Travel: Balloon flight over Luxor
The Star, Canada
The red ball rising from the soil looks much like the early-morning sun creeping over the horizon, except that it's fuelled by what sounds like a giant hissing dragon.It's hard to tell what's the most incredible part of this daily pre-dawn ritual not far from the shores of the Nile River – the fact that 32 people are about to be lifted into a wicker basket the size of a mini-bus, or that we'll soon be hanging, quite literally, over history.
Scattered in the fields around us are a half-dozen other balloons and they're rising quickly to the heavens. But pilot Bahaa El Din Mohamed Ahmed is not in any rush.
"I love this more than myself," he says, sporting a crisp white shirt, gold-trimmed epaulettes and a tie covered in tiny hot-air balloons. "Every day is different – totally new. You can fly a balloon in America, in Canada, in Kenya, in England and you only see fields, electric wires and houses.
"Here, you see something really unique – thousands of years of civilization."
- More Re Luxor Balloon Crash
The Telegraph, UK (Samer al-Atrush and Ian Johnston) The Egyptian Government has grounded all balloon flights over Luxor until a safety investigation is complete. Instead of floating serenely above the ancient temples of Luxor, in Egypt, the balloon careered...
- More Re Balloon Accident In Luxor
BBC News With my thanks to Peter White Two British women injured when a hot air balloon crashed in Egypt remain in hospital, the UK Foreign Office has confirmed. Three Egyptian operators and 13 foreign tourists were hurt when the balloon came down during...
- Travel: A Hot Air Balloon Ride In Luxor
Al Ahram Weekly Thanks very much to Diane for this link. I've never done the hot air balloon ride, in spit of having been to Luxor many times. It is something I really must get around to doing! Were the ancient Egyptians to revisit Thebes these days,...
- Daily Photo By Peter White
Peter White was on Bob Partridge's Ancient World Tours trip in October 2008 and he had arranged a balloon trip for the 10th October. They took off at 6:38 AM with almost no wind at all. 20 minutes after taking off from near the Ramesseum pylon as...
- Star Of The Nile
space.com In ancient Egypt, the New Year began with the return of Sirius. It was, in fact, the "Nile Star" or the "Star of Isis" of the early Egyptians. Interestingly, some 5000 years ago, this "heliacal rising" (appearing to rise just prior to the sun)...