Day 8 - Jan 16

Today was a 71 mile day that was picture perfect.  We started out and as usual we had to layer up as it was in the 40s.  But by lunch stop it was in the 60s.  The road conditions were perfect not much of a wind and the sun was out with a clear blue sky.  Perfect!

Road thru the morning and it seemed almost effortless.  The first 45 miles just flowed under the bike without having to strain or change gears but once or twice.  The scenery out of Luxor was almost tropical despite the low temperatures.  There were date palms everywhere.  Green, green, green framed by the brownish red mountains the lined the valley floor.  We had a lunch stop right on the banks of the Nile.  The sun was shining on the water and a gentle set of waves lapping against the bank.  I could have sat there for hours with the warm sun on my face.  I did sit there for quite a while but then had to get back on the bike and pedal away.  The rest of the afternoon ride I found my rhythm.  I started out fairly slow but then began to pickup speed.  I was coasting along at about 35kph.  The ride today took us through many small villages.  Many of the riders again were hit by stones and sticks as they went through.  I only got one rock thrown at me.  Once I saw the rock sail by I slammed on my brakes and turned around and went at them.  The kids were scared and ran in panic.  I got back to where the had thrown them and saw several duck into houses.  A mother came out and I yelled ... they don't throw stones, it is wrong!  She turned around and started yelling at the kids.  A police car pulled up to me a bit further up the road at a railroad crossing.  One of the officers said in his best broken English ...  good job.  He must have seen me yell at them.

We finished the day in the early afternoon and had time to go the the ruins of the Temple of Horace in Idfu.  It was the most preserved temple that I have been to so far.  It had room after room of beautiful wall carvings.  It is amazing to see and imagine the people who accomplished these great feats.  I have attached several pictures but again non of these comes close to what I saw.

The entrance to the temple is massive.

This is if the courtyard once through the main gates and then an entrance to the temple itself.

This is the falcon which is one of the god Harace' forms.  If you look at the first picture you see the falcon at the main gate entrance.  This will give you some scale as to the size of it.

The walls of the rooms were covered in heiroglyphics.  Each one is a story of some event or great deed.  I wish I could read them.  You could spend weeks reading all that there is in the temple.

This is what the early Christians did when they outlawed worship of the gods and idols.  They actually went into the temples and chiseled out the likenesses of some if the gods.  It is a sin what they did.