Wednesday January 21, 2009 – Abu Simbel and Luxor Temple
Another great day in Egypt!
We started the morning with a 5:30am wake-up call (which is getting to be the norm). Packed and had breakfast at 6am. Then we boarded busses for the Aswan airport. We boarded a plane for Abu Simbel at 8:30 – arriving at 10am (including the normal 30-40 minute delay – another common occurrence in Egypt).
For those that don’t know, Abu Simbel is on the border between Sudan and Egypt and houses a great Ramesses II temple. We spent about 90 minutes exploring the temple then boarded a plane back to Aswan – arriving for a late lunch.
Then we boarded another bus for Thebes (roughly 4 hours north of Aswan). On the bus three students (Kyle, Angela, and Allana) gave presentations about their semester research projects (They all did a great job). Afterwards everyone took naps until we arrived in Thebes at 6:30pm. Upon arrival we went for an evening visit to Luxor temple (for the goddess Mut). After touring the temple we came to the hotel for a late 8:30pm dinner.
As you can see we are going strong all day!
Tomorrow we visit the Valley of the Kings, Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple and the tombs of the nobles.
Enjoy the pics