So after Cairo it was a plane ride to the far south near the Sudan border, a rise in temperature to about 35C and the stunnining first sight of Abu Simbal. It was very wierd to actually be looking at something you have seen pictures of so often. We were not allowed to take pictures inside - which was full of heiroglyphics and carvings all in colour, the girls were as amazed as the adults - it was so frsh that it was hard to believe it was over 3,500 years old and the fact that the whole thing was moved is even more stunning when you see the size of both temples.

Here are a a few pictures







The Temple built by Ramses II, and the temple next door dedicated to his fourth wife (he had about fourty wives, 15o kids and lived to be 96 - not bad going he also signed the world's first peace treaty with the Hittites from Turkey but pretended he had beaten them in battle).



Detail of the sun god , and another one of us doing the stand in front of something famous and smile thing.


Then it was off to Luxor for the Cruise bit...........

In the city of Cairo

A little more on Cairo

Imagine a city of 22 million people, most of whom have a car - especially ancient Ladas or Fiats. Then imagine all those cars driving around the city and totally ignoring give way rules, traffic lights, stop signs, in-fact taking no notice of any road rule. Then imagine five lanes of cars all trying to get into a two lane road. Add in a few buses where people jump on and off while they are moving and pedestrians who just walk across the road as if nothing is there. One of the guides said that in Cairo you need three things to drive - good brakes, a good horn and good luck. Going in a taxi or car is a real experience - although no one seemed to get mad!

The whole effect is noisey, smelly, with a constant symphony of car horns and squeeling breaks.


Now a word from Katie -

"I thought the bazaars in Cairo were annoying because everyone wanted you to buy something but the good thing was that they started off with a high price then went down and down to your price. We went to the Great Pyramid of Giza and I went inside and it was really scary. I went camel riding and that was really fun."


Katie in the doorway of the mummification temple by the Sphinx.


Katie in Cairo - on the hotel balcony.



Street scene - bread seller on a bicycle.


We also visited some beautifull Mosques the girls and mum had to wear head scarves and we all removed our shoes.

Al hazir mosque Katie and Libby

Street outside the Mosque.

Watch the next posting for our trip to Abu Simbal....

The sights of Cairo

They say a picture tells a thousand words so here is a little picture story of Egypt.

Crazy Cairo, a brown city, noisy, dirty, the most incredible traffic - but kind of fun too.



Of course Cairo means pyramids - like this very old crumbly one at Sakkara.







To these the famous ones!





And of course

you have to ride a camel





Mum too










and don't forget the sphinx

That's the first entry - will now try and post this before I lose it - will be back with more soon.

Cairo - a short movie

Cairo is a busy city - never seems to sleep. Here is a short movie taken from our hotel room looking out over the river Nile. Noise, cars everywhere.....