R. Doug Wicker's Blog, page 2

Nile Cruise — Arriving in Edfu; Taking a Horse-Drawn Carriage

Our Carriage Awaits

Ursula and I arrived aboard the Jaz Celebrity to the Upper Egypt city of Edfu, Egypt on Friday, 28 February. After a quick, early breakfast, we joined up with our wonderful guide Mohamad Salah for an excursion to the Temple of Edfu (more of which you’ll see next week). But to get to the temple we needed transportation, and Mohamad had a surprise in store for us — a horse-drawn carriage ride from the dock. Just to give you an idea of what I mean by early, that photo above w...

Nile Cruise — The Temple of Kom Ombo

Temple of Kom Ombo

As you can probably tell from the past several weeks, so far it’s been a hectic, fun-filled two days. And this day in particular has been a long one with our ever-present travel companion/guide Mohamad Salah guiding the way. You may recall we began this day with an early morning car trip toward the Egypt-Sudan border to see Abu SImbel. We then made it back to Jaz Celebrity and set sail northward. Later that evening we arrived just as it was getting dark to our next sightsee...

Fun Photo Friday – Abu Simbel and Nile Cruise Favorites

Ramses II Colossi of Abu Simbel

Today’s Fun Photo Friday features some favorite images from along the River Nile, Abu Simbel, and our approach to Kom Ombo later that same evening on the 27th of February. The Kom Ombo image is on the upper left in today’s photo gallery/slide show:

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Nile Cruise — Cruising the River Nile in Luxury

A Riverboat Elephant Walk

While the feluccas and riverboats might be fascinating to watch, and the mosques fun to photograph, just the River Nile shoreline held some interest for me as well. There is much agriculture along the riverbanks, including date palm orchards:

Date palm orchard

There are even felucca-inspired riverboats plying these waters:

A riverboat cruiser sporting two lateen sails

I don’t know how hight that riverboats rates, but I do know that Jaz Cruises and the Jaz C...

Nile Cruise — Finally Casting Off for the Cruise

Jaz Celebrity atrium

After overnighting in Aswan and visiting Abu Simbel, we made it back to Jaz Cruises‘ riverboat Jaz Celebrity to begin our Nile cruise to Luxor on 27 February in the afternoon. The pictures you’ll see today and Wednesday weren’t all taken on that day, but were spread out over the course of the cruise. I did this to give you the flavor of this segment of the River Nile, so I hope you won’t mind the jumping around. And much of that flavor comes from the traditional Nile sail...

Fun Photo Friday — Abu Simbel Favorites

Statues of Ramses II, a.k.a., Ramesses the Great; Abu Simbel

One thing about Abu Simbel I neglected to mention Monday or Wednesday is an interesting factoid, but first I have a little riddle for you. Are you ready? Well, then, here goes:

Question: How do you hide a couple of massive temples this enormous in size?

Answer: No need. The Egyptian desert will hide them for you.

What do I mean by that? I’ll explain in a moment, after today’s photo gallery/slide show:

Now for an amazing fact...

Nile Cruise — Touring Abu Simbel

Horus

The Ancient Egyptian god Horus had many roles. Horus was not just the god of the Sun (his right eye), as you can see depicted above with the sun perched upon his head. Horus was also was god of the sky, including the Moon (his left eye) as well, kingship, healing, protection, and various other realms. Horus was one busy little falcon. Horus also had many iterations, but he is most commonly depicted as a falcon. And Horus wasn’t the only Egyptian god with many different depictions. So, t...

Nile Cruise — Heading South by Road to Abu Simbel

Abu Simbel — Great Temple of Ramesses II (left); Small Temple of Hathor and Nefertari

Bright and early the next morning, after our Philae Temple adventure of the day before, we met up with our exceptional companion/guide for this trip, Mohamad Salah. Our boat, Jaz Celebrity, was still moored in Aswan, and not scheduled to depart until early afternoon, which left us with time for an optional excurstion to Abu Simbel. As this excursion would take us close to the Egypt-Sudan border, and as relat...

Fun Photo Friday — Philae Temple Complex Favorites 2

Philae Temple Complex

Today I finish with these final Fun Photo Friday favorites. Next week it’s time to head south, toward Egypt’s border with Sudan, for a visit to the immense temples at Abu Simbel. Until then:

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Nile Cruise — Touring Philae Temple Complex 4

The Temples of Philae

Philae Temple Complex. So much to see. So much to do. So much to photograph. So much history to absorb. An absolutely great start to our River Nile cruise, and we haven’t even set sail yet. Many thanks again to Luxor And Aswan Travel and our fantastic guide Mohamad Salah. Now for today’s final look (well, except for this week’s Fun Photo Friday, of course) at Philae Temple with his photo gallery/slide show:

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