[Note by John] Back when I was still young (12 or so), I discovered the
marvels of archeology, the vicarious and real joys of discovering a
tomb forgotten in the mists of time. I devoured books like "Gods,
Graves and Scholars", by C. W. Ceram, and dreamed of seeing with my own
eyes the pharaohs' monuments and their tombs, hidden deep in the Valley
of the Kings.
But reality intruded in the form of the terrorist attacks of a decade ago, which dampened those
dreams. Then, one day, a couple of friends made this trip and convinced
us it was possible. (Merci, Alain et Danielle! Ted
and Margeret, too.) Which just goes to show ya, you mustn't give up on
your dreams.
Unless you're just looking for the sea, which is not unique to Egypt,
any trip there must concentrate on the Nile Valley. Indeed,
Egypt itself would be impossible without the Nile. This great river,
the world's longest, has nourished civilization for over five
millennia. Although it represents only about 4% of the surface area
of Egypt, the Nile is host to about 90% of the country's population.
Our organzied tour, a first for us, consisted of two full days in Cairo followed
by a one-week cruise on the Nile between Luxor and Aswan. It was quite
simply wonderful. The tour was well organized, though somewhat dense;
the hotel and boat were excellent; the cuisine delicious (and there was
enough of it!); the other members of the group (the "lotuses") were
extraordinarily sympathiques (not a single jerk in the group) and the
magnificent monuments of the pharaonic past were all there waiting for
us.
We hope you will derive some pleasure from reading the tale of our trip
and -- especially -- from looking at our photographs. You can choose a
place from the above map or from the following list.
