Ancient Rome

We arrived in Rome on the night of the 30th. We've decided that we must have an attraction for strange/adventurous/slightly scary taxi rides. The cabbie that picked us up at the airport raced off towards Rome at speeds in excess of 160 km/hr (that's over 100 mph!). He was cutting off other taxis along the way and they were all yelling and shaking their fists out their windows. He was also obviously sick as he was hacking and coughing the entire way. Then he told us that he couldn't get us near our hotel next to the Pantheon because the Police had the roads blocked off for some festival. So he dropped us off a good 15 blocks from our hotel, or about a mile, and charged us 60 Euros for the priviledge! We hiked our packs on our backs and took off walking. We saw plenty of taxis driving past on the way there so what the cabbie told us was clearly a load of BS.
We finally made it I the hotel, where we were meeting up with Anna's parents Joe and Jeanette. Unfortunately, they had a similar experience with a taxi and had gotten lost on the way to the hotel, so we were all ready for a glass of wine!
The next day, we all walked through ancient Rome. There was actually some kind of Italian holiday festival going on involving a bike race through the city, so the streets were packed with onlookers and tourists. We waded our way through and took a look at the sites.

The ruins of the Forum above. The Forum was the market place in ancient Rome. It was also the site of the Senate building where senators debated the topics of the day. While they walked through the market, citizens would shout and heckle at them about the topics they thought were important. "We need better health care!", and "The people are hungry!" and the lobbyist was born.
The Forum is also the site of the tomb of Julius Ceasar. On any given day you can see people laying roses on top of his tomb. During the dark ages, few people were interested in ancient history, and the site of the Forum was used as a grazing pasture for sheep. Eventually, people realized the place was important and began excavating it. People say that modern Rome was built on the ruins of Ancient Rome. That is clearly evident at the Forum. The level of the Forum is 15 to 20 meters below the level of the street next to it.



The Forum. You can see here the difference between the street level now, and the street level two thousand years ago.




The Arch of Constantine. This was built by the Emporer Constantine sometime around 500 A.D. It is a tribute to the defeat of his enemies. Constantine was extremely productive during his time as emperor. He maintained the empire, and converted all the pagan peoples to Christianity. Those who did not convert willingly, were converted at the point of a sword. His work began the expansion of the Christian religion in Europe.




The coliseum. Acording to the guide we had the last time we were here, this is the most blood-soaked building in history. Millions of men and animals were killed during the Roman's reign, to the delight of specators. Marcus Arelius banned the games while he was Emporer, but they were resumed shortly after his death. A statue of Marcus Arelius stands at the top of the stairs next to the Ancient Roman museum, not far on the other side of the Forum from here. We walked around the Collesium for a while, but the line to get in was enormous, so we just apreciated the view from outside.




The massive Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This was built after World War II in rememberance of the fallen soldiers from Italy whom were never recovered. It is an impressive building, and the picture here doesn't do it justice.

The fountain of Neptune in Piazza Navona. Piazza Navona is where there is a permanent art market consisting of stands set up by all the local street artists. You can see everything from recreations of classic paintings, to rennaisance inspired work, to modern, abstract art. If any of you have been to our house, the painting we had hanging next to our dining room table is from this square.


The front of the Pantheon at night, from our seat at a nearby restaurant. This restourant is our base when in Rome, if you ever come here, make sure you find this restaurant and make yourself at home. Mike C. can attest to that!


Us at the Trevi fountain.



A wider shot of the Trevi fountain.
After dinner, it is customary to take a "Pasa Giata". It is a slow stroll to help walk off the mounds of pasta you just ate. Many people end up here, at the Trevi fountain. It is a large fountain, the size of a city block. People will get gelato, and gaze at the fountain lit up. Some will throw coins in the fountain and make a wish. Sometimes, their wishes even come true!

The High Atlas Mountains and Marrakech

Friday we drove from the desert to Marrakech via the High Atlas Mountains. The Mountains are higher and more rugged than the previous mountains we had crossed. The scenery was gorgeous, and the road was extremely curvy, as you can see above. For those of you who have seen the movie "Babel" the stretch of road shown here is where they filmed the bus scene. We also drove through the town where "Gladiator", "Kundun", and "Kingdom of Heaven" were filmed. The Jeruselem set for "Kingdom of Heaven" was still there.
The mountains are mostly inhabited by the Berber people. The Berber were the race of people who inhabited Morocco before the Arabs arrived. Surprisingly, Berber people are Caucasian, though many have mixed with Arabs and are darker, and there is some speculation that they be decendant from the Celts in Ireland. They are a loud, boisterous and very happy people and they often call out to you and give you a thumbs up as you ride by. They are also very hardy and have no trouble walking several miles up steep mountain roads.

The drive to Marrakech took about ten hours and we arrived at the Riad Elizabeth just after 7 PM. The riad was beautiful, and is run by and English couple, John and Elizabeth. Like most of the people in Marrakech, and the rest of Morocco, they were very hospitable and generous. There Riad had six rooms, each named for one of there six daughters.
We found Marrakech to be more modern, and interesting than Fez. Even though we were only there for one night, we could tell that we soul like to visit again.

In the morning Mark took us to the airport. Along the way he took us through the central market where you could see everything from fresh sqeezed orange juice stands to snake charmers. We also drove past a mosque (below) that was the tallest structure in Islam when it was built in the 13th century.

Now we are moving on to Italy, and the jury is still out on whether we will ever make it back to Morocco again. -Scott

Adventures in the Sand

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Yesterday we drove from Fez down to a Bivovac at the edge of the Sahara desert with our guide, Mark. Mark is a Briton who moved to Morocco ten years ago. His east manner and Enlish wit have made the long drive easier to manage. It was quite a drive. It took us over nine hours to get there.
Along the way we had to take a rather extended detour because the police has closed the main road for the King, who was going to drive through with his entourage later in the day. Since the King can sometimes take his time about eating his breakfast, the road might have been closed for hours. We took a road that dipped further to the south and added about an hour to the trip, but it was better than waiting two hours for the main road to open. We drove through the middle and lower Atlas mountains. They are rocky, rugged, and quite beautiful. The scenery was nice.

We arrived at the bivovac at about 7:30 in the evening, with just enough light left to get settled in to our tent. A bivovac, by the way, is essentially a desert camp consisting of several tents made out of camel hair blankets. There was a large central tent for meals, and about ten separate ones for rooms. The propriator was very proud to show us the last tent- real toilets with running water! We later learned that he carries a huge water tank back and forth to town to create the convenience for his guests. There were several shiny copper kettles hung on wrought iron mirror stands to serve as vanities. All the walkways were laid with thick blankets, and the low tabels were set with comfy pillow chairs. The light was entirely from a campfire and many ornate brass lanterns.
Unfortunately, we were not able to see the sunset because it was a bit cloudy and dusty on the horizon. Later, we found out why. We had some wine and tagine, a local dish, for dinner and got ready for bed. The quality of the food was surprising - the propriator goes to great legths to provide gourmet meals.
Just as we were about to settle in, the wind picked up, and a sandstorm blew in that lasted the entire night. The sandstorms in the desert are just as bad as you see in the movies. The dust gets in your eyes and you can't see. Anna was returning from the bathroom tents when it came in and she got turned around on the way back. If I hadn't come out of our tent just then with a flashlight, she may not have found the tent. The wind blew all night, and even though the tent was held up by thick wooden beams, there were several times when we thought that the entire tent might come down around us. Needless to say, neither of us got much sleep.

(Above is the tent in the morning after the storm, notice the huge drift)

We got up at at around 4:30 am for a sunrise camel ride into the desert. The wind had died down a bit, but it was still blowing. We rode out with a guide for about a half hour and climbed a sand dune for the sunrise. It was still hazy, but it was nice to sit and take the desert in.

(Perspective is from on the camel's back)
It is a beautiful place. I've always thought of the desert as a giant sandbox, but the reality is much more majestic. In the picture above, the dunes off in the distance are over 900 feet high. They are some of the largest in the world. The smaller dunes in the forgeound look much like waves in the ocean. Mark likened the walking motion of a camel to the bobbing of a ship on waves, adding to the metaphor of an ocean of sand. When you consider that you would be able to fit all the other deserts in the world into the Sahara, with room to spare, you begin to understand the scale of this place.


(By the way, that metal saddle is exactly as comfortable as it looks).
We returned to the tents for breakfast. Nearby we saw several dung beetles, also known as scarabs. You see them often in ancient Egyptian art. They are quite industrious with no lack of material to use with all the camels around.

We are now on our way to Marrakesh, and then on to Rome Italy. Morocco was good to us. We had a bit of a rough start in Fez, but it was worth it for the chance to walk barefoot in the Sahara. - Scott

I love the smell of turpentine in the morning.

So we finally arrived in Morocco. You may want to grab a cup of coffee and get comfortable for this post- it's a long one. We are in Fez, and in a few days we will depart to Merzouga to ride camels in the desert. Our hotel is beautifully decorated with dark ornately carved wood, brass, mosaics and carved stucco. The staff is friendly and the food is of good quality.

Unfortunately I can't say the same of our guide. He's the guy in the red hat above. He repeatedly lost us in the maze of streets in the medina (market), and instead of telling us about the sights we were seeing, he just said "there it is" and kept walking. He also kept ordering us to take uninteresting pictures of random things. After the wonderful guides we had in Egypt, he was definitely a disappointment. On the upside, several of the places he brought us had managers who spoke very good English, so we were able to learn some interesting facts from them.

(Medersa, a school)

(Medersa).

(The Blue Gate)

(Carpet Co-op)

(Carpet co-op, woman at loom)
The high points of the day (see pictures above): We saw some buildings with impressive carvings and beautiful mosaics. We also visited a museum of antique furniture and jewelry, which had a lot of unusual items in it. There were huge 6 foot bronze statues of camels, curved ornate knives, beduin jewelry with beads as big as your fist, and tables covered with stone, ivory, bronze, shells, or mirrors. We visited a ceramics shop that fires their pottery in straw and mud kilns. We learned that 90% of people in Fez are craftsmen, and that the furniture for almost all of Morocco is made here. The best thing we saw was a carpet co-op that sold hand-made rugs. The owner was very entertaining, and he gave us a long lecture about how to tell the quality of wool, and how rugs are made and valued. We learned about the style of rugs made by different ethnic groups (Berber, Arab, and Jewish). They use all natural dyes, such as poppy, henna, indigo, etc and the rugs last for generations. Of course we had to get one. The picture of the woman by the loom shows the same pattern we purchased.


And now for the less-than-high points. Morocco is smelly. There, I said it. I feel bad about it, but after I describe the smell perhaps you will forgive me. Take a look at the pictures of the medina (the street above). The streets are very hot and narrow, and there is always too many people crowded into them. The two to three story buildings appear near collapse in many places, and the floors of most homes are dirt. The alleys between buildings are covered with reed mats to block out the sun (and this also blocks any fresh breeze). Add heavily laden donkey caravans, emaciated and filthy stray cats, carts piled with furniture, and street urchins. Along every alley garbage and rotten food is piled, mixed with manure from the donkeys. There is a stall- like shop every few feet, selling everything from eggs to Calvin Klein underwear. The most common products are apricots, dates, spices, meats, fish, silk, traditional clothing, and sweets. The fruit and spices are displayed piled in heaps, and all the meat is hung raw on butcher hooks right in the street as hungry cats drool. At one spice shop, the owner tries to shove what appear to be black peppercorns up my nose, since this a cure for migraines. There are dye vats for weavers, tanneries making leather, and thousands of carpenters carving or varnishing cedar furniture.

Now I have been a few places before this, and I am not bothered by most things in undeveloped countries. I'm not intimidated by street urchins, language barriers, heat, crowds, poverty, being lost, or political instability. But in the medina of Fez, the smell got me. There are too many components to decipher, but the main overtones are of feces, spice, rotten meat and fish, cedar, lye from tanneries, and turpentine. Even Scott was feeling nauseous by the end of the day. My suggestion: if you come to Fez, bring a lot of perfume. - Anna


(View over Fez)
As a side note, I wanted to add to Anna's blog. If you do decide to come to Morocco, make sure you get a guide. As horrible as our guide was, we would have been completely lost without him. The Medina here in Fez is a maze. If there was ever a good use for the word "warren" this would be it. The streets are more hallways than actual streets, some of which you have to actually duck to get through, and that is saying something for Anna and I. Many of these streets and hallways may lead you to ask yourself, or possibly your guide "Wait, is that a rabbit hole? Did a rabbit happen to dig a hole here and people just decided to move in?".
I feel as though we may have fallen down the rabbit hole as we came here. This place is far different from any other place we've been. The customs are far different and a couple of days are not nearly enough to sort them out. I'm not saying that is a bad thing, but it is definitely outside of our comfort zone.
I feel bad writing this, but I wanted to be honest with you. If you come to Morocco, hire a guide.
Speaking of comfort zone infringements I don't think Anna mentioned the "taxi" ride we took on the way back from the pottery shop. We had taken a taxi with our guide on the way there. I mean an actual taxi, with a sign on the roof and a meter in the car. The shop is on the outskirts of town, and when we were done there wasn't a taxi in sight and our guide looked confused. Without a word to us, he began walking back toward town. With a concerned look at each other, we began to follow. It was hot, and we were not looking to a half hour walk back to town.
About a quarter of a mile from the pottery shop, Abdul, our guide, waved at a car driving past. The driver beeped his horn and pulled over. Abdul waved at us to follow and began running toward the car. I looked at Anna and asked "Are we hitchhiking?". "I think so" she said. When we got to the car, Abdul and the driver were haggling. After a moment, Abdul said the man would take us back for 10 dirhams (about a $1.25. We got in the back of the car that Abdul later called a "big taxi". I'm a bit confused by that because the car was about the same size as the "small taxi" we took to get there.
He car was old, and the springs in the back seat were poking through. Shortly after we started driving, the driver pulled over again, jumped out of the car and ran across the road two where two men in uniforms were standing. I gave Anna a "What the hell?" look and asked Abdul what was happening. He said the taxi drivers sometimes bring the policemen who stand by the road some water when it's hot out.
The driver came back and we were under way again. When we got back in town, the driver pulled over again. This time in front of three people who looked like a mom, dad and son. There was more haggling, and the trio got into the car with us. The woman got in front with Avdul, and the two men got in back with us. All three were very large and the car became very cramped. To his credit, the man sitting next to Anna tried to give her some space. It wan't much, but it was a nice gesture. We got out of the car a short distance away, but I think it's safe to say that it was the most random, sketchy and bizarre taxi ride either of us have ever taken.
Let me rephrase what I said before. If you come to Morocco, hire a guide you can trust.

-Scott

Airplanes part 2

If anyone understands what this dish is supposed to be, please let us know. There was some pink, gelatinous horseradish, a leaf wrapped around something, a lemon slice, and an olive. I don't get it. -Anna

A Night at the Museum

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Last night we saw the opera Aida at the Odeon Theatre. The theatre sits at the base of the Acropolis giving us a great view of Athens. It is an outdoor theatre that was built over 2,000 years ago by the Ancient Greeks. The acoustics are still great. Neither the orchestra, nor the perfomers needed mics to be heard by the several thousand people in attendance.
Before the opera began, people got imatient and began clapping and heckling. We're not really sure what they were saying, but it sounded like "Hurry up already!"
The performance itself was splendid. It was sung in Italian, and the subtitles were in Greek. Anna was able to pick out a few words in Italian, but I was completely in the dark. However, the meaning of the words was made clear by the singers voices. At the end, the crowd gave a standing ovation and several people called out "Bravo!" I think we were spoiled by our first Opera. Hopefully, the Sydney Opera House lives up to it's reputation.

Yesterday was also full of symbolism. During breakfast, we heard a couple of owls hooting. As some of you may know, the owl is the symbol of Athena, Goddess of Wisdom. We heard another as we were climbing the steps to the Theatre. It's kind of fun to think that owls still watch over the city, after all this time. Today, we move on to Morocco, but I think it's safe to say that we will be back to Greece.

Trains and Sand

We spent the day traveling to and enjoying the Athenian beaches. It was a bit confusing getting there, but after a couple of false starts, we were able to find a nice beach by train. For those of you who may be traveling to Athens in the future, the beach at Kalmaki can be reached by tram from Syntagma square. Make sure you take the number 5 train. The beach was nice. There were chairs laid out, and servers brought drinks and snacks around. The beach was slightly rocky, but still okay.



Enjoying an Amstel by the Agean. Hopefully, by the time we come back, I'll be a bit more tan than this pasty white you see before you.

Looking good!

We spent a couple of hours at the beach, but eventually, we both began to burn. The beach is definitely worht the slight hassle it takes to get there. Plus, how can you be this close to the historically famous Agean sea, and not dip your foot in?

-Scott

Are you a loud, rude American?

So all of your should know by now that I am an opinionated person. Here's one of the things that drives me nuts about tourists. For some reason, many Americans feel the need to stand out when they travel. People suddenly become incapable of maintaining awareness of their surroundings, causing them to adopt blank stares, bump into others, and stop in the middle of walkways. They talk so loudly that entire planes can hear their inane babble. They complain when the country they are visiting doesn't look and act exactly like America (FYI, you left America on purpose!). They expect everyone to speak English. They forget how to count money. Perhaps you or someone you know has done this. It happens, I forgive you. But is it really that hard to talk quietly, be respectful, and learn to recognize foreign denominations? Let's all do America's reputation a favor and try to be more considerate of the countries we love to visit.

Spana-What?

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Today, we visited several other ancient sites in Athens. The picture above is from a walkway in the Ancient Agora. It was a huge marketplace and park that Athenians would shop, gossip, and politicize in. The statues above were just outside the local gymnasium. The park itself is huge, covering at least fifty acres. It sits on the hillside next to the Acropolis and so we had to do a lot of climbing to get there. It was good for us, as we are still getting used to so much walking.

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Above, we are standing outside the Temple of Hephaistos, the god of metalworking and craftsmanship. It sits on top of a hill with a great view of the Acropolis and the city.
Speaking of the city, I'd like to spend some time dispelling some myths about Athens. I have heard that Greece is a confusing and dangerous place to travel. That is simply untrue. We have had a wonderful time here, have met some great people, and have not gotten lost at all. The streets are layed out a little haphazardly, but with a map and a little patience, much of the ancient part of Athens can be walked through quite easily. The rest of the city, including the Archeological Museum, and the beaches, can be reached quite easily by public trasportation (i.e. subway, bus, or tram). The hardest part is that there is a small mountain that rises up out of the center of the city that requires some climbing of streets, buit it's good exercise.
The Greek people are very similar to Italians. They work hard, play hard and are hard to impress. Many of the Athenians we have met have been pleasant, if a bit gruff. It is apparent, that if you want to surprize or impress a Greek, you'd best bring your A game. Greeks are also a very proud people, and if you begin talking to them about their craft, whether it is cooking, jewlery making, weaving, or anything else, they will quickly begin to warm up to you and want to show you the quality of their work.
As for the food, it is splendid. One of my favorites is Spanakopita; a pastry often filled with some combination of meat, cheese and tomatoes. The one I had was ham, cheese, tomato, spinach and garlic, mmmmm, tasty. The rest of the food is wonderful as well, if hard to pronounce.
In the afternoon, we visited the Archeological Museum. Below is a bronze statue of Poisideon, poised to cast his Trident at his enemies.

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The Museum also had a collection of spear and arrow heads from the battle of Thermopolae, where 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians held of the Persian army of a million soldiers for three days. I got chills standing in front of them.

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The museum was great, and very large. We got lost in it several times, and only found the exit by luck. There is a large amount of history there. They have artifacts from pre-history, earlier than 5,000 B.C. to present times. For those interested in the past of the culture they are visiting, it is not to be missed.

After we got back to the hotel, I went to pick up our laundry that we were having cleaned at the local laundry shop (Hot Tip: never get your clothes cleaned by the hotel you are staying at. They usually send it to the local laundro-mat and charge you five times more than if you were just to bing it down yourself). When I arrived, the lady who ran the shop came running in and said she was trying to see "What was gong on." Apparently, a group of Albanians who live in Athens, were upset about something, and began protesting. The protest grew ugly, and the cops were called. Soon the Albanians began fighting the police and throwing stones. The shopkeeper told me I should return to my hotel and not come out for a couple of hours. We stayed put for a while.

This brings up a valid point. When you travel, you will likely run into situations when you might be near, or witness the results of local politics. The best policy when confronted with this situation, is not to get involved. Avoid the area for a while, and if you can't, make sure you are don't join any crowds that are marching down the street. Always take the most neutral stance possible. If you feign ignorance, and don't make any opinionated statements, you will likely escape notice. It's just a reality of global travel. It's going to happen, get used to it.

-Scott

Catching Up

Hey everyone,
We finally found some internet access. FYI, we uploaded some new pictures into old posts as well. We found a few we had forgotten to post at the time. We'll try not to make a habit of that.

- Anna

Acropolis

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The Acropolis is a mountain smack in the middle of Athens. We walked around for half a day without seeing it, but as soon as we got onto our hotel's roof, we couldn't believe we had missed it. On top of the Acropolis is one of the most famous ancient temple still in existence, the Parthenon. One entire side has been dismantled for restoration, so you will notice scaffolding in many of the pictures. Sadly, a giant steel crane is right in the middle of the temple, so if anyone is considering coming to Athens, I'd wait a few years until they finish. Fortunately, they left the other side intact so that you can still block out the view of most of the scaffolding and appreciate the immensity of the columns. There are also a number of other temples, buildings, arches, etc to be seen on and around the Acropolis.


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This is the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. This is the theater from which Oedipus Rex first opened, and it is still in use today. We were able to get tickets for opening night of Aida coming up on Sunday. We're really excited since we've never seen an opera before, and it will be interesting to see how the open Greek theater style affects the acoustics.


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Another shot of the Acropolis.


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Random ruins in the National Garden where we had a picnic. We have started a little backgammon tournament, and I maintain that Scott is only winning because the dice are loaded. He has been rolling an inordinate amount of doubles. He is white below.




The Temple of Olympian Zeus. This is part of a larger complex of buildings including more temples, Roman baths, and Byzantine houses. This is the last building left standing.



Notice the Acropolis in the background.



One of my favorite things about cities with ancient ruins is that they light their monuments at night. There is no better evening entertainment than walking with a gelato in hand and looking at famous monuments at night.


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Wish you were here!!
- Anna

Valley of the $4000

Today we visited the valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. The Valley of the Kings contains 64 tombs, of which 62 have been found. King Tut's tomb was the last discovery of significance, which I think was in 1922. At any rate it's been awhile. Some of the tombs are finished, while others aren't. If the king expected to live a long time, he would dig very low and attempt to make a huge tomb. If he died in the middle of construction, it didn't get finished and they buried him there anyway. Only 6 tombs out of 62 were complete. One of these was Ramses IV. The doors of the tombs are much larger than in the pyramids, because the building wasn't constructed around the huge sarcophagus. The tombs were carved directly into the cliffs and then hidden with sand.

So as you approach, the door doesn't look like anything special. But when you get inside, there are beautifully preserved painted heiroglyphics covering every surface. They are painted with natural colorants like egg yolk for gold, crushed turquoise for teal, lapis lazuli for blue, hibiscus for red, charcoal for black, and grass for green. There are massive relief carvings of the kings meeting the gods, and you descend through several rooms into the final chamber which usually has a vaulted ceiling to hold the sarcophagus. It's very impressive. I wish they allowed cameras inside.

The first picture below is the tomb of a prince who was buried in the valley of the Queens because he died at age 10 and did not have time to have his own chamber constructed. He basically budged in front of the queen who owned this tomb which was near completion at the time.



The valley of the Queens is much smaller in scale in terms of the size of tombs. Usually there is just a single room. I found it interesting that the tomb of Queen Nefertari (below), the favorite wife of Ramses the Great, costs $4000 US dollars to visit. It can only be visited for one hour, with up to 24 people, but the cost is the same. So if 2 people visit, they still pay $4000 between them! And our guide told us that people actually go in there with some regularity!

- Anna

Luxor and Karnak Temples

We flew this morning to Luxor, which is about 13 hours south of Cairo by car. The Valley of the Kings is there, along with several beautifully preserved temples. We saw the temple of Queen Hatchepsut (the only woman to rule as a king), and the Medina Habou as well but forgot to take Ipod pictures.









Below are pictures of Karnak Temple. The temple is huge, (can't remember, maybe 60 acres?) and the grounds contain the world's first swimming pool. Ramses the Great, Queen Hatchepsut, King Tutahnkamen, and Tutmoses III all built here, along with many other Kings. There originally were 6 obelisks, but now only two remain. Most are in other countries, such as the one standing in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City. There is a statue of a giant scarab here, which symbolizes eternity. Rumor has it that if you want good luck, you should walk around it three times, and if a woman wants to get a husband she should walk 5 times, and to get pregnant she should walk 7 times.



Aren't the columns amazing? They are 20 m tall. The entire hall was once filled with 132 of them, but one guy who used to be site manager a few decades ago thought it would be a good idea to allow the flood waters in to "clean" the temple. Unfortunately, he didn't think far enough ahead to determine how he would pump the flood out again, and the temple stayed flooded for 4 months. When the waters finally receded, several of the columns toppled and the ceiling caved in. Imagine having to explain that to your boss....



Karnak Temple is exactly 3 km straight across from Luxor Temple, and the street between them was lined with 164 sphinxes. The city of Luxor is working to restore the road so that you can again walk the distance between the two temples, restored exactly as it would have been in ancient times. I am definitely coming back to see that.

- Anna

Airport

For some reason Egypt Air felt it was necessary to cram 10 flight's worth of people into a single departure gate. It was awesome.

- Anna