Tel Aviv, Caesarea and Tiberias

Our flight aboard El Al arrived into Tel Aviv at about 1:00 a.m. this morning. We were blessed to make it through customs very quickly and were settled into our hotel by 2:00. Our room was very comfortable and quiet, so we fell asleep quickly. The typical Israeli breakfast - lots of salads, fresh fruit juices, whole grain breads and eggs - served by our hotel this morning was absolutely delicious, as most everything served was locally grown or produced.

After breakfast, we headed to the car rental place, where we rented a car for the week, and were off on our adventure. The roads in Israel are very nice, well-paved, clearly marked and for the most part free of too much traffic. Jerry has driven in many different countries and always seems to pick up on traffic rules and customs pretty quickly.

After about an hour or so, we found our way to Caesarea, an ancient port city that was renamed Caesarea by Herod in honor of the emperor. In 22 B.C., Herod began construction of an artificial harbor and built many public buildings.

Remains of the artificial harbor.

Old Byzantine church.

Ruins.






This picture is for my sister - it's an inside joke.

After leaving Caesarea, we headed to Tiberias, where we'll be staying for a few days. Because it's winter here, it gets dark around 5:00 p.m.; thus, we'll have to wait until tomorrow to get a good look at the Sea of Galilee. As our hotel's right on the coast, though, we can hear the sound of the waves out our window.

Final Day in Cairo

Although we are to fly to Tel Aviv this evening, as our flight is at 11:30 p.m., we had nearly the entire day in Cairo. We spent much of it at the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo, which we were able to walk to from our hotel. The museum is full of fascinating artifacts, including most of those found in the tomb of the boy king, Tutankhamun. Unfortunately, as no photos are allowed inside of the museum, I don't have any to show. But I did purchase a book with photos of many of the items, so at least I'll have something to remember them by.

Tonight we fly to Tel Aviv to start the second leg of our vacation - our journey through Israel.

Memphis, Saqqara and Giza

Today Jerry and I took a private, full-day tour to Memphis, Saqqara and Giza.

Memphis is a little over 10 miles south of Cairo on the west bank of the Nile. It served as the capital of ancient Egypt off and on from about 3100 BC to around 300 BC. It's now an open-air museum, with a number of statues and a few ruins of a temple, but not much else. Honestly, it was a bit underwhelming after all the amazing things we'd already seen in upper Egypt.

Statue of Ramesses II, left as it was found, on its back.

Yet another statue of Ramesses II.

Alabaster sphinx.


Saqqara is a vast, ancient burial ground not far from Memphis. The most famous landmark here s the step pyramid, built by Imhotep, the famous architect, physician and engineer for his king, Djoser, in approximately 2600 BC. He was one of the very few commoners ever to be awarded divine status following his death - he became the god of medicine and healing. We were unfortunately not able to see the inside of this pyramid, as it is undergoing several years' worth of renovations.

To give an idea of scale, this pyramid is about 60 meters high, just a bit shorter than the smallest of the three major pyramids at Giza. If you enlarge it, you can see some people who appear very small at the right-hand side of the pyramid's base.


From Saqqara, you can see the Giza pyramids, where we headed next, in the distance.


Finally, we headed to Giza to see some of the most famous landmarks of Egypt - the pyramids and the sphinx. Giza is actually a large city just southwest of Cairo, on the west bank of the Nile. The Giza Plateau is home to a great complex of ancient Egyptian mortuary and other sacred strutures, including the Great Pyramid and the Great Sphinx.

The largest pyramid at Giza is actually the one to the left; this is the Great Pyramid of the pharoah Khufu (or Cheops, as he was called by the Greeks). It is about 147 meters high. The pyramid in the middle belongs to Khafra, Khufu's son (or grandson, depending on who you believe); it is about 143 meters high. To the right is the pyramid of menkaure, the son of either Khufu or Khafra; it is about 66 meters high, which is just slightly higher than the step pyramid at Saqqara.

Situated around these great pyramids are smaller pyramids for the pharoahs' wives, children and other nobles. I crawled down into the burial shaft of one of these - the pyramid Khufu built for his mother. That's it in the center of this picture (no, I did not ride the camel).

The Great Pyramid of the pharaoh Khufu.

The Great Sphinx, thought to have been built by Khafra. It actually looks a bit smaller in person than I'd imagined, but maybe that's only because it's dwarfed by the enormous scale of the pyramids.


Sunset at Giza.

Cairo

This afternoon, we flew from Luxor to Cairo. I found the topography so interesting to observe from the air. The area around Luxor seems to be mostly stone mountains and cliffs; the sand flows like rivers through the valleys, making interesting patterns on the ground. This isn't a very good picture (taken out my airplane window), but at least it gives you an idea of what I'm talking about.

Toward Cairo, the landscape changed a bit and seemed to consist more of sand dunes.

Here are a few views of Cairo and the Nile from our hotel balcony.


Night view.

Third Day in Luxor

Today we hired a horse and carriage and took a tour through the city. We visited a market which looked much as it could have thousands of years ago. Teeming with people in a very narrow alley, it seemed that almost anything could be purchased here. We saw every sort of fruit and vegetable imaginable, baskets piled high with spices and vegetable dyes, slabs of meat hanging in doorways and live chickens (Jerry actually saw one being killed, but I am grateful I did not see this). I wanted to take pictures here, but we were already conspicuous and I was afraid of irritating the locals, so I refrained.

Next we headed to the Luxor museum. While small, it houses a few mummies and a number of well-preserved artifacts, including statues, sarcophigi, furniture, weapons and a royal chariot. Again, no photos allowed, so I don't have anything to show here.

Here are a few pictures of Luxor and the Nile from the balcony of our hotel room (we're staying at the Sonesta St. George - highly recommended).

Second Day in Luxor

This morning we visited the temples at Karnak and Luxor.

The Karnak temple complex is vast, covering over 200 acres. It was built over a period of about 1,300 years, with contributions from about thirty different pharaohs.



Hypostyle Hall with 134 giant columns.




Color still visible on the ceiling of the temple.

Obelisks of Tuthmosis I and his daughter, Hatshepsut, one of the few female pharaohs of ancient Egypt.


Next, we visited the Luxor temple, which is considerably smaller than that at Karnak and is located within the city of Luxor. This temple was built largely by Amenhotep III and Ramesses II to host one of the most important festivals of ancient Egypt. Most of the statues here are of Ramesses II.



At Luxor temple, we saw a different style of column we hadn't ecountered before; these were meant to resemble bundles of papyrus reeds.

This was our last day on the boat; after the excursion, we said goodbye to the Oberoi and headed for our hotel in Luxor. As we were feeling a bit adventurous this evening, we headed out of the tourist areas in town and walked to an Egyptian restaurant called Sofra. Here's our dinner; my duck is there in the foreground, Jerry's spicy veal is to the upper left, and in the center is Kashery, an Egyptian side dish of rice, pasta, assorted varieties of beans and spicy tomato garlic sauce, topped off with fried onions. It was all really delicious.

Luxor

We were up at 5:00 a.m. this morning and left the boat by 6:00 a.m. It took about 45 minutes to drive into the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of the Nile. Because the sun sets in the west, the ancient Egyptians associated the west bank of the Nile with death; thus, tombs and mortuary temples are generally located on the west side of the Nile, while temples to the gods are located on the east side.

Tombs were built for kings, nobles and other high-ranking officials in the Valley of the Kings from approximately 1539 BC to 1075 BC. It currently contains 63 known tombs and chambers, but excavators seem to find another one every few years.


Here's the only photo I have from the Valley of the Kings, although we went inside four of the tombs. Taking pictures within the tombs is forbidden, so you're just going to have to take my word for it that they're incredible. The passageways into the burial chambers are high and wide like great halls, and every square inch of them, including the ceilings, is covered in brilliantly-painted carvings. Because they've been enclosed and away from sunlight in the tombs, many of these look as though they were painted yesterday. The colors are deep and rich - reds, blues, yellows and greens. They really have to be seen to be believed.

Next we headed to Deir el-Medina, the city complex of the artisans who worked at the Valley of the Kings. In the artisans' spare time, they built their own tombs, much smaller than those of the nobles' but just as beautifully decorated. What I found really fascinating is that the art in these tombs depicts common life in ancient Egypt. The kings, who were considered gods, are never shown, for example, playing with children or woking in the fields. But the artisans' tombs show all of these and more, in vivid colors. Unfortunately, as they wouldn't allow pictures in the tombs, I don't have any photos of this site.

We next visited Medinet Habu,the mortuary temple of Ramesses III, built in the 12th century BC.





Ramesses III built himself a royal palace next door to his temple. Note the difference in scale and construction. Royal palaces were meant only for life on earth, so they were built with less durable materials and on a much smaller scale. Mortuary temples and tombs, intended for the afterlife, were built to last an eternity.



After a very long day of sightseeing, it was nice to relax on our balcony and enjoy another beautiful sunset on the Nile.