Day 13 - Aswan back to Luxor, Sobek, Luxor Museum and Questions

Day 13 – Aswan back to Luxor

Today was basically a travel day from Aswan back to Luxor. We, once again, got up early and went to the airport for a very short 30 minute flight back to Luxor. Once we got to Luxor, we walked about 5 minutes down the main street (called the Corniche) to the Luxor Museum. I talk about it down below when I answered Brian’s questions. We had lunch (cheese pizza) in the hotel by the pool and hung out by the pool and in our rooms until dinnertime. We ate dinner down on the Nile in a restaurant overlooking all of the Nile River cruise boats. It’s been a nice, relaxing day (except for getting up so early). Tomorrow we go to the Valley of the Kings again to see King Tut’s tomb. We are curious to find out whether his mummy is still in the tomb. We will let you know Friday morning when we talk.

Here are some answer’s to some of your latest questions from the blogs.

Luke – It is hot, sunny and very dry in Egypt. There is under 4 inches of rain per year and only falls in January in the North Coast and around Cairo. It’s generally hotter as you move more south (additional information and current Cairo weather).

Alex – Yes, the Egyptians mummified animals. Look at one of the first blogs that references “Arrival Day” or “Day 1” or “Day 2”. We saw a lot of animal mummies in the Egyptian museum. There was also the mummified crocodile at Kom Ombo Temple.

Do you ever see pictures or see on tv that Prince Charles, William and Harry are hunting? Many royal persons enjoy hunting for sport. This is probably what King Tut was doing. I’m sure that his servants cleaned the animals he hunted and they also probably did all the cooking.

Arden – We are going back to the West Bank and the Valley of the Kings to visit King Tut’s tomb. As you remember, all of the items from the tomb were found intact and are now on display at the Egyptian Museum.

Just like Greek and Roman mythology, I’m sure there are many Egyptian myths. The one’s I’m familiar with are the most famous one about Isis and Osiris and Set. I’ve explained that one in a previous blog. The other one I know about is the myth of Sobek, the crocodile god. I should have explained this when we went to Kom Ombo since that is the temple devoted to Sobek. Here’s my explanation of the myth: The temple of Kom Ombo is right on the Nile River. At that time, there were many crocodiles living in the Nile. The Egyptians of the Middle Kingdom (11th – 14th dynasty, 2055bc – 1650bc) were very frightened of the crocodile so they decided to make the crocodile a god and they named him Sobek. On the walls of tombs and in statues, Sobek has the body of a man and the head of a crocodile. The myth says that Sobek and Horus were living together at Kom Ombo. The people that worshipped Horus were in charge of farming and harvesting. Sobek’s people were in charge of irrigation of the farms. Sobek got greedy and wanted Horus out of Kom Ombo. Because Sobek’s people couldn’t farm, they eventually followed Horus and left Kom Ombo. To get his people back, Sobek finally relented and allowed both himself and Horus to rule as Gods at Kom Ombo.

I’m also bringing back a booklet on all of the gods of Egypt for your classroom. There are a lot of them and this booklet describes each one.

Cruising down the Nile was really relaxing. I’ve taken a video of what the landscape looks like. There are many farmers with their cows and donkeys. Most of the landscape is green because of the water but in the background, all you can see is brown dirt and sand. We did have a few stops along the way. It was just a nice way to get from Luxor to Aswan. The people on the boat were very nice to us. They have invited us back on the boat tonight for a belly dancing show even though we are staying at another hotel.

Brian – As of today, I think the Luxor Museum has been my favorite place. We couldn’t bring our cameras inside so I don’t have anything to show you all but it is definitely the best museum in all of Egypt. It isn’t very big but all the displays are well marked and well displayed. Most of the items in the museum are statues and they have them set up so that you can walk all the way around each one and actually touch them. They also show the making of papyrus and some of the drawings of the architects of the tombs and temple walls. I thought that was fascinating.

Ana – Most ancient Egyptians died of some sort of infection. There were no antibiotics back then so if you had a simple cut and didn’t get it cleaned properly, it could turn in to a huge infection and you could die. Most ancient people didn’t live very long and I would guess that most didn’t live past their 30s or 40s.

The Great Sphinx, carved out of the surrounding limestone bedrock, is 57 meters (185 feet) long, 6 m (20 ft) wide, and has a height of 20 m (65 ft) - making it the largest single-stone statue in the world.

The ancient Egyptians ate stone ground bread, fish and vegetables they could grow from their farms. Fish was the only meat products they had. The only animals they had were used for work, not food. Tuthmosis III was the first pharaoh to bring chickens to Egypt.

We have only seen cobras on the walls of the Temples.

There are 112 pyramids in Egypt.

Yes, kids go to school just like they do in the US except their week is Sunday through Thursday because Friday is a holy day.

We like Egypt but definitely would not want to live here. We are very used to the United States and it takes awhile to get used to different things. For example, if the train station in the US says the train will leave at 3pm, it does. Here, it might leave at 4:15pm and no one thinks anything about it. Also, the food isn’t as good as it is at home. Scott could not live without his Carolina barbeque. We also don’t like soccer that much so we would miss watching the Colts and the Tarheels.

There are definitely a lot of Temples and Pyramids still around from Ancient Egypt. Archeologists and Egyptologists are discovering more and more things everyday.

The last time we were in McDonald’s I noticed someone eating a McArabic. Pita bread is very big here as well as kabobs. The McArabic is a pita sandwich with either chicken or Kofta (a popular Middle Eastern dish consisting of ground beef/lamb mixed with spices and onions).