On The Way

Picture shot on the way..
To Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary, Kerala
From Nagarahole National Park, Karnataka

SWF: Stupas

For more skies around the world, visit:

Sky Watch Friday.

Stupas are dome-shaped monuments, used to house Buddhist relics or to commemorate significant facts of Buddhism.

The architecture of the stupa is supposed to reflect the five elements of earth, air, fire, water, and wisdom.

Stupas may be simple bell-shaped mounds, more elaborate structures, or ornate, multiple shrines. Symbolism varies from area to area, with similar elements taking on different meanings. Here are pictures of the sky shot in Coorg, Karnataka, India, with some stupas in the foreground.

Egypt Revisited

Map borrowed and modified

My previous journey to Egypt during February-March this year was during peak tourist season as I had described in Egypt, the Land of Ancient Wonders. Then I journeyed through major cities and tourist spots of Egypt (marked in blue above) including Cairo, Giza, Aswan, Alexandria, Luxor, Karnak, Abu-Simbel, Sharm-El-Sheikh and St. Catherine.

When I got a chance at short notice to make another trip to Egypt in the peak of summer, I heard voices of surprise and as well as shock like: “Egypt in July? You must be mad.” I was not mad. For me, it was a case of not wanting to lose an opportunity to travel and as usual, I set off enthusiastically, the extreme heat that can reach up to 50 deg C (over 120 deg F) not deterring me.

This time I went to a not-so-famous region called Marsa Alam, at Port Ghalib, a resort in the Red Sea, to be followed by a road journey to the old fishing town of Marsa Alam and thereafter a safari through the deserts and beyond Edfu and Esna to reach Luxor once again, up to the Karnak Temple area (as marked in red line in the map above).

Would you like to see a few images of this trip? Here they are:-

A roadside gate of entry into Port Ghalib near the recently opened airport of Marsa Alam:

Azure waters near the Marina at Port Ghalib, one of the popular boating and yachting gateways:

Marsa Alam beyond the Resort, a place where the sun always shines and blue waters of the Red Sea lap up against golden sands:

From the jagged brown mountains of the Sinai to the wide stretches of desert and the greenery around the banks of the River Nile, Egyptian landscape has a variety just waiting to be explored and here's a little bit of wildlife:

Under Ptolemy II, a road was built through endless sandscapes linking Marsa Alam and Edfu and is still in use and here is sunset time on that road:

Cruises sailing through as seen from the fertile banks of the River Nile between Edfu and Esna:

A part of the Luxor Temple as seen from Nile Street one late evening:

Plenty of opportunity for interesting sights, and here at dusk is a row of caliche, or horse drawn carriages in Luxor used as a means of transport, by tourists as well as locals:

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Previous Post on Egypt:

• Egypt, the Land of Ancient Wonders