We started at 05:45 in Cairo. our group is now a much smaller. We said goodbye to Anita and Penny. Rich, Linda, Sharleene, Jacquie, Janine and Meli is ready for the very last part of our long journey that had started in Istanbul, Turkey. In Luxor we had a red carpet start to get to our boat, the Nile Adventurer. After being on a Melitour tour of Syria and Jordan where we had lots of opportunities to interact with the locals and see how and where they lived, we were feeling thinking that our tour in Egypt with Abert Kombi was very sterile and treating the country like an open air museum. So I have decided to immediately jump on a horse carriage and explore to see what we could do to see more of Luxor other than the fabulous temples which were on our afternoon itinerary.
I immediately made an agreement with the owner of the carriage. He was going to wait for us at the Luxor temple so that I could share my experience with the rest of the group. the once a week market of the city was definitely worth to see.
We met our guide Muhsin at 03:00 PM. the temple complex of Karnak is huge, full of amazingly complete, perfect amazing remains of the 14th Century BC art work of the ancient Egyptians. It is hard to believe that all what we have seen is real.
Karnak Temple complex
Luxor Temple
The Romans had used the Temple of Luxor as a meeting hall and decorated the walls of the cella with a fresco .
Our carriage driver Ahmed was waiting for us. As soon as we were finished with the Temple of Luxor, we hopped on the carriage and went to the museum of Luxor. this was the most impressive museum that I have ever seen in my life. the 3 to 5 thousand year old art work in display were incredibly superb. statues, mummies, tapestry, deities, kings, queens, scribers...
After a nice tour of the market in our horse carriage we returned to our boat.
It has been a wonderful day.