Back recovering from three weeks of travel in Egypt, Sinai, Saudia Arabia, Jordan, and Israel and trying to process the 4,000 pictures from the trip. I guess you have to start with the pyramids. What can you say? Yes, they are big and right at the edge of the city. But then like all cities I guess they have changed in the past 50 years since I studied about them in grade school. All of my pictures I saw them are going to be different. 
The biggest thing that prevents your enjoyment of the pyramids is the people. Many of them are tourists both local and foreign like ourselves. Some of the children are school groups on a field trip but it seemed that half of the people most of them children wanted to sell you something or help you so you would give them a tip.
The Sphinx was very impressive and the face was even more damaged than I had thought. It made you wonder just how long will some of these treasures last with number of people touching, taking home pieces, and breathing on them, This is even more true as we visited the Valley of the Kings and Queens. Many of the carvings and painting on the walls of the tombs were outstanding. Many of the tombs were closed for restoration and some of the walls were protected by glass but in places I saw people touching the walls and I know the fact we are in such a closed area will speedup the destruction of these artifacts that lasted so long while they were covered with sand and protected from human contact.
Well it was a good trip and I will have more to say. We traveled with 21 people and it was a great group. But really we were always with another group of 22 people and that many people just adds to the overcrowding that I mentioned before. It was a fast moving trip so it also allowed little time for careful picture taking but of the 4,000 I am sure I will have some good pictures. More pictures on my web page and Flickr page.
The biggest thing that prevents your enjoyment of the pyramids is the people. Many of them are tourists both local and foreign like ourselves. Some of the children are school groups on a field trip but it seemed that half of the people most of them children wanted to sell you something or help you so you would give them a tip.
The Sphinx was very impressive and the face was even more damaged than I had thought. It made you wonder just how long will some of these treasures last with number of people touching, taking home pieces, and breathing on them, This is even more true as we visited the Valley of the Kings and Queens. Many of the carvings and painting on the walls of the tombs were outstanding. Many of the tombs were closed for restoration and some of the walls were protected by glass but in places I saw people touching the walls and I know the fact we are in such a closed area will speedup the destruction of these artifacts that lasted so long while they were covered with sand and protected from human contact.
Well it was a good trip and I will have more to say. We traveled with 21 people and it was a great group. But really we were always with another group of 22 people and that many people just adds to the overcrowding that I mentioned before. It was a fast moving trip so it also allowed little time for careful picture taking but of the 4,000 I am sure I will have some good pictures. More pictures on my web page and Flickr page.
