WPC: Weathered ( at Agikia Island, Nile, Egypt )

My beautiful picture

Weekly Photo Challenge: Trio ( Felucca)

This week’s photo challenge is Trio.

To drift down the Nile at Luxor was one of my biggest life dreams.

This photo was taken while drifting down the Nile on a feluuca.

There were three feluccas behind us when I turned my back around and took this photo.

What an amazing view!

Here is a description of Felucca from Wikipedia:

A felucca  is a traditional wooden sailing boat used in protected waters of the Red Sea and eastern Mediterranean including Malta, and particularly along the Nile in Egypt, Sudan, and also in Iraq. Its rig consists of one or two lateen sails.

They are usually able to board ten passengers and the crew consists of two or three people. Despite being made obsolete by motorboats and ferries, feluccas are still in active use as a means of transport in Nile-adjacent cities like Aswan or Luxor. They are especially popular among tourists who can enjoy a quieter and calmer mood than motorboats have to offer.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Grid (Luxor)

This week’s DP photo challenge is Grid.

Here is another photo taken in Egypt in Year 2000.

My beautiful picture

As someone who likes architecture and spatial distribution, I think this pictures illustrates very well the perspective of a series of columns and lintels in the ancient city of Luxor.

I also like the blend in the family of colors.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Wall (Egypt)

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Here are some walls in Egypt which I will always remember.

The original photos were taken with a SLR non digital camera as slides in year 2000.

The slide images are converted to digital images.

I must admit that I do not know a lot of background about the history / story behind the walls.

While many of the walls are of brown or ‘earth” colors, some of the interior walls do have stunning colors.

Please enjoy 🙂

Weekly Photo Challenge: Between (Columns)

Lately, I have been too carried away by my new series of posts on my wife’s 5400 Miles journey into the US.

To the point that I have almost forgot posting on the WPC’s Theme of Between.

Here are a couple of images taken at Luxor, Egypt.

I was stunned by the big stone columns I saw at Luxor.

Not only the columns but the big beams between the columns.

The underside of the beams are painted – that’s unbelievable!

PS The images have been scanned from my old photos of year 2000.

 

Wordless Wednesday (Headless)

Wordless. . . . . . . . . . . . .also headless!

Photo of headless statutes, with one head on the ground, taken in Luxor, Egypt in 2000.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Illumination

We only see because objects are illuminated, either by the sun, the moon, the stars or other artificial sources. In this post, I am trying to limit myself to artificial sources for illumination as otherwise, I may just flood this post with pictures.

Thomas Edison’s invention of the light bulb has forever changed the world. Our activities do not necessarily have to stop after  sunset. The views after dark in many places may also be very attractive.

This is a familiar sight you see every night in Hong Kong if you view from the Kowloon side, weather permitting. Many cities called themselves city of light; HK has the added benefit that it can look so charming in the night with the lights on from the tall buildings fronting the harbour together with the colored reflections in the sea.

The Pest side of Budapest looks so picturesque even during night-time, with the reflection from the River Danube.

The town of Split in Croatia looked ablazed on the night of Saint Domiuus Festival. The blue color came from the blue lights of the stage where they have musical performance.

As always, I am charmed by the  lights and the reflections off the sea. The picture below is the Osaka harbor, Japana with the ferries wheel.

Another example would be the harbor lights in the old port of Dubrovnik, Croatia. The sight was so charming that we couldn’t resist gazing out to the night scenes.

Alfresco dining out in Dubrovnik is an experience that we would not forget. People really seemed to be enjoying themselves and , of course, their dinners.

Walking back to our hotel up hill of the Dubrovnik harbor, we were guided only by the street nights.

You can’t imagine how an airport will work at night without any illumination. The picture below was taken at the Istanbul airport before taking a night flight.

Sorry I have to show this picture again as it shows how the vast space within the Blue Mosque is illuminated by circles of lights hanging from the roof.

Back near home, this is a tea tasting shop in ChongQing, China with cylindrical lights hanging from above at the shop front to attract customers.

Downtown Beijing, China in an area which is named TianJie where they have installed a gigantic TV screen (upper left hand corner) as a big roof over a pedestrian area, with shops on the right.

Again, I can’t help repeat posting a picture which was taken in Luxor, Egypt with the colossal columns illuminated by lights; while seemingly tiny people passed by.

So, let there be light. . . . . . . . . . .  .  and cast away the darkness.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Big (2)

These ancient columns at Luxor, Egypt are not only big but colossal. People walking past the columns are dwarfed by the columns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Egypt – Photographs and Memories

Never had the time to work on old photos and negatives until now. The photos taken in my trip to Egypt are faded. The images from scanning the negatives are not much better; the colors are basically gone and require some touching up.

Nevertheless, the faded photos bring back a lot of memories of my trip to Egypt in January 2000. . . . . an unforgettable journey to see the Seven Wonders of the World.

While flying to Egypt, I was sitting next to an Egyptian. We started chatting. Before unboarding, he left me with contact details just in case I needed them on the trip. He was  a nice man, in fact, he was the only nice Egyptian I came across  in the trip.

On the first day wandering around in the streets of Cairo, I was approached by a seemingly friendly young man who was eager to show me where I could get some Tourist Information. Then, he asked whether I wanted changing my money into local currency, when I politely declined. . . . . . he suddenly changed into another man, scolding me out loud on the street. . . . and in foul language.

We first travelled to Saqqara, 30 km south of Cairo. At Saqqara, the oldest complete stone building complex known in history was built: Djoser’s step pyramid, built during the Third Dynasty. Some people said the step pyramid was a trial construction before the Egyptians  built the more robust pyramids at Giza.

Hiring a taxi was not always the best way to travel. . . .  the driver stopped his car in the middle of nowhere and refused to take us to our destination if we do not pay him  extra money. The same thing happened to riding  camels at Giza, they refused to let you down from the camel back if you do not pay them further money . In any case, it was awesome to see the pyramids and Sphinx at Giza. In fact, when first built, the pyramids had a special stone cladding all over the surface. Now, you can only see some remnants near to the apex.

The pleasures of travelling were marred by such incidents. Travelling to Luxor by car was also quite an experience too. We travelled in a convoy with armed soldiers guarding in front and behind a line of cars.

I can’t help being amazed at the many ruins, statues without heads, columns, ancient construction at Luxor . The photo I like best is this one with the head of the statue on the ground.

Visiting The Valley of the Kings had always been on my mind. It is an ancient place of burials for the kings. While there, I was keenly aware that only 3 years ago, 57 tourists were killed in a massacre raged by anti-government bodies.

Nile has always been a life-giver to Egypt. Unlike today when much of the land is barren, in olden days, the banks of the Nile were green and lush. When we reached Aswan, we were eager to sail on a Felucca. Sailing under deep blue skies past villages frozen in time, and visiting the magnificent temples of ancient Egypt and the Boubian Village were just some of the experiences that make sailing down the Nile a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

The Philae Temple was almost lost to the water when the Aswan Dam was built in 1960. The temple, which is now relocated to the Agikia Island,  was dedicated to the goddess Isis, the wife of Osiris and mother of Horus. It took us by awe when we realized that the temple was built in BC 380-362.

Abu Simbel is the most spectacular ancient Egyptian monument that I’ve visited so far.  Flying 174 mile south from Aswan, just before landing, the plane flew close to the artificial mountain and the colossal statues. The view was astounding – as almost everything  in Egypt seems to be. Again, to save the gigantic statues from the rising water in Lake Nasser, the statues and the temple which were cut into manageable pieces, were transported and painstakingly reassembled on higher ground.

Daily contacts with the Egyptian people in my trip did not suggest that they were a happy people. There must be reasons behind it. Hope that the recent uprising in Egypt is the beginning of a happier Egypt!