By Charlie Drape
charles.drape@salisburypost.com

EGYPT — Sixteen world-travelers from Rowan County took part in the chamber of commerce trip to Egypt from Oct. 26 to Nov. 2, visiting sites like the Valley of Kings, King Tut’s tomb and treasures at the Museum of Antiquities and one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: The Great Pyramids of Giza.

Other excursions the group to0k part in were visiting The Great Sphinx of Giza, the Edfu, Karmak and Luxor temples, the Temple of Philae, the Aswan High Dam and a tour of Egypt’s capital: Cairo. Egyptologist NaBill Mohammed accompanied the group throughout the trip, explaining the country’s antiquity, sites and artifacts that make up Egypt’s ancient history, which dates back 6,000 years.

Mark Curran, the former CEO of Lion’s Share Federal Credit Union, said his favorite part of the trip was cruising up the Nile River. The group was on the boat for three days, sailing between the cities of Aswan and Luxor and visiting different cities, ports and archaeological sites along the way.

“The Nile’s a very interesting river, it’s lush and green for about half a mile in either direction, but then it’s nothing but desert with mountains on either side,” Curran said. “The geography was just really different and unusual and quite breathtaking.”

Curran, a recent retiree, said his reason for going on the trip was because he had a good amount of friends who were taking part on the expedition. He plans on going on more trips with the chamber of commerce in the future.

Another member of the trip, John Sofley, a retiree who worked for the City of Salisbury for 30 years, said it was tough to narrow down which part of the trip he was most impressed by. He described it as “surreal” because he had seen pictures of the different famous sites throughout his life, but never thought he would actually be standing in front of them.

“The part that blew me away that I never understood was that every temple had access to the Nile River,” Sofley said, explaining one of the new things he learned on the trip. “Every temple, because the Nile was considered the life, every temple had a canal that you could get to from the Nile.”

This year’s participants included chamber President Elaine Spalding and her husband, Keyth Kahrs; John and Pamela Sofley; Mark and Jacqueline Curran; Stephen and Sherry Beck; Alana Hughes, Deborah Powell, Cynthia Osterhus, Elia Gegorek, Mary Heil, Mary Blanford, Aimee Hewitt and Kathy Fox. The group was also paired with 17 participants from the Santa Fe Chamber of Commerce.

Spalding, who has taken part on all the trips the chamber has hosted so far, said besides learning about the ancient world, she also enjoyed the camaraderie with all the trip’s participants.

“It was just perfect, all the bus rides to and from the tourist attractions you get to talk and just all the people you get to interact with,” Spalding said.

The journey was the seventh trip the chamber of commerce has put on, which started in 2015 and has included trips to Cuba, Peru, Iceland, Italy, Greece and Spain. Next year’s fall trip is planned to take place in Croatia.