Cairo
Garbage City and the cave church of St. Simon – It was worth driving through the garbage city to witness nearly 500,000 people spending their daily lives in garbage acting as the city of 30 million sanitation workers. Their daily sifting through garbage separating the recyclables and food waste to use as feed for their animals was a sight and made you appreciate what you have. The church is fascinating and we got a rare peek behind the altar.
The Pyramids of Giza and the Step Pyramid of Djoser dating back to the 27th century B.C.: What can I say, they are the pyramids! Amazing to see a once in a lifetime and must go! We climbed into the great pyramid which was hot and cramped. Needless to say, it was cool and a must do. We did a camel ride near the pyramids however it was a bit touristy, short and un-eventful. Eman, our Egyptologist, was wonderful, very knowledgeable and enthusiastic and she even got us into places few could see. I highly recommended having an Egyptologist for a guide.
Nile Cruise
We then flew down to Aswan to pick up our cruise ship the Soleil. Beautiful ship, great staff, highly recommended. Our first stop before boarding our cruise ship was the high dam, an engineering achievement and it controls the flow of the Nile. The Temple of Philae was on an island which was fun to get there by boat and it had a chaotic docking area. The temple was well preserved and I recommend a visit. We also visited a perfume shop which was very interesting as this region supplies most of the essence for Paris perfumes, however it was a high pressure shop to purchase. On our way up to Luxor, we stopped at Kom Ombo to see the temple and Crocodile Museum, where the Egyptians mummified crocs. The temples we saw were well preserved and our Egyptologist guide for the trip, Mr. Mamdouh, was extremely knowledgeable and generous. We learned a lot on how to read the temple walls, count in ancient Egyptian and discovered what everything meant. Our next stop was Edfu, where we had a eventful horse carriage ride to another well preserved and interesting temple.
Luxor
The heart of Egyptian civilization where the Luxor Temple, the 190 acre Temple of Karnack (amazing place and could spend all day there), and The Valley of the Kings reside. I was amazed at how close The Valley of the Kings is to Luxor. The 2 mile long road between Luxor and Karnack lined with sphinxes, The Tomb of King Tut was so well preserved and filled with amazing Egyptian art and writings. Again, tombs can be extremely hot and cramped! We also took an amazing balloon ride over the area (costly $550/pp). Luxor is a must visit in Egypt.