One Way Ticket to Africa: Up the Nile and Back Down

The second half of our stay in Egypt took us to many different parts of the country. Where we left off on our previous post, we told you all that we took a night train to Aswan. Aswan is where I will start.

After a comfortable night on our sleeper train, we arrived in Aswan. Aswan is located in Upper Egypt (which is actually SOUTH of Cairo...a bit counter-intuitive). Its a city along the Nile River, and is yet another area of Egypt that was home to many ancient Egyptians who were sure to leave their mark, to the delight of today's tourists.

The southern part of Egypt where Aswan is located is extremely hot in the summer. Highs each day were around 110 F. But, Jill and I were determined to see what we had come to see:

A view of excavations on Elephantine Island with Aswan in the background

A ancient Nilometer (for measuring the height of the Nile river)

Jill and I exploring the excavations

The largest Mosque in Aswan

Our next adventure was finding a cruise boat to take us down the river to Luxor. After checking with about 10 of the 20 boats anchored in Aswan we struck an amazing bargain and set off the next day. The cruise boat took about two days and stopped at several excavation sites along the way. Here is the adventure in photos:

Late night search for a cruise boat. We settled on the third one in from the shore in this line up.

The view from the deck of our boat on arrival at the first excavation site

Hall of pillars

Examining a set of figures that were chiseled out by a later pharoh that wanted to rewrite history

Posing with the ruins

The most grand temple gate that we saw in all of Egypt--truly enormous.

Enjoying our cruise boat

Passing through the lock system on the Nile river

Once the cruise boat delivered us to Luxor we had several more archeological sites to visit. These included the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens where many rulers and their families were entombed in elaborate sets of tunnels hand chiseled deep into solid rock. Photos were not allowed inside the tombs so here are some of the nearby temples and monuments:

After visiting Luxor, Jill and I left the Nile and headed east for the Red Sea. Our stop was Suez where we spent the night watching enormous boats navigate the Suez Canal.

The next day we left for Mount Sinai where we spent a nice long day hiking all of the way to the top of the mountain where Moses received the Ten Commandments. On top we found a nice little chapel some fantastic views.