Past Updates
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	Update 37 Continued
	Our next stops were the beautiful temples at Luxor and Karnak. Truly, all of the temples we visited were incredible masterpieces, but we must say that Luxor and Karnak were fantastic not only for their immense size but also in the tremendous detail and craftsmanship. At Karnak there are endless courts, halls, colossi and sacred lake. It began in the 11th Dynasty, but pharaoh after pharaoh added to and changed the buildings. No expense was spared and during the 10th Dynasty some 80,000 men worked on it. The temple lay buried under sand for more than 1000 years before excavation work began in the mid 19th century. Today, the huge task of restoration continues. At Luxor, the temple dedicated to the Theban triad of Amun, Mut and Khonsu, was largely completed by the 18th Dynasty but added to by the reign of Ramses II and later by Alexander the Great. After our last onboard breakfast, we left our ship and once again toured with our private guide to the Valley of Kings, Queen Hatshipsut temple and the Valley of Nobles. In the Valley of Kings, we were able to tour three well-preserved tombs. Most tours take you to the Valley of Queens, but upon a recommendation, we opted to tour the Valley of Nobles. We were all pleased with this decision as the tombs in this Valley were different in that due to the poor quality of the limestone, the tombs were painted rather than decorated with carved reliefs, a very big change from all the other temples/tombs we had toured where there were predominately carved reliefs. After a busy day, our guide took us to the Luxor train station to once again take an overnight sleeper car back to Cairo. You are probably saying by this time, it must be time to fly back to Turkey, but we had two more days of tours ahead of us. After checking into our hotel once again, in the afternoon, our guide took us to the beautiful Cairo Egyptian Museum, Egypt’s first national museum of Pharaonic antiquities, which opened in 1863. Pride of the collection is the artifacts recovered from Tutankhamun’s tomb, but there are pieces from every period of ancient history from 3100 BC through to Graeco-Roman of the 2nd century AD. Following the museum, we visited The Citadel, home to Egypt’s rulers for almost 700 years. The main attraction is the huge 19th century Mosque of Mohammed Ali. Our next stop, the Hanging Church (Coptic), dedicated to the Virgin Mary, called Hanging because it is built on top of the Water Gate of the old Roman Fortress of Babylon. The original structure was built possibly as early as the 4th century AD but was destroyed and rebuilt in the 11th century. Services are still held in the church. Our last tour was to Alexandria, an optional tour for us. Our private driver drove us to Alexandria (about 3 hours) where an Alexandria born guide who was extremely informative met us. Here we visited the Catacombs of Kom ash-Shuqqafa dating from the 2nd century AD. It is the largest Graeco-Roman necropolis in Egypt dug into rock to a depth of about 115 feet, has three levels, and held hundreds of bodies (well, we didn’t see any of them). Next stop, Pompey’s Pillar, made of Aswan granite (89 ft) erected around 297 AD in tribute to the Roman emperor Diocletian. Next stop, the Graeco-Roman Museum that houses artifacts covering around 1000 years of history from 331 BC to the Arab conquest in 640 AD. Not to be missed was the mummified Sacred Crocodile that was carried in processions honoring Sobek, the crocodile god. Last stop, the beautiful Roman Amphitheatre that was discovered in 1965 under the Mound of Rubble. The 13 tier marble seats date from the 2nd century AD; on view in front of the amphitheatre are sections of original mosaic floor. Totally exhausted, we were picked up at our hotel at 12:30 am to catch our Cairo-Istanbul flight that departed at 3:30 am. From Istanbul, we connected with our 7:30 am flight back to Antalya.  The trip was fantastic, fast paced, exhausting and educational. We took over 300 digital photos; we couldn’t do our trips without a digital camera. February is winding down, a few boat projects underway, and anticipating leaving Kemer Marina around April 15, weather permitting. A few big events to be held yet, the inter-marina BBQs, St David and St Patrick Day celebrations, the wedding of a liveaboard boat from the UK and then Easter and the liveaboard goodbye party. Marie and Terry S/V Zelda
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