We left our cruise ship at 3:30 am on Monday morning and drove to another dock with smaller boats. We rode these boats across to the west bank of the Nile.
From there we drove to a site for launching hot air balloons. About 20 balloons were inflating in a large field. Each balloon and a large basket that could hold 28 people.
Soon we were floating in the air over the Valley of the Dead, with views of the Nile River, Luxor and Karnak.
We watched the sunrise from the balloon.
The difference between the irrigated land next to the Nile and the desert is stark.
Here's a view of the farmland below. Wheat and sugar cane are the most common crops grown in Luxor.
We landed in the desert. The balloon captain had a radio to communicate with the team below and they met us as soon as we landed to pack the balloon and drive us back to our ship. They spread this large cloth on the ground to keep the balloon clean as it deflated.
After breakfast we drove to Karnak, the sister temple to Luxor. This photo shows the line of sphinxes from the Karnak side of the Avenue.
This model helped orient us in the very large ruins of the temple.
This temple has a restored mud brick wall surrounding the grounds. Mud bricks may seem out of place with the stone architecture, but originally all of the temples were surrounded by mud brick walls. Mud symbolized water and stone symbolized land. In the ancient Egyptian creation story, in the beginning there was a single piece of land in the middle of a sea of water. The temple structure represents creation with the mud wall being the sea of water and the stone temple being the land.
The majestic columns create beautiful patterns of positive and negative space.
Karnak was very impressive, but Monday was another blisteringly hot day. Gibson felt sick from the heat and lack of sleep and he and Sofi rested in the shade during our visit. Another man in our group passed out from the heat. We continued to keep on eye on our certainly dehydrated tour guides and luckily no one seemed to suffer permanent damage. These columns are decorated with statues of Osiris, the god of the afterlife.
This obelisk was erected by Hatshepsut, a queen who seized the throne from her stepson when he too young to rule himself. She ruled as King Hatshepsut for 20 years.
This is Hatshepsut's cartouche, carved on the wall of the temple.
After our tour of the temple, we checked out of the ship and flew back to Cairo. This is a photo of Becky with her almost twin, Jana. Our kids sometimes mistook Jana for Becky from the back. It didn't help when we accidentally dressed the same 2 or 3 days on the tour!
We arrived back in Cairo ready to relax in our rooms, but we had one more task ahead of us: covid testing! We needed negative PCR tests in order to enter Israel on Wednesday. A testing company came to the hotel to facilitate tests for 80 people. We also needed to register with the Israeli government, a fairly complicated process. Sofi helped several older people navigate the websites and upload their documents. The rest of us finished our registration as quickly as we could and headed upstairs.
Gibson was still feeling sick so he and Helen stayed behind at the hotel. Emma had to log in for one of her classes back home so Brandan, Becky and Sofi went out to find dinner, snacks and more water. The mall next to our hotel had a fully stocked grocery store, including this intriguing spice counter.
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