked the entryway to the crypt. The caretaker would be notified when a new death had occurred and would dig out the entrance to prepare for the burial. The crypt was large enough for 4 people and the oldest one would be rolled up into a small ball and placed in a concrete box at the head of each space to make room for the next body. Over the centuries, families with the responsibility of caretaker started occupying the small rooms at the entrance. A clothes line hung in the open courtyard space and a few vegetables were growing. A small 8 foot square structure in the courtyard served as a place for mourners to sit and visit the deceased.

Mint tea was served in one of the entryway side rooms furnished with a couch and two chairs and a small dresser. Our guide and one of the young ladies and Mike spoke enough English and Arabic to have a very interesting conversation. Greta and I added what we could and read the body language which was open and very friendly. They showed us some very beautiful pictures of themselves that were taken as if for a beauty pageant. The mother showed her pride in her beautiful daughter. The daughter was very proud to show a picture of her husband. The youngest lady apparently was engaged to the mother’s son and she showed a picture of him. Within 2 minutes we were laughing and talking like old friends and neighbors. I could not figure out where the guide fit in except that he provided us with a great opportunity to meet a very nice Egyptian family in their home. I thank Nancy and her friends for setting this up and strongly suggest they recommend this guide to others.

The guided tour ended with a visit to a small glassblowing workshop on a very narrow back street next to a mosque. We watched the glassblower do his thing in a hot open room in very high heat. We had to buy something before we left. In fact we bought several things at a very good price. Haggling over price is not in our nature but these people do not feel comfortable if you pay their starting price. In fact, if they think you paid too much, they invariably will follow you out the door giving you other things you do not really want. We visited the mosque while waiting for the glass items to be wrapped in bubble wrap.

The next day found us on a plane to Luxor. We found Egyptian Air a good way to get around. The Sheraton Hotel was comfortable and well located to see the area. We visited the Luxor Temple and the immense Karnak Temple. This is truly a land of giants.

From Luxor we hired a cab for the next day and joined a military escorted tour to Abydos and Dendara, about 80 miles to the north along the Nile. The military escort provided armed guards at every crossroad and turn in the road thru small towns and the vast rural farming areas. All other traffic including donkey carts were stopped for the convoy. Children and towns people stopped what they were doing to watch the convoy pass by and wave. We waved back and took a few pictures of their beautiful smiling faces. We saw an industrious hardworking people everywhere we looked. These farmers show a lot of pride in keeping their fields neat and productive. Most all of the work is done by hand labor with help from the many donkeys hauling two wheeled carts.

Abydos was regarded as the holiest of Egyptian towns in Pharaonic times. All ancient Egyptians tried to visit here during their lifetime. We visited the 19^th Dynasty Cenotaph Temple of Seti I, built during Seti I’s reign from 1294-1279 BC. The color in the drawings is amazingly well preserved.

In Dendara we visited the Temple of Hathor. Hathor was the Goddess of pleasure and love. The magnitude of labor and purpose that went into the construction of these structures is amazing. This structure was built during the Roman era 30 BC to 395 AD and buried in the sand until the 19^th century. The Egyptian Queen Cleopatra is featured in reliefs on the walls.

We arrived back in Luxor that night very tired and had a great meal at the Hussien Restaurant. We intended to walk around the shops after eating but our waiter said it is not safe in that area. He got us a taxi to the hotel. We had a great night’s sleep.

The next day our cab took us to the Valley of the Kings. By the way, if you find a taxi driver you like and trust, you will do well to keep him and schedule pickups and day trips. The Valley of the Kings is where all the burial tombs for all the Pharaohs from 1500 BC on were buried in the hillside in an attempt to stop robbers from stealing the precious items. Our most precious item, Nancy, flew back to Cairo in the middle of the night to be at work in the morning.

Sunday morning we slept in (Nancy was at work in Cairo). We sauntered down for a leisurely breakfast which this hotel does an excellent job at by the way. It was such a beautiful warm day we decided to sit by the pool and play games all day. We did need to visit the ATM in town so took a morning walk before relaxing by the pool. On our walk we met this very nice young Felucca sailboat owner. He showed us his boat and suggested it would be a nice evening to go out and watch the sunset. We were anxious to sail on the Nile and agreed to meet him at 4PM for a sunset sail and visit to Banana Island.

The day by the pool was just what the doctor ordered. We were relaxed and well fed by the restaurant which actually served the beer in buckets of ice like they would wine. (Obviously Nancy’s training is spreading around the world.) We met our sailing captain at his boat, the Royal Crown, at 4PM. He had his 11 year old nephew with him, Abdullah. This young boy was slight of build with the brightest dark brown eyes and a serious look about him. Abdullah was in training to sail this fairly large Felucca sailboat. He assisted us aboard and showed us to our seats. The captain shoved off from the nest of other feluccas and with help from his assistant hoisted the sail. Abdulla manned the tiller and started steering us across the Nile. I took his picture at the tiller and showed it to him. The biggest proudest smile you ever saw erupted where before it was all business. This was such a nice day there was no breeze to fill the sail. We drifted to the far shore and as luck would have it, a tug boat came chugging by hauling several other feluccas upstream. He came along side and the captain thru a rope to the tug to join the troupe. We were towed about a mile upstream and let adrift at Banana Island where we proceeded to go ashore. A very pretty 6 year old girl and her 4 year old brother took our hands and helped us up the rocky bank. Our captain gave us a walking tour of the rain forest like island while explaining what each tree was. The banana trees were in all stages of production. Some were just blossoming while others were ready to pick with all stages in between. We met the 15 farmers who live on and work this island. They offered us ripe bananas and fresh sugar cane which was a special treat to us. Back on the boat and sailing down the Nile at sunset was a super camera opportunity. Our captain and his young assistant got us safely back to dock just as the sun had finished setting. We shared the sentiment “This was a perfect day”.

We had arranged for our cab driver to pick us up in the morning to go back across the Nile to Thebes.

The Valley of the Queens is similar to and a few miles from the Valley of the Kings. The main attraction here was the tomb of Queen Nefertari. It was discovered in 1904 and is regarded as the most beautiful tomb in Egypt. It was closed so we will have to go back again in another life. We wandered off to Hatshepsut Temple which is just as fascinating as all the other temples except that it is constructed at the base of a shear limestone cliff face which makes it especially dramatic (3500 years old).

We played Farkle in the afternoon while waiting for our plane. It was delayed so we did not get back to Cairo until midnight. Nancy’s friends, the Wilsons were due to arrive at about 2AM. Nancy must sleep with one eye closed at a time.

Mike took us shopping the next day and we let the Wilsons sleep in after their long flight. In the afternoon Mike hired two cabs and we all went to the Citadel. The drivers could not speak any English and Mike was not sure if they knew where the Citadel was. We got to the Citadel and waited several minutes. There were no Wilsons in sight. Mike started fretting “Nancy will never forgive me if I loose the Wilsons on their first day in Cairo”. Finally, the dilapidated cab the Wilsons were in appeared on the horizon. The locals know the Citadel as Al-Qalaa. So when Mike would say Citadel, they would respond “Al-Qalaa” and shake their head up and down and smile. Mike would shake his head no and repeat “Citadel”. This was repeated several times and finally one driver directed us to get in the car and he would show us.

Mike and Nancy showed us their special Cairo on two occasions. - We joined them with their friends at an evening meal in an open air restaurant on the Nile. They ordered Egyptian specialties from the list of appetizers which we all shared, drank beer or soda or whatever and shared stories and ideas and listened to the music.

-We were invited to the desert to participate in an end of the work week ritual Wadi womp. This is a special event that only happens once and can not be repeated. It is a time spent with friends and once it is done it is over and in the past not to happen again. After the womp everyone was gathered on the top edge of a ravine talking and a flock of brightly colored birds caught the updraft from the valley below and swooped up over the lip and right close over our heads. They were called Bee-eaters. We could see for miles in all directions. Nothing else was around. What are the chances of those birds coming within 10-20 feet of us?

Later when I thanked Mike for letting us join him and Nancy on these occasions, he confided that this was what he would miss the most.

You can not go to Cairo without spending some time shopping at Khan al-Khalili. Built in 1382, it is the oriental Bazaar of fable where every item that exists in the world can be found. Mike took us to Fishawi’s, a tea house, located in an alley way one block in from Midan al-Hussein. We sat and drank mint tea like traders before us have for 700 years while vendors took turns showing us their wares. Beautiful soft leather wallets and purses were displayed by local vendors as well as jewelry and other exotic items as we had our tea. One very pretty young girl, about 10 years old, was selling head dress jewelry which was very nice and an item we later bought. She was a super active sales lady and getting our interest up in buying until an armed guard drove her away. A minute later she wore the guard down and was back in business. That guy did not stand a chance against this young entrepreneur. We took no offense to the high pressure sales but joined the excitement of the moment and actually purchased a wallet that we did not want but had bargained down to a price we could not refuse. The guy must have had a side bet on making the sale because he certainly did not make any profit on the sale.

We saw more spices and cloth and drapes and fine dresses and silks than I have ever seen in the world. One shop in an area known as tent makers had hand sewn blankets and pillow cases. I ventured into one shop enticed by the demeanor of the owner and soon had found out all about his family who had sold from this stall for centuries. He showed me items his mother had made and his grandmother had made. He was sending his children to college and mentioned the well known difficulties encountered there. The rest of our crew walked by and he recognized Mike and Nancy and asked if I was with them. I said yes, Mike is my son. He immediately ran out into the alley and greeted them like long lost friends and invited them in for tea. He introduced them to me as his very good friends and he was so proud that they visited his shop again. Greta decided on a couple of very nice items she wanted and he gave us a good price because we were Nancy’s friends. We paid and he gave Greta her choice of any 2 scarfs as an extra bonus.

A special show is put on two times a week in a nearby theater, the Wikala al-Ghouri. It features Whirling Dervish dancing where male dancers in brightly colored costumes perform a ritual twirling dance to local music that builds momentum and speed to an ultimate twirling crescendo. When you think it is about to end, the music changes pace and the dancers respond to the mood change and with the aid of in play costume changes put on an even greater spectacular dance frenzy. One very extraordinary dancer went on at a tremendous twirling pace for what seemed like 40 minutes. The musicians performed a milder well coordinated dance while playing their instruments which was very entertaining. The audience was so taken up with the quality and energy of the music and dancers that the final applause went on for twenty minutes as the players took their bows. This is a “definitely must see” show for all visitors to Al-Qaala.

How can we sum up a two week educational tour of Egypt and do it justice? Let us try by simply listing a few things that we thought stood out as important to us.

• Traffic had just enough room for each car if all side mirrors are folded in.
• Pedestrians were permitted to stand between lines of oncoming traffic and work their way across the road when there was space as long as they moved with the flow of traffic.
• Everywhere we looked people were actively involved and working very hard.
• We met people who had moved to Egypt and made this their home for several years.
• It matters not what you paid for it. What is important is are you happy with what you bought at that price.
• A young woman was walking to the market with a two year old child straddling one shoulder.
• I will never forget the wide smile on Abdullah’s face as he sat at the tiller of the felucca.
• Life long friendships develop over sharing evening meals on the Nile and going for a womp in the Wadi.
• The farmers and the donkeys seem to preserve the way life was centuries ago. The farmer makes sure to carry the donkey’s food with them at all times.
• Fields were all worked by hand and planted with sugar cane, vegetables, wheat and all variety of crops. Every inch of space was utilized productively.
• Even more than Rome, the antiquity of Egypt draws on your imagination to think, what was it like to live here thru all the historic times?
• (I could dream up images for days of life with the ancient ones, the Mamluks, Cleopatra)
  

Thank you Sonny and Greta for your posting. I hope others enjoy it as much as I did. Nance

EMail the blog to a friend

Hey all! In case you have not seen them there are some posts, chronologically, from the trip with the Gorneaus and the Wilsons.

I have also added a feature that allows you to send a blog to a friend via email. It is next to the comment box looks like an envelope.

Cheers!

Hey Nancy,

Just wanted to drop you a note and let you know we arrived safely home at
about 3pm EST (22hour trip).

Can't thank you & Mike enough for allowing us this opportunity.
It was definitely a trip of a lifetime!!

We are now going to clean up and get some sleep on the premise of going to
school tomorrow. HA-HA!?

It is nice to be home and I look forward to getting together with you guys
next time you're in town.

Pete & Family

We, Sonny and Greta, arrived back home safely and unpacked. We walked around the yard to a different world than we left. The snow is all gone. The daffodils and small flowers are growing as well as the bleeding hearts and tulips. It is just as if the past winter was a figment of my imagination.

Egypt is a world away from even your wildest imagination. It is a huge challenge to try to describe our two week experience of entering a world that has existed for over 5000 years and in many ways changed very little. My first thought is that there must be many things that they have been doing right for a very long time. The clue to that is shows up in little things that most often go unnoticed in our normal everyday busy world.

More to come. Good night.

Cairo Nightlife by Peter

Some of the nightlife culture in Cairo. This is a shot of the Whirling Dirvishes - a great performance we enjoyed Saturday night out on the town in the Khan-al-Khalili district (Ancient Cairo).

Erin, Kelly & Denise standing on Great Pyramid - Khufu.

That's Khufu pyramid in the background and Sphinx to the right.

Kelly took this great shot!

Erin & Kelly celebrating a triumphant day at Saqqara's Tomb.

Ok, here's the picture many of you have been waiting for. Proof that we rode the camels!

Whirling Dervishes

Dervish or Sufism is the belief that one can become closer to their God through their dance.

Shaykh Ahmad ibn Ajiba, a famous Moroccan Sufi, defined Sufism as:

A science through which one can know how to travel into the presence of the Divine, purify one’s inner self from filth, and beautify it with a variety of praiseworthy traits.

Several musicians came upon the stage and we had a sampling of the music. This is a drum solo.



A cymbal solo...this guy had personality.



We went to see the show and were amazed at their ability to perform. It was truly as if they were in a trances.










I will add some photos too, later.

CItadel with Gorneaus and Wilsons

Mike's folks got back to Egypt about 2 hours before the Wilsons arrived. They set off to bed and Mike and I took turns waiting for the Wilsons to arrive. Everyone safely in Maadi I went to bed. Went to work the next day and later got a call from Mike asking what the plan was. The folks went out for coffee while the Wilsons worked off the jet lag.

Later in the afternoon they all went to the citadel. It is very difficult to arrange plans when people are not there at the same time. I did not want Mike's folks to repeat experiences nor the Wilsons to miss out. So into a few cabs they hopped and head in...I think this was a highlight for Erin and Kelly...the cab ride no the Citadel.


The area where the Citadel is now located began it's life as the "Dome of the Wind", a pavilion created in 810 by Hatim Ibn Hartama, who was then governor. These early governors, not realizing its strategic importance, simply used the pavilion for its view of Cairo. Between 1176 and 1183, Saladin, fortified the area to protect it against attacks by the Crusaders, and since then, it has never been without a military garrison. Originally it served as both a fortress and a royal city.


On the west wall of the courtyard is an iron clock, presented to Muhammad Ali by the French King Louis Philippe, with a tea salon on the upper level. Its style is a mixture of neo-gothic and oriental elements. It has never worked, and probably never will. The clock, given as a gift in exchange for the obelisk now in the Palace de la Concorde, Paris.


View of the city.


The Christians have the cross, the Jews have the star of David, and the Muslims have the crescent moon and star.

The crescent moon and star symbol actually pre-dates Islam by several thousand years. These ancient celestial symbols were used in Central Asia and Siberia in their worship of sun, moon, and sky gods.

The early Muslim community did not really have a symbol. During the time of the Prophet Muhammad, Islamic armies and caravans flew simple solid-colored flags (generally black, green, or white) with no markings, writing, or symbolism on it for identification purposes.

It wasn't until the Ottoman Empire that the crescent moon and star became affiliated with the Muslim world. When the Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453, they adopted the city's existing flag and symbol. Legend holds that the founder of the Ottoman Empire, Osman, had a dream in which the crescent moon stretched from one end of the earth to the other. Taking this as a good omen, he chose to keep the crescent and make it the symbol of his dynasty.

Based on this history, many Muslims reject using the crescent moon as a symbol of Islam. The faith of Islam has historically had no symbol, and many refuse to accept what is essentially an ancient pagan icon. It is certainly not in uniform use among Muslims.

Yet the crescent moon tops the majority of their mosques.


At night most of the mosques are lit by green lights, (some are white) I have been wondering why green? The color green has been associated with Islam for many centuries. Some say green was Muhammad’s favorite color and that he wore a green cloak and turban. Others believe that it symbolizes nature and life, hence the physical manifestation of God. In the Qur'an (Surah 18:31), it is said that the inhabitants of paradise will wear green garments of fine silk. Regardless of its origins, the color green has been considered especially Islamic for centuries. Crusaders avoided using any green in their coats of arms, so that they could not possibly be mistaken for their Muslim opponents in the heat of battle.


The fountain is lavishly decorated and built by Ismail Pasha in 1828.



Muhammad Ali hired a Greek architect, Yusuf Bushnaq, to design the mosque on a plan similar to that of the Mosque of Sultan Ahmad in Istanbul (known as the Blue Mosque).







Military Museum

Hello All,
Allow me to introduce myself. I am Peter Wilson and I worked with Nancy at Westbrook Regional Vocational Center. My family and I were brave enough to take Nancy up on her offer to visit her and Mike in Egypt. My wife, Denise, and our two daughters, Erin & Kelly, embarked on this adventure for April school vacation.

Nancy has made us promise to write a better more detailed blog after we return to the States but we thought we could give an update while still in Egypt.

We left Logan at 9:40pm on Sunday and arrived in Amsterdam where we had approximately a ten hour layover.

We spent the day in the city and had lunch at one of many fine restaurants available.
It is a beautiful city and we would like to come back someday hopefully with a better exchange rate with the Euro.

Her are Erin and Kelly on one of the many bridges over the canals.

Just another scene from the canal cruise of the housing on the very limited real estate.

After arriving in Cairo very early in the morning local time, we slept, woke and went on our way.
This complex of buildings is known as the "Citadel". It was the home to Egypts' rulers for over 700 years.

Saladin began building the Citadel in 1176 in an effort to fortify the city against crusaders.

This is the mosque of Mohammed Ali. It is modelled after Turkish design and took 18 years to build. It is the largest mosque in Cairo.

We flew out early Tuesday morning for two nights in Luxor. What a beautiful destination!

I will elaborate much more on our personal experiences in Luxor on our later blog....

This is the view off our hotel, Sonesta, St. George, balcony looking over the Nile river at the West Bank. The mountains are where the Valley of the Kings is located.

This is the front of Luxor Temple. Take note of the people in the foreground to put the size into perspective. The Obelisk on the right side is missing as it was given to the King of France as a gift in exchange for a clock which went to the Mosque of Mohammed Ali. The Obelisk is located in Paris just outside the Louvre.

Here we are inside the Luxor Temple.
We are still smiling in spite of the 115-130 degree Fahrenheit temperatures!

Some of the hieroglyphics on columns in Karnak Temple. More later!!

Erin & Kelly outside the tomb of King Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings.


All of us at the Temple of Hatshepsut, the most famous of the female pharaohs

The Wilson's have arrived safely after their very long flight with lengthy layovers.

Valley of the Kings with Gorneaus

Valley of the Kings on the West Bank

The folks spent 2LE to board the shuttle to take them up to the tombs of the Kings. We sat in the sun like lizards and read books. Ahh vacation!

Just recently the archaeologists discovered the 63rd tomb. This was declared a royal tomb but has been reclassified due to the pieces they found inside. They now think that it was a mummification and storage chamber. Can you image finding it after all these years?

The last tomb was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter. Carter was funded by Carnarvon for years but after a few months of fruitless searching, Carnarvon became annoyed and threatened to pull his funding but he kindly gave Carter one more season of funding to find the tomb. So Carter looked in the last spot possible, one that he had never considered looking in. The workers moved their site to a new spot and POOF Carter found the steps leading to Tutankhamun's tomb.




No photos of their adventures as we played lizard in the sun and they do not take a great deal of photos. Mike took this one before we left.


As we headed to the next tourist trap we stopped at an alabaster shop and learned the process.

The ancient pharaohs used this wonderful material for many purposes, including household items, ritual objects, and for a number of different funerary purposes such as sarcophagi and canopic jars.

Alabaster is a fine-grained, translucent variety of gypsum. It is pure white or streaked with reddish brown. Alabaster forms by the evaporation of bedded deposits from evaporating seawater. It is soft enough to be scratched with a fingernail and hence it is easily broken, soiled, and weathered.

Alabaster is found in 2 places in Egypt: Luxor and Malawi

Egyptian workers hand-carve these fine vases using traditional tools.

As we pulled into the parking spot these men jumped to their feet and started to work. As our guide explained the process they took turns working. I assume they are for show and do not actually complete a piece in a day nor a week.

This man is carving out the center of the vase. Therefore, no two are exactly alike and darkness of color can vary.


Dude number 2 shapes it...


I forgot what he is doing...


Dude 4 gets to polish it!


Hand-made alabaster products are almost always much thinner, finer pieces and are more translucent than machine-made alabaster. The finish of a hand-carved alabaster vase is also much less polished than machined alabaster.

You can see the difference between the left one, machine made and the right one hand made.


Dude 5, the guide, makes all the money...he was good at asking for bashesh...aren't they all.


This is alabaster illuminated. We bought 2 pieces of the "rare" green alabaster. The folks bought a few trinkets as well.

Next on the site seeing tour is Valley of the Queens.


Once you make it through the touts you are amazed at the grandeur.




Uphill all the way!



Horace




Ankh



Tourists




My favorite carving of this place. Palm trees with fruit.


Hathor


Tomb doors


You guessed it Ankh


We done yet?


New symbol for Mike and I? What do you think its purpose is?