Today was a fantastic day, we did all types of great things and had a lot of fun. Early in the morning, at 4:30, we left the Nefertiti Hotel, and headed towards the Nile River. There were many, many river boats used to cross the Nile. This morning, we were going to fly in the hot air balloons. The view of the city from the boat was magnificent. The city lights reflecting on the calm water made it look gorgeous.
At 5:30, we arrived to the “Balloon Station”, where all the hot air balloons take off. They taught us how we had to land, where we would be located in the balloon. There were a lot of people that were helping inflate the balloons. Fans would blow air towards the inside of the balloon, making it get inflated.
Soon enough, we were off the ground and ready to fly away! The sun had not yet risen, so it was just before dawn. Balloon after balloon would rise into the air. Everytime a balloon would rise, a group would rush in to inflate their own balloon.
As we flew over the outskirts of Luxor, we saw many green fields. There were sugar cane plantations, palm trees, and also small canals. With all the other hot air balloons, it was a beautiful view. I could go on and on about the great things we saw, but that’s for another time.
After we got down from the balloons, we ate breakfast at the Nefertiti Hotel. It was a typical Egyptian breakfast with some added international flavors. Then, we headed to the van that was going to take us to the Valley of the Kings. The Valley of the Kings is a very interesting valley. It contains the tombs of more than 20 kings, princes and other royal people. You may think that these tombs are a cave into rock, with a coffin in the middle. This is definitely not the case. Some of these tombs have many chambers on the sides, columns in the halls, and very many inscriptions on the walls.
We visited so many tombs today, that I got really tired of seeing tombs and inscriptions on walls, etc. So, after visiting the many tombs there, we went to the huge temple of Hatshepsut. Its lower terrace is 120 meters long, by 75 meters wide. It has very many columns. There isn’t that much that I remember about what we did there, because I was really tired of seeing inscriptions and ruins.
After the Temple of Hatshepsut, we went to the Valley of the Queens. This valley is nothing compared to the Valley of the Kings. There are way less inscriptions and hieroglyphics than the other tombs. But, that is not to say that they aren’t incredibly interesting and very magnificent.
Next stop, the Temple of Habu. Also, a great temple, with lots of hieroglyphics. There seems like they were going to have a concert or a show with lots of lights. They probably had around 50 or more different lights that were going to illuminate the temple. Sadly, we went there in the afternoon, so we weren’t able to see how they lit it up at night.
Later, after going to a few more temples and ruins, we went back to Luxor. There, we ate at an Egyptian restaurant. Today was an incredibly busy day, we did all types of things and visited so many places. Time to rest!