Egypt: Day 8 (Valley of the Kings, Alabaster Factory, Hatshapsut's Temple, Walking Around by the Ship and Horse Carriage Ride in Luxor)

Day 8 was a highlight of the trip - it was jam packed with sites to see. We were on the bus by 7 AM to head to the West Bank of Luxor. FYI - The ancient Egyptians believed the sun was born and died each day. People live on the east bank and bodies are buried on the west bank (sun rises in the east, sets in the west...).

The first stop was Valley of the Kings. These were the burial sites of kings in the 18th, 19th and 20th dynasties. We visited a total of 4 tombs. Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed in the entire site which was a recent change.

The tombs here were carved in secret to try and prevent grave robbers from stealing the dead pharaohs treasures. The valley was poor quality sandstone which was excavated first. Next, a different set of workers plastered the walls to create a base for the decoration. Next, the walls would be sectioned up similar to graph paper. This allowed each artist to follow similar dimensions and retain the same look throughout the tomb. Apprentice workers would then outline in black the hieroglyphics and pictures. These were then checked and corrected with a red outline by the lead artist. Next, the red outline was carved out. The colors were added next, followed by a final bee's wax protective coating. What an amazing time consuming process. Also, the tomb was started when the pharaoh began the reign. So, the longest reigning kings had the best looking tombs.

All we got of Valley of the Kings.

The first tomb, Thutmoses III, was an interesting ladder climb to the tomb. Per Fawzy, "It's for the young, athletic." It was built between 1479 - 1425 B.C. The tomb did not have any carvings but was painted with vivid colors from minerals. It was neat to see how much color retained from 3500 years ago.

The second tomb, Tausert and Setnakht, was unique because it housed two tombs. The first was for queen Tausert who ruled starting 1187 BC. The second person buried here was the father of Ramses III. This tomb had actual carvings and colors.

The third tomb was Ramses VI, this was an extra charge and very worth it. This tomb had the most vivid colors and was pretty empty, so we were able to wander and look at our leisure. It really is hard to imagine what these tombs look like without being there. I guess you could try to do a Google image search...

The final tomb was Ramses III. After the previous one this was just more of the same. By that time we were really hot and ready to get back to the bus.

We did not see the tomb of King Tut. Fawzy suggested we don't visit King Tut's tomb but Ramses VI instead - King Tut's tomb is supposedly boring. He was only king for 9 years (67 years for Ramses II for reference) so it was not decorated well. The remarkable item about king Tut's tomb was that it was not discovered until 1922 by Howard Carter. It was filled with treasures that we saw at the Cairo Museum.

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We then went to an Alabaster factory. Dave likes to chant, "ALA-BASTER!" (clap, clap, clap). The owner of the shop had TONS of energy and his crew would randomly say rehearsed English words and sing occasionally. It was a very entertaining experience.

Outside of the Alabaster factory. He's teaching us the different colors of alabaster and how to tell if it's real or not. Can you find the Meryl Streep look alike? Apparently no one has told her that before but I think she looks soooooo much like Meryl.

A so-so video of their show. It was hilarious and I'm a little sad there's not a good video of it.

The lights were there to show the transparency of real alabaster.

Thankfully, Dave and I did not argue on the trip (we spent 24 hours together, for 15 days). But this was our closest experience to arguing. We ended up buying an alabaster mini pitcher and a limestone carving and paid a whooping $55 (US dollars)! I usually do the negotiating but he told me he took care of it. As soon as I found out how much he paid, I was surprised/shocked/dumbfounded that we paid that much because that's a lot in Egyptian money!! $25 MAX would have been more than enough. :) (I'm not mad at him anymore, just like telling the story.)

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We then went to Queen Hatshapsut's temple. She (yes, a female) ruled between 1479 - 1458 B.C. The temple is unique because it's positioned above the Queen's tomb in Valley of the Kings!

Hatshapsut's mortuary temple. Valley of the Kings is on the other side of the cliff.

The top part of the temple is carved out of bedrock.

The pictures don't show the large scale of the temple! It was really massive. Also, it was really hot outside which is no surprise.

Inside of the Chapel of Hathor (Goddess of fertility)...notice the cow ears.

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The pillars reminds me of a scene from The Sound of Music when the Von Trapp family hides from the Nazi's (even though the Von Trapp family were in the dark).

Sleeping in the shade. Egyptian siesta?

Chapel of Anubis, the God of mummification.

Notice the openings in the valley. This is where workers of the temple relaxed to get out of the sun.

Here's an example of a typical "exit" from a tourist site - they bombard you with merchandise.
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We then decided to walk around the area outside of the ship to find water and go to an internet cafe. We wanted to find a grocery store (see Day 5 for the reason) but we started walking in an area that felt unsafe so it was a fairly quick trip because we just bought water at a little stand.

We bought water at the location on the right.

It seemed that a lot of houses had satellites.

This is the internet cafe we went to. The computer was in rough shape!

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We then did the optional tour of "Luxor by Night" - a horse carriage ride through the city that was less touristy. It was nice to observe the people and culture! The night life seemed pretty busy (it's too hot during the day to be outside so people come out at night...and it was a Saturday night).

Our horse carriage driver was 20 years old. Our horse's name was Rambo.

Riding in the streets - driving seemed a lot more civilized in Luxor. There was a bit less honking and there were street lights!

Locals would wave and ask "American?" and then make the usual "Go Obama" comment. There was one particular time I waved at a little girl, probably 6 years old, because she waved at me. As soon as I waved back, she ran after the carriage, wanting money. I was really scared because she was sprinting and looking at us - not in front of her - so a car could have hit her.

Beautiful Luxor Temple at night.

Egyptians, out-and-about.

A little of what we say on the horse carriage ride.
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The horse carriage ride dropped us off at a "local coffee shop" for a drink and shisha smoking. That's in quotes because we were sitting next to 60+ tourists from our group!

Some people tried smoking the shisha. It's a large pipe and apparently it's a colder smoke. Mal's reaction is funny and smoking does NOT look enjoyable. If you're wondering who the people are, from left to right, Joseph (we sat by him on the bus a lot and he really enjoyed talking to Dave), Fawzy (program director), Mal (was supposed to teach us a new card game but we - not her - were always too exhausted) and Allison (traveled with the tour company 30 times, of course not all Egypt trips).

We got pop and there was noooooo smoking for us!

Per usual, people tried to sell stuff. This guy kept shaking this manikin at us (notice the left breast).