Today was a day to explore Portugal’s origins and influence on the world. We started out with our guides, Jose and Ricardo who took us to two delightful historical towns. The Roman influence is still felt in Portugal, both in the language and the communities.

Both Braga and Guimaraes figure prominently in the establishment of Portugal as a country. The first king of Portugal, Alfonso I, was a child (between 1 and 6 years old depending on who tells the story) when his father, a Duke of the County of Portugal, died. His widowed mother looked to improve her lot in life by marrying the most powerful lord in a neighbouring county. The nobles in Portugal didn’t approve and influenced Alfonso to challenge his mom for power. He listened and turned out to be a good leader, pushing back the Moors and winning a battle against his mom and sending her into exile (or a dungeon, depending upon who tells the story). Alfonso solidified his power by sucking up to the Pope, who in turn, supported him and named him King of Portugal in 1137. He is now known as Alfonso the conquerer. I share this story as it was the backdrop in everything we have seen so far.

Our first stop on the tour was the Dom Jesus do Monte Sanctuary. The steps climb 381 ft. Apparently, if looked at from a drone view, the statues form the shape of the holy grail. While the first chapel on the site was built around 1373 and was rebuilt as a pilgrimage site in 1629 dedicated to good Jesus and the passion of Christ. It has been renovated many times over the years with the current configuration dating from 1882.

One of the quirks of the site is an unusual train that takes people from the bottom of the hill to the top. It has run entirely on gravity since 1882. A train at the top has a tank that is filled with water. It then pulls the bottom train up as gravity pulls it down the hill.

The grounds of this sanctuary also included a number of residences that originally housed clergy and nuns. They have been converted to hotels now. Outside the church is a statue dedicated to the soldier who showed mercy to Jesus on the cross by killing him with his spear. He is considered to be the first “Roman” Catholic.

Next we drove into the town of Braga. Braga was founded by Caesar Augustus and is considered one of the first Christian cities in the world. We went to the Cathedral of Santa Maria, the first Portuguese Cathedral. The cathedral was built on the ruins of a Roman temple dedicated to Isis. The parents of Alfonso I are buried here. One way to know that this is an important church is by the crowns above the towers. (They actually look like spiders). The crowns show that the church was “crowned” by a pope. There was a huge competition between Braga and Compostella for the favour of Rome. Braga remains a favourite place to be buried for bishops and clergy from all over Portugal.

As we walked through town we kept seeing these hooded figurines on display. We learned that that they were the farricocos (the citizens who wore hooded cloaks to announce the coming of a convicted criminal by shouting out the crimes committed to the people of town. To attract attention they would shake black rattles. These figures walk through town during Holy Week processions basically announcing Jesus during the stations of the cross).

Our lunch in a local restaurant was delicious. We ate cod fritters, duck rice and a beef & bean stew. we drank local vinho verde “green wine” and relaxed. This regional wine is not a varietal grape but a process where the wine is released 3-6 months after the grapes are harvested. It can be red, white or rose. When young it can have a slight effervescence. So far we have tried the red and white, the white is much better to our palate.

After lunch we moved onto Guimaraes where we walked through the old city and viewed the impressive Duke’s palace. It was originally built in the early 14 hundreds and was lived in by successive dukes for 200 years. It then fell into ruin until it was restored in the early 1900’s. The palace was unique for the times. It had 39 chimneys (making it warm) and 200+ windows (making it bright). They also devised a system of collecting rainwater which helped, among other things, flush out the indoor toilet chambers. The refurbished castle was beautifully furnished with antique furniture and gorgeous tapestries.

One of the most interesting parts of the palace tour was the discussion of how a princess of Portugal changed the British world. Henry II of England married Catherine of Braganza, the daughter of the Portuguese king in 1662. She was Henry’s second wife. They married when he was 43 and she was 16. Catherine’s dowry was huge, approximately the equivalent of 360 million euros by today’s standards. She also came with the cities of Tangier and Bombay, as well as fur trading rights in the Indies. She basically helped build the British empire. (We learned that Bombay is a Portuguese word for Good Bay). After she became Queen of England she radically changed British ways of life. She introduced forks to the royal court, changed plates from metal to china, fans, smoking and high tea. Who knew!

We strolled through the old city of Guimaraes and followed some of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. The pilgrimage walk goes through the city despite the historical rivalry between Compostela and Guimaraes for papal privilege. The shells in the sidewalks lead the way.

Our last stop was the castle where Alfonso I defeated his mother Theresa at the battle of Sam Mamede in 1128. The castle is being restored but remains mainly in ruin. The parking lot is where the battle took place and is a national historic sight where battle re-enactments occur.

We returned to Porto and had a leisurely dinner at a very odd restaurant near our hotel. It served Indian, Turkish, Italian and American food. The waiter clearly favoured the curries, which were delicious. The nachos however turned out to be stale Doritos and ranch dip. We crashed.

Our Saturday was spent packing, briefly touring the way-expensive shopping district on Santa Catarina street and moving onto our cruise ship. We set sail tomorrow on the Douro river for the next week. We are excited and looking forward to the adventure.

Porto has been around a long time. The Celts were here 2005 years ago. then the Romans arrived. They stayed in control until the Barbarians took over. The Moors wrested control from them and were later expelled by King Alfonso I who declared Portugal and independent kingdom in 1143. We learned this in the first few minutes with Silva, our walking tour guide. He was a fountain of information as he guided us during our 2.5 hours walking tour. We also learned that Portugal and England have been formal allies since the Treaty of Windsor was signed in 1386. This is the oldest military alliance (637 years) in recorded history. This alliance was crucial for Portugal being able to resist being overtaken by Spain.

Porto rose to prominence in the mid 1700’s after a massive earthquake levelled Lisbon. Porto was unaffected and became a major shipping port. We also learned that Portugal was ruled by a fascist regime from 1930-1974. At the time of the revolution in 1974 (without bloodshed) only 25% of the Portuguese people were literate! Things have changed a great deal since then. Portugal joined the European Union in 1986 and have now got a much better standard of living. Tourism has given a significant boost to the economy but there is still room for lots of change. The average wage in Portugal is 1300 Euros per month and housing costs are very high due to the demand for lucrative short-term rental taking up the housing space.

Silva noted that in the relatively short time as a democracy, Portugal has implemented several progressive laws. For example, they decriminalized drug use, made abortion available and passed gender equity laws regarding same sex marriage and adoptions. We enjoyed getting these brief glimpses into Portuguese culture and history.

Our stating point was the Museum of Photography, a fascist era former prison that has been turned into a museum. Our first stop on the tour was a viewpoint overlooking the Douro river. We learned that the opposite side of the river, where we were yesterday, is another community called Gaia. Due to a better tax situation, all of the major port cellars are located in Gaia.

We moved back to the museum and crossed out of the medieval part of Porto. We passed through a park across from the court house. this statue in front of the courthouse represents Lady Justice. As you can see, she is holding a sword and scales, but is not blindfolded. This is because under the fascist regime, there was no pretence that justice was impartial and punishment was harsh and swift.

The park we walked through used to be the prison hanging and burial grounds. It is much more upbeat these days. We loved this sculpture of laughing old men, this is one of several sculptures in a series. A Spanish artist created the sculptures to capture the spirit of men enjoying themselves in the park, a tribute to their joy.

We continued on, through a street market to the twin churches. The first church (The Carmo with the dome was built in 1616 in the early Baroque style). The second church as built in 1756 in the late Baroque style (or Rocco). It was against the law for two churches to share a wall so the original “skinny house” was constructed between them. It also kept the nuns (Carmelita) and priests (Carmo) apart. While it was originally a home, it later became a place for secret meetings during the civil war and the fascist regime.

Our next stop was the Fonte dos Leoes, a fountain of griffins outside of the university administrative building. This is when Silva started the story about JK Rowling’s connection to Porto. She lived in Porto from 1991-93. Her husband at the time was from Porto. Rumour has it that several of her literary choices in the Harry Potter series were influenced by her Porto experiences. Apparently, she conceived of the outlines for all the books while in Porto and even began writing the Philosopher’s Stone there. It is thought that, for example, Diagon Alley’s bookstore was potentially inspired by the Livraria Lello near the churches. The university outfits I discussed yesterday may have inspired the Hogwarts student uniforms, the griffon statue inspired the Gryffindor logo and Salazar Slytherin May have been named after Antonio Salazar, Portugal’s dictator from1932-1968.

The Livraria Lello is a book store housed in a beautiful art nouveau building. Lello opened the store in 1881 and went through a number of changes in his business structures and the current building was constructed in 1906. Lello was apparently in dire financial straits in the early 1990’s until they connected the bookstore to JK Rowling’s books. So many people flocked to the store that they started charging admission. We didn’t go in because a) you need to buy a ticket in advance, I.e., 6€ for regular admission or 15€ for expedited admission. (Your ticket price is credited toward the price of a book) and b) the line up was super long. This connection saved the store. Recently, JK Rowling denied ever having been in the store, but people still line up for what has been called the most beautiful bookstore in the world.

Leaving Harry Potter behind, we continued our tour to the Clerigos Tower. Italian architect Nasoni built the church bell tower for free on the agreement that he would be buried anonymously in the church. The tower was completed in 1763 and stands 75 metres tall. If you climb all 225 stairs, you would get a wonderful 360 degree view of the city.

We put this on our “next time” list and continued on to the street where our hotel is on. It is called the Avenue of Allies and is anchored by Porto’s city hall. This was originally to be the centre of Porto’s financial district but that centre moved away from downtown and the avenue is filled with empty buildings. These buildings are being renovated and a new metro station is going in so hopefully the area will come back to life.

As we started towards the train station, we stopped at McDonalds for architectural purposes, no burgers were purchased. The building was originally the imperial cafe in the 1930’s and was restored for McDonalds in 1995. If you can ignore the restaurant electronic menus you can admire the intact art deco features including stained glass and original chandeliers.

The train station took our breath away as we entered the beautifully tiled main hall. This fully functioning San Bento train station was inaugurated in 1916. The walls are covered with 22,000 tiles depicting historical scenes from Portugal’s history and social life. One man, Jorge Colaco designed all the tiles.

We finished our tour at the cathedral overlooking the river harbour. It was hot and we struggled to the end before thanking our guide and going off to find chairs, food and wine. We succeeded, then did some shopping on our way back to the hotel.

After a bit of relaxation we were off to find supper. Our target was the famous local Francesinha sandwich. It was intimidating! It is a sandwich made of sausage, ham, steak, and cheese between two layers of bread smothered in gravy with a side of fries for dipping. It was delicious and we all entered a food coma as we finished our day.

Our travel to Portugal was fairly uneventful, only one flight delay of 90 minutes and our luggage arrived with us. We joined our group of friends at a delightful hotel in Porto where we are spending a few days before our cruise on the Douro River.

We started our day today with a walk by the Douro, both sides. To get to the river we walked through cobblestone streets, admired local goods in stores, not buying but promising we will come back before we leave. We also dodged construction as a new metro line is being installed. We noticed that Porto is a colourful city. There were murals on the several buildings as well as a ton of graffiti.

The buildings were beautiful as we made our way to the river. Many are covered in decorative ceramic tiles.

We strolled down the river walk and enjoyed a view of the boats and the walls by the harbour. For example, this tunnel through the harbour wall is the last remaining portal to the river pier built in 1386.

We enjoyed the colourful buildings, noticing the laundry and satellite dishes augmenting these older homes.

I noticed the Barcelos Rooster peering down on us as we walked. This rooster is the unofficial symbol of Portugal, symbolizing the Portuguese love of life. It arises from a 15th century legend where a poor pilgrim passing through Barcelona was arrested and sentenced to death. He swore his innocence to the judge who was eating his dinner during that plea. The judge lost his appetite after hearing from the man but still upheld the death sentence. Just as the hanging was to occur, the judge’s roasted rooster apparently stood up and crowed. The judge realized he had made a mistake and saved the pilgrim at the last moment. There are several permutations of this legend but the rooster is everywhere.

We crossed the river from Porto to Villa Nova de Gaia on the lower deck of the Pont Luis I bridge. This 2 deck bridge took 7 years to build and was finished in 1888. The engineer responsible for the bridge was a student of Gustav Eiffel. It replaced an older suspension bridge.

We strolled down from the bridge and had our first glass of Portuguese wine of the day at Quintado Nova. This vineyard has been in production since 1715. It was delicious. It was 27 degrees today and a cool glass went down nicely. We wandered further and encountered the Portuguese Experience. We were served a fried breaded cod cake filled with a delicious cheese and a glass of port wine. While we happily indulged, the organist preformed songs from Queen and Rihanna. It was delightful if not a bit odd. We got to keep our port glasses as souvenirs.

As we made our way to the cable car that would take us up to the high deck of the bridge for our walk home, we encountered a group of university students getting initiated into their first year. the first years are in yellow. The upper year students are in black suits with black wool capes. This is an annual ritual that is about bonding/mentoring more than hazing. They looked like they were having fun.

It was good to have the option of the Telefericode de Gaia (cable car gondola ride) to start the journey back to the hotel.

We finished our day with a delightful cocktail at our hotel bar (tawny port, strawberry, basil and tonic water with a dash of lime). It was a refreshing beverage at the end of a long, satisfying walk. We had incredible seafood for dinner, planned our walking tour for tomorrow and have called it a night.

After our visit to the Valley of the Kings we had a delicious lunch at a local restaurant. I am now totally addicted to falafal and baba ganoush. We also moved off of our boat and into a beautiful hotel in Luxor. We had a great evening lecture about the ongoing restoration work happening in Luxor. Dr. Hany Hamroush was an engaging speaker and clarified a great deal about the restoration work going on. The lecture was at the Luxor Library. We had supper and then went with our guide to the local bazaar for a walkabout.

We spent our third day in Luxor exploring the temples of Karnak and Luxor. the Karnak Temple Complex was built over centuries starting during the reign of Senusret I (1971-1926 BCE) and construction continued over the centuries until 330 BCE. This part of Egypt was called Thebes to the Greeks but Waset to the Egyptians during the Middle Kingdom. Just to get geeky here for a moment – there are three Kingdoms of ancient Egypt – The old kingdom (2700-2160 BCE) saw the building of the Pyramids, the middle kingdom (2055-1650 BCE) saw the building of Karnak and other temples, and the New Kingdom (1550-1-69 BCE) saw the building of the “stone cut” tombs of the pharaohs.

As we approached Karnak we noticed the end of the 2 km avenue of sphynx that connects Luxor temple to Karnak Temple. They are impressive. The Karnak Temple is a series of buildings and only one part is open to the public and it is still a huge site to wander through. The Hypostyle Hall is 50,000 sq ft. with 134 columns arranged in 16 rows. The columns are 33 ft tall and almost 10 ft around. The size of the columns and statues was overwhelming. we were very aware of the huge labour and craftsmanship to build structures like these that have withstood the test of time and weather for so many centuries.

The restoration work is ongoing at this site. Despite its age, the colours remain vivid and the carvings are amazing. The site is quite easy to walk around today, but for centuries it was covered in sand and debris. This allowed it to be preserved. The whole area was covered up to the capitols when Napoleon showed up. People lived on site and the impact of their stay is noted in graffiti carved high up into the pillars and holes in the stones where people tied their animals.

This is a statues of Rameses II with his wife Naferatari at his feet. It was defaced deliberately in ancient times. It depicts him with his flail and sceptre. When he is depicted with his feet together, he is in God mode (if he had one foot in front of the other as if walking, he was in human mode). The defacing was to destroy the symbols of power for example, the cobra head from his forhead and beard were broken off – both signs of power.

The Obelisk is a symbol of monotheisism (one stone/one god). This one was built by King Tutmoses I. A matching obelisk was taken from this site and moved to Rome. Rome has at least 74 Obelisks from Egypt, while Egypt has only a few remaining.

We left Karnak and returned to Luxor. The temple was only a few blocks from our hotel, adjacent to the Nile.

This temple was important as a part of religious celebrations honouring Amun, his wife Mut and their son, the lunar god Khonsu. Each year during the five festival days, processional boats would travel between Karnak and Luxor through the avenue of sphinxes.

Our day started with a visit to the Colossi of Memnon. these giant twin statues depict King Amenhotep III and originally there was a mortuary temple to him behind them that was destroyed in a giant earthquake in 1200 BCE and again in 27 BCE.

There were two parts of our journey that were foundational to my childhood dreams of Egypt – seeing the great pyramids and seeing King Tut’s tomb. Today we got to see Tut’s tomb. Surprisingly, it wasn’t my favourite part of the valley of the kings. His tomb was very small and empty. All his grave goods are in museums but his body remains in this tomb. All you could see of his remains were his blackened head and feet. They actually burned his face trying to get his mask off because it had been soldered on after he died.

The tomb of Sete I was the highlight of this day. It was big and bright with hieroglyphs and paintings. The stairs were challenging but definitely worth the climb. At the end of the day we had explored 6 different tombs and climbed the equivalent of 45 flights of stairs.

We also toured the tombs of Rameses I, III, IV and Rameses V/VI. Each was different but with similar iconography.

In Ramses VI used his father’s tomb and simply added on. some of the symbols in this tomb were interesting. The sedge plant is the symbol of Upper Egypt (southern Egypt, closer to the source of the Nile) and the bee was the symbol of lower Egypt (northern Egypt, closer to Cairo and the Delta). These symbols were in all the tombs. Scarabs and the eyes of Horace were also common. Scarabs symbolized birth, life, death and resurrection. Eye of Horace is associated with becoming whole and healing. It is often associated with funerary proceedings and has protective properties.

You could tell by the bleakness of the site why the tombs were undiscovered for centuries. People had know of the tombs in general and of course grave robbers had been mining the tombs over the years, however, the environment was bleak and harsh with a lot of rubble covering the entrances. There are 63 tombs that have been explored so far, but there are still tombs being found and the work is still done largely by hand. Who knows what lies untouched.

Ending our Valley tour, we stopped at Howard Carter’s house. He was sponsored by Lord Carnarvon for 5 years and in 1922, was on the verge of losing that sponsorship when a water carrying youth accidentally found the steps down to Tut’s tomb. They proceeded to excavate and the opening of the tomb was a big event. However, Carter did a bit of looting prior to the official opening for his own collections. These pieces have mostly been repatriated and all the grave goods will be shown in the new museum in Cairo.

The name of this valley is Ta-Set-Nehru or “place of beauty”. It was the burial place of the wives and children of the pharaohs. There are at least 90 known tombs on the sight. We went into the tomb of Nefertari,the great Royal wife of Ramesses II. We last met them at Abu Simbel. Her tomb was discovered in 1904 by an Italian archeologist. This was important because he had the insight and techniques to save the vivid paintings in her temple. We were blown away. All I can do to describe the experience is show you some of the pictures.

I can’t begin to name all the characters in the painted scenes but I hope to figure it out with some research after I get home. we also visited the temple of Queen Hatshepsut before heading for lunch.

This day also included a felucca ride across the Nile to Gezira el Mozh, an island known for growing bananas and housing a little zoo of a jackal, a crocodile and some monkeys. It was a bit distressing to see the caged animals so I wandered around a bit and noticed a cotton plant. It was much more interesting.

Our next stop was a visit to the Luxor museum. It houses a number of the objects found at the temples of Karnak and Luxor, but I will describe those temples later.

We learned that the broken part of the snout was lost in antiquity. It was repaired when the nose was found when they were dredging the canals. The restorer did an excellent repair and it holds up well, especially when you think the repair was made 1200 years after it was originally carved in 1386 BCE (by the same guy who repaired the sphinx at Giza). The repairer left a text describing that he wanted to save the monuments for humanity.

It was a full and wonderful day. Tomorrow, the valley of the kings!

Our departure was delayed today due to weather. The heat wave broke, finally! However, it also triggered a sandstorm that interfered with sailing times. But, by the time breakfast was done, we were underway. I spent some time watching life on the river before we docked and left for Kom Omba.

Kom Ombo is a temple that was built in the 2nd century BC to honour the crocodile god Sobec and the falcon god Horus. This is the only temple in Egypt to be dedicated to two different gods. Crocodile mummies were found on site here.

Some of the symbols in the temples are starting to make sense to us. For example, the ankh and sceptre in the image below refers to temple priests who carry the secrets of divine creation (ankh) and the secrets of divine ruling and dominance (sceptre).

After lunch we set out for Edfu, another temple dedicated to Horace. This one was huge and well preserved. We have learned a great deal of Egyptian history by thinking about the eras in which the monuments we see were built. For example Edfu was built by Ptolemy dynasty, a group of Macedonian Greeks who ruled Egypt from 305-30 BC. Cleopatra was the last ruler of this period. We arrived at the Edfu temple in style in a horse drawn buggy. The horse alternated trotting, running and dodging other vehicles/people in the streets. It was fun. Of course we took the same buggy back to our boat.

Like most temples, the decoration focused largely on the king’s victories in battle and mixed that in with tributes to the gods.

The God Horace is typically depicted in falcon form. We all agreed that Horace and Dale share the same frowny eyebrows.

Like all temples, there were large segments where only the priests were allowed. One of these spaces was the temple library where papyrus scrolls were kept. Jane found the library too tempting to miss.

The inner sanctums housed sacred items such as Barques. These ceremonial boats were used to celebrate the sun god in ceremonies and were paraded through the streets and sailed on the Nile during festival days.

We noticed the temple dogs at Edfu keeping watch as we departed. We returned to our boat for a relaxing evening. The food continues to be great.

We left our lake cruise ship to move to our river cruise ship. In doing so we learned a lot about the dams on the Nile. The old dam was built in the early 1900’s and was upgraded a few times before the new dam was built. The new dam was built at a point of rapids. The Nile was historically divided into sections defined by “cataracts” or rapids. These dams caused a lot of challenge to the Nubians and many were displaced in the construction of both dams.

The building of the dam was a complex political process. The Suez Canal became a pawn in the process. Eventually the Russians came through with the needed loans. The Egyptians built a monument of friendship to honour the deal. The dams are considered military sites and we noticed the armed presence (soldiers, guns and tanks). As we drove past a guard post I noticed a sign with the name of a temple on it that I was happy to be reminded about. I took a picture of it. Our bus was then pulled over and our guide asked for my camera to show that I hadn’t taken a picture of anything military. I was happy my camera was safely returned.

Our second stop of the day was the vibrant Temple of Philae. It was relocated a few metres from it’s original site as the water from the dams flooded it. The rescue required a huge set of retaining walls to be built around the site and the cavity between them filled with sand.the water around the temple was then pumped out. They then got rid of the built up silt by hand and dismantled the temple stone by stone. Then the stones were moved onto a natural island where it stands today and reassembled. We arrived to a bustling dock, alive with vendors and the small boats that take people to the temple site.

The Temple of Philae was the centre of the cult to the Goddess Isis and her connection to Osiris, Horus and the king during the Potolemaic period (300 BCEish). This is considered the last temple of the classical Egyptian style. It’s construction was interrupted the Romans. The site transitioned to a Coptic church and was held by Napoleanic troops at one point. A highlight were the temple cats.

Isis is depicted in many carvings most importantly in the Egyptian trinity – Isis (mother), son (Horus) and Osiris (father). there is a large granite boulder as part of the temple foundation that is seen as the place where her tears over the loss of her husband. These tears are said to be the cause of the Nile flooding.

We are starting to recognize Hieroglyphics and their meanings. For example, the ankh symbolizes life and resurrection. The sceptre represents stability, the curve is Neb/god.

There is still more from this day and I’m a bit behind in keeping up. It’s been hot and exciting, so fatigue is real.so I am off to sleep for now. As we learned in New York, tomorrow is a latter day.

We began our day exploring the Valley of the lions. The temple of Wadi El Sebou has a double row of sphinx protecting it from all threats. Like most temples, this one was heavy on glorifying the Pharaoh’s victories, in this case Ramesses II, while dedicating the temple to the gods. There are many friezes depicting Ramses making offerings.

We learned that the ankh symbol represents life and rebirth. Typically, this was received through the breath. One reason why many of the statues we see have the noses broken off was a way vandals had of interfering with the pharaoh’s eternal life.

The Temple of Dakka was another of the relocated Nubian temples, this one journeyed 100 km to its now resting place. It was dedicated to Thoth, god of wisdom and writing in the 3rd century BCE and upgraded several times by Roman emperors. It’s shape is called a Pylon.

We returned to our boat for another wonderful lunch on and had a relaxing afternoon on Lake Nasser. The lake was named for Gamal Abdul Nasser, the president of Egypt during the time the dam was planned and built. It was nice to have a slower day.

Did I mention that there is a heat wave right now in Egypt. We stopped at the Northern quarry to see the unfinished Obelisk. This piece of granite would have weighed about 2.3 million pounds and would have stood 42 meters high (similar to the Lateran Obelisk in Rome). However, this one cracked while being carved and was left in the ground.

Back to the heatwave, it was 45C while we climbed up to the top of the quarry to look at the Obelisk. It was worth it. Our next stop was the Nubian Museum. Nubia is an ancient region of Egypt that lies between the first cataract (rapids) near Aswan and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles. the name means Land of Gold. We toured the small but impressive museum that documented Nubian history up to modern times.

We left the museum to go back to our ship, have another meal and relax. Several of us purchased Galabeas (long cotton dresses worn by both men and women). We looked good showing off our Egyptian style.