Egypt – Port Said and the Suez Canal

Silver Wind skipped the planned stop at Sharm el-Sheikh due to the captain’s desire to keep an appointment to transit the Suez Canal. It appeared that the canal authorities were a bit vague about exactly when we would begin the transit.  Captain Arma wanted to be there to take advantage of the earliest possible transit time, that is to be close to the beginning of the northbound convoy.  When Michael made the Suez Canal transit twenty years ago, there were two convoys, one in each direction per day.  The canal is single-lane with passing places in the "Ballah By-Pass" and the Great Bitter Lake. There are no locks; it is essentially a big ditch across the desert from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Michael's ship made a daylight passage and waited in the Great Bitter Lake for the southbound convoy to pass before his northbound convoy could proceed. Things have changed a bit now.  

We arrived in late afternoon at Port Suez at the south end of the canal .  Southbound ships were still coming out of the canal into the Red Sea.  We were told the northbound convoy would begin around 7 pm.  At the last minute, Silver Wind was assigned a spot in the middle of the convoy and did not start the transit until around midnight.  I woke up around 2 am and peeked out.  The ship was in the middle of the canal and I could see sand on the nearest bank.  Most of our Suez Canal transit occurred in the dark.  Michael and I both got up at dawn to watch the end of the transit.  The Silver Wind was motoring along at about 10 knots in a big ditch with desert on either side.  Cargo ships were visible in a line as far as we could see north.  More followed us to the south.  Gradually we passed small villages on the left.  We saw a commuter train go north and half an hour later another came south on the same track.  Every mile or so we passed guard towers built into a wall that protected the canal from approach by land.  All of the towers were manned by bored looking young men with machine guns.

Silver Wind, the only passenger ship that we could see in the line, diverted to Port Said as we reached the north end of the canal and docked at the same pier Michael and I had berthed at in the same ship in 2011 during our Mediterranean cruise.  Port Said was a little bit cleaner and there were no donkey carts in the street.  Otherwise it looked much the same.

Because of the traffic on the canal, we were not scheduled to leave for our next port of call until 7 pm. The original itinerary had Silver Wind staying in Port Said only two hours.  Now we were obliged to stay a full day.  The Tour Desk manager, Sylvia, had managed to arrange a tour along the canal to Ismailia, about half of the length of the Suez Canal away. Sylvia found a tour guide and hired a bus to take interested passengers to Ismailia from the African east bank across the Suez Canal to the east bank which mapmakers have technically decided is Asia.  Michael and I were eager to see another part of Egypt, especially places we had passed in the dark.

This tour convinced Michael that he doesn’t want to visit Egypt again anytime soon.  For the most part I agree with him.  First, there was an armed guard and a mysterious “Company Representative” aboard our bus.  We started out with a police escort.  Just outside the city, the bus stopped at a military or police checkpoint. The armed escort changed from a police car with siren wailing to a pickup truck with six or so very young men with automatic rifles.  Every few miles we stopped at another checkpoint and another truck with different young men with big guns took over the escort duty.  Secondly, the infrastructure was falling apart.  The roads were bumpy. The “peace” bridge, a beautiful modern bridge over the canal carrying a highway that  was to eventually connect Morocco in the west with Turkey to the northeast, was closed and had been closed for over a year.  Fear of terrorists coming into Egypt, our guide said. 

Our bus drove through Ismailia and stopped at a tiny museum.  We were allowed forty minutes to wander the two rooms and small yard all containing artifacts, mostly thousands of years old, some more modern that had been excavated near Ismailia.  The museum was mildly interesting but nothing in comparison to the Valley of the Kings, Luxor or Giza.  The most intriguing aspect of the stop was the way the armed soldiers blocked off the street as if they expected terrorists to appear from any direction any minute.  It didn’t make us feel safe.

The tour bus next took a small ferry across the Suez Canal to the “Asian” side.  We visited a monument to the Egyptian “victory” in the Yom Kippur War of 1973.  This revered national monument, a 100-foot rifle barrel with an attached bayonet, is falling apart.  We were also taken to a recreated Israeli bunker supposedly captured by the Egyptians during the war. Unfortunately, the equipment looked like odds and ends of WW II military surplus and even the signage did not make sense.  We did see lines of earth moving equipment and dredges busy at work widening the Canal.  Our guide proudly stated that the work was being done by Egyptians, not foreigners.  The Egyptian army was providing the labor and expertise to get the job done in just one year.

Our tour was running late due to all those military checkpoints.  The  gentlemen supervising the tour (the armed guard, the mysterious company official  and the driver) decided to try crossing the Peace Bridge as a shortcut back to Port Said.  We drove along a well-paved two-lane road along the east bank of the canal until we reached the approach to the bridge.  These gentlemen got into an animated discussion with the armed soldiers guarding the bridge.  Words were exchanged.  Money changed hands. All to no avail.  We were not allowed to cross the bridge. The tour bus, instead, hurried to make the last evening ferry back to the west side of the Suez Canal.  Fortunately we were somehow able to cut the line and get on the ferry after a scary looking armed individual checked our passports and, I think, accepted a gratuity.  We weren’t going to make it back to our ship by the advertised 7 pm sailing time.  Nothing is efficient in today’s Egypt.

Even the Suez Canal Authority cannot efficiently maintain the ship traffic on the canal.  Instead of two convoys a day, now there is only one in each direction and they all regularly run late.  Captain Arma was told we would leave Port Said at 7 pm but the northbound ship traffic did not finish until well after that. We were finally cleared to depart around 10 pm.

Michael and I felt sorry for, yet admired our tour guide.  She showed us the things there were to see.  Her narrative was good.  She kept to the fine line between official propaganda and telling us what she really thought about current events.  She allowed that the “glorious victory” in 1967 was the taking of one hill on the east side of the canal.  She failed to mention that Britain and France had pressured the Israelis to pull back and not cross the canal.  The saddest and most alarming point she made was that because of the chaos after the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood, ordinary Egyptians just wanted safety and stability. They were happy to elect General Sisi president and return to a military dictatorship. Michael’s and my conclusion is that Egypt will continue to stagnate.  The army is the employer of last resort for male youth.  Women are being marginalized.  The authorities can’t even seem to run the canal effectively and that is their main source of income.  Tourism is sure to decline further.  The outlook is not good.

Israel and a Bit of Turkey - The End of the Trip

After a depressing adventure in Egypt, Israel was a breath of fresh air. Silver Wind docked at Ashdod, the commercial port for Jerusalem, and again at Haifa for access to northern Israel.  We took a tour to Masada and the Dead Sea from Ashdod.  Both Michael and I have been to Jerusalem on past visits. Most of our fellow passengers were headed there to see the sacred sights. Instead, we joined about fifteen other passengers  and went cross-country to the Judean Hills and the famous fortress of Masada.  Not only was the history of Masada fascinating, the bus trip through the Negev and Judean deserts gave us a new perspective on Israel’s Muslim and Christian Arab citizens.

An Arab Town in the Negev

There are many Arab towns and individual houses in the northern Negev.  At its northern end, the desert landscape looks a lot like the plains of southeast Colorado.  There is enough grass cover for the local inhabitants to raise sheep, horses and even camels. Our excellent tour guide told us that the Israeli government is trying to convince the Bedouin Arabs living in isolated areas to move to towns where electricity and modern sanitation can be provided.  There is a lot of resistance because the Arabs fear that they will lose their land if they move to towns.  Nonetheless, we did pass a number of fairly large towns with one or two minarets and Arab style buildings.  We also saw other large tracts of lush cropland irrigated by a complex network of piping.  The government is encouraging Jewish city dwellers to move to new towns in the desert to reduce crowding in the cities The contrast to the scrubland around the Arab towns was striking. The government may be trying to reduce congestion in the cities but where are they getting the land to build the new Jewish towns? I think the Bedouins have legitimate concerns.

While we were on the Way to Masada Rain fell in the Desert
Our Bus was diverted Further into the Desert to Avoid Flooding

Michael and I had read about Masada before our trip.  It was a mountaintop fortress and palace complex built by Herod the Great around 37 BC.  It is famous because according to the historian Josephus who wrote in the first century AD, it was the place to which near the end of the first Jewish-Roman war a group of rebels from Jerusalem fled after the fall of the capital. The Roman army laid siege to Masada and built an earthen ramp up the mountainside enabling them to breach the walls on the mountaintop.  The Romans supposedly found that more than 900 defenders had all committed mass suicide rather than be captured. Whether the tale is true or not, Masada has become the symbol of Jewish resistance and determination. In the past fifty years the site has been extensively excavated and the whole mountain is a national park and world heritage site.

Bedouins Herding Sheep

Resort Hotels on the Very Salty Dead Sea
They Worry that Further Shrinkage of the Waters
Will Leave Them With No Beaches

View of Masada From the Tram on the Way Up

Layout of Masada's Summit

The actual archeological site turned out to be much more complex than we had imagined and far more interesting to explore.  We reached the mountaintop by scenic tram.  There are also two hiking paths popular with visitors that require an arduous climb.  Our tour guide lead us through about one third of the ruins and showed us Herod’s palace, the royal baths, the cistern system, an early synagogue and the spot where the walls were breached at the end of the siege.  No one really knows whether the defenders really committed suicide.  Archaeologists have found only the remains of twenty-four bodies.  The only account was by Josephus Flavius, a Jew working for the Romans.  He wasn’t there and heard the story secondhand.  None the less, the site was moving.

Most of the 2000 Year Old Roman Ramp Remains Today

View From Masada Toward the Dead Sea

Masada sits on an escarpment overlooking what remains of the Dead Sea. Masada is at sea level, while the dead sea is 1200 feet below. Because of water diversion from the Jordan River and continuing drought, the Dead Sea is shrinking every year.  The sea is so reduced in size that there are two parts.  The northern part is the extremely saline true remnant of the sea.  Separated by marshy land and kept alive by a channel from the northern portion of the sea, the south portion is very shallow and has salt ponds from which a number of companies are harvesting salt and other minerals.  There are a number of hotels on this southern end of the Dead Sea.  Their popular beaches are kept viable with the water drawn from the northern portion of the sea via the channel.  We had lunch at one of the hotels after visiting Masada and were given the opportunity to take I dip in the Dead Sea that afternoon. 

Bathers Floating in the Dead Sea

I Waded into the Dead Sea But Did Not Go Swimming
The Water Felt Oily and Really Clung to the Skin 

The trip to Masada and the Dead Sea (I did wade into it) was worthwhile.  I heartily recommend it to anyone visiting Israel after going to Jerusalem.

View of Haifa From Mt Carmel

The following day we took an excursion to the northern Israeli city of Acre.  This proved a great contrast to Masada and ancient Israeli history.  Although we were there to see relatively modern history (only six to seven hundred years old), Acre has been around since about 2000 BC and during the centuries has been an important seaport for many nations.  The city has been a crossroads for trade between the Mediterranean and the Near and Far East. 

The Courtyard of the Crusader Castle

In the twelfth and thirteenth century AD, it was famous as a Crusader foothold in the region. Acre served as a fortress of the Knights Hospitaller. While European Christians were trying to “liberate” the Holy Land, Acre was the de facto capital of the “Kingdom of Jerusalem.  Acre finally fell to the Muslims in 1291 AD. Today its inhabitants are Jews, Arab Christians and Muslims.  The Crusader era fortifications have been excavated and the city has become an interesting tourist attraction. 

Map of 13th Century Acre

 Our tour guide, not as good as the one the day before, led us through the Crusader fortress and through the Arab souk to the old port, now a marina for pleasure boats.  Newer structures have been built with the stones from the original city wall.  

Fish and Spices For Sale in the Market

The Ancient Harbor is Now a Small Boat Basin

We saw a dilapidated but well proportioned caravanserai that some investors are planning to turn into a luxury hotel.  We even visited the once secret tunnels from the shore under the city to the fortress.

A Several Centuries Old Caravansary Where Traders Bargained and Slept
 Is Awaiting Transformation to a Modern Luxury Hotel 

The "Secret" Tunnel From the Sea to the Crusader Fortress

Michael and I returned to the Silver Wind to relax and watch the Ship set out for Kusadasi, Turkey.  This would be our last port before the ship docked at Athens and we would fly home.

View From the Pier at Kusadasi, Turkey

Silver Wind is Tiny Compared to the Medium Sized Azamara Journey

The Castle on "Pigeon Island" Next to the Port

Michael and I chose to stay close to the pier and forgo the usual trip to Ephesus that is the principal reason cruise ships stop at the bustling resort town of Kusadashi.

Michael and I Enjoyed a Turkish Coffee at this
Seaside Cafe

Monument to Freedom

 We took two long walks and spent the afternoon packing our suitcases for our disembarkation the following morning at Piraeus, the port for Athens  It was good to have a pleasant, relaxing day before the thirty-hour, three-flight trip back to Denver.

Leaving Turkey for Athens and Home

When we landed at Denver International airport, Michael and I had traveled completely around the world in a westerly direction.  About eight thousand of those miles were by ship making about 20 mph.  

It was a truly wonderful trip. I saw parts of the world totally new to me.  Michael revisited places he had not seen in over twenty years.  We both concluded that there is no ”third world” in the sense we used to think of it.  Everyone seems to have access to cell phones.  Everyone wears shoes, or at least flip-flops.  The third world in the twenty-first century is still poor but a different kind of poor than formerly.  Many of the countries we visited appear to have a growing middle class and aspirations for a better life.  

Our greatest concern is for the Middle East, Egypt in particular. Oman and Jordan are essentially stable monarchies.  What will happen when the current rulers are gone is a anyone's guess.  I suspect  a great deal turmoil at the least.  Egypt, in actuality a military dictatorship, is the least stable nation we visited.  We avoided Yemen with its religious wars which appear to be strengthening the radical factions including El Qaeda.

A Desert Adventure

Leaving Safaga, during the night Silver Wind proceeded north through the Gulf of Aqaba, which branches off the Red Sea.  By dawn, we were approaching the cities of Eilat, Israel and Aqaba, Jordan at the north end of the gulf. We docked at a small cruise port and by mid morning a small group of eight tourists, including the hotel director Gianni, boarded a large tour bus for the drive to Wadi Rum. Wadi Rum is a Jordanian national dessert park known for its scenery. It is beloved by filmmakers and trekkers, rock climbers and desert lovers worldwide.

 

Camels Browsing an Empty Field
Bedouin Village in Background

Our tour bus climbed upward through a series of wadis (dry stream-beds) that were clogged with gravel and stone deposits from the recent spring flooding.  Each year spring rains in the mountains create flash floods that fill the stream-beds to overflowing and affect everything downstream as far as Aqaba where the water flows into the sea. 

Eventually we began to see small Bedouin communities of cement blockhouses.  There were fenced green areas and sheep and goats wandered about outside the living compounds.  

Our tour bus stopped at a small railroad station where our Bedouin guide showed us a 1910 steam train used in the filming of “Lawrence of Arabia.”  This station was in the actual area T.E. Lawrence passed through several times during the Arab Revolt of 1917-18.  Today the rail line moves mostly phosphates and potash from inland mines to the Port of Aqaba for export.  The old train and the station are a tourist attraction as there is no longer passenger service between Aqaba and Amman, Jordan’s capitol 200 miles to the north. The scene was striking.

Wadi Rum Station
Even though it is no longer used,it is guarded day and night.

1910 Train

Michael Really Loves Trains

At the Wadi Rum Visitor Center, we boarded two four-wheel drive trucks for our trek into the desert. Watching older folks climb in and out over the tailgate of a small truck isn’t pretty but most of us did it repeatedly during our three-hour tour of the Wadi Rum Preserve.  I was concerned that the rear bumper, which was wobbly, would break off and one of us would fall to the ground.  Fortunately, the truck held together and we were all o.k. I have noticed that everywhere in the world, small pickups, many barely running, have replaced donkeys, camels and other animals as the primary mode of transportation for all who can afford them.

Off into the Desert
Rock Formation is Called  the
Seven Pillars of Wisdom After
T E Lawrence Memoir

The Wadi Rum Preserve is a series of small valleys carved by wind and water into the highest plateau in Jordan.  We visited a sand dune where we were encouraged to walk barefoot in the soft sand.  I declined, even though our guide claimed that it was therapeutic for the skin.  Next, we had tea in a Bedouin tent.  Our tour guide demonstrated how coffee is ground in a wooden vessel and then boiled on an open fire.  We moved on to view some petroglyphs pointing the way for travelers on the ancient caravan trail through the desert.  Near the petroglyphs was an encampment of Bedouins with twenty or more camels.  Camel rides anyone? 

I Climbed Halfway up this Sand Dune

Our Tour Guide Demonstrating How Bedouins Grind Coffee Beans

Camels and their Handlers Waiting for Business

Directions to the Caravan Route

We saw spectacular scenery with Bedouin tents here and there at convenient spots for camping.  All of them had unobtrusive, sand colored outhouses nearby. I gather that camping in a Bedouin tent in the desert is a big tourist business.  All of the Bedouin tents we saw were essentially for tourists.  The real Bedouins now live outside the Preserve in cement block houses with indoor plumbing, electricity and satellite dishes on the roof.  There is usually a truck or two parked by a shed out back.  Our guide told us the Bedouins may use a small tent while moving flocks of goats or sheep from one sparse pasture to another. Otherwise they live in small towns.

Green Patches in the Distance are Irrigated Land

Gianni Contemplating the Desert While We Take Pictures

Getting Ready to Climb Back into the Trucks

Coming Down a Hill to the Camel Race Track

Our visit to Wadi Rum concluded with tea and dates at an empty hotel made of Bedouin tents.  The hotel was next to a race track used once or twice a year for camel races.  The camel races and the associated betting are apparently big business and attract tourists from many Arab countries.  The hotel was empty except for us. The electric generator was turned off and nearby solar panels were not yet completely installed. Hotel director Gianni anxiously awaited the arrival of box lunches prepared on the ship that morning.  Our tour bus carrying the lunches was at least a half hour late to the rendezvous. By the time, we returned to the port and Silver Wind, I was exhausted and needed a nap. Perhaps my tiredness had something to do with a twelve-hour tour the day before.

The Tent Hotel

Local Entertainer Sang American Songs in Arabic
As We Waited for Our Lunches

Most of the Silver Wind’s passengers had gone to Petra, Jordan’s prime tourist attraction several hours further away from the port than Wadi Rum.  Petra was an eleven-hour long trip into the center of Jordan.  Accordingly, the ship stayed late in port.  This gave Michael and me an opportunity to dine on the pool deck and watch the lights come on in both Eilat and Aqaba.  The weather was perfect. We could see massive numbers of lights from Israel and Jordan. There were a few lights from Egypt’s Sinai to the southwest and a glow from a Saudi port to the southeast.  Not often does one get to see four countries at once.

Huge Israeli Flag Painted on Warehouse in Eliat Israel
Jordan has a Huge Flagpole that Flies a Huge Flag
Michael and I Called it The Battle of the Flags

Egypt – Valley of the Kings

Silver Wind spent three days hustling through the Gulf of Aden in convoy with a large number of freighters and oil tankers. Enhanced security measures included a two-day phone and Internet blackout, the appearance of two French snipers who patrolled the front of the ship, a directive to the passengers to stay off their balconies and the appearance of signs saying that certain areas were  off limits while we were in danger of a pirate attack.  I think the concern was real while the expectation of trouble was very low.

Piracy has become a business enterprise in the past ten years.  Most pirates are seeking easy prey (tanker ships, cargo ships) that can be captured and ransomed for millions of dollars.  Cruise ships are in little danger.  Ships like Silver Wind are difficult to board, they have too many crew and there is not enough money or other valuables aboard to make an attempt to take hundreds of passengers hostage worthwhile.  A consortium of nations supplies warships to escort the ship convoys. We occasionally saw military helicopters patrolling overhead. Passage through the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea is relatively safe these days. Michael wrote an essay on the pirate precautions for his blog : http://cbu-march2015.blogspot.com  that details more of the efforts all ships are required to make when they traverse areas where pirates are active.  I think the required precautions spook passengers more than the danger of actual pirates.

Our next destination was the port of Safaga, Egypt.  Safaga is a small commercial port on the Red Sea in the South of Egypt.  Cruise ships stop there mainly to take tourists on a long drive overland to Luxor on the Nile River and to the Valley of the Kings just west of the Nile.  Most of the Silver Wind’s passengers chose this particular cruise in order to see the Ancient Egyptian monuments and later, the Christian sights in the Holy Land. Egypt gets most of its national income from fees on ships traversing the Suez Canal.  Tourism is in second place. Unfortunately for the Egyptian economy, we were the only cruise ship in the area.

The First Military/Police Checkpoint
We were Not even Outside Safaga Yet

I took the thirteen-hour bus trip to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings.  Michael stayed on the ship as he had taken this excursion twice before.  The bus ride from the port to the Nile takes three and a half hours.  We drove on a good two lane paved highway through mountains and desert, past regular army or police checkpoints until we saw the green of the irrigated land along the Nile River.  The green of the Nile valley always comes as a surprise after the barren desert.

Donkey Carts Still are used for Agriculture
Note that the Wheels are Truck Wheels

The area appeared more prosperous than the part of Egypt I saw in 2011 shortly after the Arab Spring revolution.  Then the area around Cairo had been knee deep in trash. The villages and towns along the southern Nile appeared to be cleaner.  Mud brick houses were intermixed with more modern structures.   All appeared to have satellite dishes on their roofs.  There were still a few donkey carts to be seen but  I noticed more motorbikes and even some tuk-tuks (three wheel vehicles with motorcycle engines). I did note that at every crossroad there were two or three men, at least one with an automatic rifle plainly visible.  Presumably, they were guarding their villages from strangers with evil intent.

Tuk-Tuks in a Local Town

Local Militia - Passing the Time or Keeping their Town Safe?

Our tour bus reached Luxor in late morning.  Luxor’s ancient ruins, dating from the New Kingdom (2000 BC- 1050 BC), are located in the middle of a medium sized city.  It was a stretch to imagine this imposing temple complex as it once looked.   A double line of sphinxes once lined a processional route between Luxor and Thebes, a distance of a little over a mile.  Most of it has been excavated but is crossed every so often by city streets.  Cecil B DeMille envisioned it in “The Ten Commandments” as a truly majestic sight.  Traces of that majesty remain.

Line of Sphinxes Once Ran a Mile from the Temple of Luxor to the Temple of Karnak

The Largest Statuary was Added by Ramses II
the Statues are all of Him

Typical View of the Temple of Luxor
The Temple to the Sun God Amun
was Built and Added to by Three Pharaohs

Our tour guide, an archaeologist at the Cairo Museum, led us on an informative walk through linked temples following which we had about fifteen minutes free time to explore on our own before reboarding the bus.  The columns were impressive, the statuary huge, the whole eerily beautiful.  Interestingly, Byzantine Era Coptic Christians had repurposed a section of an ancient temple as a church with Christian frescoes plastered over the hieroglyphics.  Later, Muslim conquerors built a mosque over part of the church and  a section of the New Kingdom temple of Amun.  Every conquering culture shows the superiority of its god or gods by putting its temple atop a conquered holy place.  I felt as if I was walking through history.  It was not a busy tourist day so only a hundred or so other voyagers to the past accompanied me, most of them school children with their chaperons.

Our Guide Pointing out the Byzantine Frescoes Over the Egyptian Hieroglyphics 

The Mosque Tops Everything Else

Here, French Graffiti from 1892 has been
Added to the Frescoes and Hieroglyphics

Our tour group had lunch at the Luxor Sheraton, a luxury hotel overlooking the Nile with views of the mountains on the western bank. We could see the Valley of the Kings in the distance.  As usual on these excursions, the food was mostly tailored to American and European tastes.  I prefer, whenever possible to try the local dishes.  I was able to have a dessert cake made with honey and dates and even an Egyptian beer.  The label was in Arabic.  I found it strange to be drinking local beer in a Muslim country. Apparently Egyptians have no difficulty selling alcoholic beverages to foreign tourists.  Michael had told me to expect a man playing a violin on his head during lunch.  Instead, we were entertained by a three-man group dressed in long robes, playing a drum, a strange stringed instrument and an even stranger wind instrument.  I guess the violinist has retired and has been replaced by a local group playing what I assume is local music.

Modern Luxor Street Scene

After lunch and photographs, we got on the bus for the trip across the Nile to the Valley of the Kings.  The Valley of the Kings is a vast tomb complex where Egyptian royalty were buried during the New Kingdom period 3500 - 3000 years ago, after the age of the pyramids.  The tomb entrances were skept secret to avoid despoliation by tomb robbers but over thousands of years, the only intact tomb discovered so far is the tomb of a relatively unimportant pharaoh, King Tutankhamen.  King Tut was discovered in 1922 buried in a relatively unimpressive tomb.  Travelling shows of the rich grave goods and the beautiful gold burial mask of King Tutankhamen have made him the most famous pharaoh known today.  One can only wonder what marvelous treasure once was in the tombs of the truly great pharaohs.

Crossing the Nile River

Entrance to Valley of the Kings Complex
No Cameras Were Allowed Beyond this Point

Our tour guide led us to the tombs of three different pharaohs, Ramses IX, Ramses VI and Merenptah. They were relatively important Pharaohs although no one besides Egyptologists care about them today. The tombs open for viewing vary. Tourism, air pollution and general neglect have degraded the wall paintings.  Only a few are open at any given time.  We climbed down ramps and wooden stairs to the inner chambers.  Our guide was not licensed to enter the tombs with us and the guard in each tomb appeared not to speak English so it was mostly a visual experience.  Nonetheless, the tombs were breathtaking.  Most of the paintings and hieroglyphs were faded or chipped but some were still vibrantly colored. The decorative schemes varied though there were hieroglyphics and allegorical pictures in all of the tombs. Ramses VI’s tomb had extensive passages from the Book of the Dead inscribed on the walls of the corridor leading to the sanctuary.  It was amazing to look at them and realize that these paintings and inscriptions were more than 3000 years old.

On the way out of the complex, I stopped along the street of trinket sellers and bargained, not very cannily, for some small statues for souvenirs.  I don’t often buy tourist merchandise but I was in a good mood and liked the statues.  I wanted the cat one in particular; I came away with four different statuettes at about twice the price I had been willing to pay for one.  I’m sure the seller thought he had driven a good bargain.  We both were satisfied – the definition of a fair trade.

Mortuary Temple of Hatchupset

Remains of Mortuary Temple of Ramses II

The Colossi of Memnon -
Actually the Remains of the Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III

We stopped at the Temple of Hatchupset for photos; then drove to the Colossi of Memnon for more photos.  Hatchupset was a successful female pharaoh whose beautifully designed mortuary temple is carved into rock at the Valley of the Queens adjacent to the Valley of the Kings.  The Colossi are two huge statues, all that remain of the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III another pharaoh of the New Kingdom period. Both are on the west side of the Nile. 

Our tour bus recrossed the Nile and returned us to the Sheraton Luxor for afternoon tea.  This was our last break before the three and a half hour return trip through the desert and across the mountains to Safaga and the waiting Silver Wind.  Two memories stand out on that return trip:  the sight of minarets lit up with colored LED strings in various Nile towns and the strikingly clear night sky in the mountains. I could see constellations and the Milky Way easily through the bus window.  

View From the Luxor Sheraton
The Mountains of the Valley of the Kings in the Distance

Michael and I ate a late dinner and turned in soon afterward as we had an hour time change and an early start for our tour to Wadi Rum in Jordan the next morning.  I enjoyed the trip to the Valley of the Kings. It was worth the seemingly endless time on the bus.  There were some other tourists at both Luxor and the Valley of the Kings but clearly tourism to Egypt is almost as bad as it was in 2011 right after the revolution. There appear to be a lot more military and police checkpoints and armed men standing around street intersections.  This cannot be good for the future of Egypt.