Day 4 - Friday, February 23rd

We were up and off the boat by 7 a.m. today - sleeping in isn't an option on this trip if you want to see EVERYTHING. We seem to leave earlier than the other tour groups on the boat and it's fine with us. When we get to the Temples and sights there aren't a lot of other people around and we get a great look at things and we get a lot done before the heat of the day is unbearable.

Our first visit today is to the Temple of Hathor. This temple is fabulous. The roof is intact and every surface is either raised or sunken relief, lots of painted surfaces that can still be seen especially in the ceilings. The Christians who lived in the temple centuries ago caused a great deal of damage - their cook fires caused smoke damage to the ceilings, they carved out the faces of Hathor in the carvings on the walls. A huge relief on an exterior wall shows Cleopatra making offerings to Hathor. Caesarion, her son by Julius Caesar is clearly shown as well. It is mind-boggling to understand that these carvings made about 3000 years ago are still clear enough for us to see easily.

We cruise back to Luxor after all tour groups have returned to the boat. A number of us sat up on the sun deck watching life on the Nile flow by, getting to know each other, comparing traditions and life experiences between Canada and Australia. Watching how the Nile people live is in itself is a constant education and source of incredibility - we watched a man reach down, clear the oil slick off the top of the water, scoop up a cup full and DRINK the Nile water! Now, this would kill us with our queasy, clean living stomachs but the Nile living Egyptians can handle it!

We arrived in Luxor in the very early evening and our armed guards left us. We enjoyed a horse and carriage ride to the Luxor Temple that is dedicated to the Theban triad of Amuc, Mut and Khonsu. What an amazing temple this is. By the way...every temple we see seems to be even better and more inspiring than the last! But this temple is beautiful! The avenue of sphinxes (which once stretched almost 2 km. from Luxor to Karnak) but now is not that long is still incredible; the huge pink granite obelisk; the two enormous seated colossi of Ramses II, the enormous front wall...all leave you breathless. This temple is very special in many ways (according to our Habibi!) Not only is it a temple dedicated to Egyptian gods but there is a Mosque and one of the antechambers was converted into a church by the Romans in the 4th century AD. There is a belief that many treasures are still buried under the Mosque but because it is holy ground it will not be desecrated. We were still at this temple as the sun set and the lighting within it really brought out the magic - so lovely!!

On our way back to the Giselle, we stopped at a place where they make Papyrus paper pictures. One of the makers showed us how the papyrus paper is made and how to tell the difference between the authentic papyrus paper and the banana leaf paper that many street vendors try to pass off as papyrus. The paper is then painted on by art students and these pictures sold from this shop. Most of the pictures were scenes taken from actual reliefs in temples throughout Egypt. Les and I found quite a few that we liked and our Habibi looked at them and told us that most we had chosen were scenes from the Temples at Abu Simbel (this will be an important fact on day 8 of our tour-remember it!!!).

Back to the Giselle for a relaxing dinner and an evening of Egyptian entertainment. Egyptian musicians, a belly-dancer (not the dancer of many veils as we see at home - this young lady didn't move with quite the same vigor and had more of an evening dress on), and a "Whirling Dervish". We'd never seen such a dancer. Constant circular movement with clothing that flipped and moved as if watching a multi-coloured spinning top. It was dizzying!!

Tidbits from today:

• on the way to the Temple of Hathor in Dendara we travelled by farms and saw no vehicles (except for the armed guard that stayed with us until our return to the boat) - the farmers use donkey carts
• houses have no roofs because there is no rain - the animal shelters do have long grasses on top to protect the animals from the sun - all people are in traditional dress - homes are made of mud/straw bricks - lots of lush crops of banana, date, sugar cane, wheat
• Habibi explained the way of life, history, culture, economy of today and in the time of growth of the temple
• today was the first time I've ever "walked the gang-plank" - as we left the Giselle
• houses and apartments in urban areas are left unfinished (you can see the re-bar coming through the concrete at the top of buildings) so that the owners don't have to pay the construction tax
• Habibi constantly tells us when we should tip, what we should pay for goods for sale at any site, and he warns us of any scams that might occur
• the staff on the Giselle are talented, funny and helpful - the head chef-Medhat; the waiters - Mohammed, Mohammed, & Sabry; matre d' - Saady; the bartender - Magdy; and the many whose names we didn't discover all took such good care of us