Our CEO will be Mustapha….. nice guy that speaks wonderful English. All the people on tour (12) with the exception of one gal from Australia and us 3, are from the US.

We did nothing today but sleep in, get money from the ATM and rest up. I have not taken a take-a-break til today.

We got in late last night….. probably somewhere between 2-3am before hitting the pillow.

Street level of this area… not too far from the waterfront, is not too bad but looking at the surrounding area from the 14th and 17th floor, it looks like war torn zone with all the abandoned derelict buildings.

Mohamed picked us up to go to airport at 6:30 am… not too early. Traffic was light …. the city is quite small so it was easy. The airport was pretty easy too other than they wanted to see tickets (that are non-existe but are in the system and attached to our passports). That was a little angst creating but got through it. The rest was a breeze. I have to say that Luxor is like alparadise compared to much of the Middle East. It is an oasis in the desert.

It was only an hour on the flight to Cairo.

Kahleb picked us up as prearranged and took us to McDs for some breaky….. the slowest service ever!!

We are heading to the pyramids. OMG this city is humongous….. about 19 million. So many highways and so many apartments…. They all seem to be less than 12 stories.

Took a horse and buggy…. OMG what a dilapidated buggy and poor starving horse (rib cage showing)!!! Up and around the pyramids.

50USD for an hour of being jarred and then they want tip on top…!!! Some people are thinking this is all terrific. I just want to go home. It is annoying the hell out of me everyone with their hands out.

Drove by Coptic cemetery and got the T-shirt.

It is one of the best-preserved temple complexes of Ancient Egypt. Started 54 BCE

On our way we stopped on a bit of overpass to see Sphinx Avenue… 2 miles long road between Luxor and Karnak temples. 1050 sphinx’ line the road. Started to be built 1475 BCE … 6 kings took part in the building of it. It was previously covered with houses. The government paid the people that lived there to dig it out… starting 2006. It was opened in 2021.

We drove through desert and fertile fields, on super new highways and less than idea country roads along the way.

Papyrus papers lasts over 3500 years….discovered 1905

Dendara Temple, the tremble of Hathor … cow goddess, goddess of motherhood, music and love

You can see the damage the Christians trying to take cover from Romans did to the temple. They built fires that tarred the ceilings and walls, obliterated paintings and relief work by chipping that which they could reach and punched holes through the stone to put rings to hold the horses and donkeys.

Amazing and colourful temple like no others. Funny, I had never even heard of it. Ceilings about 50 feet (16 metres) high in first part, less as you travelled inside. The exterior had open air courtyard. The common people were not allowed into the inner sanctum …. Inner sanctum was only for priests & the hierarchy. All the astrological signs were shown. The colours are amazing and the details incredible and massive especially when you think of how long ago it was. The amount of inscription, etc….how long it took and how many artisans to do the work.

100 sq metre…8000 E pound 275usd/ month for rent. Most people rent. Farms are owned but passed from generation to generation.

Papyrus …1week in water for light colour, 2 weeks for dark.

Press for 1 o2 weeks

Population is now 400,000. Back Egypt’s day, it was a capital was called Thebes

Previous rulers were Ramses, Neferari …. & so many!

Tombs, mortuary cemetery on west … life (temples) on east.

Temple for mummification(70 days),Tombs of Valley of Kings.

410 tombs found so far. All because when the Nile flooded people built houses on side of hills to escape it. They would dig in their “basements” and found tombs.

Only 62 tombs found…. Only 8 open. Others are being restored.

Tutankhamen was only on with the tomb intact.

They started working on a tomb when come the king/pharaoh came to power. If tomb is incompleted, means they died at an early age. If completed, he/she was old when died

Purpose for building the tombs where there are, was to hide from them tomb robbers away from river. There still missing 8 more. King Tut (618 th dynasty) was found in Nov 1922. Ramses (19th dynasty) was built on top of Tut’s. 5000 golden items found. Osiris god of death gods In total there are 741.

Kartouch… oval shape with name king. Each had 2 names…. The one born with and the one as king.

God of mummification- jackal shape

Ram head is sun god

Headless people…. Enemies of Egypt and those the king defeated

Mask 10 kg of gold of Tut

The first one we went into was Ramses III

Ramses II ‘s tomb was built on top of Tut’s tomb. He had 48 wives and 200 children…. Lived 95 years … longest reigning king.

Next we went into Ramses IV- has the largest sarcophagus

Unbelievable that they could find any of these tombs amongst all the rubble of the mountains.

This area too is extremely hot…. about 45C. Inside was even hotter…a real sweat box.

Stopped where they make things in ancient way with alabaster, alabaster with phosphorus (Linda’s green kitty), etc. … is brought by donkey from 8 kms away.

Temple of Queen Hatshepsut… 1st female pharaoh but she disguised herself as a man. During her reign ….19 years, there were no wars. She knew nothing of armies but developed the trade industries. After stepson took over after her untimely death by poisoning of blood stream. (It was from bad teeth), he erased a lot of the works about her and replaced it with his own stuff.

Up at 5am to catch a taxi to the airport. We are heading to Luxor, Egypt via Cairo.

The airport in Cairo, the signage left a lot to be desired.

We were picked up by Mohammed

Luxor Temple built 3500 years ago approximately. We stopped at “Snack Time” for lunch where overlooked the grounds

Palace of King Farouk, ruler of all Egypt and Sudan …. Now is a luxury hotel (Winter Palace) opposite the Nile River and all the riverboats

80% Moslem, 20% Christian … in Luxor.

Very rich fertile soil that is serviced by canals that are used for irrigation. This side on West Bank, the canal goes all the way to Cairo. There is one on the East bank too, that goes all the way to Alexandria.

There has been no flooding since the Aswan Dam was built.

Left @ 9 am right on time…. onto the road that runs along side Dead Sea.

FYI…. I’m feeling much better although not 100%.

Farms of solar panels in the middle of a very bleak landscape.

New border crossing being built between Israel and Jordan to facilitate those tourist from Israel that just want to see Aqaba, Wadi Rum and Petra.

Amira completed Baccalaureate in 3 years

Stopped at a restaurant supported by GAdventures that supports the women of the village that previously had never worked outside the home or interacted with others outside their home. It’s a very controlled environment for many of these women. Now some have completed their education and gone on to become doctors, etc.

“Lots” caves right close by ….part way up the mountains. On the other side of the mountains is Karak and the Crusader’s castle

Hot springs …..they are building chalets for people coming but they are too hot for Amira.

No pictures till later. Wifi sucks!

Missed picture of the sunset in the Valley of the Moon.

Aqaba…quite modern, lovely palm tree lined street. Apparently because it is so hot here in the summer (I can only imagine), the government has implemented cheaper taxes, lots of other perks and benefits…. just to have people stay.

Today is the day I was really looking forward to…to go snorkelling in the Gulf of Aqaba. Unfortunately I am sick. Two others are too…..maybe food poisoning??? I went out on the boat but was terribly sick again and kept falling asleep cuz I didn’t have any energy. Consequently not much in the way of pictures.

One thing of note…..no pictures are to be taken in a certain area because of military base/presence. At this point, we are in Jordan, across from Israel. A little further down beside Israel, is Egypt. On the other side is Saudi Arabia. Lots of shipping containers.

Hope I feel better tomorrow

We all got to sleep in …didn’t leave until 10:30. This whole area around Petra is so hilly. It’s a good thing that they don’t have snow. I tried to post a video of the call to prayer but failed.

Back onto Kings Hwy….from Roman period.

In 1917 was the beginning of WW1 & the first Arab revolt. Before 1917 it was under Ottoman rule. The British (Lawrence of Arabia), ordered Arab tribes to join together to oust Ottomans….to prevent the Ottoman (at the Suez Canal) from accessing Europe (to keep them busy so that they wouldn’t move into Europe). Britain and France originally supported the formation of a United Arab country but reneged the plan. They divided the area into different countries, be shared by the two country. King Hussein was leader of Jordan for almost 50 years before he died of cancer. He brought Jordan to 20th century with universities, bridges and roads, etc. etc. He was married 4 times. He divorced his 1st after couple of years. To guarantee Abdullah (British mother, the 2nd wife, wouldn’t convert to Islam so they divorced) to be king. The 3rd died in a helicopter crash at the location of the airport. Hence, the name of the airport. Jordan got Independence in 1946. It’s called Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Wadi Rum …Valley of the Moon, was the area where many films were made including Lawrence of Arabia and Star Wars. It really does look like one would imagine what the moon looks like with vast flat barren “valleys” and strange looking rock formations

Aladdin- movie with Wil Smith.

Stopped at a couple of arches and were greeted by kids and adults with their pet camels. The camels have incredibly long, long eyelashes…maybe 3inches…..and very bristly whiskers

“Steps of the moon” where Starwars was filmed.

Camel races yearly here

Kefir is name of scarfs used by the arabs

Camels came from Austraila via Afghanistan

We met a Bedouin man and son who stay to protect the inscriptions on the rock wall previously damaged by hoodlums. The inscriptions tell story of travellers coming through.

When it comes to names……”Abu” is father of… ,“ om” is mother of….

We are staying in a Bedouin camp in the shade of one of these mountains. They are supposed to be tents but the the walls are solid, the floors have ceramic tiles, there are bathrooms and showers. Only thing is that the roof is fabric. There is a fire pit that some are sitting around in the middle between the “motel rooms”. OMG it is so hot…. Never cooled down.