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.

We set sail from Abu Simbel and started heading into Nubian lands. The building of the High Aswan dam caused a significant part of Nubia to be flooded. UNESCO organized an international group of 50 countries to move temples out of harms way. The temple of Abu Simbel was the largest undertaking, but we saw a few more today. Kasr Ibrim was an important fort, originally 70 meters above the Nile. Now it is a ruin on an island.

Our first stop of the day was at the Temple of Amada. The first skill we have built is getting in and out of the boats that take us ashore. These motor boats hold all 24 of us on our tour and today we walked a plank to get onto shore.

The temple of Amada is the oldest of the Nubian temples and was created by Pharaoh Thutmoses III. Neither Dale nor I took a picture of the outside, but the insides were amazing.

We encountered locals on our way out of a building who showed us some local wildlife. Jacquie denied evolutionary instincts to hold a scorpion. For those who love her, the stinger had been removed.

The temple of Al-Derr was moved here. It was originally carved out of the rock (rather than built).

Tomb of Pennut dates from the reign of Ramses VI (1143-1136 BCE). It was also relocated before the valley filled. This tomb was built into a hill and was the smallest site we’ve visited, just one room.

We headed back to our boat and found the lounge for a bit before a reception where the crew were introduced and cocktails were served . We had dinner and crashed early. Another great day.

We were up before our 2:30am wake-up call for our flight to Aswan. Everything was going well as everyone was on the bus in good time. Then we hit a traffic jam. we were stuck in a honking mess, slowly inching forward until our driver, with aggressive honking and determined jockeying for position, got us back on the road. We cheered his skill as we got back on track. We made it through security and to our gate just as our plane was boarding.

We were immediately whisked off from the airport to a 3 hour ride to Lake Nasser. The desert is immense and uniformly flat and unicolour. There are naturally occurring hills that resemble pyramids. We were left wondering what lies beneath. we drove by a desert reclamation project. They are attempting to reclaim farmable land and so far it is working.

Abu Simbel was built by Ramesses II (1279-1213 BCE) to celebrate his victory over the Hittites at the Battle of Kadesh. The monument was constructed here because it was the right spot for the sun to shine on his image twice a year (February 21 and October 21, his birthday and coronation days). He had a second temple built for his favourite wife Neferatari.

The whole complex was set to be flooded with the completion of the Aswan High Dam. A UNESCO project saved this site and others by moving them. The entire Abu Simbel temple site was cut up, moved to higher ground and painstakingly reassembled in the exact orientation of the original. The only change was that the sun hit the inner temple figures one day later. It was a massive international project costing over 40 million USD at the time.

Our day focused on this site, culminating with a fantastic sound and light show. I got up early to see the sight from our cruise shift as we left port. I will give you more information about the cruising portion as we go.

Today we set out for the first pyramids built. The first one was the step pyramid at Saqqara. King Djoser built a temple complex described as his residence for eternal life. Imhotep was the architect for this and other incredible projects. Saqqara is a massive site that is still being actively excavated. The complex was originally surrounded by a large granite wall. The entry way was lined with columns and led to a massive court yard. The site was initially a graveyard filled with Mastabas (little brick rooms or caverns with flat roofs). Important people picked up the pyramid trend within Saqqara and continued for centuries.

We also saw two pyramids that followed upon the trend a little ways away, but within sight of the Step Pyramid. There were two pyramids at the Dahshur site built by king Sneferu. The Bent Pyramid is unique because it has a rhomboid shape. There was an active dig happening inside. Intrepid Dale climbed up to see what was happening. He was able to see down the tunnel into the tomb. They don’t know why the shape was chosen, but our guide was clear, the shape was always the plan. The Red Pyramid was the prototype for later pyramids like the ones at Giza.

Our next stop was a nearby tomb of Kagemni. This temple was disovered in 1843. It revealed a number of intricately carved figures depicting daily life activities. Our guide spent considerable time explaining the images. We then had the option of going into King Teti’s tomb. This required going down into spaces too small for Dale.

We stopped for lunch at a local restaurant. Our pita were made by a woman working in front of a wood-fired oven. We were greeted by a band that played drums, a recorder and had a dancing boy. The music and dancing were not great but we rewarded their efforts with a tip.the food was fantastic and the meat portion was served on a coal-fired hibachi. The hummus and baba ganoush were wonderful with the fresh pita.

The wind picked up as our day went on and was felt the reality of the environment. Windy in the desert means you keep your mouth closed to avoid eating sand. The day was delightful and we made it back in time for a rest, a lecture about the Nile river and supper. Tomorrow we are off to Aswan. I may not have internet access, but I will post again when I can. We have an early morning call to catch our flight. We leave the hotel at 3:30 (gasp!) in the morning.

We survived our travel day yesterday and got to the hotel around 7 pm local time (9 hours later than Edmonton time), had supper and went to bed. We got up bright and early for breakfast and tour briefing. I took a moment to look outside my room window in daylight and the pyramids were right there in front of me.

There are 24 people on the tour, 5 Canadians and 19 Americans. We were all in different stages of jet lag so things got off to a late start. By 10 am we were on our way to the Giza Plateau.

The great pyramid is huge. To give a perspective, Dale is 2 metres tall and he is standing at the base of this pyramid. the large pyramid is 480 ft tall. The second one is 450 ft but built on higher ground so looks larger. We noticed the third one was much smaller and not much was said about it. We wandered around the pyramids and were allowed to climb up a few blocks to get a sense of the build. It was impressive.

There were “hawker-Ozzi” (people who sell souvenirs at the stops we made) and it”s challenging because they are persistent. We learned that saying “no thank you” sternly wasn’t a winning solution. Avoiding eye contact seems to work.

Our second stop was an opportunity to go for a scenic view of the Giza plateau and a camel ride. The gang went for a brief ride while I focused on the camels. They are massive and fun to ride. They are also “working” police animals.

After the ride ended, we headed to the Sphinx. It was massive and has long been the protector of the Giza plateau.

The immensity of the Pyramids was mind blowing. Our guide described the various theories about how they were built but the reality is, no one really knows. He pointed out that the architects planned the buildings with precision for their purpose and to withstand threats such as earthquakes. For example, notice how there is no mortar between the rocks and how each stone is cut to fit together. This makes it sturdy, even if the ground shakes.

Our afternoon was spent at the Egyptian museum. There was so much to see. Our guide focused us on statues for our 2.5 hour tour. We appreciated this as you could wander here for days and not see everything.

Most of the Tutenkahmen artifacts have been moved to the new, huge Egyptian museum that isn’t open yet. However we saw his thrones, jewelry and his sarcophagi (240 pounds of solid gold in one sarcophagus) and his death mask. We weren’t able to take pictures of them, but we could stare in awe. The new museum is across from our hotel and it is massive. We will have to come back and spend a month just walking it’s halls.

We were hungry and tired at the end of our day but hugely satisfied with all we experienced. We are excited to see what tomorrow brings.

We checked out of our hotel, stowed our luggage and set out for a final adventure in NYC. We headed up 5th avenue to our first stop, Grand Central Station. It was big and ornate and just like you would expect from every NY-based movie you have ever seen. It has changed a lot since it first opened in 1871 when it’s location was at the outskirts of town. The current version was unveiled in 1913 and has continued to grow as the city expanded and wealth in the area increased.

Our next stop was inspired by Jane. We explored the NYC Public Library. This wasn’t a stop I would normally think to see, but Wow, was it worth it. The building was built by the donations of NY’s wealthy elite. We viewed the treasures room which housed a first edition of the King James Bible (1611), a Gutenberg bible (1455), and the original toys owned by Christopher Robin Milne (aka inspiration for Winnie the Pooh) among other riches.

We wandered by the Empire State Building at street level and were underwhelmed. None of us felt the need to pay $50USD for the view, so we “86’d” that idea and kept on walking. one of the unique views we encountered were the COVID-19 testing tents. These were all over Manhattan. This was obviously to support locals to get tested, but also targeted tourists needing to test to go home.

We worked our tired and battered feedback to the hotel in time for a leisurely trip to the airport. The 45 minute drive went in fits of race & rally driving to snail paced strategic lane changing. Our driver was skilled but it was also ok to keep my eyes focused on the tv screen in the back seat.

Dale and I abandoned our friends at JFK airport and headed to the Business class lounge. This was a treat as Dale will, hopefully, for the first time, cross the Atlantic with sufficient leg room. A bonus is that wine and dinner were included in the waiting area.

One of the things about my aging brain is an inattention to details. I am also still getting back into making the blog work so I apologize for tech differences as we go.

We started our day with a good American breakfast at the diner next to our hotel. They served us huge amounts of food which Dale, Jane and I put to good use walking to and through the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While Jacquie and Brian decided the Museum of Modern Art was the way to burn calories. Everyone saw amazing sights and agreed that 2 hours in any museum is sufficient before you lose the ability to focus We regrouped at the Village Green before heading to lunch.

We started off in search of a highly recommended Shake Shack burger only to discover they had a take out only policy and it was a bit cool to sit outside. Instead we chose Antonio’s for authentic NYC pizza as our alternative. It happened to be in the same building as the theatre where the Late Show with Stephen Colbert is filmed. We felt near to celebrity just being there. The pizza was delicious and gave us the needed energy for our next activity.

We crammed all 5 of us into an Uber built for 4 people and headed to Pier 36 for our river cruise. Getting a larger vehicle is challenging. Apparently New Yorkers never go anywhere in groups larger than 4. We made it onboard in good time. We had a blustery, cool day (10C) on the deck of the boat and had an excellent view of the Manhattan sky scape. We got up close to the Statue of Liberty just as the wind picked up and the sun started setting. We finished our evening with dinner at a seafood restaurant near the pier and an Uber ride home,

Tomorrow we will repack, do a bit of sightseeing and then, off to JFK airport and our journey to Cairo continues.