From where they lived to where they died…

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ORIGINAL POST: 9 Feb 2008
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As you saw previously, Osmon began our temple experience with the Philae temple on the Nubian Sea – a small, yet still impressive temple and, over the course of the next few days, built up to the most extravagant and the most important.

On the morning of February 3, we had a wake-up call at 5:30…

This was the first of the next 4 days we woke up before 6:00.

Egypt could make anyone a morning person…

The boat was docked in a small town just for the night and was departing at 8:00.

“We’re going to Edfu Temple,” says Osmon.

So we did…

This one larger and slight more extravagant than the Philae Temple the previous day.

Not long ago, this temple was completely buried in the sand and covered with a village until a French man decided to excavate and preserve it. The upper part of the “pylon” was the only part of the temple visible for hundreds of years.

One thing about these colossal structures is: they are such a testament to the ingenuity in engineering as well as dedication to their religion as these people lived and died.

Not to mention their creativity and artistry.

Did I mention hieroglyphics cover everything?

The temple was great… but yet another one of the oddities of people manifests itself in the fist-fight it took to get a look at this:

Why? I don’t really know…

It is the sanctuary – the “holy of holies” – where the idol for their temple god “lives”. The priests would wash it and clothe it and feed it… right here…

I guess that’s cool enough…

But not to cause this:

Yes, it is a mob… I think most of them are just trying to get the picture because everyone else is trying to get the picture. Its pack mentality…

“What is it?” someone asks.
“The sanctuary,” replies another.
“Why are you killing each other to take a picture of it?”
“I don’t know…”

And they continue. Just keep your wallet close, my friend.

So, we left this place and got back on the boat…

“We’re going to be late!” someone in our group says to Osmon.

“No worries… we’re running on Osmon time.”

So, we resumed our travels down the Nile.

By this point in the trip, we had grown accustomed to hearing the Islamic call to prayer. Most of the people in our group had never seen this side of Islam before: the real people doing the real things real people do. People practicing a religion just like we practice a religion – it just happens to be different and require different things.

You come on a trip like this and see an Islamic state and realize that almost every part of the “average” American’s viewpoint on this religion is completely and utterly wrong.

Not only wrong… ignorant.

And not only ignorant… vacuously dense.

Think about it. Every man, woman, and child we came across during our trip believed in the Muslim faith to one degree or another. Not once did I feel as though our security guard was going to take out his automatic weapon and kill us all… then go fly an airplane into our campus in Porto Rafti, Greece, just to make sure he got the cat.

For some odd reason, the American pop-culture is afraid of a people that have no idea why we’re afraid of them… what is that about!? I wouldn’t exactly call it the “American Way” to persecute a large part of the world’s population for something a TINY TINY TINY minority is going around doing.

Oh twell… no more soapbox…

Just don’t be a vapid, uneducated American.

Oh yeah… go get educated about these candidates in the 2008 American election. I’m not going to say anything except: the issues are not JUST the war and “change” and stuff like that… Don’t forget that, as bad as the war may be, it has NOTHING to do with health care, artists rights, abortion, and social security reform. Some of the candidates who are relying on certain demographics to get them elected have next to NOTHING in any of these categories – and others have things that LOOK like things, but are really no more than a resume.

Get educated…

Moving on…

More “real Egypt” time…

That’s a big pretty thing…

Esna Locks were next. We sat in line for a long time and my allergies got woken up by an excessive amount of diesel fumes from the boat in front of us.

But who cares… we’re in Egypt.

I like locks… it reminded me of where I live back home.

Yes, its random… but so, too, it is real people in Egypt…

After I had taken all these pictures, I wanted to go back up to the top deck. This guy in front of me must have been one of those “real” policemen.

That’s real Egypt.

But not so much this…

…but it was still fun…

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The morning of the 4th was yet another 5:15 morning… but well worth the wake-up call yet again.

Take this to the east…

…then turn around…

…to take this to the west:

This day was absurd… people just don’t have days like this…

Starting with the Colossi of Memnon as we drove toward the Valley of the Kings.

Memnon has been in the Smithsonian Magazine, Discovery Channel, and National Geographic in the past year or two for a variety of reasons. They are preserving the statues and excavating the site… which is taking forever – because the Temple was so immense.

So, the Valley of the Kings is quite different in person.

It really is beautiful and bizarre.

And they’re constantly digging for new discoveries – hoping to find the next tomb.

And this is posted everywhere…

By the way, if you post “No Photo” everywhere and still let me in with a camera…

“You can have it with you but you can’t take pictures.”

So, I walk in with it over my shoulder and am looking around…

…I’m inside a tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt, and I’m not allowed to take pictures…

…you bet…

If you love something…

…never stop doing it…

After Valley of the Kings, we were off to an alabaster company. Of course, in the now-classic Osmon style, we go to the world-renowned alabaster company who made the pieces for all the biggest names and most powerful rulers in the region.

We are shown how solid alabaster is turned into real works of art. By the way, if you have alabaster in your house, there is a very high probability that it came from… Luxor, Egypt. Why? Because that’s where all alabaster comes from.

If its made in China, even, its been made from the dust from companies like this one.

So, this guy has photos of famous politicians and noblemen all around his store. Osmon got us some sweet deals, of course.

And got us all freebies…

So, I went up to pay for my little item.

“35Euro,” the man says.

“Pay him 20,” says Osmon.

The man just shakes his head, defeated…

I paid him 20.

We saw the Valley of the Workers, too. Most people don’t know about that one. Or the fact that there is a Valley of the Queens… or the Valley of the Nobles.

And we just drove up within sight of Hatshepsut’s Temple. There wasn’t that much to see there.

“Just jump out and take pictures and we go,” says Osmon.

I ran up the hill with the 80-200mm f/2.8.

Continuing with more camels…

And more boat action…

And more nice lunch venues…

Before moving on to the extravagant Temple of Karnak.

And its immense hypostyle of columns…

And… really really deep hieroglyphics…

Ramses II, who had most of these carved, wanted to make sure nobody could ever erase his name from the stones… so he did this.

Alexander the Great built two inner sanctuaries during his pilgrimage to Egypt. One at the Luxor Temple… and this one at the Karnak Temple.

This hieroglyphic carving still retains its blue coloring as well as the name of Alexander the Great (in the center).

And the last surviving complete Babylonian structure in the world.

Wow… this is getting long…

Sorry, guys…

But next was the al Fayad Perfumery. You might know this name from this little incident a few years ago.

And lucked out on this little shot…

As he was making a really intricate perfume bottle, he blew up a tube of glass as big as a balloon and popped it.

Otherwise, it was a lesson in smell-testing and how different smells work. al Fayad’s perfumeries manufacture the essence for almost all of the major perfume labels including Channel #5, Tiffany’s, Armani and so many others. All the perfume companies do is add alcohol to it to sell more volume… and make it have a shorter shelf-life.

Its a pretty cool place.

But by this point of the day, I was miserable from being sick… and so was a few other people.

And I’m pretty exhausted at the current moment, too…

Its a rainy day in Athens, Greece, and I’ve spent hours waiting for these bigger-size photos to load up. I love Uber, though… its been so good to me!

So, I want to break it up into one final post.

On this same day, we went to Memnon, Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Workers, an Alabaster shop, a perfumery, crossed the Nile on a boat, went to Karnak…

…and finally Luxor Temple – the home of Moses.

… but that will be for a later date.

~Noah D.