We had a clear, chilly day to hike to Petra. 

Jut as we turned a corner in the slot canyon, our guide played the theme from the Indiana Jones movies!

The Treasury is amazing though no longer open to go in and explore. Further along we came to other ruins - the Theatre

The Great Temple

The Royal Tombs

We hiked up to the Urn Tomb with its beautifully colored rocks

The view from the Urn Tomb

And a selfie on the way out

 We had a busy trip on the way to Wadi Musa, the town just beside Petra. Our first stop was at Mt. Nebo. This is said to be the spot from which Moses pointed to the Promised Land. There is a 5th century Franciscan Basilica and Shrine of Moses and an historic mosaic floor.

On the way there, we passed Bedouin villages. The white dots in this picture are the Bedouin tents (now made of polyester and cover with a layer of plastic).

Our next stop a mosaic school and shop. The shop trains and employs women and handicapped workers who might otherwise not have work. 

We drove on to Madaba to visit the beautiful St. George Greek Orthodox Church where we saw the oldest mosaic map of the Holy Land. 

We ate a wonderful lunch at Hikayet Sitti Restaurant before driving on to Petra on another hazy day. We were surprised to see a wind farm in the distance.

We were even more surprised to arrive at our hotel and see a neighbor from Chevy Chase, Maryland! She is on a similar trip with a Smithsonian group. It's a small world.

 We spent yesterday afternoon on Cairo with a visit to the old Coptic part of the city. We visited a synagogue which was previously a church. Our guide told us that there are only nine Jews in Cairo; there are more synagogues than that!

We next visited the Coptic Museum. Unfortunately, we had very little time to explore and appreciate the thousands of items there. Another trip would be time well spent.

We finished the afternoon at the Hanging Church, St. George's, formerly the Coptic Cathedral. The church is still active though no longer the cathedral.

I can't leave Cairo without mentioning the traffic. It is total chaos; cars create their own lanes of traffic; bicycles, motor scooters, tuck tucks, Horse or donkey drawn wagons, cars, vans and buses crowd together. There doesn't appear to be any speed limit - just go as fast as traffic permits. There are very few traffic lights. I will say we say very few accidents, but we heard so much honking. Oh, and pedestrians cross anywhere and everywhere! Yikes!

We got us VERY early this morning to fly to Amman. After getting visa and passing through customs, we drove to the Dead Sea. The Jordanian countryside is lovely and greener than the Sahara. That said, it look somewhat like Big Bend. Climate change has affected the amount of rainfall, and water is no scarce.

Even though the weather was quite cool, Norman went floating in the Dead Sea.

 We visited our last temple today, the Edfu Temple. Because the temple is within the town, it is one of the best preserved. 

We leave early tomorrow morning to fly back to Cairo. Then it's on to Amman and the Dead Sea and Petra.

 Yesterday was another busy day as our cruise winds down. We visited a Nubian village on the lake formed by the first Aswan Dam.

We then proceeded to the Philae Temple, another temple moved from one island in the first cataract to another to raise it above the new water level.

Next, we went to the Papyrus Institute. We weren't able to take pictures, but we did have a tutorial about papyrus making with an explanation of different varieties of papyrus. After peeling the stems and crushing the water out of the pulp, the strips of papyrus are soaked for several days to make the sugar level just right. The sugar becomes the glue which holds the overlapping strips together and gives the finished sheet the golden color. Very interesting!

After lunch back on the ship as it went downstream (north), we docked and headed walked to visit the Kom Ombo Temple. This temple is situated far enough above the Nile that it didn't need to be moved. One of the gods depicted in the carvings is the crocodile god; the people felt that, if they worshipped the crocodile, they might be safe from its harm. For the first time in our journey, the crowds were heavy; viewing the different rooms was slow and difficult. The many cruise ships on the Nile all dock for a few hours near this temple. It is an easy walk from the dock so very popular.

Norman's last picture here was of the Nilometer. This gauge measured the level of the water in the Nile which was used to determine taxes due.