~Gator World Explorer~: Beautiful Temples and Spinning Rooms

Wednesday, November 3rd. Of all the days on the trip, this was probably the worst because I was feeling really, really bad. Luckily, the day just consisted of two sites and a papyrus museum.

The day started out like so many before, with a 6:30am wake up call. I decided to skip breakfast so I can sleep in a bit but either way I knew I was not going to be able to handle food. As I was getting ready, I was feeling really nausea but there was no way I was going to miss the Temple of Horus!!! I had been looking forward to this temple since I LOVE the story of Horus; a beautiful story of love, heartbreak, and creation from his parents Osiris and Isis and the story of betrayal, murder, and revenge courtesy of his jealous uncle Set. The story isn't the only impressive part of the Temple of Horus, said temple is the best preserved in Egypt and has massive amounts of inscriptions written on its tall walls. The temple was a short drive from the boat and the morning was beautiful, clear skies and a cool breeze. We arrived as the temple was about to open and there were already massive hoards of tourists waiting at the front gate. After Shane and I pushed our way through the turnstiles and security, we caught our first glimpses of the amazing temple. The entrance walls were almost completely intact as were the inscriptions and the mud/brick wall surrounding the temple still had evidence of where the workers used to live. As we walked through the temple, I was amazed at all the details and all the stories found on the walls: the story of how the priests will march through the temple and to the entrance with an ark holding a statue of the god Horus so commoners can see and praise him, the story of how the goddess Nut (pronounced like newt) was believed to swallow the sun at night and then give birth to it at sunrise, the story of the murder of Osiris and how Isis brought him back to life, the story of how Horus avenged his father's death, and so many other fascinating stories. I could have easily spent two to three hours in this amazing temple!! The tour Sherif gave us was very interesting and Shane and I felt like we got a lot out of it. Of course, certain parts of the creation story of Horus weren't exactly suitable for children under the age of 13 but we all got a good laugh at the side comments Sherif would say while recounting the story. After the tour, we had about 30 minutes of free time to walk around the temple and take a few pictures. Again, I wish I could have spent at least an hour more!

Afterwards, we were off to the boat for an afternoon of relaxing and lunch! When we boarded the boat, I made a beeline for my room to get some rest to see if additional sleep will help me feel better. I can't even begin to describe how comfortable those beds were!! I slept for about three hours when I woke up feeling really sick (more sick than before) and a tad disoriented. I was rather hot but the AC was blasting. Nothing worse than being sick on a trip and 6000 miles from home. :( I took a cold shower and got ready for lunch; I needed to try to eat something because my empty stomach was not helping me feel better. Then I realized we were moving through the Esna Locks (similar to the Panama Canal but 100 times smaller). I walked to my window and started taking pictures of the locks since I honestly did not feel like going to the top deck even though the pictures would have been a tad more interesting. After taking a few pictures I made my way to the restaurant for my last lunch on the boat. I grabbed some rice and bread figuring that was bland enough but alas, that didn't work. I was able to keep my food down but I was feeling more nausea than ever. I decided to return to my room and not move from there until it was time to go the papyrus museum and the Temple of Luxor . My roommate Lisa then offered me a protein shake and that helped fill up my stomach a bit more.

At about 6pm, it was time to head out to the papyrus museum and the Temple of Luxor. From the moment I booked my trip, the one souvenir I definitely wanted to purchase was a papyrus painting (or two) so I was very much looking forward to this evening. Despite being extremely nausea and rather dizzy, there was no way I was going to miss going to the museum. We meet in the lobby and start walking towards the dock. This was always the fun part. Since dock space along the Nile is limited and there are so many cruise ships, they line up one next to the other, usually four or five in a row. For some reason, our boat was always the last one so we would need to walk through the lobby of three to four other boats before reaching the dock. After reaching the dock, we climbed up some stairs and boarded our bus.

When we arrived at the museum, I was amazed at the selection! We walked towards the back of the museum/store where this guy gave us a great demonstration on papyrus 101: intro on the papyrus plant, the history of papyrus paper making, how to make papyrus paper, the difference between the light and dark style papers, and how to determine if papyrus paper is authentic. I greatly enjoyed the demonstration and liked the opportunity to hold a papyrus plant. It is amazingly light and soft! After the demonstration, we were free to browse the selection of paintings without the hassle of annoying sales people. As I was walking along, there was one painting I completely fell in love with. It is a very beautiful, colorful painting of Ramsesses II offering the goddess Hathor some lotus flowers. The goddess Hathor is the goddess who personified the principles of love, beauty, music, motherhood and joy in Ancient Egypt. Along with that painting, I purchased another one that is a map of Egypt and it shows a few of the main historical site. All together, I spent 660 Egyptian pounds which translates to roughly $115. Both paintings are amazing and are authentic, wonderful reminders of such a great trip!! Quite a few of my tour mates purchased papyrus paintings and I'm sure there were some that spent more than me.

Once we finished at the museum, we headed to the Temple of Luxor. By this point, I honestly just wanted to go back to the boat; I had gotten my papyrus paintings and I wasn't feeling well at all. When we arrived at the temple, we were the only people there so I definitely wasn't going to stay by myself on the bus. I walked to the temple with my tour mates and after taking a couple of pictures, I decided to sit on the floor while Sherif was giving his history lesson. Words cannot describe how bad I was feeling! But here are some interesting facts on the temple: The temple was appropriated by Tuthmosis III, Hatshepsut built the chapels that are still seen today, the main part of the temple, the colonnade and the sun court, were built by Amenhotep III, and then Ramesses II built the entrance pylon and the two obelisks. There wasn't a temple or site that Ramesses II did not add to; he loved to make his mark where ever he could. At the entrance of the temple, only one obelisk is seen because the other was given to the French as a gift. In return, the French gave the Egyptians a clock tower that really never worked (clock tower now found at the Citadel, pictures in a later blog). Another interesting fact regarding the temple is that it was buried for thousands of years and as such, a city was built on top of it. One of the structures of the city, a mosque, can still be seen atop of the temple and it can not be demolished because it is now a tomb. Also, some of the statues are missing their heads because despite the temple being buried by sand, a few heads were sticking out and people obviously did not want a statue head in the middle of their living room. And a final interesting fact is the Avenue of the Sphinxes. This "avenue" consists of hundreds of Sphinx statues that cover a distance of almost 2 miles stretching from the Temple of Luxor to the Karnak Temple. The local government at Luxor is currently relocating residents and knocking down homes and buildings in a major excavation project to find the rest of the avenue. Earlier this year, they dug up a major section of the avenue and found a lot of the statues in good condition. After the history lesson, it was then time for the walking tour. For the first 10 minutes, I was some what focused and I was understanding Sherif and taking pictures with a purpose. After that, everything was a blur. I was just dragging myself along, standing in the back of the group, and I can't figure out some of the pictures I took. It was obvious I was out of it because 99% of the pictures I took on the trip had a reason and story behind them. These that I took at the Temple of Luxor are completely random. I was so glad this was a short trip and we soon were on the bus and heading back to the boat. On the boat, I went to dinner to eat something but right after dinner I ran to bed in the hopes I will wake up feeling better!