A slow day today – nothing planned until 11:30 AM and even that was an optional trip to a cotton goods store (cotton is a big crop in Egypt) and a jewelry store. We did cotton but not jewelry.

Then a pleasant lunch with Doug and Judith by the swimming hole (this is a pretty fancy resort kind of hotel with at least six restaurants). Bags out at 2:00 and on the bus at 2:30.

I’m going to save you from a description of the Luxor temple except to say it’s big, fairly well preserved and made by, you guessed it, Ramses II. Actually, Amenhotep III built about half of it but after 30 years on the throne Ramses II had all mention of his predecessor chiseled off of all of Amenhotep’s statues and inscriptions in the temple. It’s all Ramses II, all the time.

Another interesting note: The Romans modified it some; so, as usual, did the Christians. The Muslims, not realizing that there was an Egyptian temple buried under all that sand, built a mosque on top of the temple. Somehow, they’ve straightened out the mess. Today there are two mosques, the original and a new one close by, and Ramses II’s temple.

So now we’re sitting in the airport waiting lounge. It’s a little more than an hour from here to Cairo and we’ll get there around 8 PM.