I arranged for Uniworld to drop me off at the Egyptian museum. I paid to see the museum, the Royal mummies, and camera use ($20). A guide quickly approached me and I engaged him for one hour at the cost of about $11 dollars. I learned a lot and then explored the museum for two additional hours.  I met the tour Egyptologist Assem and the van at 1PM and we drove to the old walled Islamic city and walked down a lovely old street with classic period of beautiful Islamic architecture of mosques and cistern/schools. We walked through the bazar past the al-Hussein Mosque and back out (cost $80).  I also have to commend the Egyptologist Assem who accompanied Uniworld through the entire tour; he was such a pleasure to have on our journey. He was very smart, competent and passionate about Egypt and Egyptian history. He was an excellent and patient teacher throughout this journey.

Saturday December 9-Old Cairo and Souk
I arranged to join in with 4 other passengers to do “The Coptic Tour” with a van and Assem.  We saw the Hanging Coptic church built on pillars, and a Coptic museum, a Greek Orthodox Church, The Saints Sergius and Bacchus Church that was built over a cave purported to have housed the holy family during their Egyptian exile.  We also saw an old synagogue.  This was followed by a trip back to the Bazar and a walk to the far side to the tentmaker’s street (cost $60 pp.).

On the first official day of the12-day tour we met with our group of 25 Americans, consisting mostly of couples 40-70 in age, a family group of four, a couple traveling with friend, and two solo ladies (myself included).  This day we went to the Egyptian Museum and had a tour provided by Assem, we walked over to the Ritz Carleton for lunch, and then boarded the bus for a drive across town to the Saladin Citadel and the Alabaster Mosque

We left the hotel at 7:15 AM and drove about 40 minutes (20 miles) to the ancient Old Kingdom capital Memphis. This is a huge and ancient (3000 BCE) archeological site, but a very small tourist site.  We saw the alabaster sphinx, and the fallen statue of Ramses II.  Then we headed to the nearby necropolis called Saqqara. There are numerous tombs and mastabas in this area several pyramids including the famous step pyramid of Djoser (~2600 BCE).  There was an interesting museum and we learned about Imhotep the architect of Djoser’s pyramid.
After this we went to an expensive carpet factory/toilet break and the drove about 10 miles to Giza.  We had a photo stop at Khufu (~2500 BCE) pyramid, and could walk up to the entry, but we did not go in. Then we drove to Menkaura’s pyramid (~2500 BCE) where we could go inside. Again they said no pictures (so I left my camera), but the guard inside allowed photos for a tip.  After this we all went for a camel ride ($11) and gave a $6 tip.   It was very touristy but memorable.  This was followed up with the Sphinx up close and lastly a stop at a very expensive “Cotton shop”.

Colossi of Memnon, more correctly the two massive stone statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III

Upon landing we immediately boarded a bus and drove into Luxor for a visit to the Karnack Temple, a 250-acre complex dedicated to Amun. The impressive Temple Hall with 134 columns is the world’s largest columnar structure.

Luxor Temple for sunset (3-6 PM), which was so lovely light up at night.

At the Valley of the Kings you have to buy an extra camera ticket ($17), and you are checked rigorously in all the tombs. We saw three tombs. KV 2 (Ramses IV), KV 11 (Ramses III), and KV 14 the tomb built by the Queen Tausert and later taken over by her son Setnakht.  The tombs walls were covered with beautiful carvings and colorful paintings. The Valley of the Kings was hot and dusty, but it was amazing, the fulfillment of a lifelong dream

The seventeen passengers who opted for the additional $120 hot air balloon excursion left at 4:45 am, boarded a van then a ferry across the Nile, and then vans to the hot air balloons. The balloon held 33 passengers in 8 compartments plus one with the operator. After we lifted off the ride was amazing. Sailing over the valleys of the Nobel’s, the Queens and the workers, but NOT the Valley of the Kings.  It gave me a great perspective of the valley and the neighboring valleys.  There were 100’s of tombs everywhere.  We were airborne for about an hour then landed.  It was very interesting to see the crew compress the balloon and contain it, took about 10 men.

After a very short flight we arrived at Abu Simbel and the entire plane took a shuttle bus to the Temple and toured for about an hour then got back on the bus, returned to the airport went through various security checks and took the same waiting plane back to Aswan.Returned to the ship for lunch then we went to the Luxor Temple for sunset (3-6 PM), which was so lovely light up at night.

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