{"id":3219,"date":"2026-08-01T08:48:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T08:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/?p=3219"},"modified":"2026-08-01T08:48:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T08:48:37","slug":"a-picture-journey-to-egypt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/?p=3219","title":{"rendered":"A picture journey to Egypt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Those of you who have been reading my blogs for several years will know that after the launch of a new novel, I sometimes follow up with a few of my husband\u2019s \u00a0photos (plus the odd one or two of mine) taken on the \u2018research\u2019 holiday that precedes the writing. I was contemplating a very different idea for August\u2019s blog, but a couple of my regular readers have asked me to pick out some photos to illustrate some of the highlights of our journey. Our holiday itinerary was the same as the one followed in the novel, and many of Harry\u2019s reactions are similar to my own as I explored this amazing country. Unlike Harry, this was a second visit for me, though much had changed in the 25 years that separated the two holidays.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Synonymous with Egypt are the pyramids and, like Harry, my first glimpse was from the window of the plane coming into Athens airport, though I was too late for a photo, so this picture was taken a couple of days later.<\/p>\n

From Athens we flew to Luxor and were treated to an amazing nighttime visit to the towering Luxor Temple \u2013 a totally different experience to our visit the previous afternoon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s impossible not to be impressed by the sheer craftmanship of those ancient stonemasons \u00a0working with tools so inferior to our own. From managing to raise 70 ton cylindrical blocks one on top of the other to create not just one but whole rows of columns stretching into the far distance, to the minute detail of the carvings that adorn them from top to bottom. They are in a class of their own.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>One thing that photos can not reveal is the emotive experience of these tours. It may well be my love of ancient history but feeling myself part of the holy pilgrimage to worship the great gods of Egypt fired my imagination as I walked along the sphinx-lined avenue that connects Luxor and Karnak temples and again on the approach to Hatshepsut\u2019s temple. I wasn\u2019t brave enough to accompany my husband on the optional balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings, but it might have been worth it for this view of the great queen pharaoh’s temple alone.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s not easy to pick out just one highlight of a holiday so full of spectacular, unforgettable sights, but one of the most outstanding for me has to be the visit to Queen Nefertari\u2019s tomb. The vibrancy of colours remaining on all these magnificent carvings we see on Egypt’s ancient monuments varies according to the degree of exposure to sunlight. Those in Nefertari\u2019s tomb \u2013 throughout the extensive chambers reaching back deep into the hillside \u2013 looked as though they were painted yesterday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Those of you who have been reading my blogs for several years will know that after the launch of a new novel, I sometimes follow up with a few of my husband\u2019s \u00a0photos (plus the odd one or two of mine) taken on the \u2018research\u2019 holiday that precedes the writing. I was contemplating a very […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,32,85],"tags":[249,254,255],"class_list":{"0":"post-3219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-inspiration","7":"category-research-2","8":"category-travel","9":"tag-egypt","10":"tag-pyramids","11":"tag-temples","12":"entry","13":"has-post-thumbnail"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3219"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3219"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3225,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3219\/revisions\/3225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.judithcranswick.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}