Off to the Land of the Pharaohs

"Egypt is a palimpsest in which the Bible is written over Herodotus, and the Koran over that." - Lucie Duff Gordon...1865

It started with a National Geographic. To be precise, with a one page advertisement from the National Geographic that Amy tore out and put on the table for me to see.  The ad was about a tour to Egypt in the spring of 2016, lasting two weeks, 8 days of which would be spending on the Nile River...ON the Nile River in a boat, cruising and seeing many ruins.  The highlight would be being guided around by the legendary archaeologist, Dr. Zahi Hawass, who, because of his connections, would get our group into several places that tourists usually don't go.

Well, that sounded good.  But Egypt?!  I'd been there four times in the late 70s and early 80s, when that part of the world was safe and the people there loved Americans.  Could we go now?  Are you sure you want to go now, I asked Amy.  Check the State Department and see what they say, Amy told me.  So I did and yes, indeed, Egypt is relatively safe if you stay in the tourist zones of Cairo, Giza, the Nile Valley, etc.  In fact, the last major attack on tourists there was almost 20 years ago.  So it seemed safer to me then to go somewhere like Paris.

David Roberts lithograph of Abu Simbel, 1840...

Queen Nefertari's tomb...

From the top of the Great Pyramid (1979)...

The Colossi of Memnon...

So off we go to one of the most incredible places in the world.  The ancient Egyptian civilization lasted 3,000 years...think about that for a minute...3,000 years.  They built some of the most amazing structures ever created by man; the pyramids, the various temples up and down the Nile Valley, the great temple of Abu Simbel in Nubia, tombs near Luxor with some of the most beautiful art anywhere.  And we are to see it all.

Dr. Zahi Hawass...

One of our guides will be Zahi Hawaas.  If you've ever seen a documentary about Egypt, you've seen Dr. Hawass...the man with the hat (I can relate).  During his career he has been the director of the Giza Plateau archaeological project and the director of the Department of Antiquities...the head archaeologist in Egypt. He has some arrangement with our tour company, Archaeological Paths, where he can get us into places where tourists usually can't go, such as Luxor Temple at night, between the paws of the Great Sphynx, and a tour of the cemetery of the pyramid workers, which he discovered. 

Luxor temple...

The Great Sphinx...

The cemetery of the pyramid workers, Giza...

Some of the many places we will see...

Abu Simbel...

Inside the temple of Abu Simbel...

The great hypostyle hall in the temple of Karnak...

Amy and I have never been on an actual tour during any of our travels.  But with Egypt it's best to be on a tour, so here we go.  I was last in Egypt in 1980 and I'm sure it's changed quite a bit.  One thing's for sure, you can't climb the Great Pyramid anymore.

Me in 1979, on top of the Great Pyramid...

My guide to the top...

So as always, you are invited to come along with us on this adventure, as we continue to search the world for the exotic, colorful, tasty, weird and amazing!