Not surprisingly, we began the month with a hike up Cobble Hill. We practically skipped autumn when temperatures plummeted in early November. We received a small snowfall prior to leaving on vacation. We did some visiting prior to our trip. We spent two thirds of the month away from home, mostly on vacation to Jordan and Egypt! (I posted several specific blog entries detailing our adventures and sightseeing.) When we returned from holiday, we spent two nights in the Lower Mainland seeing family and friends. We were able to see Karyn during Canada's match against Croatia, then watch Germany tie Spain with my dad. The following day, I enjoyed Portugal's victory with Joe. We were fortunate to return home to Vancouver Island just prior to more snow and ferry sailing cancellations. What a month for sports! The World Cup is underway and I enjoyed watching games while away on holiday and with loved ones back in Canada. Despite disappointing results for Canada, we did get to celebrate Alfonso Davies scoring the first ever Canadian goal in the tournament. The Astros won the World Series, while the Lions bowed out early before the Argos won the Grey Cup. The Canucks and Warriors were inconsistent, and the NFL, too, remains difficult to predict. Since I watched six movies while on international flights, my monthly total was higher than anticipated. We watched television, including the much anticipated new episodes of "Yellowstone" and a documentary about Vancouver Island's wildlife. I completed only three novels as I didn't read while away from home.
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Our morning flight back to Cairo arrived hours before we'd be able to check into our hotel, so Planet Tours took us to visit a market that is over a thousand years old in the city's oldest section. Wearing my Salah jersey was a stroke of genius as it made me popular and better received by the Egyptians, three of whom even thanked me for having purchased the Egyptian jersey. We ate falafels in a cafe that has been operating for more than two hundred years. Hundreds were praying at a mosque when we arrived at the busy souk. It was nice to end our vacation at the Concorde El Salam Hotel, as it was significantly nicer than our previous accommodation. I enjoyed visiting and playing Uno with the Rodriguez boys and later watching the USA tie England in their opening round World Cup match with three of the American men from our tour group. An early morning breakfast had us ready for the long journey back to BC.
We spent four nights aboard the Nile Quest. Each night there was a theme party, but the cocktail party was the best! The entire rooftop was a relaxing lounge area with a pool. Three buffet meals per day plus afternoon "tea-time" coffee... Despite their best efforts, the best entertainment was World Cup action. I loved the gorgeous sunsets over the Nile.
The tour of Aswan was pretty weak... two dams and a large broken piece of granite. More time spent relaxing and visiting on the boat was nice. We also went for a sail on a felucca.
After having sailed to Edfu, we had breakfast and then rode in a horse-drawn buggy to the Temple of Horus at Edfu. The temple, built in the Ptolemaic Kingdom between 237 and 57 BC, is the most completely preserved of all the Egyptian temples. The temple of Edfu is the largest temple dedicated to Horus and Hathor of Dendera. It was the center of several festivals sacred to Horus; each year, "Hathor travelled south from her temple at Dendera to visit Horus at Edfu, and this event marking their sacred marriage was the occasion of a great festival and pilgrimage. It is the second largest temple in Egypt after Karnak. Important sacred site for ancient Egyptians because, according to ancient myth, this is where the falcon-headed god, Horus, fought a battle with his uncle, Seth, who had cruelly murdered Horus's father Osiris. It's said that Horus, like Jesus - or Jesus, like Horus - was born of a virgin, had twelve disciples, walked on water, delivered a 'sermon on the mount', performed miracles, was executed beside two thieves, and then rose from the dead to ascend into heaven. We returned to the boat for lunch and a relaxing afternoon before heading to Kom Ombo Temple in the evening. The temple is unique in its dedication to two different deities. It is perfectly symmetrical along its main axis, with one side dedicated to the local crocodile-headed god, Sobek, and the opposite side honouring the falcon-headed god, Horus. Two of the more famous and unique reliefs here depict a calendar and a set of medical instruments. I was amazed at how deeply the relief images are carved into the stone. Over 300 mummified crocodiles have been found in the vicinity and several are on display in a small museum here. Before returning to the boat for the night, I purchased a Mo Salah Egypt jersey.
We crossed the Nile to visit the three-tiered mortuary temple of Hatshepsut, a female king of Egypt (reigned in her own right c. 1473–58 BCE) who attained unprecedented power for a woman, adopting the full titles and regalia of a pharaoh. The Temple was built to commemorate the achievements of the great "Queen" Hatshepsut, as a funerary temple for her, and as a sanctuary of the god, Amon Ra. Hatshepsut chose to be depicted in the traditional form of a male pharaoh, complete with muscles and a fake beard. Queen Hatshepsut, whose name means "Foremost of Noble Women", is one of the greatest rulers of ancient Egypt; she was the fifth pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, bringing great wealth and artistry to her land. She sponsored a hugely successful trading expedition for gold, ebony, and incense from Punt.
After lunch aboard the boat, we explored the Valley of the Kings where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th century BC,, rock-cut tombs were excavated for the pharaohs and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom. 63 tombs have been discovered; we entered just three. The royal tombs are decorated with scenes from Egyptian mythology and give clues as to the beliefs and funerary practices of the period. We first descended into the tomb of the 19th-Dynasty pharaoh Merenptah, son of Ramses II and grandson of Seti I, featuring beautiful reliefs of Isis and Nephthys, "Book of Gates" decor, and a steeply-inclined 160 metre corridor leading to the 119 metre deep burial chamber where the sarcophagus still rests. The deeper we descended, the hotter and stuffier it became. The second tomb we chose to see was that of Heqamaatre Setepenamun Rameses IV, the third pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt who ruled for just six years, mostly because it is one of the most colorful tombs in the Valley of Kings. The tomb features scenes from the Litany of Ra, Book of Caverns, Book of the Dead, Book of Amduat, Book of the Night, Book of the Gates, Book of the Secret Chamber, and Book of the Heavens. This is the only tomb to contain text and representation of Shu and Nut from the Book of Nut. The image of goddess Nut swallowing the sun which travels through her body to be reborn at dawn is unique. This tomb contains the second-highest number of ancient graffiti within it, with 656 individual examples left by Greek, Roman, and Coptic visitors. The tomb was used as a dwelling by monks who left depictions of Coptic saints and crosses on the tomb's walls. Finally, it was used as a sort of 'hotel' by Egyptologists while excavating the valley of the kings. The sarcophagus, decorated with extracts from the Book of the Earth, sits with a magnificent image of goddess Nut filling the ceiling above it. For our third and final selection, we opted for the unusual tomb of Tausert and Setnakht. This tomb has two complete burial chambers. Originally built for Tausert, the tomb shows distinct phases of construction, beginning when she was still simply the queen. Around 1190 BC, Tausert became the co-regent of Siptah, accepting the royal regalia and began work on the second burial chamber with the proper dimensions for a king. In fact, the entrance to the tomb and the corridors had to be enlarged to accommodate the size of what was now to be a royal coffin. Around 1187 BC, Queen Tausert actually ascended to the throne of Egypt as Pharaoh, and she ordered further modifications to the tomb to reflect her exclusive royal status. This is only part of the story; Setnakht, the father of Rameses III, had created his own tomb in the Valley of the Kings, as was the normal custom for kings of this period, yet inexplicably, Rameses III decided to have his father interred in the tomb of Tausert, rather than in his own. Later, Rameses III claimed his father's original tomb for himself rather than build his own. Having been built and decorated for Tausert, the tomb was sloppily converted with some images appearing to be changed for Setnakht. In many of the places where Tausert's image or name appeared, the area was plastered over and repainted with Setnakht's image and name. Text from Book of the Dead, Opening of the Mouth Ritual, Book of the Gates, Book of Caverns, and more can be seen on the walls. The ceiling meanwhile was decorated in an astronomical pattern. The first pharaoh to be buried in the Valley of the Kings was Thutmose I in 1493 B.C, while the final burial was made in 1107 B.C, with Ramses X being laid to rest. Other famous pharaohs buried here include: Tutankhamun (whose tomb became the most famous of all when discovered intact just over a hundred years ago), Seti I, and Ramses II.
After breakfast, we flew to Luxor and immediately visited the largest religious building ever constructed, Karnak Temple. The Temple of Karnak was believed to be where creation began and a point of direct interaction between the god Amun-Ra and Egyptians. One famous aspect of Karnak is the 54000 square foot Great Hypostyle Hall with 134 massive columns arranged in 16 rows. 122 of these columns are 10 metres (33 ft) tall, while the other 12 are 21 metres (69 ft) tall with a diameter of over 3 metres (9.8 ft). The architraves (beams atop columns) are estimated to weigh 70 tons! We then boarded our home for the next four nights, the Nile Quest, and enjoyed a buffet lunch and a nap before heading to the Luxor Temple. Luxor Temple, constructed approximately 1400 BCE, is dedicated to the rejuvenation of kingship; it may have been where many of the pharaohs of Egypt were crowned. The active Abu Hagga Mosque is located within the temple, standing on the ancient columns themselves. That part of the Luxor Temple was converted to a church by the Romans in 395 AD, and then to a mosque in 640, which is more than 3,400 years of continuous religious worship. The timing was wonderful for experiencing the temple first in daylight, then as dusk turned to a night sky and the lights created atmosphere. A two kilometre long avenue of sphinxes connected the Temple of Luxor to the Karmak Temple. We walked back to the boat for dinner, belly and tanoura (Arabic spinning skirt) dancing, and World Cup soccer.
The 19th was a rest and travel day. We arranged for a delayed check-out to accommodate our later than ideal flight to Cairo, spent our last Jordanian dinars, visited with Mark and Anne, and then experienced a fiasco of a check-in process at the Ramses Hilton, where we at least had a Nile view from our (smoking!) room. After another buffet breakfast, we headed straight for the Great Pyramid, where we could stand on the massive blocks of its lower levels. The Pyramids of Giza are a phenomenal engineering achievement and wonders of the ancient world, but their modern site has become a tourist gong-show, with hundreds of buses constantly shuttling thousands upon thousands of visitors from one parking lot to another. Our final stop in Giza was at the Great Sphinx. In the afternoon, we spent some time at the Egyptian Museum.
This morning we toured three desert "castles" dating from the early Islamic era. For the first, Qasr Al-Kharanah, "castle" is a misnomer, as the building's internal arrangement does not suggest a military use. Standing in the middle of a barren landscape far from a water source, the building's purpose is still debated. Qasr Amra is not really a castle either, but rather a 'country cabin' retreat for the Caliph of the time. It is most notable for its frescoes which depict hunting scenes, dancing scenes containing naked women, working craftsmen, the recently discovered "cycle of Jonah", and the first known representation of heaven on a hemispherical surface, where the mirror-image of the constellations is accompanied by the figures of the zodiac. This has led to the designation of Qusayr 'Amra as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Qasr al-Azraq was an actual fortress originally built by the Romans, deriving its strategic value from its proximity to the area's only water source. It was rebuilt by Arabs during the Crusades and later occupied by Lawrence of Arabia for ten months during the Arab Revolt. In the afternoon we headed to the Dead Sea. I visited the Dead Sea from the Israeli side in 1984 and remember a rather barren public access, so I was initially alarmed when we were informed that we would have three hours, as I was thinking a half hour would be enough to experience the novelty of floating in the salty sea. I was pleasantly surprised when we were given access to a beautiful resort with three infinity pools overlooking the Dead Sea. Famously the lowest place on earth, the Dead Sea is 434 metres below sea level. With a salinity of around 34%, one can float with minimal effort in the Dead Sea's highly buoyant waters. Not only was an afternoon relaxing at a resort a welcome change, but when everyone else congregated at the pool nearest the sea access, it left us with the other two all to ourselves! We were able to share a memorable, magical, movie-romance moment together. Afterwards, we joined the other to visit poolside.
After breakfast, we transferred back to the Ibis Amman with nothing else scheduled. Somehow a free day resulted in us walking eleven kilometres. During the day, we walked all around the main streets near our hotel, checking out the area and shops, including a large mall across the street from our hotel. We failed to recruit others to join us for an evening trip to "Rainbow Street", so Lisa and I took a cab to the trendy strip ourselves. Rainbow Street is approximately two kilometres long with businesses on side streets luring visitors with Instagram-worthy photo opportunities. We walked from Rainbow Street to the downtown area in search of "Umbrella Street", only to learn that the restaurant that puts up the umbrellas only does so in the summertime. The walk did provide us with night-time views of the Temple of Hercules atop the Amman Citadel.
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