Egypt Day 7-- Day "At Sea" & a Visit to Sheikh Fadl Island

We spent the day sailing today! It was nice to have a leisure day! We stopped at Sheikh Fadl Island where there was a really nice sandy beach. A couple of the women went swimming (Linda and Lynn), but I've seen too many things being dumped into the river-- I didn't trust it! I waded in it and it was really cold anyway, so I was glad I didn't swim! The people are starting to look more African the further south we go on the Nile and they are called Nubians. We got the boys some carved wooden animals they were selling on the beach. Some took donkey rides-- Robin being one of them! We relaxed and took naps and played lots of cards today. Bill caught Carol taking a nap as well! We sailed into Aswan at sunset and docked there for our last night on the boat...

Egypt Day 6-- Island Village of Bisaw, Sandstone Quarries & the Temple of Kom Ombo

After breakfast we took a small boat from our Dahabiya to a cute little island village. We visited their fields and saw the different crops they were growing. We visited a house of one of the locals and watched them make bread. We sampled it and it was pretty good! Ayman got some to take back to the boat, which we enjoyed for dinner. We didn't stay long and got back on the boat and sailed past the ancient quarry where the ancient Egyptians got all of the sandstone for the temples! That is a long way to haul those heavy stones!! (In one of my pictures it shows the size of one of the blocks they cut to use for the temple!! HUGE!! How did they do that?????) We then stopped to explore the Kom Ombo temple which was very interesting... It is in the Greco Roman style and like all the others is symmetrical but with two entrances instead of just one.  There are two entrances, two halls and two sanctuaries dedicated to Horus and the crocodile god Sobek.  Ayman is so interesting, and has several stories to explain things, "In case you didn't like the first one!"   I am amazed at the amount of stray/wild dogs they have in this country! Allison took bread from the boat everywhere we went and fed them. It was a slower day today, which was nice!

 

Egypt Day 5-- Edfu Temple & Partying Egyptian Style

We enjoyed a nice breakfast before disembarking in Edfu. I don't speak Arabic, but there was a huge problem with our transportation and a heated debate took place in front of our eyes as Ayman handled it. Apparently he had arranged for horse carriages to take us to the temple, but several others got wind of it and they all showed up and were fighting over taking us!!! SOOOOO CRAZY!!!!! So, to solve the problem, Ayman just called a motor coach and called off all the carriages! That was an up front view of their culture, in not a good way!! It is just pure survival here-- I've never seen anything like this! The Edfu Temple is one of the largest and most intact monuments in Egypt. It had 2 beautiful granite statues of the falcon god Horus that flanked the entrance to the temple. Today, Ayman started giving us names, and one of the people in the group was named Horus. I got the name Neftis and Bill is Sete! There is a funny story surrounding all of this in Egyptian mythology and there are some striking similarities to what we believe as members of the church!  I feel like these people had it from the beginning and it just got lost through the centuries... Anyway, from that day on, Ayman called me Neftis and Bill Sete!! Everything was super intact in the holy of holies and the altar was still standing. We stopped at the store for some drinks and talked with Ayman for a while as he explained more of the history. While we were gone, the boat staff made towel animal figures all over the boat and in our rooms... it was cute the things they came up with! Tonight we had a party where we were docked-- off the boat. They had the food all set up and everything was decorated for a party! The meat was all BBQ'd and they had all the usual and typical things they have had since we got to Egypt! And YES, the meat was still dry and overcooked, although the staff on the boat was really trying to make everything special. They played live Egyptian music while we ate and then it became a free for all where we were asked to dance with all the workers from the boat. They gave us hats to wear and we danced for a while to very long songs and very loud music! It seemed like it got louder as it got later! It was fun, but I was glad to get back on the boat!!! Bill refused to dance and just watched from the table. Another full day of adventures and we were so glad to get to bed!

Egypt Day 4-- Balloon Ride & Valley of the Kings

We had to get up super early this morning for our hot air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings. I had to get up at like 3:45 in order to be at breakfast and get on the bus in time. They did give us a box breakfasts to take with us which I ate in the van on the way over. We crossed the Nile on a boat and then got on another van that drove us to the balloons. We counted about 60 other balloons! It was soooo cool to see everything from the air! We saw so many ruins and burial sites and so many that haven't even been uncovered yet! You could just see the mounds of something that looked like a temple or a tomb or something! We also got to see a gorgeous sunrise over the Nile as well! It's so calm and serene up in a balloon and our landing was very easy too! Our bus met up with us when we finished the balloon ride. We went to a bunch of the places we saw from our balloon, so that was cool! First we went to a BUNCH of tombs-- they all started looking the same after a while! Hahaha! Most of them were for a King Ramses. They were numbered, but it wasn't always consecutive that they ruled. King Tut's tomb was also in the area, but it wasn't open for exhibit. Our guide told us the story of how they found it-- Howard Carter's tent was right on top of it and he'd been searching for it for years. The British government was about to stop funding for the project, but told him he could have 1 more year. One of the servant boys in their crew was out and saw something interesting and he alerted the team of excavators and it ended up being his tomb! So really, we can credit a boy for finding it!! I was amazed at how well the paint on their carvings has lasted for 4,000 years! So wild!! The carvings all tell the story of the journey after death and have deep symbolism of what they thought would happen to them after death. After that, we drove to the temple of Queen Hatshepsut, which we explored for a while and also saw from the air. The top layer of the temple was actually carved out of the mountain, which is pretty cool! Our guide has been so good to tell us all of their theories and stories for what might've happened, but nothing is solid fact. They just have to theorize about things! He is very knowledgeable with the history and has been so interesting! Plus, he's funny and entertaining... he always says, "Off we go!" when it's time to get moving!! He's cute! After lunch, we visited an Alabaster workshop and learned how they carve it. It was so interesting and this time I was interested in getting something. I found a really cute white alabaster bowl. I didn't realize that we could've bargained with him. I was told that in the shops all the prices are fixed, but our guide told us afterward that we could've bargained with them. He did give us a pretty good price though, because Allison bought some things too, and we bought them all together to get a better price. It is really beautiful! I especially love the white color, but it's available in all sorts of colors and looks so pretty if you hold it up to the light! We got back to the boat for lunch and an afternoon at leisure and we went through a lock at Esna and our guide said there was a really cool temple in Esna an he wanted to stop and walk to it, but the captain of the boat said we wouldn't be able to fit it into our schedule with docking at the different ports... we were all kinda bummed about that! But the process of going through the lock was super cool!! We watched the boat get higher and higher as the water rose!!! We played lots of cards and enjoyed some downtime and dinner later on... It was another amazing and surprising day in Egypt!