Cruising Down the Nile

This was our home for the next few days, the MS Concerto.

The central lobby and stairs - our room was down the hallway to the right.

The deck - left and right views.

A wading pool at the near end, deeper at the back (but not by much).

This ship, which is passing us, is very similar to the Concerto.

We traveled by ship from Luxor to Aswan - these are views along the way.

Mysterious caves.

Some men watching us as we watched them.

A small thatched home.

Lush and lovely near the shore, stark hills farther inland.

Cows grazing.

The docks of a small village we passed.

Phooey on Lace

I've been knitting this shawl for ages, it seems.  The picture above was taken a couple of days ago, when I thought I had finally completed the first chart.  I probably did this border the equivalent of 5 times, as I had to keep frogging over and over.  Well, after taking this photo, I noticed another error about 8 rows down, and ripped it down yet again.  I am determined to finish this project if it kills me. Luckily the yarn is holding out, even after being knitted and re-knitted and re-knitted again.

Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut, one of the very few female Pharaohs, built her mortuary temple at the entrance to the Valley of the Kings, the first to be located there, circa 1480 BC.

This is the tourist building through which you enter the area - it contained a large model of what the completed temple would have looked like. What remains today is only a portion of the site.

The temple is built into the cliff face.

The three levels of the temple

Up on top of the first level.

Paintings under the portico of the second level - still bright after 3500 years.

Some of the remaining statues of Hatshepsut.

My favorite Egyptian goddess - Hathor.

Valley of the Kings

We took this boat across the Nile from Luxor to the Valley of the Kings.

This photo shows my romantic view of life along the Nile.

Approaching the opposite shore.

The house where Howard Carter lived while excavating in the Valley of the Kings, and, who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922.

A view taken from the boat.

This panoramic view of the Valley was captured from Wikipedia.

We were not allowed to take our cameras into the valley or the tombs we visited - this was taken from near our coach.We were able to go inside three tombs, including Ramses III and Tutankhamen.



The ruins of a temple.



Three Lace Projects

This past month has seen three lace projects - one finished and two started.  The finished one is a baby blanket for little Lukas, who was born Thursday.  I had mailed the blanket to his Mom just in time, as she was two weeks early.  It's a wool and silk blend, very soft, and washable too. I've had this yarn for a very long time so it was nice to knit something really special with it.

I've started a lacy shawl from the book by Anna Dalvi called "Ancient Egypt in Lace and Color".  I spotted a reference to this book, and I had to have it, since we had just gotten back from Egypt and a pattern from this book would be a perfect souvenir. I chose "Malachite" because it didn't look too difficult and also because it has a wide crescent shape which I think fits better around the shoulders than a straight triangle. The author notes that Malachite is the name of the Egyptian Paradise "land of the blessed dead", and the photo in the book is in that beautiful green color, but I substituted a "heavenly" blue with sparkles which I bought at the Tolland Sheep Festival last year. It's called Estrellita, a hand-painted superwash merino with some silk, which I am using doubled. I've only frogged back four times so far (I am not good with lace, but I'm determined!)

The other lace project is from one of those one-a-day calendars - it's called the Dream Shawl.  I'm using Ornaghi Filati merino mix yarn in navy blue.  It's much easier to knit than the Malachite shawl, as you only have to knit the lace pattern every fourth row - the rest is just stockinette.

Alabaster Shop and the Habu Temple

One of Egypt's main tourist items is alabaster. We stopped at this large shop to check it out.

These men were demonstrating the time-consuming process of carving alabaster vases, starting with a marble block.

The shop's interior. Heba gave each of us a scarab from this shop as a remembrance of the trip.

We visited this college, where the three majors were on hotel management, tourism and archaeology.



The temple of the day was Medinet Habu, the mortuary temple of Rameses III, on the west bank of the Nile across from Luxor.  This is the fortified entrance gate.



Inside the gate, we approached the large pylon leading to the inner courtyard.

Statues of Rameses III (and small wives) in the courtyard.

The bases of the columns were all that remained in this hall. Long after the temple was abandoned, the tops of the colums (which were the only parts visible above the sand at that time) were cut off for use in other construction.

Heba is pointing out the wall carvings, which depict the victory of the forces of Rameses III over the "Sea Peoples".

The paintings are still bright and clear after centuries.

Luxor



The entrance to Luxor Temple, not far from Karnak. 



Inside the first courtyard.

Looking down toward the back of the temple complex. That's our tour group in the foreground.

Another interior view.

Before Luxor was excavated, a mosque had been built using one of the temple walls. The original entrance was where the tiled area is now, at ground level. The congregation had to be convinced that the entrance should be moved to the other side of the mosque to allow further excavation of the ruins.

In the early Christian era, the temple was converted to a church. These frescoes, on one of the interior walls, are of Jesus' disciples.

Looking back toward the entrance.