Egypt Day 1

When we first got to Italy we started dreaming about all of the trips we wanted to take.  In our lives Patrick and I have been very fortunate to have the opportunity to travel.  There are some places that he has been that I haven't and vice versa.  So we've made a list of places to travel back to, and places that neither of us have been.  On the very top of that list was Egypt. 

Egypt has always been a place that fascinated me.  I remember when I was younger learning about the Pharaohs, it piqued my interest so much that I thought I would be an Egyptologist when I grew up.  I imagined the Nile Valley, and those ancient workers of the past building pyramids and temples.  I had always wanted to travel through Egypt to see these great monuments for myself.

Patrick and I discussed our options and our plans for the Holidays, and we decided that we would do it.  We would go to Egypt, and it would be our Christmas present to each other.  We booked our trip, a four day cruise down (technically up) the Nile river, from there we would fly to Cairo for three days.  We couldn't wait for our vacation to start.

There was so much to see and do in Egypt and we had a blast.  But do you want to know what my favorite part of the trip was?  Spending seven days straight with my husband and enjoying this experience with him.  Since we've been in Italy he has been working so hard, leaving the house before six and not returning until seven, even eight at night.  And due to my insane decision to live so far away from base our time together during the week is short.  That's why I loved this uninterrupted week with my husband.

You're probably thinking, 'Get to the good stuff already!'  So....I will.  We left on a Monday afternoon and after a three hour flight arrived in Luxor.  It was already dark when we arrived so there wasn't much to see from the air.  In the airport in Catania I had a sneaking suspicion that I had spotted the other American couple that would be on the trip with us, and when we were boarding the plane I inquired as to whether they were the couple from Naples.  And indeed they were!  Luckily Steven and Colleen were a truly wonderful couple, whom we enjoyed spending our time with.  Which was certainly a good thing considering that we were all four together for our entire trip.

Because we booked our trip through the local agency here, we were booked with an all Italian group.  Which meant that our group of four had a much more intimate tour group throughout our visit.  It worked out really well for us.  As we toured the various temples, tombs, pyramids, etc. there was our group of four and our tour guide.  Many of the other groups we saw from all over the world (Russia, Spain, Japan, Italy, England) usually consisted of 20 or more people.  We were able to take our time, actually hear our guide, ask questions, and enjoy ourselves.

Back to our first night.  We got a rough itinerary from the travel agent before we left, so we had some ideas of what we were going to be doing.  Most days were correct, however, some were not.  Our first night we were meant to go from the airport to the ship.  Instead our tour guide took us to Luxor Temple, and I'm so glad that he did!  It was really beautiful at night, and exciting as well.  Our first stop in Egypt, and what a magnificent sight.

Ramssese II - He was one of the first rulers to start using propaganda.  He would use monuments to remind people of the great battles he fought.  He also used carved scarab beetles as ancient newspapers.

Luxor Temple was built mostly by two pharoes: Amenhotep III (1380 - 1352 BC) and Ramses II (1279 - 1213 BC).  The temple used to house the statue of Amun, a very important ancient god, once known as the king of the gods.  Once a year the statue of Mut, the mother goddess and Amun's wife, would be transported from the Karnak temple to Luxor temple about 200 feet down the road.  This was known as the Opet festival.  Our guide like to refer to it as the honeymoon.

I've rethought my approach to the information I'm going to give you on what we saw.  I figure I'll save myself some time and perhaps your sanity by not putting too much historical data in these entries.  Otherwise I may never get all of the entries done.  And I know that not all of us wanted to be egyptologists as children. 

I found quite a few things interesting on our trip, but one of the most by far was simply the desert.  So many of these temples and monuments were hidden under the sand.  It's hard to imagine that these large structures were so completely buried that for hundreds, even thousands of years people didn't know they existed.  Recently some archaeologists found what they call sphinx avenue in Luxor.  This was a road from Karnak temple to Luxor temple that was adorned on either side by rows of sphinx statues.  Along this main road now are apartments, schools, and buildings.  However, the people of the area have agreed to move out of their homes, and move their businesses so that these statues can be restored and people (likely tourists) will be able to walk this ancient road like it was done long ago.  (Walk like an Egyptian, as it were.)



This mosque was built in 1400 AD, the door at that you see near the middle of the picture was once the entrance to the mosque.  This temple was buried under that much sand.



Sphinx Avenue

This was also our first experience with an Egyptian term known as baksheesh.  What is this you ask?  It's ridiculous, and it's also spread throughout Egypt.  Essentially what it is, is tipping.  If anything is done to you, given to you, shown to you, explained to you from anyone aside from your guide they are expecting, nay, demanding a tip.  (Your guide also expects a tip at the end of the trip, which we were very happy to give as they both earned it.)  We bought three things on our trip: an alabaster vase/candle holder, a scarf, and a shirt.  The rest of our spending money went towards tipping.  Tipping EVERYONE.  The guy who takes your bags ten feet, the guy that opens the door, the taxi driver, the guy SELLING you the alabaster vase, the police man with the machine gun that shows you some important hieroglyph on the wall, the guy who owns the camel that you just took a picture of, the guy who took your picture, the lady who gives you two squares of toilet paper to use the bathroom....do you get the picture?

Before leaving I did some research, I like to learn a little about the places I travel.  And of course I read about baksheesh, but what you can't read is what a nuisance it is.  Made more so by the fact that the Egyptian pound is nearly worthless and even cashiers don't have the one and two pound coins.  The Egyptians think that most Americans and Europeans are wealthy and can therefore afford to give them money.  I guess they don't realize that we spent all our money to get to their country. 

So that's day one.  I'd like to point out that day one consisted of one temple and only one hour of exploration.  What does that mean for the rest of the days?  I have no idea.  We'll see where it takes us.