Valley of the Kings
Trip Start
Aug 28, 2005
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59
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Trip End
Dec 31, 2005
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Luxor, Egypt
Friday, November 25, 2005
The area is divided up into sub-sections, the fist being the Valley of the Kings, where we were allowed to visit three different tombs:
Tomb of Ramses IV - which contained a vividly clored ceiling, as well as a cartouche-shaped sarcophagous
Tomb of Ranses I - with its highly decorated and colorfully painted tomb walls
Tomb of Ramses IX - with scenes of the great god Osiris and his fellow god Horus
Tomb of Tutankhamun - obviously, it's the most well-known, and was one of the best preserved being that it evaded the various grave robbers. But we didn't go inside as ALL the contents had been taken to the Egyptain Museum in Cairo, for safe-keeping.
Photography wasn't allowed, so of course I snuck a few photos, actually getting caught in the first tomb, but having my act of "dumb tourist" down cold, was able to get out without consequence!
Then we were taken to another area, where the Temple of Hatshepsut lies. She was the only woman pharaoh in Egypts history, and the temples Egyptian name translates to "most splendid of all", and it's well-deserved as it's one of the most impressive temples I've ever seen. The temple rises in three broad, columned terraces from the desert floor against a backdrop of sheer limestone cliffs...it look slike it was cut straight out of the mountain! It contains several smaller shrines, such as the Shrine of Hathor and the Shrine of Anubis. A definite crowd=pleaser and the highlight of our day.
Our tour would end in the last area, the Valley of the Queens, with visits to the Tomb of Titi, the favorite wife of Ramses III, and also the Tomb of Amonherkhepeshef, with interesting scenes of deities and farmers, which is very rare for a temple, as well as a 2000 year old desiccated fetus under a glass case.
We also saw the Colssus of Memnon, two giant and towering statues that used to "guard" the area, before heading back across the river to the East Bank and the city of Luxor. Having an overnight train to Cairo at 9 pm, we chilled out by the pool and later walked by the lit up Luxor Temple and I got in a nice argument with the hotel manager as we were leaving because he was yelling at Philip for letting us put our bags in his room (as he was staying an extra night), accusing of taking showeres and using water for three people or something ridiculous like that. anyway, I didn't think Philip should have to take that so I went back inside and let the manager know so and we yelled at each other a while until he came too close to me and I gave hium a little shove back and threatened more action, and was more than ready to follow through, before things finally settled as we really had to go catch our train. It was unbelievable that a hotel manager would act as unprofessional, especially in the lobby in full view of his guests! Crazy Egypt! Anyway, we made our train and that English girl from Bulgaria showed up, wanting to follwo us to Cairo and then the Sinai Peninsula...what could we say? She claimed ot be scared to travel by herself, so she came along with us to Cairo and beyond.
