World Cruise Day 104/152 - Safaga (Luxor), Egypt, Karnak Temple and Valley of the Kings - a true death march

Cruise day: 104/152

Ports days: 46
Sea days: 58
Countries: 18
Continents: 5
Ports: 34

Mainland Africa - we finally set foot today.  We are docked in Safaga, Egypt, and have a big day planned with a visit to Luxor, the Karnak Temple, and the Valley of the Kings.

As we stepped off the ship, Viking once again did its usual awesome stuff and have a snack buffet set up with a snack box that you could stock with a variety of fresh fruit, pastries, cookies, muffins, and such.  It will be a 13-hour day and they don't want you to be too far from the chow.  They always have bottled water to take as well, but today, the water bottles were frozen!  What a great touch to have cool water on what was expected to be a hot day.  They also had a case of frozen water bottles on each bus.  It is the details that make Viking nice.

Of course, we had to show an Egyptian official our passport stamps and then go through the metal detector, bag x-ray, and physical pat-down, just like in Sharm El-Sheikh.  Then, we were finally on our way.

This was our route today.  That four-hour time was pretty accurate for our ride back.  The ride to Karnak was about 3.5 hours.  That made for a long day with more than seven hours on a bus.

It was all desert until Qena when we started driving along the Nile

Thi details our stops at Karnak, Steigenberger Resort Achti for lunch, and Valley of the Kings

You can see a mosque or multiple mosques every block

There is a lot of interesting art along the road

Once out of Safaga, it was desert and more desert

Once we got to Qena, that all changed as we started following channels fed by the Nile, and then the Nile itself - the difference was amazing with all the green versus the unrelenting brown of the desert

The vehicles were interesting, even in city areas.

Look closely - he's got a little passenger on his right (our left)

I don't think this is what they mean by side curtain airbags...

I could only get a shot out the front window of this truck hauling a ton of tomatoes

Yeah, that looks safe

So does that

We went through a ton of police checkpoints, each with a raised guard tower - sometimes, there was an AK47 resting in a sling, like this

Sometimes it was manned

And occasionally, there was the big gun...

We finally saw the Nile

After about 3.5 hours, we arrived at Karnak Temples, or simply, Karnak. Built between 2055 BC and 100 BC, multiple pharaohs built different parts of the temple to honor the gods.

Honestly, it isn't very impressive - just a plain wall, right?  Well, as you get closer...

Hmm...that plain old wall is starting to look more interesting

Rows of sphynx

I put Arlona in this photo to give some perspective - she's 5'10" - let's just call it 6' in sneakers for easy math - counting the stones, the wall is 23 Arlonas high, or about 130 feet - all built by hand, 4000+ years ago

Hypostyle Hall has 134 sandstone pillars - it is massive and impressive

The sacred lake

After about an hour in the upper 90-degree heat, we hopped back on the bus for the ride to the hotel for lunch.

On the way, we passed by the ruins of Luxor Temple.

Our lunch spot - Steigenberger Resort Achti - on the east bank of the Nile

We enjoyed a nice buffet lunch.

After lunch, we walked down to the water.

Arlona, getting her obligatory feel of the Nile

After lunch, we were off to the Valley of the Kings. We crossed over the Nile from the east back to the west bank.

The west bank

We drove past the monuments of Amenhetep III & Colossi of Memnon - better pictures below as we stopped later.

We made a turn and the landscape changed - it looked quite different.

We had arrived in the Valley of the Kings - a series of at least 63 tombs.

They have a 3D model of the ground area

If you look below, they show the various tombs and their depth

When we arrived, the temperature was a pleasant and almost chilly 43-degrees.  Wait - that's Celcius!  That's 109-degrees Fahrenheit!  It was seriously hot!

The first stop - Tut Ankh Amun, better known as King Tut.  I have to say, I was a little disappointed.  As you'll see in the photos, this was an extra-cost ticket (included with our tour) and there simply isn't much that is open to the public.

Several folks have confirmed that this is indeed King Tut's remains - they were simply too fragile to be relocated to a museum

Our entry ticket gave us access to up to three tombs.  We opted for Rameses I. This tomb was much more impressive and had a lot to see.

By far, our favorite was the tomb of Tausert & Setnakht.  It was quite beautiful.

We finished up with the tomb of Rameses III.

After 90-minutes of self-exploration in the scorching heat, we boarded our bus for the ride back to the ship.  We made a stop at Amenhetep III & Colossi of Memnon for photos.

Back on the bus and we were off, once again marveling at the lushness of the Nile valley.

There were tons of riverboats anchored here

One thing that we found interesting was the huge number of partially built homes.

We saw tons like this one where it was obviously occupied, but an additional floor was under construction.  Our guide said that like other countries, Egypt doesn't have a certificate of occupancy like the US does.  This means that as soon as it is inhabitable, people can move in.  And, the government only collects property tax on completed homes, so...if the home never gets finished - no property tax.  Brilliant!  Rumor has it that the government is starting to crack down and giving owners two years to complete the home of face penalties.  Still, it was a nice way to scam the system.

After four hours, we arrived back at the ship.  One more scan/pat/stamp check and we got on the ship.  As we drove back, when in town, it was lovely as most of the mosques were brightly lit for Ramadan.  There was no way to get a good photo while we were moving.  Instead, we took a parting photo of Safaga.  

Tomorrow, we will putter around the Red Sea as we head north.  We need to be at Suez by 11:30PM tomorrow evening to secure our spot for our south-to-north Suez Canal transit on Friday.  

It's late - 12:30AM.  Time for bed.