Egyptians are apparently well endowed

I'm back, and am suffering the drastic temperature change. It was about 30 degrees in the desert with humidity to boot, and when we landed in Heathrow it had just snowed. 

We saw so much in Egypt and I think pictures say more than words (and I can't actually remember half the names of things anyway).

This was our mode of transportation:

Ok I exaggerate slightly. We only rode the donkey for 20 minutes. But donkey was faster and more comfortable than the ancient overnight train we were subjected to.

And here are the piles of rubble we saw outside the city:

Impressive piles huh? Apparently the builders were not slaves, like we learned at school, but farmers who had no work during flooding season, and got paid to build these instead. 

There was a camel driver outside the pyramids who fleeced us of a fair wad of money for... being annoying? He ended up holding our camera ransom and forced us to have our photo taken until we paid him to give it back. So yes, beware that kind of scam outside the pyramids. Most other places are fine, but if you are a lady, especially if you are a blonde lady, you will be, er, somewhat popular with the locals. Even if you are married. But this is a safe and pretty crime free country so despite the endless hassle you will be just fine.

I think you know what this thingy is:

Apparently it is degrading at a rapid rate so you better go see it soon.

This temple was incredible. It is dedicated, not to a god, but to King Ramses II. Yes, he saw fit to deify himself and carve this entire mountain as a temple to himself. And I think he would be muchly gratified to know that when they dammed the Nile, they moved this ENTIRE mountain, block by block, a few hundred metres back to prevent flooding. So a few thousand years later the dude was important enough to move mountains, hey?

The most interesting carvings we saw on one of the temples was of a god with an inordinately large penis. No his penis was not the interesting part, it was ridiculous. The interesting part was the carving of the sperm. The carving was of the detail you see when you look at sperm under the microscope, flagellum and all. 

How the hell did the ancient Egyptians know what jizz looked like in that detail? I think that will stick in my mind more than any other fact on the trip.