Exploring the Valley of the Kings and Queens
Trip Start
Sep 20, 2007
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53
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Trip End
Jan 10, 2008
Luxor, Egypt
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Not much at all to say today except I caught the train to Luxor to Cairo. I was meant to arrive at Luxor at 5.30, but only ended up getting there at 7.30 (c'mon this is Egypt after all). Got myself some cheap falafel rolls for dinner (try 40c for value) before settling into a beer back at the hostel. Not too much action going on the hostel except one crazy New Yorker who I am sharing the dorm room with (more on him in future entries).
Tomorrow I have arranged through the hotel to go hot-air ballooning (it's about 4 times cheaper than they were offerering in Goreme, Turkey) at sunrise over the Valley of the Kings, should be good fun and I am super excited about it.
Sunday (December 30)
Well a very early start to the day, I got woken up by the hotel at 6,30 when they told me they would wake me up at 6.15. It ends up that they only woke me up when the bus arrived to take me to the hot-air balloon arrived at the bottom of the hotel and the bus was already full of people waiting to leave.... oh well that's the service you get for 3 dollars a night.
To get to the balloon sight we had to cross the Nile to the East Bank of Luxor, so we got a nice little motor boat over there which included "breakfast", which was just stale cake and even worse tasting coffee... once again you get what you pay for! When we got to our balloon it was absolutely packed already, there must have been 40 people already waiting in that thing. You get one little square to stand in which is way too small to turn around in let alone take any photos.
Well as luck would have it the guy running the gig thought the balloon was already too full, sentiments I'm sure everyone in the balloon was sharing. 4 of us, who ended up all being from Adelaide (yay for Adelaide), got taken to another balloon which we had all to ourselves, I couldn't believe my luck.
Needless to say, the balloon ride itself was absolutely incredible, the weather was perfect and having so few people in the balloon it was great for taking photos. Our balloon sailed over the top of some of the most spectacular temples of both Luxor and Egypt and seeing the structures from above was a very unique experience. Best of all only paying about $70 for a balloon ride with only 3 other tourist in one of the most archaeologically rich areas in the world has to be probably the best value thing I have ever spent my money on.
After about 45 minutes it was back to dry land where we landed in the middle of a village and I think we ruined one guys crop of carrots, as he didn't seem too impressed with the pilot. The children of this farmer were very well educated with their knowledge of English; "Money! Money! Money!".
Following the balloon ride I met up with the tour organised from the hotel which was visiting the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens and also the Hatshepsut (try saying that 10 times quickly) Temple. I thought I would sign up to a tour as it saved the hassle of trying to find my own way around the sights and was a very cheap price also.
First stop was the famous Valley of the Kings. For those of you who are oblivious to Egyptian History this is the place were many of the Pharoahs of Egypt were buried following their death. The tombs were built in the valley, and in many instances into the cliffs, to try and protect all the priceless valuables that were buried with the Pharoah for his journey to the Afterlife. However the tomb robbers were just as crafty as the architects who designed the tombs and over the course of 4000 years every single tomb that has been discovered, except one (that of Tutankhamen of course), has been plundered and pillaged of its valuables.
All that is left these days is the magnificent wall paintings of the tombs. We visited three tombs, with the tomb of Ramses IV being by far the most impressive. It was quite incredible to stare at paintings and hieroglyphs (the Egyptian for of pictorial writing) that were over 4000 years old in some cases yet still looked as if they had been painted yesterday. I found it hard to comprehend the Roman cities of some 2000 years ago, but 4000 years?! That's crazy old!
Next stop was the Temple of Hatshepsut. The Temple is quite unique among Egyptian temples as it was actually built by a female pharaoh (Hatshepsut) who dressed like a man to gain respect of the people. Good on her I say, stick it to the man. It more recently made the news for the horrible massacre of 62 tourists by "Islamic Fundamentalists" back in 1997. The temple itself was quite impressive although it has obviously gone through some very heavy restoration as many parts of it looked relatively modern.
Last stop on the tour was the Valley of the Queens. As the name would suggest this valley housed the tombs of the wives of the Pharaohs. There are only 4 tombs here however, with only 2 being open to the public. One of the tombs was really quite incredible and was surprisingly much better than any of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings. So that was the end of the tour which actually ended up to be quite good.
There was enough time left in the day to visit the Luxor Temple back on the West Bank of Luxor. This temple, situated next to the Nile, is one of the more impressive sights of Luxor and the modern city of Luxor actually surrounds it. I planned my visit to coincide with sunset and dusk as the entire temple is lit up at night and wondering through the temple at night is meant to be one of the highlights of Luxor. This temple was mightily impressive and even more so when they lit it up at night, the only downside was that all the tourists in Luxor had the same idea to come at that time!
Back at the hotel that night the place was starting to get kind of busy and a whole lot of us got dinner together at a cheap restaurant at the corner, and as luck would have it all the guys were staying in Luxor for New Years so at least I will have a (mild) party tomorrow night to mark the occasion.
