On this last day, we visited the Citadel, a spectacular medieval fortress dating from the 12th century and perched on a hill above the city. Also located in the citadel was the Mosque and tomb of the great Ottoman ruler Mohamed Ali.
We ate lunch at the Arabian style “Naguib Mahfouz” restaurant and strolled around the old walled city of Cairo, seeing busy local markets. The restaurant was named after the Nobel-prize-winning Egyptian author.
After returning to our boat for a relaxing lunch, we visited the temple of Luxor, built by AmenophotepIII, Tutankhamon, Haremhab and Ramses II during their respective reigns.
We proceeded to Karnak Temple, which was built over more than a thousand years by generations of Pharaohs. The great “Hyposyle Hall” was an incredible forest of giant pillars, covering an area larger than the whole Notre Dame Cathederal.
After the Valley of the Kings and Queens we visited the lovely terraced funerary temple of Queen Hatchepsut – Egypt’s first female pharaoh. We then went to the fabled Colossi of Memnon, two enormous statues of Amenophotep III, known in Ancient Greek times for their haunting voices at dawn.
This morning we embarked on a tour of the West Bank, the “Necropolis of Thebes”, beginning with a visit to the famous Valley of the Kings & Queens – the burial ground of the Pharaohs of the New Kingdom when ancient Egypt was at its most powerful. Over sixty tombs have been discovered here to date.
From here we visited the lovely terraced funerary temple of Queen Hatchepsut – Egypt’s first female pharaoh. We then went to the fabled Colossi of Memnon, two enormous statues of Amenophotep III, known in Ancient Greek times for their haunting voices at dawn.
This morning we took a short boat ride to the exquisite Temple of Philae on the Island of Agilika. Recently moved from the dam submerged Island of Philae, the temple was reconstructed stone by stone on Agilika and was dedicated to Isis and decorated with the image of her alter ego, Hathor.
That afternoon we relaxed on our boat, and took advantage of on free time to worship the sun god Ra J Along the Nile banks we had the opportunity to see many of the small local houses, farms and livestock that make their home along the waters.
We then visited Kom Ombo where we paid a visit to the site of the lovely Greco-Roman temple, uniquely dedicated to Haroeris (the sun god) and Sobek (the crocodile god). The temple, built in the 3rd century BC, stands at a bend in the Nile where in ancient times; sacred crocodiles basked on the riverbank.
We continued to the beautifully preserved Temple of Horus (the falcon-god), built in 230 BC by Ptolemy III. This well-preserved structure made it easy to imagine what temple worship in ancient Egypt would have been like.
That evening we had an Egyptian Night costume party, where we all dressed up in the traditional Egyptian “galabeyyas”. Dinner was a lavish buffet of Egyptian specialties, which was followed by Arabic music and dancing for everyone. This was a great bonding experience for all of us, and at the end of the night we were all up on the dance floor singing and dancing to the Village People’s hit “YMCA”
