Sorry that it has been a while, but there has been a lot to do and very little time to update blogs.
Cairo was good to us, but we decided that before seeing the pyramids and the museum, we would head up to Aswan and Luxor and see some of the temples. It was a great choice.
Aswan and Luxor the cities are so-so, just your average tourist town. Close to wonderful stuff, but full of people trying to get money from you and making doing the littlest thing exasperating. But the sights are worth the trouble!
Joining a tour to see Abu Simbel turned out to be the cheapest way to check it and Philae temple out, so we joined one. Abu Simbel is beautiful, with great carvings on the outside and fantastic sculptures on the inside. Photography is prohibited inside most of the temples in Egypt, so we don't have many pictures from the inside. This one is from the outside, and you can see that it is good.
Cairo was good to us, but we decided that before seeing the pyramids and the museum, we would head up to Aswan and Luxor and see some of the temples. It was a great choice.
Aswan and Luxor the cities are so-so, just your average tourist town. Close to wonderful stuff, but full of people trying to get money from you and making doing the littlest thing exasperating. But the sights are worth the trouble!
Joining a tour to see Abu Simbel turned out to be the cheapest way to check it and Philae temple out, so we joined one. Abu Simbel is beautiful, with great carvings on the outside and fantastic sculptures on the inside. Photography is prohibited inside most of the temples in Egypt, so we don't have many pictures from the inside. This one is from the outside, and you can see that it is good.
Inside Philae Temple taking pictures was fine, and this is the main room plus Shiz. Philae Temple impressed us highly, with its extensive carvings, island location, and fantastic buildings. I highly recommend Egypt, and making your way down South. The day after this trip we walked around the town and took a boat to Elephatine island to see the museum and 4000ish year old ruins and archaeological site. Very nice.
With two good days of Aswan under our collective belts, we didn't have time to stick around. We had to head for Luxor.
En route to Luxor we stopped in Edfu to see the temple there, as it is supposed to be one of the best preserved in Egypt. For sure the temple was great. The walls are just massive and the carvings exquisite. LIke other ancient cultures, the themes hardly vary, but it hardly matters. Just being around something 4000-5000 years old is such a humbling experience. Thinking about just how long that is and how strange it is that so much and so little has changed since then. We saw some 4000 year old carving and glass detail work that we duplicate even today, just with faster tools.
Luxor set out to humble us further. Finances had us join a tour again, so we missed one temple we wanted to see, but we did get The Valley of the Kings, someplace that you just have to go to. Being underground (and massively restored), the walls there remain in pristine condition. At all the other ruins so far, we saw remnants of the paint on the walls, but in the tombs of the Valley of the Kings, we saw what all of it was meant to look like. Since elementary school I've seen pictures or Egyptian ruins present-day so have always pictured them as sand colored, when they are anything but. Ancient Egyptians loved decoration, any surface they carved and painted. Save the pyramids, all the temples of Egypt that you know about (and the ones you don't but it doesn't matter much, ne?) were painted vibrant reds, yellow, blues, greens, and whites (Vibrant white?) They were explosions in color. It would have impressive (well, it still is).
With two good days of Aswan under our collective belts, we didn't have time to stick around. We had to head for Luxor.
En route to Luxor we stopped in Edfu to see the temple there, as it is supposed to be one of the best preserved in Egypt. For sure the temple was great. The walls are just massive and the carvings exquisite. LIke other ancient cultures, the themes hardly vary, but it hardly matters. Just being around something 4000-5000 years old is such a humbling experience. Thinking about just how long that is and how strange it is that so much and so little has changed since then. We saw some 4000 year old carving and glass detail work that we duplicate even today, just with faster tools.
Luxor set out to humble us further. Finances had us join a tour again, so we missed one temple we wanted to see, but we did get The Valley of the Kings, someplace that you just have to go to. Being underground (and massively restored), the walls there remain in pristine condition. At all the other ruins so far, we saw remnants of the paint on the walls, but in the tombs of the Valley of the Kings, we saw what all of it was meant to look like. Since elementary school I've seen pictures or Egyptian ruins present-day so have always pictured them as sand colored, when they are anything but. Ancient Egyptians loved decoration, any surface they carved and painted. Save the pyramids, all the temples of Egypt that you know about (and the ones you don't but it doesn't matter much, ne?) were painted vibrant reds, yellow, blues, greens, and whites (Vibrant white?) They were explosions in color. It would have impressive (well, it still is).
To get a month each in Greece and Turkey, we had to limit ourselves to 22 days in Egypt, which is far too short. I want a month-and-a-half, but the more we travel to more we feel that nine months is far too short. Better nine months than nothing, tough, right?
So after the next day we went to the temple of Karnak, an amazing temple if there ever was one. Of all the temples, none impressed us like Karnak. There is so much variation, scale, and variety. One section was all pillars, about 130 of them. We spent a good hour walking in just that section.
Next we went to Luxor temple, which was good. When the Christian Greeks came, they transformed it into a church and plastered Christian images over the carvings. Most of it had been taken down, but one part of a wall still had the remains of very old, European style painting on it. Very nice.
We did have to get back to Cairo the next day, and the day after that went to the very excellent National Museum. Guidebooks say that it takes a full day, but other travelers told us between 3-5 hours (depending on who we asked). Trust the guidebooks.
We arrived at noon and when it was about to close at 6:30 Pm, we had to rush the last hallway. This with only a ten minute break all day. The amount of stuff they house stuns. There are so many sarcophagi, each one colorful, beautiful, and different. We skipped the mummy room (waaaaaay too overpriced), but did see the mummified animals room, which has a mummified crocodile. Impressive. VERY impressive.
Other highlights were the treasures of King Tut - including his funeral mask.- loads of old statues, and the art from the reign of Akhenaten. Oh, go there. Cairo itself deserves your attention, but spend a day at that museum. So worth it.
Also, I mentioned before that today it feels like we have all this new stuff, but really most of what we have existed long, long ago and basically our technology just got better. Well, there was the ultimate proof in the museum. See what they had 4,500 years ago?
So after the next day we went to the temple of Karnak, an amazing temple if there ever was one. Of all the temples, none impressed us like Karnak. There is so much variation, scale, and variety. One section was all pillars, about 130 of them. We spent a good hour walking in just that section.
Next we went to Luxor temple, which was good. When the Christian Greeks came, they transformed it into a church and plastered Christian images over the carvings. Most of it had been taken down, but one part of a wall still had the remains of very old, European style painting on it. Very nice.
We did have to get back to Cairo the next day, and the day after that went to the very excellent National Museum. Guidebooks say that it takes a full day, but other travelers told us between 3-5 hours (depending on who we asked). Trust the guidebooks.
We arrived at noon and when it was about to close at 6:30 Pm, we had to rush the last hallway. This with only a ten minute break all day. The amount of stuff they house stuns. There are so many sarcophagi, each one colorful, beautiful, and different. We skipped the mummy room (waaaaaay too overpriced), but did see the mummified animals room, which has a mummified crocodile. Impressive. VERY impressive.
Other highlights were the treasures of King Tut - including his funeral mask.- loads of old statues, and the art from the reign of Akhenaten. Oh, go there. Cairo itself deserves your attention, but spend a day at that museum. So worth it.
Also, I mentioned before that today it feels like we have all this new stuff, but really most of what we have existed long, long ago and basically our technology just got better. Well, there was the ultimate proof in the museum. See what they had 4,500 years ago?
They had TV.
Saving the museum until after we saw where these things would have been was a great idea. It made what we saw so much realer and put everything in context for us.
But to speak of saving things for last, the next day was all Giza. We got up really early, caught a bus, and was the three pyramids and sphinx. Spending a couple of hours just walking around, seeing a huge city in one half of your view and stark desert in the other half, with three towering pyramids between them is surreal to say the least. Having lunch in the shade of pyramid is also high on my recommend list.
I really can't think of much to say about them expect that they are really good. We went into the middle one and wow, I would have made a shitty explorer. The path is not even a meter square and a good 45 degree slope, so I was forced to hunch over severely. The walk was worth it, as things have been recently. Just knowing that I was inside a pyramid made me happy.
The pyramids only took about three hours, so we found ourselves with an afternoon to relax and upload pictures. That means that all India pictures are up on flickr! I made some mistakes categorizing them the first time, so after this last batch uploads, I'm going to fix it.
Speaking of photos, the Photo God decided to punish us again. About four hours ago Shiz uploaded a batch, then we went to dinner, and I came back to upload the other 400. Well, apparently the drivers ran away during dinner, because none of the computers here read the card and even the camera asks us to format the card before we can do anything with it. All the pictures with the good camera from Luxor on are on it, so we're not going to do that anytime soon. I'm searching ways to fix it, but if anyone knows anything about this, help would be wonderful. I'm going to take it to a computer shop in Egypt if we have the time, Greece if we don't. I want those pictures and the ability to use the 4GB card. I'll let you know when its fixed.
Aside from that, today we went to the Citadel and saw the phenomenal buildings there, then walked around the large market out here. We came back, had more of some of the best gelatto I've ever had, ate dinner (pictured below), and played gin at a coffee shop with Egyptian tea, coffee, and apple flavored tobacco.
Tomorrow we head out to an oasis for a couple of days, including The White Dessert, then on the 6th we board a plane to Athens. Athens!
I've put some pictures from around Cairo (as well as ketchup-flavored potato chips, in case You've Ever Been High as Fuck) for you to see. See them!
But to speak of saving things for last, the next day was all Giza. We got up really early, caught a bus, and was the three pyramids and sphinx. Spending a couple of hours just walking around, seeing a huge city in one half of your view and stark desert in the other half, with three towering pyramids between them is surreal to say the least. Having lunch in the shade of pyramid is also high on my recommend list.
I really can't think of much to say about them expect that they are really good. We went into the middle one and wow, I would have made a shitty explorer. The path is not even a meter square and a good 45 degree slope, so I was forced to hunch over severely. The walk was worth it, as things have been recently. Just knowing that I was inside a pyramid made me happy.
The pyramids only took about three hours, so we found ourselves with an afternoon to relax and upload pictures. That means that all India pictures are up on flickr! I made some mistakes categorizing them the first time, so after this last batch uploads, I'm going to fix it.
Speaking of photos, the Photo God decided to punish us again. About four hours ago Shiz uploaded a batch, then we went to dinner, and I came back to upload the other 400. Well, apparently the drivers ran away during dinner, because none of the computers here read the card and even the camera asks us to format the card before we can do anything with it. All the pictures with the good camera from Luxor on are on it, so we're not going to do that anytime soon. I'm searching ways to fix it, but if anyone knows anything about this, help would be wonderful. I'm going to take it to a computer shop in Egypt if we have the time, Greece if we don't. I want those pictures and the ability to use the 4GB card. I'll let you know when its fixed.
Aside from that, today we went to the Citadel and saw the phenomenal buildings there, then walked around the large market out here. We came back, had more of some of the best gelatto I've ever had, ate dinner (pictured below), and played gin at a coffee shop with Egyptian tea, coffee, and apple flavored tobacco.
Tomorrow we head out to an oasis for a couple of days, including The White Dessert, then on the 6th we board a plane to Athens. Athens!
I've put some pictures from around Cairo (as well as ketchup-flavored potato chips, in case You've Ever Been High as Fuck) for you to see. See them!