Egypt (Days 2 and 3)

On the second day in Egypt, we went to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The museum didn't allow photography, even though we could touch almost everything. I took pictures on our drive out to show where the riots had been taking place. I saw two buildings that had burned down and a few people camping out in a dirt area in the center of a round-a-bout, but that was it. I think the news blew the riots out of proportion.

These are a few pictures I took of the area where the riots took place. It seems like most people just want to go along with their lives peacefully. The city is mostly functioning without a working government. I think that says a lot about the people's morals.

After a long car ride to the airport, we flew to Aswan where we stayed the night. Here's a picture of our hotel and the view across the Nile.

I really enjoyed our stay in Aswan. The city was much more calm than Cairo and the people were much more friendly. I think that that's true of any comparison of a small city to a large one.

The next day we took a plane to Abu Simbel in Nubia. Abu Simbel is a site with two temples, one for Remsses II and the other for his wife Queen Nefertari. By far, this was the coolest site on our trip! Originally the tombs weren't where we saw them. They were closer to the water, in the direction that the statues are facing. The Nile's floods and dams caused the Nile to rise up to the temple, so the temples were actually taken out of the rock face and placed on a man-made hill on higher ground. There's a really cool National Geographic documentary describing how these two tombs were moved.

We look much bigger in this picture than we actually are. Standing closer to the tomb, our heads don't reach the pedestal.

Above are pictures I took of the carvings below the feet of the statues. These are slaves, with their necks tied. Each slave represents a different race that the Egyptians apparently conquered. The statues themselves (shown in the first picture) show Ramesses' face on different Gods. This is to show his stature.

Notice the name of the vessel. Habibi is a term of adoration, one that Haymen used a lot. I now call my boyfriend Habibi!

A line of dromedaries racing from a tourist attraction to a Nubian village.

Of course I caught a dromedary peeing. What do you expect from me?

Later that night, we flew back to Aswan and took a boat ride up the Nile. The pictures above are from our trip. We stopped at a Nubian village to see a house of a true Nubian. I think it was another tourist trap because the house was set up perfectly for visitors... down to the cement cages with crocodiles. It made me sick to see the crocodiles with no room to move. I took pictures, but I will not post them for moral reasons. I regret taking the pictures.

That night we went to a Nubian restaurant for dinner... that made me sick for the rest of the trip, but was very delicious none the less.
This concludes our stay in Aswan.