Today we are doing a private
tour with Ramses Tours. We wanted to do
the Egypt tours with just the 2 of us. There is so much to see and we wanted to
move at our own pace. www.ramsestours.com
Our tour today includes the
Valley of the Kings, Luxor and Karnak, which are some of the most spectacular
temples and tombs of Egypt. The Sun God Ra and Osiris, the God of growth and
fertility and the afterlife were the most important and the temples were built
with these deities in mind.
Thebes was a political and
religious center for many centuries and pharaohs of the 18th dynasty
built the massive temples of Luxor and Karnak which later came to be called the
Valley of the Kings.
Our Ramses tour guide, Ahmed
and driver were waiting for us at the port. Several of us had booked tours
through Ramses and we were all put into our respective vehicles and the Tourism
Police gather 7 to 10 vehicles and you travel in a convoy of sorts with about 7
checkpoints along the approximately 3.5 hour route from Safaga to Luxor.
Someone from Ramses called frequently to make sure everything was OK. The
Princess tours had an escort with a gun on the bus with them. Our guide said
our driver also had a gun. It all may sound quite “dangerous”, but it is
standard practice here. The Tourism Police are there to make sure everyone is
safe and the system seems to work.
We had a stop halfway there
to use the facilities or get a snack or a drink. There were Bedouins there with
their donkeys with a goat on the donkeys back wanting tourists to pose with
them for photos for a fee. There were a couple of souvenir shops there as well
and I wished I’d bought the shirt I wanted since it cost a lot more in Luxor.
Ah well…..
Refreshed, we continued our
drive through the desert/mountains to Luxor. As we got closer to Luxor and the
Nile, the countryside became lush and green. Quite a contrast!
our guide
We
started with the Karnak Temples which was the largest place of worship ever
built and the greatest example of worship in history. The Temple of Karnak houses the largest space of any temple in the
world which is the Hypostyle Hall that covers 50,000 square feet. There are 134
huge columns in all and a 97 foot obelisk of Queen Hatsheput.
The Temple of Luxor’s most
striking feature is the colonnade. Rameses set up several huge statues inside
the temple with 2 obelisks in front of the pylon. Only 1 remains today as the
other was taken to Paris. From the façade of the temple runs a long paved road
lined with recumbent rams.
We then had a city tour of
Luxor before lunch. We were taken to the Nile View Restaurant & Café for a
nice buffet lunch. Lots of breads, pitas, hummus, salads, meatballs, roasted
vegetables, potato & onion thingies, and tasty desserts of something like baklava
without the nuts, just honey and other yummies. We were right next to the Nile
with lots of boats there. Feluccas (traditional wooden boats) were crossing
from one bank to the other. Every once in a while a bunch of trash would pass
by. After lunch we boarded a felucca to
cross over to the Valley of the Kings. As we were boarding we watched some
horses in the water next to the dinner boats. They were being fed by someone on
the boat and horse kept rearing up. Those are sights you don’t see every day!
We boarded another tour bus
for the ride to the Valley of Kings (since ours was across the Nile), where
the magnificent tombs of the ancient kings were discovered, those tombs were
carved deep into the desert rock, richly decorated and filled with treasures
for the afterlife of the pharaohs.
The Valley of the Kings has
more than 60 tombs that can be visited. One of the most spectacular is that of
Seti I with fabulous drawings and reliefs on the walls and a funerary chamber
with a spectacular astrological ceiling in black and gold.
The Tomb of Rameses VI has
excellent drawings including one that depicts a goddess floating in the sky
with the stars and several suns.
Most of these tombs have
been looted by grave robbers, but the tomb of King Tutankhamen was buried with
a lavish inventory of jewelry, toys, games furniture, clothing and weapons.
Most impressive is the gold ornate mask that is housed in the Egyptian Museum
in Cairo when it is not on tour. His tomb was found in 1922 and the entrance to
the tomb was concealed by an accumulation of debris from another tomb nearby.
OK, now the Steve Martin
tune won’t leave my head….”King Tut. Buried in in jammies…..in a condo made of
stone-ah”
We went into 2 tombs
included in our tour and paid extra to visit King Tuts’ with his mummy and his
burial coffin. It was plain inside other than that. We also visited Rameses III
and Merenptah’s tombs. Both were spectacular with elaborate wall and ceiling
paintings. AWESOME!
Here I bought my token
souvenirs and bartered for a shirt that after getting it back to the ship is
too large. ARGH! I’ll try to shrink it in the wash.
No photos were allowed here.
We then boarded our own car
(the driver had time to drive around and meet us) and we visited
the Hatshepsut Temple at El Deir El Bahary. The Temple of Queen Hatshepsut was built as a series of grand
terraces with rows of square granite columns. The walls are adorned with scenes
from her expedition to Somalia in search of incense trees.
don't know who this guy was, but the guard let him have his photo op
We had a couple of shopping
stops as well. We were taken to an Egyptian cotton store, but I found nothing
of interest. We visited an Alabaster store where we were shown the process to
make the items. It was an interesting stop and it was hard not to buy any, but
there is only so much room in my suitcase. Then, we stopped at a papyrus store
which I had almost zero interest in visiting, but they showed how the paper was
made and was quite interesting and the artwork was beautiful. I picked out a
small one with a lovely Egyptian theme depicted.
Our last stop was to see the
two colossal statues of Amenhotep III (Colossi of Memnon). There
was a farm beside it with lots of goats and a donkey.
My favorite parts of the day are always seeing locals going about
their daily lives, men riding donkeys, families farming, just hanging out or
shopping. I have never seen so many donkeys, I was expecting more camels not
donkeys.
We were now ready to return to Safaga and our driver was trying to
find a short cut, that had us driving through some interesting areas and
eventually lead us to some “off roading” to get down to the highway. We finally
got on the right street and started the drive back. One we got back to the
desert area away from the lush areas near the Nile, the guide and at least me
took a short nap. Hopefully, the driver was at least awake. We stopped at the
same rest stop and got a cold soda.
We arrived back at the hip at 8:30, so way earlier than expected, but that was nice. Grabbed some dinner upstairs and showered and went to the late show.
dashboard of our vehicle
We arrived back at the hip at 8:30, so way earlier than expected, but that was nice. Grabbed some dinner upstairs and showered and went to the late show.
The folkloric show that was called Safaga Oriental Show. With a
belly dancer, a great troupe of dancers performing traditional dances. There
was a Whirling Dervish that twirled
endlessly while twirling huge circles of cloth in the air that he had been
wearing and took off while twirling. Hard to describe, but it was fascinating.
After the show we hustled off to bed for our 5:30 wakeup call tomorrow!
Egypt & its related places are very pleasant to see.I want to go for spending the vacation with wonderful tour. Do you have interest to go for Egypt tourist places then have attach with this & get to know it's amazing history.
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