I will catch up and report on yesterday's (Monday) as well as today.
Monday we took off pretty early to the west bank of the Nile to see the Valley of the Kings. We learned how the tombs were built. They were started as soon as the reign of the Pharoh began so that they would hopefully be completed before he died. They had workers doing the digging, drawing, correcting, carving, painting simultaneously. Interesting factoid - when they were sketching the scenes, they used red and then made corrections in black.
Our visit includes 3 tombs; they were all different with scenes of the gods and the afterlife as well as hieroglyphics. It was incredible to see the vividness of the colors and how much intact everything is. We saw the entrance to King Tut's tomb and the house where Howard Carter stayed when he made the discovery. Eventually it is supposed to be made into a museum.
Our next stop was an alabaster factory. The gentlemen here gave quite an entertaining presentation about how the rock is turned into various souvenirs.
We also visited the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut or as the alabaster entertainers called her - Queen Chicken Soup (much easier to remember). She was one of only a few queens who ruled in Egypt and the only one to have a temple. She took over when her son/brother-in-law Thutmosis III was, at age 6, to young to rule. She ruled until her death after which King Thutmosis III finally took over and proceeded to wipe all evidence of her reign from monuments. So while some of it has been restored, a lot is still missing.
Finally, we made a photo stop at the Colossi of Memnon, the world's largest monolithic sculptures. They are all that remain from the Temple of Amenhotep III - once Egypt's largest temple.
Finally, we boarded our cruise ship and had lunch. After a busy few days we welcomed having the remainder of the day to rest and relax. The weather is not super warm and sometimes overcast, but are taking in some sun too. It is definitely much nicer here than in the Midwest.
Today (Tuesday) is Arby's birthday so we sang (or should I say attempted to sing) to her this morning and hope to make her feel special today!
We spent our morning off the ship, but still on the water, taking a motorboat to banana island where we saw banana plants in various stages of growth. A young boy (14) gave us the scoop about how bananas are grown. There were also orange, lemon, mandarin and papaya trees - plus wheat, alfalfa and onions. All on little plots of land next to each other. We saw how both the modern and ancient way they irrigated their fields. When we were all done we got to have some bananas before boarding our felucca for a short ride back to our cruise ship.
As we were having lunch, our ship departed from Luxor so we had another day to rest and relax on board. As we approached the lock at Esna in the evening, a flock of small boats with men selling their goods swarmed our ship. They threw up their wares and we shouted back and forth bartering for the right price. It was quite a scene, but several of us walked away with some pretty good deals - with a good story behind them to boot.
Tonight we have a welcome party before dinner with dancing in the evening for the night owls. Tomorrow we arrive in Edfu where we will disembark and tour Horus Temple.
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