The 500 mile flight from Cairo to Luxor takes a little more than an hour. However, airport security in Egypt is a serious matter. When you arrive at the airport your luggage and carry-ons are x-rayed just inside the entrance, then for some unexplained reason a few paces further on you encounter another scanner and your stuff is once again x-rayed. Only then are you allow to approach the ticket counter and check your luggage. Arriving at the departure gate, at least once, we were isolated in a secure area and our carry-on items were throughly searched by hand.

The Temple complexes at Luxor are enormous, complex and impressive, even after 3000 years of wear and tear, not to mention pillage by European collectors and museums. Over the centuries a VIP list of Pharaohs added to, tore down, or modified to the two major temples right up to and including Alexander the Great.

After trudging around Karnak we boarded the SS Sphinx and settled in while the ship set “sail” to Dendra and the Temple of Hathor, the female God of Love and Beauty.

Hathor was among the most important and popular deities in ancient Egypt. She was associated with love, beauty, music, joy, dance and motherhood; she was also known as the lady of the sky. Hathor’s temple is one of the best preserved in all of Egypt.

From the Temple of Hathor we sailed back to Luxor and an evening visit to Luxor Temple, another section of the Karnak/Luxor temple complex.