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Post by Kimby on Oct 26, 2023 23:37:16 GMT
Abu Simbel was the Egyptian site I most wanted to see because I remembered reading in my WEEKLY READER (around third grade) about the engineering project being mounted to save the temple from the waters rising behind the Aswan Dam. Nothing prepared me for how amazing it was. Did you go inside the mountain, whatagain?
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Post by mich64 on Oct 27, 2023 1:20:22 GMT
Thank you for sharing your holiday whatagain, lovely photos.
The market would be too congested for me, so I do enjoy being able to see photos of it.
The pool certainly does look inviting! Having a pool with a view is exceptional. We enjoyed a glorious outdoor pool in Slovenia in September where we had the view of the mountains, it was incredible, I did not want to leave. This pool really reminded me of that.
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Post by whatagain on Oct 27, 2023 5:01:36 GMT
Thank !
Kim by the last pics are taken inside the temples.
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Post by Kimby on Oct 27, 2023 5:07:07 GMT
I meant inside the “mountain” that encloses the relocated temple. I was surprised to find it’s a hollow dome-like structure with rubble over the top and the temple blocks sitting inside, which we viewed from a metal catwalk inside the dome. Blew my mind.
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Post by onlyMark on Oct 27, 2023 5:21:20 GMT
The surprise for me is that there are now good class hotels at Abu Simbel. It was a day trip starting at 4am from Aswan in a convoy of vehicles protected by the police/military with a stop off at the High Dam on the way back. Good photos.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Oct 27, 2023 18:15:05 GMT
Absolutely glorious, thank you for bringing sunshine and fabulous treasures of Egypt's history to my soggy dark day! Beautiful Whatagain
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Post by lugg on Oct 29, 2023 19:34:08 GMT
I mean the god Imodium. God of the intestines. What a great god ! I so get this --- I have been x4 and x3 needed Imodium. prayed to the gods that I had it each time .
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Post by whatagain on Oct 30, 2023 3:25:26 GMT
Yesterday was Luxor and Karnak with their alignments of columns 😂 The city improved so much since our last visit - 15 years ago : clean nice , rich !
Today will be valley of the kings and the valley of the queens then on to Hurgada for snorkelling and beach time cocktails and probably a correct WiFi.
What a fantastic trip - Egypt leaves me speechless. Egyptians are real nice, the beggars or semi beggars are not really too insistant and the drivers didn’t reduce us to pulp. There are no zebra pads and hardly any traffic lights so you cross whenever you dare. When it is dark they add some spice to the game as they don’t use their headlights.
We walked on average 11 000 steps a day so we will be over 100 000 today since landing in Cairo - iPhone tells me we walked more than 60 kms - close to 40 miles.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 30, 2023 5:56:15 GMT
I saw a report a while back saying that the tourist industry was 100% wiped out in that area for two years during the pandemic and that it gave the surviving places time to reorganise and renovate. And most of the riff raff had to move to Cairo to survive.
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Post by whatagain on Oct 30, 2023 6:04:27 GMT
Could be. In Luxor they reinstalled the 3.6 kms path bordered with sphinxes between the temples of Karnak and Luxor. They destroyed scores of houses, even a church to do so. I only walked 100m of it by lack of time. Time is too short in Egypt.
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Post by onlyMark on Oct 30, 2023 13:06:59 GMT
I saw a report a while back saying that the tourist industry was 100% wiped out in that area for two years during the pandemic and that it gave the surviving places time to reorganise and renovate. And most of the riff raff had to move to Cairo to survive. The collapse of tourism started with the 2011 Revolution I was caught up in and it's aftermath. It began to recover but various incidents political and other wise plus problem in the Sinai certainly didn't help. The influence of China is ever growing with loans and projects which has funded most of the developments of the new capital, new roads, buildings, museum, places to live outside the centre etc etc. Then covid came along.........
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Post by whatagain on Oct 31, 2023 16:58:08 GMT
The unfinished obelisk. In the granite quarry from where most obelisks were made, this one was abandoned when ancient Egyptians realised it was cracked. Philae temple. Also saved from the dam of lake Nasser. It dates from the Ptolemaic pharaohs. Splendid. Detail of the head of a column. Hathoris the goddess of … and is often represented as a cow. Or half cow. Whatever. The open square before the temple. A lot of représentations of gods were ‘hammered’ because of religious issues or political ones. note that this pharaoh was playing bowling. Again hathor who didn’t please the next generations. Horus made it unscathed. A living sphinx. There used to be doors. Wooden and huge ones. The Nile. Global view. You would have guessed, wouldn’t you ?
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Post by whatagain on Oct 31, 2023 17:01:25 GMT
View from the boat. Egyptians still like big monuments. The souks in Luxor. We visited a botanical garden. where some crocodiles were used as touristic attractions. Visit if a Nubian village. They like to paint their houses blue. We were offered tea. Well offered as in paid for. View from the roof. We visited a school. And were taught the Arabic alphabet A swan was waiting on our bed. Sunset in the Nile.
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Post by kerouac2 on Oct 31, 2023 17:02:54 GMT
When you see all of these vestiges together, it just begins to give us an idea of how great the Egyptian empire was. (Yes, we've all heard that it was very cruel, too.)
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 31, 2023 17:11:05 GMT
Astounding! Fabulous! This is a wonderful report, Whatagain -- I love your pictures. You all covered a lot of ground! Your family definitely seem to be enjoying themselves. This has to be a major high point in family vacations.
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Post by whatagain on Oct 31, 2023 21:52:57 GMT
The temple of Kom Ombo is unique as it celebrates two gods : Horus and … Really the carvings are so beautiful and everywhere At the end, after several doors is the sanctuary. The small holes you notice were made by layer inhabitants to put wooden logs that supported roof of an inhabitation. Temples are so huge. Everywhere you look is beauty. The next day was Karnak. it is impossible to say if we went crescendo in the stunning realisations of the ancient Egyptians. but amazement was sustained through the whole trip. Sphinxes welcome you at the entrance. A body of a lion and the head of a mutton. Huge. So huge. When a pharaoh is represented with the left foot in front it means he is represented alive. 142 columns. All superbly decorated and some paint still visible. Look at this cartouche. cartouche means cartridge as the shape was similar of the packaging if the powder used to propel the bullet in the muskets. however a cartridge is feminine for the gun. Masculine for the name of the pharaoh Some walls seem ready to collapse. This temple a bit on the outside was left 300 years before being completed. A view from that temple. The daughters liked it. Obelisks are a representation of the earth emerging from chaos. The entrance was quite grandiose And the sphinxes are guarding the temple for the eternity. next was Luxor temple, 3.6 kms of sphinxes further…
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Post by fumobici on Nov 1, 2023 2:32:59 GMT
Looks amazing, you got a lot of great photos. I was at The British Museum Sunday, nice to see they didn't haul everything away when they left.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 1, 2023 3:32:36 GMT
it is impossible to say if we went crescendo in the stunning realisations of the ancient Egyptians. but amazement was sustained through the whole trip. I can well imagine! This report is an eye-opener for me. There is something about seeing it through the eyes of a person I know that makes it more real and more impressive than any number of tourist brochures ever could. Whatagain, your photographs are triumphs in capturing the life that still glows from those gorgeous carvings, buildings, and statues. I will be revisiting this thread to make sure I take in ever bit of the gorgeousness.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 1, 2023 3:58:26 GMT
Can these photos get any more stunning?
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Post by whatagain on Nov 3, 2023 6:45:22 GMT
Our last temple was the temple of Luxor. Visit by night. Of course sphinxes welcome us. Symbol of force. Main alley. Huge columns. This has an interesting story. Columns like the ones we saw are inside the walls. The first floor was made to create a church but was regularly flooded thus abandoned. Later the sand reached the top and the second floor was added as a mosque. The door we see was the main door. so when you pray there you face Ra ! We were not alone. An astoundedly well preserve pharaoh. I like huge columns. Mr and mrs. It is not often that the wife has the same height as the man. Usually statues of women are reduced in size compared to men. Just amazing. This is also interesting. This place has been turned into a Roman church. They put plaster on top of the hydro glyphs and painted biblical scenes. Top left is a remaining of this paint, the rest crumbled, revealing the original hieroglyphs. Cats are ubiquitous in Egypt. This ankh key is a symbol of luck so everyone is touching it, blackening the stone. View from the rear towards the entrance. The central columns led us towards the exit.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 3, 2023 7:02:51 GMT
I'm trying to imagine a day's work back when they were building it. Just lifting a single stone into place was an exploit!
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Post by whatagain on Nov 3, 2023 8:02:18 GMT
Indeed. And contrary to the beliefs most workers were free men.
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Post by whatagain on Nov 3, 2023 8:07:32 GMT
Thé valley of the kings and valley of the queens. taf means work in French slang. Going down into Ramses IV tomb. Superb drawings. Colours ! The eagle is often painted on the ceiling. An army of servants ? Hieroglyphs were often from the book of the dead’s. Sarcophagus was heavy. Decorated on every side of course. So beautiful. There comes a time when I have a lack for words. Pano of the valley. Waw. Waw. And of course the sacred ship that will carry pharaoh on his last trip. Gods playing basketball I love this green paint. This shows the links between Egypt and Central America. Il a des couteaux azteak. .. (no translation possible of this wordplay) There is a tomb behind this door. And by an extraordinary piece of luck we could visit the tomb of nefertari who was closed for years and is limited to about 100 people a day for 10 min each visitor. Wz were aghast of the splendours. What a ceiling. The goddess of ? With a face of a scarab.
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Post by whatagain on Nov 3, 2023 8:09:00 GMT
There was one more temple to see : the one of the Hatshepsut. A woman who reigned for some time. Priests invented a story that she was interacting with the gods to bridge the gap between a male and a female. the temple was heavily damaged by an earthquake and rebuilt by Poles up to 2006 something. i find it looks like a modern 5 stars hotel. This sphinx has eyes. The statue depicts a dead pharaoh There should have been statues in front of each.
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Post by mossie on Nov 3, 2023 8:14:07 GMT
A great series of photos. I don't remember cats in Egypt, where we were the locals were so poor that they would have eaten them
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Post by Kimby on Nov 3, 2023 14:04:01 GMT
Are they allowing photography inside the temples now? In 1989, film camera days, photography was forbidden, and one of our group who tried to take a few discreet photos got caught and the film ripped out of his camera by a guard.
Your photos are gorgeous!
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Post by whatagain on Nov 3, 2023 22:22:46 GMT
The cats in Cairo were clearly left to themselves and were skinny. But they were not chased either. In Luxor they were ok and in Hurgada they were fat and very friendly.
Yes the pictures are still forbidden in the tombs but ok if taken with Cellphone. Whilst that was forbidden in 2009. I didn’t understanding the rule then and neither now.
After the valley of the kings and queens we left for El Gina. A town created out of nowhere for the comfort of tourists. Our hotel was a 5 stars all inclusive. With an inefficient staff that spoke German. With all you can eat buffets that included potatoes. Sausages. Heavy sauce. We discovered that we were 1 euro by Tuktuk from El Guna where we found great restaurants.
No pics from the hotel, really not worth it. But relaxing. We did a visit of the coral reefs - snorkelling for one hour with corals of every shape and lots of fishes. And a drive on quads in the desert.
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Post by whatagain on Nov 3, 2023 22:26:57 GMT
A cute cat at the hotel. We went out to see coral reefs. And saw dolphins A group of dolphins Our daughters were offered to steer the boat. This is my friend at the quad’s house. And this is me. Ready to go. In column. Not unlike kettenkrads of the Afrika Korps. A pause in the desert. Beautiful. A family was living here. Last they had rain was 7 years ago. There were not only cats. There were kittens too. man’s a small horse. My wife dislikes desert. She says there is nothing to see. We disagree on this. And that was it. The sun sets on glorious holidays.
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Post by kerouac2 on Nov 4, 2023 7:13:31 GMT
One of the best reports ever, especially all of the forbidden photographs.
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Post by onlyMark on Nov 4, 2023 7:18:34 GMT
After the valley of the kings and queens we left for El Gina. Is that what I know as El Gouna? Just north of Hurghada.
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