The Gate Room in Abydos

We had every intention of getting pictures of the Stargate in Abydos, but unsurprisingly they don’t allow cameras in the gate room. Seriously though, both the movie and the series neglected to mention the touts and hustlers in the local village there.

We did have a good time though and Abydos and Dendera are both worth the drive outside of Luxor. We didn’t see a single other tourist of any stripe for the entire day outside Luxor, which is really very sad. The areas were both quite remote and rural, giving an impression of a different, even harsher way of life in these outlying villages. We started the sightseeing very early today and were back at the hotel around 3pm or so. One note on that, I have to plug our tour company Love Egypt Tours. Mr. Hassany and Abdul were phenomenal.

The hotel remains largely a ghost town. You can go out to the pool area and see all the cruise ships lined up vacant, and this large hotel only seems to have a handful of guests at times. There are two large restaurants on site (Egyptian and Indian) and at dinner time there was literally not one single person in them dining.

We decided braving the world outside our armed compound was a better choice for dinner, so we arranged for a taxi to take us across town to what proved to be the lone tourist haven in town: “The Lantern” restaurant. There were several tables of British guests which in this town qualifies as completely packed. Dinner was great and priced appropriately… highly recommend the place for anyone visiting.

Tomorrow we’re back on a flight to Cairo nice and early. We’re hoping to take in a few more sites before the long trip back home Saturday.