It's been a whirlwind couple of days, and it shows no signs of slowing down. We had to get up at quarter to 5am for our 7am flight from Cairo to Luxor where we'd be spending the next two days. We almost didn't make our flight because it was raining, and our driver said that it was unexpected. He said they don't drive so well in the rain. A huge truck had overturned on the highway. Although the morning seemed like it was starting off on the wrong foot, things immediately took a turn for the better when we were told that economy seating on our flight was full and we'd been bumped to business class.
After our cushy flight to Luxor, we arrived and were greeted by our driver and guide that would be showing us the many sites around the city. We would be visiting East Bank today and West Bank the following day. Our first stop would be the Valley of the Kings.
After our cushy flight to Luxor, we arrived and were greeted by our driver and guide that would be showing us the many sites around the city. We would be visiting East Bank today and West Bank the following day. Our first stop would be the Valley of the Kings.
On the road to the Valley of the Kings we were surrounded on both sides by mountains of granite rock, something that Luxor is known for. The Valley of the Kings is an area where tombs were constructed for Pharaohs and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom. There is still excavation going on in Valley of the Kings. There are currently 62 tombs available to visit, but they are not all open at the same time. The day that we visited was the day after the celebration of the anniversary of them discovering the tomb of King Tut. Your ticket enables you to choose 3 of the tombs open for that day to visit. We visited the tomb of King Ramses IV, Merneptah, and Amenmesse. Some of the chambers were pretty vast and you either were going down steep inclines or climbing up in order to get to the tombs. Inside they were intricately decorated with hieroglyphics and art. Some of the tombs still even contained the sarcophagus. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to show you of the area or the inside of any of the tombs because photography or video of any kind is forbidden in the area. It was pretty amazing.
Once we left the Valley of the Kings, our guide took us to a factory of sorts where they made statues and other items out of alabaster and granite. You can see me making a fool of myself in the video below as I was asked to take part in a part of the process that is done to smooth the alabaster.
Once we left the Valley of the Kings, our guide took us to a factory of sorts where they made statues and other items out of alabaster and granite. You can see me making a fool of myself in the video below as I was asked to take part in a part of the process that is done to smooth the alabaster.
It was amazing to see the process of how they make these beautiful statues and vases from pieces of alabaster and granite that they have to bring down piecemeal from the mountains. As we were driving, we could see different groups working in the mountains to extract alabaster and granite. After we finished the demonstration and the tour of the shop, we headed off to the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut.
This temple is located beneath the cliffs at Deir el Bahari on the west bank of the Nile. It's dedicated to the sun god Amon-Ra and located next to the mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II. The Polish Academy of Sciences is still handling much of the excavation that is going on in this area. It was interesting to hear the history behind this temple, especially since many of the images of Queen Hatshepsut had been defaced by her brother, King Tutmoses III, because he wanted to erase her from history.
This temple is located beneath the cliffs at Deir el Bahari on the west bank of the Nile. It's dedicated to the sun god Amon-Ra and located next to the mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II. The Polish Academy of Sciences is still handling much of the excavation that is going on in this area. It was interesting to hear the history behind this temple, especially since many of the images of Queen Hatshepsut had been defaced by her brother, King Tutmoses III, because he wanted to erase her from history.
While we were still exploring the temple a school bus full of Egyptian girls arrived to visit. At first, we went to another part of the temple to look around to get away from them. As we were making our way out to leave the temple, the girls spotted us, and all of a sudden Moni and I turned into rock stars. They came running over to us with their camera phones and iPads out asking us if they could take pictures with us, where we were from, asking us about our hair and saying how much they liked it. I had experienced this before when traveling in Russia and China years ago, but it was new for Moni. She made sure that she got a picture as well. You can partially see my head in the pic because we were literally swarmed by all of the girls vying to get a spot in her photo. It was probably one of the highlights of the day. You always wonder how you will be perceived and received as a foreigner so I always find it interesting to have encounters such as this. It was a little funny though because as we were walking away from the horde of Egyptian school girls an Asian man stopped us to see if his wife could take a picture with us also. I'm not sure if they wanted a picture for the same reason as the Egyptian school girls or they were unsure why the Egyptian school girls had bumrushed us and wanted to make sure they weren't missing an opportunity to get a picture with a celebrity or something. Either way, we obliged them.
After that, our last stop for the day was the Colossi of Memnon, which are two massive stone statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III.
As I said, it had been a whirlwind few days so we were looking forward to getting back to the hotel and getting a chance to relax. The next day would be busy enough with the West bank of Luxor.
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