Europe Trip Pictures: Egypt, Part 2

LUXOR

Avenue of the Sphinxes, in Luxor

Obelisk outside Luxor Temple

Side shot

Luxor Temple complex. It's pretty big.

Interior of Luxor Temple

More statues and carvings

Night shot

Avenue of the Sphinxes all lit up

Karnak Temple, still in Luxor

Ram-headed sphinxes. I like these better than regular sphinxes.

Interior of Karnak

More cools columns. These things were massive.

Contiki group shot

Valley of the Kings

Tomb entrance. This is all you can see from the outside. All the cool stuff is inside, where guards will take your camera if you try to take pictures. They're assholes.

The climb to another tomb entrance

King Tut's tomb. It was really small inside. He died young, so there wasn't much time for construction.

Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, at Deir el-Bahri. This is also Level 1 of the video game Serious Sam, if anyone's ever played it. You get to run around blasting aliens with a shotgun.

Statues of Queen Hatshepsut

More Egyptian guards, just chillin' with their rifles.

Paintings on the inside

Ruins that were found in the middle of farmland

Hotel room at Luxor

Hotel pool at Luxor. Right on the bank of the Nile. Not a bad view.

Evening felucca Nile cruise

Second camel ride of the trip. This was on pavement, not sand.

Contiki caravan taking over the road

Picture taken inside the kitchen of a local home. Pets or dinner?

Irish pub in Luxor. No Guinness, but plenty of Britney Spears music. Worst Irish pub ever.

Me, Rebecca, Sara, Neesha

Out tour leader Sherif (red hat) out partying with us. He should have done it more often.

CAIRO, ROUND 2

Random mosque in downtown Cairo

Khan el-Khalili bazaar. Huge tourist trap.

Djoser's Step Pyramid, at the Saqqara necropolis

A close-up of the construction

Hole in the wall at Saqqara

The Citadel complex

Mosque of Muhammad Ali (aka Alabaster Mosque)

Another shot. With a palm tree this time. Huge difference.

Inside the mosque. It was impossible to take a picture that actually captures the scope of the interior. It's way too big.

This is what happens if you aren't covered up properly. You get to relive high school graduation.

More of the Citadel. Built by Salah al-Din in the 1170s during the Crusades. This is the same Salah al-Din that annihilated the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin and recaptured Jerusalem in 1187.