May 20 Part 2

(Main crops today are sugar cane, tomatoes, bananas, and other fruits)
After the Valley of the Kings, we crossed back over the Nile, supposedly over the very spot that, as a baby, Moses had been put in the water (give or take a few hundred miles), and bundled into a huge hotel (approx 400 people had left the ship to go on this excursion) for a buffet lunch in Luxor.
Food was good but I'm proud to say, that our middle eastern food at home is authentic and  just as tasty.
(White birds, possibly cormorants, in the trees)
 And onwards to the Luxor Temple, which
was linked to the Karnak Temple, via the Avenue of the Sphinxes, that was used for celebratory processions, and where it is believed that Cleopatra (the last of seven Cleopatras) visited with Mark Anthony. Excavators have unearthed roughly half of the original 1350 Sphinxes and restoration work continues.
Luxor posseses 1/3 of all the ancient monuments, in the world.
(Coptic church bottom right corner was built in 1907, partially covering part of the 2.7 km Avenue of the Sphinxes).

(bottom right corner, one of the many Nile river cruise boats).
Building of the Karnak Temple, began around 2055 BC to around 100 AD. Along with Angkor Wat in Cambodia, it is considered to be ones of the largest religious structures in the world. I'm actually not sure which one is largest. Depends which source you're reading, I suppose. 
Two obelisks are featured here. One built by Queen Hatshepsut and the other by her father, measuring 31 and 20 meters high. Carved in one piece in a quarry, pulled by ropes to a ship on the Nile, erected using levers, and solidified 11 meters below ground so that they have remained standing through time and earthquakes. The shape was meant to symbolize a ray of sunshine and they were built to commemorate individuals and to celebrate the Sun God, Ra.

The scarob sitting on this pillar, is a symbol of good luck.
And then, the longish trip back to the port. In Luxor, I had seen a sign advertising Mc Donald's, but thankfully never actually saw the restaurant .
We'd left the ship and were on the bus for 6:30 in the morning and reboarded just in time for a late supper, so a very long day.

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