We had an early flight from Cairo to Luxor. Only about an hour to get there.

We were joined by 4 other Canadians from Puslinch Ontario, Graham and Dawn and Ron and Gaye. They had been staying with friends in Cairo and are joining us on the cruise.

After getting checked into our rooms and exploring the ship it was time for lunch, followed by a tour to the Karnak Temple. The Karnak Temple is considered one of ancient Egypt’s largest building projects. Each King added on and tried to out do his predecessor. The Temple was looted over the years but still has many impressive structures, including huge columns and obelisks. One obelisk is 97 feet tall and weighs approximately 320 tons. It is made of solid granite and took 7 months to carve. How they moved it from the quarry and erected it is one of the marvels of this incredible place.

The Karnak Temple and the Luxor Temple (our next stop) were once joined by the Avenue of the Sphinxes. The human headed Sphinxes went 3 km. Today there are some at each temple but the middle was once occupied by homes. The government of Egypt has removed most of the homes but a church remains in the middle and negotiations to move it are understandably difficult.

Our visits to both Temples was very interesting but the heat was pretty intense so we couldn’t spend as much time as they deserved.

Some pool time, dinner and an early evening for all of us.