Tag: egypt

Magnificent Abu Simbel

A visit to Abu Simbel, known for its colossal Ramses II statues and temples. This place is truly amazing!

On the list of well-known sites to visit in Egypt, Abu Simbel is near the top, likely only surpassed by Giza and the temple complexes in Luxor. It has been at the top of my list for a long time, and I can tell you that it lives up to its well-earned reputation. The entire story of this complex and its rescue from the impact of the Aswan High Dam is spell-binding!

Here’s an interior view of the Ramses II temple at the site…

Inside the Temple

The scale and detail inside the temple are stunning! There is amazing detail to be found everywhere to speak of the great deeds of Ramses II.

Even more interesting to me is the temple dedicated to Ramses II’s favorite queen, Nefertari…

Nefertari’s Temple

The scale is almost at that of Ramses’ temple, and the stories told inside this temple are even more interesting!

Overall, our visit here was enhanced by the fact that we nearly. had this amazing site to ourselves, so we could admire the incredible work done to save this temple complex from Lake Nasser.

Just a taste for today, as I’ll write some more detailed blog posts in future editions!

Serenity on the Nile

A reflection on traditional sailing, capturing a serene moment of a felucca, a reminder of historic wind-powered vessels.

Granted, our Viking Aton is a really relaxing cruise ship as it powers its way up the Nile. It’s really quiet and sometimes surprises us that it’s moving due to the low amount of engine noise. Even so, one might look back wistfully on days gone by when ships sailed on wind power alone.

Here’s a look back at those days…

Felucca on the Nile

As we had passed this felucca, I decided to take a quick photo of it in its serene setting. It is interesting to see a number of these rather ancient sails on this river. It gives a bit of a sense of the way things were long, long ago.

Enjoy the serenity of your day, as we’re visiting Abu Simble today!

Pirates of the Nile

During a Nile cruise, friendly vendors, referred to as “pirates,” approached the ship. Two young men skillfully rowed alongside and attached their boat to sell goods.

No need for panic, as these are friendly pirates! As we are cruising up the Nile, our Viking crew had alerted us about the approach by some of the vendors, as we got closer to Esna. As we had our first encounter, I made sure to get some pictures of their process, which is rather daunting!

Here’s one of the images…

Pirates of the Nile

These two young men had rowed themselves into the path of our cruise ship, and I really thought that they were going to be run over, as they were that close. Clearly, they had a plan and attached their rope to one of the bumpers on the port side of the ship. Once attached, they immediately started hawking their wares!

Their technique was amazing, as they would throw samples up to people on the various decks with perfect aim! Additionally, they didn’t lose any returned merchandise in the river. I don’t know how much they sold, but they were attached for a good 3-4 miles, so they had a good row back to where they started.

iPhone Friday – Egypt

A visit to the Temple at Dendera, dedicated to the goddess Hathor. An immersive, quiet experience showcasing progress in the restoration of the colors of the temple

While in Egypt, it’s perfect time for an iPhone Friday post with one of the many wonderful sites. Yesterday, we visited the Temple at Dendera that is dedicated to the goddess Hathor. We were lucky enough to have the entire site nearly to ourselves, which made for a more immersive experience during this visit.

Here is an image from that visit…

Temple of Hathor

The hall of columns is truly massive in scale and truly imposing. One of the amazing features of this temple is that one can see the cleaning process of the painted walls and ceilings making progress. As cooking fires created a rather sooty layer on much of the temple, careful removal of that layer is revealing the amazing colors once again.

In future posts, I will share images of cleaned surfaces, so the amazing colors can be seen!

Thursday Throwback – 16

In this week’s post, we explore the historical significance of Djoser’s Step Pyramid, built during the Third Dynasty.

I hope you don’t mind that I do something a bit different for this week’s installment of this series… Rather than going back into my archive of images captured over the past quarter century, I’d like to go way back into antiquity.

Here’s that jump back in time…

Djoser’s Step Pyramid

In the Third Dynasty, King Netjerykhet (c.2667-2648 BCE) [better known as Djoser] ordered his chief official Imhotep to build him something spectacular for his burial tomb. Imhotep created a funerary structure that would lead to the smooth-sided pyramids used by future pharaohs. Rather than the mastabas that were used by royals and elite Egyptians for their burial, he created a stacked form of mastabas that became this step pyramid.

I hope you enjoy this significant moment in Egyptian history.

Giza – A Taste of Egypt

Today’s exploration covered the remarkable sites of Saqqara and Giza, famous for their pyramids. A view of the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure.

Today’s stops were the amazing sites of Saqqara and Giza, both know for their pyramids. The Saqqara location is truly outstanding, as it has access to a couple of tombs with amazing hieroglyphs and decorations. Not to be overlooked are the tomb of Kagemni, a vizier under pharaoh Teti, and the tomb of Teti. The latter is under a crumbled step-pyramid, where the burial chamber is accessible through a rather confining underground passage. Lots more to be feature about the Saqqara complex.

Today, let’s take a look at the rather well-known pyramids at Giza…

Giza Plateau Pyramids

In this image you can see the pyramids of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure from left to right. Each of these are imposing structures within their own right, and seeing all of them together is magnificent with Greater Cairo in the background.

The Giza site is incredibly busy, as it is the biggest magnet for pyramid enthusiasts; Saqqara was not as busy and for my money more enjoyable!

More features on all of these are to come!

The Cairo Citadel

Today in Egypt, we began with a visit to the Cairo Citadel and the Alabaster Mosque.

Today is our first full day in Egypt and we started strong! In the morning we visited the Cairo Citadel and the Alabaster Mosque (Mosque of Muhammad Ali). After this site, we were off to the Egyptian Museum for a quick visit. Each of these were amazing by themselves, so there will be more photos to follow in subsequent posts!

Here’s a quick look at the Citadel…

Cairo Citadel

The history of this citadel is truly interesting. Its construction was started in the 12th century by Salah ad-Din (Saladin). Many additions and contributions were made by later rulers, which gives a great time capsule of Egypt’s history from the Middle Ages on.

More about this location later… after all, the Alabaster Mosque stands here too!

Time to Get on the Road!

We’re off on a vacation to Egypt, which will be amazing. So we take a look back at Montepulciano in Tuscany, a stunning hill town!

Yes, today my wife and I take off on another vacation trip! It’ll be our most epic one yet, as we’re off to Egypt! You can be sure that I have packed my camera gear for this trip and will take a decent photo or two. As we’re traveling today and tomorrow, it’s time for a look back at one of our other trips.

Here we go back to 2017…

Montepulciano street

The town of Montepulciano in Tuscany is a lovely hill town in the province of Siena. As a hill town it sits upon a 605 meter limestone ridge and has an amazing wine producing reputation. The wines are delectable!

It’s a historic town that can trace its existence back to Etruscan times, as findings date the original settlement to 400-300 BCE.

The streets and alley-ways make this a great town to explore on foot, so that you walk up an appetite and find yourself a restaurant. I recommend checking out the various alleys for great hospitality and amazing food!

Visit to Heru-deshet

Visiting an alternate planet might only be a few footsteps away…

During the past week, I had the enjoyment of visiting three magnificent parks: Zion and Bryce Canyon in Utah and Valley of Fire in Nevada. Of course, there were a number of photos taken during this trip and I will continue to process more of them in between work.

Among the three parks visited, Valley of Fire is the only one that I visited before and spent quite a bit of time exploring. As a result, our photo tour leader, John Slonina, offered me the opportunity to lead part of the group into Fire Wave area of the park, which was a lot of fun. The only gotcha was that during this Friday afternoon, the area was quite ‘peoply’, as many folks had to take their selfies in whatever ‘flattering’ poses they could think of.

So what does one do? Play on the wonderful abstract forms that are presented in the Fire Wave area and create some rather different shots that don’t have distractors of any kind, such as…

Footsteps on Heru-deshet

By shooting down into the descent of the hill, the waveform presents itself as a natural phenomenon that one might expect on a red planet, such as Mars (Heru-deshet to ancient Egyptians); the footprints are clear evidence of visitation by some bipedal life form.

Enjoy this moment of surreality!