Gail Shelton’s trip to Egypt in March was the topic of her talk at Kiwanis on Tuesday, July 8. This was her first solo trip meaning she went with a tour but did not know the other people on the tour. She said she had been fascinated with Egypt from a very young age possibly because of all the great art and the immortality of Egypt. Also because of hearing about Egypt in the history of the Bible. She felt perfectly safe. Egypt is in Africa and a long way from Israel. However, they did have a guard from the hotel that went with them. 

She flew from New Orleans to London to Cairo. Their tour guide was a Muslim woman, dressed in western wear and an Egyptologist. She was very knowledgeable. The first day they went to see the pyramids. The bottom of the pyramid is 13 acres. There was a tomb in the pyramid but it had been robbed long years ago so it was empty. She also rode a camel. They also went to the New Egyptian museum which was near the pyramids. They are talking about making a walkway from the pyramids to the museum but the tour guide was against it because it would disturb ancient artifacts that are still in the area. 

Then they flew to Luxor which is on the Nile River. They went to the Karnak Temple. Then they took a 4 day cruise on the Nile River. The boats were small. On their boat there were only 2 tour groups, about 32 people. They had great food and the rooms were amazing. The Nile is emerald green and clear. It is the largest river in the world. After that they went to King Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings. There have been around 60 tombs excavated out of about 100. King Tut’s tomb was the only tomb that was not robbed. There is controversy about moving King Tut from the old Egyptian museum to the new Egyptian museum. The last stop on the Nile cruise was the Aswan Dam. 

Cairo is not a clean city. There are 23 million people who live there. The downtown historic district is surrounded by ugly apartment buildings that just keep moving out. The farther out you are the poorer it is. They can’t keep up with infrastructure. There are many different kinds of transportation including wagons with donkeys, scooters, motorcycles, cars, etc. Water is a problem. The only green area is close to the river. They grow sugar cane, alfalfa, and papyrus. 

Gail then took the extension tour to Jordan which does share a border with Israel. This was their tour guide’s first tour group in 18 months, since Hamas. Amman is very modern because of oil money. It is much cleaner and there are fewer people. They went to Petra and stayed in an ancient village in the city of Petra. They saw Mt. Nebo where Moses died. There is a big church there. You could see the Jordan River, the Dead Sea and Jerusalem in the far distance. The Dead Sea water was oily and thick. You could not go under. At the Dead Sea there are many beautiful resorts but they are empty, no tourists. Tourism has been down in Egypt and Jordan for several years. 

She flew from Amman to London. The scenery from the plane was amazing, snow on the Alps and many other beautiful sights. The books that she creates from her trips are available to see at the Pea Patch.