An Egyptian Adventure: Luxor to Aswan

We were very sad to leave the Winter Palace. There is Doreen waving goodbye from our balcony:

You see that long, straight part of the drive? That is the new Desert Road. It is forbidden to tourists because it is unsafe. Our driver is wily, though. He said he knew of a "shortcut" that will bypass the police blockage, and let us shave a couple of hours off the trip. We were fine with that. On that desert highway, we saw NO other private vehicles - just trucks. Semis. And mostly filled with camels. I am not kidding. Truck after truck filled with camels.

Welcome to Egypt.

This is the temple at Esna. Another temple where we saw almost nobody. There were so few people there that the bathrooms were free!

Its sort of hard to see, but it is much lower than street level. I assume this is because over the past 2,000 years the sand has filled in around it.

You can sort of see the street level to the right of this photo.

I think this is the temple where they didn't know there was still pigment until they started cleaning. Then they stopped cleaning, thinking that the dirt is part of history, too. It is hard to be an archaeologist.

There is that Hoopoe with Hands again

This photo is taken from street level

Old Ramses II whacking more people in the head. But it might not be Ramses II here. But they are always whacking people in the head. Look how many he is holding! Back in the earlier times it was just one enemy getting smote.