We enjoyed a camel ride over the hills to the Valley of the Kings, where we got to explore a few of the finely-preserved and exquisitely decorated tombs. We then visited the temple at Habu, and then followed that with demonstrative visits to an alabaster shop and a papyrus shop. We then enjoyed a finely-cooked lunch at our guide's house. In the afternoon, some of us visited the pool on a Nile cruise ship, and returned again for a fancy buffet dinner.

For 500 years, the Valley of the Kings was used to construct tombs for kings and nobles of the New Kingdom. It has been an area of intense archaeological exploration, most famously for the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 by Howard Carter. It is the only tomb to be discovered almost entirely intact, containing all of its treasures, unfound by tomb robbers for thousands of years.

We visited the tremendous temple complex of Karnak this morning, followed by a final temple visit at Luxor Temple. We made the long drive to the Red Sea coast at Hurghada where we spent the night.

The temple complex of Karnak is the largest ancient religious site in the world. Containing a conglomeration of temples, pylons, and chapels, it was the main place of worship for the Theban triad of gods: Amun, Mut, and Khonsu. Construction in Karnak began in the 16th century BC, and was further expanded by thirty different pharaohs.

In the morning, we boarded the ferry for the long commute across the Red Sea to Sharm el-Sheik, at the southern tip of Mount Sinai. From there, we drove up the eastern coast to Sawa Camp, beyond Nuweiba, for a nice relaxing stay in paradise.

More relaxation on the beach. We went for a snorkel and a SCUBA dive, and otherwise had a good day's rest at camp.

The Red Sea is the body of water that separates Africa from the Arabian peninsula in Asia. The Sinai peninsula acts as the land bridge between the two continents. Contrary to common understanding, the story of Moses's exodus had him leading the Israelites across the Reed Sea, which is a lake to the north of the Red Sea's Gulf of Aqaba. The Reed Sea has since dried up due to the Suez Canal diversion.