We visited late on a January afternoon just as the sun was setting. Egypt had presented many of its most magnificent temples but this, the Temple of Luxor, was the most impressive. In both scale and complexity it follows the traditional temple design. Its construction began in 1392 BC and continued across the centuries as testimony of deity of the ruling pharaohs. It is a masterpiece credited to many…from Amenhotep …
This queen, as one of Egypt’s only female pharaohs, singularly re-wrote the rules of Egyptian royal lineage protocol with her cunning, her beauty and her unbridled ambition. She did what no other woman, even the other great legends of history here in the birthplace of civilization, Nefertari, Nefertiti, and much later Cleopatra… dared to do. She ruled. And she ruled well. Her legend carries to the Valley of the Kings., …
At first my jet-lagged brain could not process more than their looming yet beautiful presence, and proximity to the nearby town. I had imagined them constructed in the middle of some vast, remote, practically inaccessible stretch of desert wasteland…as is over 90 percent of the remaining country. But they were here in all their significant historical splendor. All three! The most famous, the Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest …
What is Machu Picchu? There is no reference to Machu Picchu in Inca literature or folklore, so what is this culturally sophisticated engineering city in the Andes of Peru? Many archeologists believe that it was constructed as a retreat for the Inca nobility between 1400 and 1500 AD. But the extensive terracing suggests it may have been a center for crop testing or used as a trading hub. Who lived …
My recent Peruvian adventure included a deep, delicious dive into the country’s authentic cuisine with seafood as a highlight. Peruvian Ceviche is a marinated seafood dish, typically the first course, which consists of a fresh, white fish soaked in fresh lime juice and served with thinly sliced red onion and sweet potato. As I traveled inland from Lima, to Arequipa, Puno, Cusco and high into the Andes, I found the …
High in the Andes Mountains of Peru live direct descendents of the ancient Inca people, invaded by Spanish Conquistadors in the 1500’s. This indigenous group of people are called the Q’ueros. They are the few that escaped forced labor by the Spanish, those able to live in “villages in the clouds” in the refuge of the holy mountains (Apus), guarding much of their sacred knowledge and keeping it intact over …