What a day! One of the most significant places in Egyptian history--and they don't allow cameras!
We left for the Valley of the Kings at 7:00 a.m. We took a motor boat ride from our dock on the east side of the Nile to the west side of the Nile. Tombs are always built on the west bank (of the Nile). Pharaohs from the New Kingdom (1250 BC) found that the sands of Luxor formed natural pyramids. They could save money by having their tombs built into the sides of these mountainous sand dunes. Large tunnels were built with storage rooms for offerings in their after-lives. There are about 63 tombs that have been found by archeologists, and most of them are elaborately decorated with paintings of the gods, hieroglyphics, and pictures of their enemies being defeated, etc. We visited four tombs: Ramses III, Ramses IV, Ramses IX, and the unfinished tomb of King Tut. David also visited the tomb of Tutmoses III.
King Tut's mummified body was on display inside his tomb. He was in a glass case, temperature and humidity controlled. KIng Tut's gilded wooden coffin is also on display there. The "Boy King" died when he was 19 yrs old, and the story says that his tomb isn't as elaborate as other pharaohs because a "high priest" gave Tut the priest's tomb.
Next, we went to the Valley of the Queens to visit women's tombs. Hatshepsut was the first female pharaoh, and her temple and tomb are incredible!
The best tomb, however, was that of Queen Nefertari. You have to arrange through your tour group -- well in advance-- to go into this tomb. They let in only a couple groups a day. The paintings and colors looked like they were completed yesterday! It was just beautiful. Every hieroglyphic was painted, every inch of the ceiling was painted with blue covered with white stars and a long register of yellow/gold hieroglyphics down the middle. The large chiseled figures of people had on beautiful patterned dresses, a multi-colored collar necklace, and both arm and legs cuffs.
On our way back to the boat, we stopped at Ramses III temple and palace. It's in pretty bad shape, but you can just imagine how beautiful it was in it's hay-day.
Now a word about vendors! Every vendor yells at you to buy their stuff. They crowd into you and push things in your face and hands saying, "$50 dollar? Is very nice. How much you want? Lady, Lady, how much you want?". We were taught to say No, thank you by saying the phrase "la'a shock-run". (I don't know how to spell it, so I spelled it phonetically.).
We had no fewer than 4-5 vendors in our face at the same time, offering scarves, scarabs, and statuettes. They followed us all the way back to our bus--in our faces and saying "O.k. 40 dollar.". The closer we got to our bus, the lower the prices. "O.k., 30 dollar.". "Lady, Lady. O.k. 25 dollar.". Our Egyptologist told us that we were all ready to handle the vendors in India now that we got our training in Egypt!
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Tombs are built into the sides of these pyramid-shaped mountains.
Location:Luxor
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