For those that enjoy cats, you can’t visit Egypt and not see and talk about the cats. This may be one of the places cats were domesticated. Ancient Egyptians revered cats and the Arabs also have a soft spot for them as Mohammed did.

On our last day in Egypt we went out to the pyramids at the Giza plateau. The previous two days were windy and there was blowing sand and dust. Today was windy, but very little blowing sand and dust.

There were more signs of Christmas in Egypt than I expected. From gingerbread houses in some hotels, to Santa Claus and a few nativity scenes.

Talking with our guide it seems like even some Muslims in Egypt are giving gifts at Christmas.

We spent our Christmas day visiting some churches. Most churches in Egypt are Eastern Orthodox, so they celebrate Christmas on January 7, so it wasn’t Christmas day for them. We visited the Hanging Church first.

Today we flew from Luxor back to Cairo. It was windy and a bit of a dust storm in Cairo. The visibility in Cairo wasn’t great. There was a motorboat ride on the Nile in the afternoon, then a group of six of us on the tour organized a car through the hotel to go out to the Pyramids Sound and Light show.

Today is a packed day, Karnak Temple in the morning, then a trip out to the Valley of the Kings for some more tombs, then Luxor Temple in the late afternoon.

These are in the modern town of Luxor, over the years it’s had many names. In the Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom it was called Thebes, and was the capital of Upper Egypt. With the two major temples, the priests here had considerable power.

We had another early departure for a two-hour bus ride to Dendera Temple. The water is a bit low on the Nile this time of year, so the boat can’t sail closer and make it a 20-minute bus ride.

We went to the Valley of the Kings today. This is where many New Kingdom Pharaohs are buried. We saw four tombs, Ramses IV, Tutankhamen, Merenptah and Ramses III.

We left Kom Ombo at 4am and went to Edfu. This is one of the reasons I like traveling by ship, the ship can sail while you sleep and eat, allowing you to arrive rested and ready to go.

Edfu Temple is dedicated to the god Horus. This temple was used as a refuge by the locals when the Romans banned the old religion and non-Christian worship. Living in the temple, the fires covered the ceilings with soot, covering most paintings. Later it was abandoned and filled and covered with sand. Locals built their houses on top of the sand covering the temple.

Today started with a visit to Philae Island which has the Temple of Isis. This temple was mostly built during the last dynasty, the Ptolemies. The temple was flooded in 1902 when the British built the Aswan low dam to grow more Egyptian cotton. It was moved from underwater to a higher island in the late 60’s along with other structures that would be flooded by the high dam. Much of the colorful paint deteriorated while it was underwater.