Petra and Egypt

Greetings-
We have just completed two grueling days of travel going to Petra, Jordon and Luxor and Cairo, Egypt. We are both exhausted, but, as with every other day on this trip we would not have missed these sights.
Petra, Jordan was a major trade and commerce center from 1000 B.C. to 1000 A.D. You may be able to tell from the pictures that Petra had natural defenses and the 30,000 inhabitants were more interested in making money than war. What a concept! Today, besides being one of the new 7 wonders of the world, Petra is famous for the movie Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Tim wanted to ride a horse down into Petra with his Indiana Jones hat and whip with the wonderful John Williams score soaring to a crescendo as Tim arrives at the Treasury. We actually walked in. Most of the tombs, etc. were carved out of the sandstone. Those buildings or tombs that were built rather than carved were destroyed by earthquakes over the years. The entire walk into Petra was three miles long. The only way out was the way we went in. Of course, it was uphill going back. We opted to do half of the return trip on camels. You get on the camel while it is kneeling down. The tricky part is hanging on as the camel gets up. It was a reasonably comfortable ride although neither of us would want to cross the desert on a camel. Our camels were very nice. Neither one spit at us although they did make some rude sounds.
We flew back to Luxor, Egypt last night and joined the rest of our group for our gala farewell dinner. Everyone rode in horse drawn carriages to the Luxor Temple for a very magical evening. We wandered around the grounds sipping champagne while a harpist played and then sat down in a gold lame lined tent for a sumptuous dinner accompanied by a string quartet.
This morning we were up bright and early (4:30 a.m.) to fly to Cairo. We had an hour long lecture by Zahri Hawass, the head of the Department of Antiquities in Egypt and also an explorer in residence with the National Geographic Society. He gave a fascinating lecture about all of the archeological work being done around the pyramids and the Sphinx. We then visited the Pyramids and the Sphinx. As with the other sites we visited, such as Machu Picchu and the Taj Mahal, the size of the Pyramids was overwhelming. It is awfully easy to think that with our modern technology we can do anything and everything better than anyone before us. Not true. These guys several thousand years ago were pretty smart. They did have one advantage over us. They did not have to deal with union contracts!
We are flying toward Marrakech, our last stop before coming home. We will try to get a final blog posting out tomorrow night.
Tim and Lynda