Jewels of the Nile

Right before 8am we headed back to the hotel and hopped into a tiny bus with some other tourists for our drive to the Valley of the Kings (Most of you know this place because it’s where King Tut’s tomb was discovered.)  We bus rode up, then paid the entrance fee (expensive and the dude would not give me a student discount even though I had my student card) You then hop on a little golf cart train to drive you up into the Valley of the Kings.

While on this ride Kelly was proposed to, and told how many goats, camels and chickens she’d be worth. You see, Kelly is worth more than me because she has ‘cat eyes’ (green eyes) Apparently this trait is worth a lot in terms of barnyard animals. Throughout our entire trip, random people would remark on her cat eyes.

The Valley of Kings really looks like nothing but a sandy area. These tombs were built after the Egyptians realized that pyramids were fairly obvious targets for tomb robbers. (They practically scream, “I have treasure inside!!”) These tombs were meant to be absolutely invisible. Even that didn’t help them; most were looted in antiquity. As a part of your ticket you get to choose three tombs to enter, though you are not allowed to take pictures inside. The first tomb we went in was KV 11 or Ramses III’s tomb.  It was beautiful. This was a huge tomb; it just kept going and going. There were life-size relief carvings and paintings of the gods, the pharaoh and his son. The paint was still on the walls and it had beautiful, vibrant shades. The next tomb belonged to Ramses I. It consisted of a steep staircase down then a room in which the sarcophagus lay. The paintings in this tomb were very beautiful but not as entrancing as the previous tomb. I forget the name of the third tomb we visited. This one I appreciated because in one room there was a massive depiction of the sky god with stars all over the ceiling. It was very beautiful. 

Next we went to the smaller Valley of the Queens. This was a much smaller and quieter site. We only went in two tombs here. They were not as grand, though they still had paintings all over the walls. One of the tombs contained the mummified remains of tiny babies, possibly miscarriages. The most famous tomb in the Valley of the Queens is Nerfertari's tomb. (She was the favorite wife of Ramses II [we saw his mummy in the museum in Cairo; it was an amazing experience!] Her tomb is beautifully painted and its colors remain vibrant. Unfortunately, this tombs is not open to the public so we couldn't see it. (Watch out for Nefertari and Ramses II names again in the narrative; they pop up later in the trip)

Temple of Hatshepsut

Then we hopped back in the bus and visited the Temple of Hatshepsut. She is famous for not only being a very powerful female pharaoh, but also for making friends and setting up trade routes between Egypt and its surrounding neighbors, most notably the land of Punt (an ancient kingdom south of Egypt). Her temple is fabulous but unfortunately most if it is a reconstruction as after her death the next pharaoh (I believe her nephew) tried to destroy everything of hers.

Next we visited the Colossi of Memnon. These are two massive seated statues kinda in the middle of nowhere. They used to be in front of the gate to a large temple but the temple is no longer.

 

Karnak Kartwheel

The bus then dropped us back off in town. We ate lunch and hammered out our game plan. We decided that since there was only one more big thing that I wanted to get to in Luxor (Karnak!). That we would hop on a night train that night to Aswan. So we spent a few hours wandering the massive temple complex of Karnak. It is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, temple complexes in the world.