Took the overnight train from Cairo to Luxor, the ancient capital city of Thebes. Luxor is divided into West and East by the Nile. The east side, where I am staying, is home to the new city as well as several of the ancient temples, while the west side is where the Valley of the Kings is located. Today I visited the Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple and tomorrow I am going to the Valley of the Kings.…
I spent today visiting the pyramids at Giza and Saqqara. The Giza pyramids are the most famous ones, and what most people think of when referring to Egyptian pyramids, but they are far from the only pyramids in Egypt.
The Giza necropolis (burial grounds) consists of the three large pyramids for the pharaohs Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure), six smaller queens’ pyramids, and the Sphinx.
Saqqara was the necropolis for Memphis, a capital of ancient Egypt, and is about 10 miles (17km) from the Giza pyramids.…
I headed into Cairo this morning still not exactly sure what to expect. For the most part there is little evidence of the protests that swept the country just weeks ago. The area around Tahrir Square, the center of the protests against Mubarak is still heavily militarized, with tanks and soldiers lining the street near the famous Egypt Museum, and there are army checkpoints in front of most of the more famous tourist sites (although I don’t know if that is new or if if they were put in place after some of terrorist attacks that Egypt experienced several years ago).…
