Pictured below was our cruise ship on the Nile River. We've never taken a cruise on one of the gigantic cruise ships that go in the ocean, so I don't have anything to compare it too, but our room was the size of a regular hotel room
Here's a view of the Nile as we were going up the river towards Cairo, since the Nile flows North. It was nice to travel at night and wake up in a new city each day.
The young man who cleaned our room would leave towel figures in our room for us each day. It was a fun surprise, which I think happens on regular cruise ships.
Our first stop after breakfast was Kom Ombo Temple.
Close up of the massive pillars we were standing next to.
It's claim to fame is that it was dedicated to two different Egyptian gods. It was always interesting to me when there was still remnants of the paint that was used in ancient times.
Somewhere in all the hieroglyphics that covered the walls and pillars was the first representation of surgical instruments.
The temple was dedicated to a crocodile god, so hundreds of mummified crocodiles were found in the area. We went to a crocodile museum to see some of these mummies, but weren't allowed to take pictures.
We went back to the ship for lunch and some down time, then at 2pm we left the ship again to tour the Edfu Temple. We were taken to a scruffy-looking horse and carriage.
Edfu is the second largest temple in Egypt.
It's also said to be the most beautiful and best preserved temple in Egypt. One of it's striking features was the entrance, with these wall that are 118 feet high! The theory is that flags would have been placed in the indentations.
This is the interior courtyard of the temple after passing through the entrance pictured above.
Below are carvings on the ceiling and a close up of the ten-foot tall statue of Horus, the god the temple is dedicated to.
This is a picture of the inner sanctuary, the holiest area of the temple.
The next several pictures are just of city scenes as we rode on the carriage ride back to the boat.
It was easier to get pictures of every day scenes of life in Egypt from an open-air carriage than from the windows of our tour bus.
Women in burqas.
Men in traditional garb.
It wasn't unusual to see donkey-drawn wagons as we drove through the city streets.
The next morning we were picked up at 4:15am and taken to a motor boat across the Nile to the west bank of the river. There was a full moon, so it was shining on the river and looked awesome.
These pictures were taken on the boat.
We had signed up for an optional tour to take a hot air balloon ride.
Apparently the air is usually the most still very early in the morning, which is why we were picked up before dawn.
There were lots of balloons waiting to be filled with tourists.
The baskets were quite large and could hold about 25 people.
As we were floating in the air
we saw a lovely sunrise in the east.
We floated over some historical sites--pictured below is the temple of Queen Hatshepsut.
One thing that really struck me was the contrast between the land near the Nile River and the rest of the countryside, as the picture below shows.
This is the land near the Nile, cultivated into farm land.
This is what is looked like about two miles away from the river.
This was Lissa and Jason's first hot air balloon ride, and I think they liked it.
We'd been in a hot air balloon before and were happy to take another ride, especially in Egypt!
A view showing many of the balloons floating around that morning!
This photo was taken as we were about to land, so we were getting closer to the ground.
It was a spectacular experience, and was over too soon!
After the hot air balloon flight we went to a roadside cafe with a colorful interior, where we waited to meet up with the rest of our tour group who hadn't done it.
Our first stop after breakfast was Kom Ombo Temple.
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