Day 8 and 9 Sunrise on the Nile\Edfu temple\Esna Lock\Karnak

Day 8 Sunrise on the Nile\Edfu temple\Esna Lock.

Grace and I woke up early because we heard that the sunrise on the Nile was like no other.  We arrived on the top deck at 5:45 and the waiter doing his rounds brought us coffee made just the way we liked it.   Fresh coffee, cool morning breeze life is good. 

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The Egyptian sunrise on the Nile did not disappoint.   It came up around 6:00 and shimmered in the water a pink color for a few minute then turned yellow.

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During the night the ship cruised to the town of Edfu where the Edfu temple is located.  At 7AM we met our guide at the lobby and disembarked the Ship into a sea of carriage drivers, Street vendor and tour operator all yelling to get your attention.   This was another time that I was thankful to to have a guide as he arranged two carriages to take us to the temple and told us what to tip at the end.

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Edfu temple is the most complete temple in all of Egypt.  It was claimed by the resident of the town and was used as a horse stable unit the 1960, when the government took charge of all the national monuments.  It took the government 5 year to dig the temple out of the debris and sand as only the top of the temple was exposed. This debris build up protected the wall paintings from the elements and some of the 3000 year old color still remains.  Try to imagine this complete complex would have a white back ground on every wall with colored figures and lettering.

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After visiting the temple we sailed to Edna to go through the Esna lock.   For those of you who have never been though a lock, the boat enters a gate and the gate is closed then the water is pumped out to make the level the same height as the water on the other side of the lock.  The second gate is opened and the boat goes out.  

Picture below is of the lock with two cruise ships inside.

The ships entering the lock provide and opportunity for vendor to sell to the passenger on the deck.  There is a lot of yelling and bartering.  It is quite a scene and the transaction are performed by the vendor throwing the goods in a bag three decks up to the passenger.   The passenger then inspects the goods and barters on the price. Once agreed upon the passenger puts the money in the bag and throws it back to the dock. On guy made a deal with a Spanish lady and threw up his two scarfs’, but then the boat pulled away from the dock.  By the time the money was placed in the bag and thrown back over board the ship was too far away from the dock and the money fell in the water.  Not two worry he sent his son in for a swim to retrieve the bag.  The scene is loud and almost too crazy to describe. 

The remainder of the day was spent cruising up the Nile and relaxing, drinking coffee and going to dinner.    I’m always on the go so this was one time that I had no place to go. I was forced to sit and just watched the world (Nile) go by.  It was good, really good.   

Day 9 Luxor, Hatshetup temple, Karnak Temple

Luxor is our final stop of the cruise and it was time to say good bye to the crew of the ship. The Egyptian crew really made our time on the ship enjoyable. Each evening the house keeper (A Guy) would arrange the towels in different figures to scare you as you entered the dark room and turned on the lights. Day 1 was an elephant.  Day 2 a man with sunglasses and Day 3 was a baby using the water bottle caps for eyes.  Funny guys.

Hatshetup the female king created here own temple and tomb this complex is large and beautiful.

Grace stated this was of her statue as she is the greatest queen that ever lived.

The art work on some walls still has very bright colors. 

Karnak temple complex is very very big.  It was worked on for 2000 years by a number of Kings.  At this point Grace and Mom where templed out and they started to fade.   I really wanted to see the hall of columns and the great obelisk created by Queen Hatshetup.

 Remember these from the modern  Mummy movie.

Obelisks are so big that a picture just does not depict the true size and the level of detail.  Each one is made out of one block of stone.

Again more wonderful pictures of the gods in color as they would have been seen thousands of years ago. 

By the end of Karnak temple the ladies were finished so we skipped Luxor temple.  We need to leave something for next time anyway.   The tour guide dropped us off at our hotel the Lotus, this hotel sites right on the Nile with a beautiful pool and bar.