Egypt, cruise on the Nile.

Its been mucher harder to acces the internet than anticipated so I have alot of catching up to do!
The flight from Adelaide finally reaching Luxor took something like 35 hours real time! We arrived in Luxor hot tired and desperate for a coffee. After being taken to our boat, think large house boat! we had an hour to shower and changeand have lunch before we were off to see the first 2 temples.
In all we saw 7 temples, in various degrees of repair. They were all of a very similar shape and size and layout. The first 2 were Karnak temple and Luxor temple. Karnak is on a site that is 300 acres and contains many different buildings and a huge purifying pool. Each temple is dedicated to a differnt god or gods with some of the same gods taking different forms !! Both of these temples are joined by an avenue of sphinx, which are currently being excavated. The governemnt has bought the house and business built over the top of the avenue and they are slowly uncovering them all. It was alos our first taste of being haressed by the hawkers, no is not a word they seem to recgonise in any language.
day 2 of the cruise was visiting the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens and Queen Haptshutchuts (i think thats right!) palace so a very early start at 5.45 am, to beat the heat of the day. The Valley of the Kings is absolutly barren bot so much as a blade of grass, in fact the land is so dry it seems to suck the moisture right out of you, we dranks gallons of water every day and still felt thirsty! There are 63 tombs identified in the Valley and we had access to three.
Ramesses the 3rd and 9th and Queen Hatpsepchut, who managed to convince the people for some 15 odd years that she really was a king despite being short some of the prerequisites!! One of the things I had not realised about the temples and tombs was that they had all been vividly painted, and within some of the tombs this color had been preserved. Red, blue yellow and green, the outlines of the pictures had been dome in black and any corrections to them in red. Mostly they had been robbed of the burial goods, clothes, furniture, food and boats needed to get to the afterlife. Queen Hatshepsuts temple is on the other side of the Valley of the Kings and they were supposed to tunnel through from the temple to the tomb but there was a fault in the rock and they could'nt achieve it. The Valley of the Queens was smaller although no less grander.
Back to the bost by 1 pm for luch and we restful afternoon as we floated up the Nile towards Edfu. It was wonderful just sitting there watching the world go by. We went through the lock at Edfu just on tea time and docked a short way down.
day 3 saw another early start but no bus this time, instead a horse and carriage ride to the Temple, our drive Moustafa and the horse Madam Lula, who was a very sorry looking nag in need of a good feed!. The Temple there while similar to the others in design etc had been "converted" during the Roman occupation and there was evidence of where they had plastered over the heiroglypics and painted roman gods and scenes etc on them and carved hitching posts inthe rock for the horses! Back to the boat and a short trip to the temple at Kom Ombo. this temple was within walking distance from the boat. This temple was much younger and had more of a greco-roman influence with the captial of each colum being a different carving, where as the earlier ones all had the same. This temple also had heiroglypics of a woman giving birth, medical instruments used in surgery and a yearly calander. We had a galabaya party on board and everyone got dressed up! Set sail for Aswan
day 4 again another early start to beat the heat. This time a ferry boat ride out to Philae island and the temple on it. This one had a music room built next to it by one of the roman emperors!
Next a trip tp see the Aswan dam, lots water and then onto a granite quarry where they cut blocks for the temples and pyramids etc. There is an unfinished obelix lying in the ground, it had cracked and was not salvagable. We visited a perfume factory that made essential oils (very expensive!) After luch we wnet on a falucca, a traditional boat on the Nile, around an island planted as a botanical garden by Lord Kitchener. Then back to the boat to pack as an early start for an 8 am flight!