Friday, September 25, 2009

Luxor & Back

Saturday night we took a flight from Giza to Luxor. Sunday morning we started off by going to the Valley of the Kings. No pictures were allowed here. We took a ride into the valley and saw the tombs of Ramses VI, Ramses I, and King Tut. There are a total of 63 tombs in the Valley of the Kings, all of which have been robbed except King Tut's. His tomb was burried under another tomb, and was discovered by an excavater who spilled water. The water dripped and uncovered stairs leading to King Tut's tomb. In King Tut's tomb, his body was also there. It was so short and small, and amazing to see. The tomb was surrounded by more hieroglyphics that relate to our modern temples. It was an embrace, that is the same as that in the temple, supposedly. The Egyptians have similar things as our temple supposedly, because Noah had Hem, who had Shem, who married an Egyptian.
After the Valley of the Kings we went to the tomb of Hatchepsut on the other side. Her tomb is still considered in the Valley of the Kings, however.

Later that afternoon we went on a boat ride across the Nile River to where they had camels waiting for us!

My Camel's name was Micah and my leaders name was Iman. It was a great ride. Iman and I sang Bob Marley, he let me hold the reigns of the camel, and he kept asking me if I have a boyfriend. I told him he needs to find a girl and take her on a camel ride. He loved the idea. He also told me how to say I love you in Arabic, then he kept saying it to me. Very bonding moment. Ha, NOT! But it was funny, and it was crazy to ride a camel!On the way back we waited on our boat for the other group to finish their camel rides, so we got to watch the sunset on the Nile.

The next day we went to Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple. They were both huge and so much to see. Karnak temple had so many columns in one section, and huge obelisks. And Luxor Temple was also amazing. A creepy part was that as we walked through, Egyptian men would sit against the walls and take pictures of us as we walked by. It got to the point where boys in our group would walk by us and cover our faces.


We took a night train back from Luxor and returned to Giza. The next day we went to Cairo and saw Muhammad's Mosque and citadel. Islam explained the rituals at the mosques for us and the domes help amplify the sound of the one leading the prayer. In Cairo, we even ate at the Hard Rock Cafe. They sang and danced for us, and it was nice to eat an American meal.


3 comments:

Emma said...

i thought we decided you would make no further friends.

i'm so glad you've found somewhere where people think you're beautiful!

oh wow! so rude! omg. but seriously, so jealous of you right now! thanks for the updates...

jennie said...

chicki- I am so bummed I missed your call. Love you so much and love the pictures. Looks amazing and I am so happy for you and the experiences you're having! Every day my girls ask when they wake up "What time is it in Jerusalem?" We miss you and love you`

Jules said...

I can't believe you rode a camel! Awesome!! We miss you Jane-o!