Tag Archives: what to see in Egypt

Check out my visit to see the pyramids and the sphinx!

17 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by in Egypt, Travel

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A windy day at the pyramids

From Luxor, we had a short flight to Cairo and then a bus ride around the perimeter of the city to Giza.  We felt safe since we did not go into the city.

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Giza is the 3rd largest city in Egypt – home to over 4.5 million people.  It is also the home to three of the most famous pyramids and the Great Sphinx of Giza.  These were tombs for the Pharoahs built roughly from the mid 2,500’s to 2,150 B.C. according to National Geographic’s web site.  (I have had to rely on this and other sites.  At times on the trip I was looking (OK, gawking) and not paying attention to the guides.

Lunch at the Sphinx Pavillon Restaurant

I loved the story the guide told us about the largest pyramid built by Khufru at 481 feet high.  His son who followed him, Khafre, had his built at 471 feet high.  He didn’t want to be disrespectful to his father, don’t you know.  His just looks taller than his father’s.  Clever guy – he chose a higher place on the plateau to build his…. According to the guides, once a pharaoh was the ruler, they started working on his tomb.

The Sphinx

The Great Sphinx of Giza is sometimes attributed to the son Khafre.  It is carved  limestone with a human-like head, lion body and head dress of a pharaoh.  It is the largest monolith statue in the world at 24 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 66 feet high.  It is missing a 1 meter wide nose and a beard, though.  A popular belief is that one of Napolean’s cannonballs shot it off.

Over the centuries, the sphinx was buried up to its shoulders.  The first attempt at excavation was about 1400 B.C.   After several other attempts, it was finally excavated between 1925 and 1936.  It is pretty amazing..

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Visiting Egypt – January 2012

14 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Egypt, Travel

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Seeing structures built from around 3,000 B.C. just boggles my mind.  That was Egypt…

The Central Corridor at the Luxor Temple

In Egypt, we first stayed in Luxor which was once Thebes and for centuries was known as the capital of the world.  Sit on the porch of the Sonesta St. George Hotel, and there is the Nile River.

And then off we go to the Valley of the Kings including King Tut’s tomb, Hatshepsut Temple, Medinet Habu and the Colossi of Memnon. 

 

Women making bread

The bus trip out to the valley where the ancient tombs are took us by areas where the women still bake the bread daily in outside ovens and SAND.  Once you leave the city, everything is one color.  

Sunset on the Nile

In the Valley of the Kings, no photography is allowed—so pictures here are not part of my 1200 shots from the trip.  The tombs here are built into mountains, and excavation is a constant from what we saw.  Pharoahs were buried here for nearly 500 years from the 16th to the 11th centuries B.C. 

From inside Medinet Habu, the mortuary temple of Ramses III

As you walk into Ramses III tomb, you see magnificent carved artwork which still has rich color.  Then in King Tutankhamen’s tomb, discovered in 1922, you actually see the mummy of the 5 ft. 5 Inch boy king of 18 years old.  This is one tomb that was not totally looted through the years!  Kings were buried with things they would need to get them to the next world.

Nile lunch on a Felucca

After the morning of tomb-ing and temple-ing we had lunch on traditional sailing vessels (Feluccas) on the Nile.  The white table cloth service was elegant and a real contrast to the morning.

Luxor Temple

 

 

That evening was truly a gala event.  In the daytime, the Luxor Temple would be quite a sight, but at night…. With the lighting on the monster pillars, Ramses II statues and obelisks, and march music playing when we walked in, all 50 of us were awestruck.  Just when you think you are about templed out, here comes this one. 

As you look at the pictures, realize that this was once buried and had to be excavated from an artificial hill of centuries of rubble about 50 feet high.  Excavation began in 1884.

Archaeologists must be the most patient people on the planet…

See more pictures of my travels and jewelry (a lot of which is inspired by and whose beads come from the finds of these travels) on my Facebook page by clicking here http://facebook.com/kaydonahuedesigns