Muscat

Sultan Qaboos bin Said (pronounced like the caboose of a train but put the emphasis on 'ca') has ruled Oman for over 47 years so a lot of buildings, roads and mosques carrying his name.

One of the yachts with our ship in the background.

As we are driving to the mosque our driver points to two 'cruise' ships in the harbor and tells us that those are the Sultan's yachts - one for him and one for his wives!!

The Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque is the 4th largest in Arabia with Mecca the largest. There are two prayer rooms, a small one for the women who usually pray at home but occasionally want to pray at the mosque and a large one for the men. The women's room will hold 650 and the men's will hold up to 6500. If needed prayers can be held on the plaza surrounding the mosque for an additional 12,000 men. There are five minarets to represent the five pillars of Islam - one God, prayer, charity, cleansing before prayer and a haj to Mecca. The Sultan paid for the mosque to be built and it took 6 years to complete it in 2001. The dome is mosaic tile, the chandelier is crystal and weighs 8 tons and the carpet on the floor is all one piece made by the hands of young Irani girls.

Our next stop was though a city gate to the bordering town of Mutrah where we shopped in the Souq or market place. We then went through another city gate to Old Muscat and explored a museum named Bait Al Zubair. Displays of clothing, jewelry, stamps and armaments filled one building. We walked past an ancient home made from palm tree fronds and into a more modern display of an Omani home.

From the ship as we are leaving the harbor.

Really big incense burner.

Salalah

We docked around 8 am but our tour did not leave until 1pm so we had a leisurely morning. Oman is on the Gulf of Aden and bordered by Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates. It's main export is oil and gas, it has about 4.5 million people, and is ruled by a sultan.

Salalah is on the west end of Oman, about 125 miles from the Yemen border. It is the capital of the Dhufor state and is the 2nd largest city in Oman. The tomb of Prophet Imran who is considered the father of Moses is near here as is the tomb of Job. This area is famous for the harvesting and production of frankincense.

cemetery

Our tour took us to some of the heritage sites in the region that are important to the Salalah people. Bin Ali's tomb and the cemetery was our first stop. He came from the Prophet Mohammad in Mecca to Mircat to teach Islam to the people. He became a beloved leader of the city so everyone wants to be buried near him.

Sumhuran Archeological Site

Sumhuran Archeological site was occupied from 300 BC to 500 AD. It is on the coast near a protected cove but close to the mountain where the frankincense trees grow. You will only find frankincense trees at about it 1200 foot elevation and only in this area. Frankincense is the sap of the tree, dried then burned for its smell, disinfectant properties and medicinal uses. It was an important trade item, making this an important center from China on the east to Africa in the west and up to Israel and the Mediterranean Sea countries. It is a walled city that held around 300 people, a temple and numerous storage rooms.

Bedroom

Frankincense Tree

Our last stop was at Taqah Castle, a relatively new building built by the Shaq in the 1800's for the Sultan's grandmother. In the early 1900's it was turned over to the local governor, or wali, until 2003 when it became a tourist attraction. This is where we saw a frankincense tree, an Arabian almond tree and date palm.

Cruising Days

We are cruising in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden these past three days and tomorrow we will move into the Arabian Sea which is part of the Indian Ocean. To keep all the passengers active the cruise director and activities director have put together lots of things to do. There is a lecture every day by David Price Williams who is from the Smithsonian Institute and has given us some interesting information about the area we have been visiting. Today's lecture was about the invention of the alphabet from over 6000 years ago. There are games all day like bingo, bridge, casino games, baggo, paddle tennis, putting contests, etc. We could go to enrichment seminars on beauty, back or foot pain, diet, jewelry, and more. We have passed up dance lessons and cooking classes.

This morning they put on a County Fair with lots of games hosted by the different departments. The kitchen staff had a guess this smell, engineering had a bolt puzzle, destinations had a guess where this picture was taken. Then there was a ring toss, a ladder game, bean bag toss, blind make-up application, and, our favorite, Shake Your Booty. They filled a Kleenex box with ping pong balls and tied it around your hips and at the signal you shake all the balls out! John was really quick!

Valley of the Kings Burial Grounds

No one is allowed to take pictures in the Valley of the Kings (because years ago some Italian dignitaries abused the privilege). A burial ground would always be on the west side of the Nile, a place of truth and this particular site is under a mountain with a pyramid shaped top so there was lots of power here as well as a way to the hereafter.

In the late 1800's the first tomb was found and since then there have been 62 caves or tombs located. King Tut was the last tomb found here until just 10 days ago a new tomb was unearthed with an intact mummy believed to be the wife of a priest. Speaking of mummies, almost all of them have been moved out of the area if they hadn't been destroyed or ground up to use as an elixor. 25 are in Cairo (14 intact), 3 in Luxor and some can be found in most of the major cities of Europe.

The hieroglyphics found in each tomb tell the story of that person's life, depict his enemies that he has conquered, show him or her going to heaven and judgement and also tell the stories from the Book of the Dead. We entered three tombs, Ramses IV, in cave 2, Ramses IX in cave 6, and Thutmosis III in cave 27. This last tomb was up the side of the mountain then inside we descended two levels, each about 60 steps, to the location of the sarcophagus, a granite coffin.

We drove past the Valley of the Queens but did not enter it as it is not as special. We stopped for pictures of Al-Deirdre Al-Bahdrhi Temple, where Queen Hatshepsut, the daughter of Amman-Ra is buried. It is considered a mortuary temple. Surrounding the temple were what looked like holes in the mountain side. This is where the soldiers were buried so they could protect the queen.

King Tut on right & his wife.

Our next stop was at Habu Temple or the Temple of Media, built by Ramses III. Ramses III was like a modern day architect as he had lots of buildings, temples and statues built. This temple was to commemorate military actions. On the left wall are the images of Ammon-Ra with his wife, Mut, behind him and facing him is Ramses III.

Our last stop before heading back to the ship was at The Colossi of Memnon. These two statutes are of Pharoah Amenhotep but were claimed by Agamemnon, a Greek hero of the Trojan War when one of the statues began to whistle, supposedly calling to his mother, the goddess of dawn. A few years ago someone tried to steal them which resulted in them breaking apart.

The 3 1/2 hour drive back was spent napping!

Wonderful, Astounding, Awesome Luxor

WOW! Our trip to Luxor, Egypt was all I said in the title and more! But where to start? Our guide was an Egyptologist and loved sharing all of his knowledge. We both were overloaded with information and until our second day we were unable to make sense of a lot of what he was talking about.

We start with learning about the Egyptians beginning 4000 years ago but they have found records and dated ruins from 10,000 years ago. It was in 3200 BC that King Menes unified Egypt and brought stability to the area. He is the one who established Memphis (today Cairo), Egypt. Jump ahead to 2700 BC on the Nile River which is 4900 miles long ending in Egypt. The kingdom is divided with Luxor in the South and Alexandria in the North so the hieroglyphics also indicate this by painting the crowns of kings, pharaohs and gods white for South and Red for North. Jump ahead again to 1500 BC where we find Luxor and her temples and on the west side of the Nile is the burial grounds for the pharaohs, kings and their wives. This is the Valley of the Kings under a mountain whose peak is shaped like the great pyramid. But that is tomorrow's subject.

The hieroglyphics we saw are depicted over and over and have certain meanings to the Egyptians. The papyrus plant is the debts of the Kings. We saw its bloom mostly as the capitol on the columns. It was used not only for paper but to make boats (its smell repelled crocs) and mattresses. The Lotus flower represents beauty and is seen at the top of the columns. The sycamore tree is the tree of life. The anch or cross with a loop at the top is the Key to Life. The asp or cobra represents life, the head of a Jackel is death, baboons represent wisdom, the scarab (dung beattle) is the sun, a ram's head is night, a shepherds crook represents the ruler, and many symbols have more than one meaning.

The most important symbol is the sun disk which is the symbol for Amman-Ra. Ra is the sun god and Amman was a pharaoh who was revered as a god and was believed to turn into the god Amman-Ra. The sun disk will be over the head of Amman-Ra in all the hieroglyphics and sometimes over Ramses III.

Rams head Sphinx with Ammon-Ra.

Our first stop was at the Karnak Temple complex in Luxor which was known as Thebes in ancient times. It took 4000 years to build the complex as each king or pharaoh had to add to it, move things around, and rebuild to suit their status. The Avenue of the Ram's Head Sphinx is lined on both sides by the sphinxes and it supposedly runs from Karnak to the Temple of Luxor, several miles away. The ram's head is one incarnation of Amman-Ra. The open courtyard is the contra-temple and is the eyes and ears of the gods.

The courtyard with 134 columns is called the Hall of Shinning because the roof would have let light into the area in a certain way and the columns would have been painted and polished to shine.

The Temple of Luxor was built by Ramses III. He is the one wearing the double crown shown with a cone shaped white crown on top and the red crown with the cobra on the forehead. This temple has 64 columns in its open courtyard and they have the lotus capitols. Ramses II had 52 sons.

The god Amman-Ra would come to the Luxor Temple to meet his wife as a human then he would travel the avenue of the sphinxes to Karnak and along the way return to his god form so no one would see him return.

There is a Muslim Mosque built on top of the temple and a room inside the temple was made into a Catholic Church in 3rd century AD. This was done by Alexander the Great.

Avenue of the Sphinxes.

We checked into a 5 star hotel before returning to Karnak for a sound and light show. This made for a late dinner on the patio by the pool overlooking the Nile river. Beautiful evening.

Petra

Yesterday I attended a lecture by a National Geographic archeologist, David Price Williams, and today we got to see all that he related to us and more. Let me try to condense his lecture down to a reasonable few sentences.

Never thought Jordan would be this mountainous.

Outside the entrance to Petra.

Over a mile like this to enter.

Petra means rocks and some call this city the Rose-Red City. It was settled by the Nabatean peoples in the 2nd Century BC with a lot of Greek and Roman influences in their architecture. It was located on the Silk Road and the Frankencense and Myrrh route up from what is now Saudi Arabia so the Nabateans were very rich. Most of what is seen today are tombs as the homes they built have been destroyed by earthquakes. They quit building after about 300 years. The Romans added to some of the area and they all left the area shortly after the Byzantines built a church there in 363 AD.

First glimpse of The Treasury.

It is also said that Moses led his people through this area, though maybe not in Petra, during their wilderness wondering and there is a mountain with a tomb on top that is the final resting place of Aaron, Moses' brother.

We'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Colosseum carved from solid rock.

Royal Tomb.

Ceiling inside Royal Tomb.

Egyptian attempt to copy the Tomb.