Temples, Tombs, Museums & Pyramids

A panoramic view of the Giza Plateau. Click image for a closer look.

I'm back in NYC. Here's how I spent my last 3 days in Egypt:

Day 1 - Luxor, East Bank
- Karnak Temple
- Luxor Museum
- Luxor Temple
- Mummification Museum

Day 2 - Luxor, West Bank
Rented a bicycle and visited:
- Colossi of Memnon
- Medinat Habu
- Valley of the Kings
- Tombs of the Nobles

Day 3 - Cairo
- Pyramids of Giza
- The Great Sphinx
- Step Pyramid of Zoser

Everything was amazing, but the Mummification Museum was a waste of time and I should have skipped the Tombs of the Nobles because I was too burned out by the time I got there. Last week, when I was at the dig site at Abydos, I imagined I would post lots of pictures of all the sites I visited, but now that I'm going through my 1000+ pictures, I'm realizing that some serious editing is called for. It's already tedious enough to look at someone else's vacation photos.

There are simply too many pictures of the temples, and they are almost entirely details. If I posted any of those pictures, I wouldn't be able to adequately explain exactly what you're looking at. Both the Karnak and Luxor temples are too large to be captured on the ground with a point and shoot camera. I didn't take any photos inside any of the tombs or museums. That just leaves the pyramids, and everybody has already seen pictures of those. So here's a very small sample of some of my more interesting photographs of the Pyramids at Giza and Saqqara:

Details of the Great Pyramid of Khufu

Pyramid of Khafre
Detail of Khafre's original glistening limestone exterior which would have once covered the entire pyramid.

Pyramid of Mankaure

The Great Sphinx with the Pyramid of Khufu in the background.

Step Pyramid of Zoser, as seen during a violent dust storm in Saqqara.