We woke up in Edfu this morning. We had an early wake-up call and set off on the short bus ride to the temple before breakfast.

The temple at Edfu is particularly well-preserved, probably because it was buried under desert sand until 1860!

There were a series of friezes on a long wall depicting the battle between Horus and Seth which I really loved – as Wael said, it was probably the first cartoon!

After the tour of the temple we went to the nearby market where I bought a T-shirt and Paula a bag. Then it was back to the boat for breakfast.

We had a meeting mid-morning to discuss the itinerary for the next couple of days. The rest of the day was at leisure on the boat, as we sail to Luxor.

Again, there was so much to see as we cruised along the Nile:

During the morning we passed through the locks at Esna, which was quite an interesting experience.

We arrived in Luxor in the late afternoon.  Like most of Egypt, Luxor is a mix of ancient and modern.  It has some modern areas, but there are still lots of horse-drawn carts around. Quite a fascinating place.

On arrival at Luxor we immediately got on a bus bound for Karnak Temple.  Karnak temple is a huge, sprawling complex. We had a guided tour and were then free to wander around.

We had been told that it is lucky to walk 7 times around the statue of a scarab beetle, so the girls and I did just that, along with another family on tour with us, much to the amusement of Dad and Grant.  Hey, everyone could use a little luck, even if it comes from a dung beetle with a fancy name ;-)

We then went over to the market where Paula bargained for a necklace like a seasoned business woman. The vendor was a little too impressed with her and got a little too friendly for my liking.

We then drove to Luxor temple.  I loved Luxor temple, it was absolutley gorgeous.  As it was getting dark, the various features were lit up. So, so beautiful.

We got to see the obelisk, there were originally two, but the other one now stands in the centre of the Place de la Concorde in Paris.

An avenue of sphinxes extends towards Karnak, some of which are still in the process of being excavated – quite something to see. Unfortuantely, by this point it was really dark, so the photo didn't come out too well.

Once we had finished at the temple we drove to a Papyrus shop, where we were shown the process of making papyrus. Paula bought two lovely pictures.