Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens

We were some of the lucky ones who were able to "sleep in" until 7:30am on the morning of our departure. The Italian group had a 3:30am wake up call and several other groups also left the boat by 7am. After our breakfast, we met Montaser who was taking us to visit the West Bank of Luxor today.

We drove to the Valley of the Kings. Avery decided he'd stay in the car with our driver. We were relieved for his choice and pleased with his bravery in staying behind alone again -- since it was a new driver today.

The Valley of the Kings
(no cameras allowed in or around the tombs)

The setting on the West Bank is itself epic, a sandstone mountain and valley. In fact this had been our view from the cruise boat for the past day as we were docked in Luxor (on the East Bank). The Valley of the Kings consists of 62 tombs that have been excavated and they are working on the 63rd. Only 8 tombs are open to the public for viewing and these rotate from time to time as some close for restoration. Each ticket entitles the holder to visit three tombs. If we'd wanted to visit the tomb of King Tut, we would have needed an extra ticket, but we passed because we'd heard it was quite small and unremarkable except for the fact that his mummy remains. We'd seen many mummies in Cairo and more importantly, we'd seen the treasures from Tut's tomb there too. So it's a little like Disneyworld -- it's extremely crowed and you stand on line to get inside the tomb. Your ticket gets punched each time you visit and tomb and it's three and out. First we visited the tomb of Thutmes III. There was a long descending corridor where you couldn't stand completely upright (but not as small as the corridor of the Pyramid in Cairo), then a long corridor with small rooms off to each side before finishing in the burial chamber where the sarcophagus was missing. The walls were all decorated with the symbolic gods and story of the Pharoh's life. Next we visited the tomb of Ramses II which was much smaller. For this tomb, we had to climb a steel staircase, all the while waiting on line, and then, once inside the tomb, descend a steel staircase. Did I mention that there is two-way traffic on these staircases. The tomb being smaller and with so many visitors, it was hot and very difficult to breath. Several older folks came out sweating and gasping for air. In any case, the colors on the wall decorations were vivid and his sarcophagus was in it's place in the burial chamber. We had seen his mummy in Cairo at the Egyptian museum. Lastly, we chose another tomb that was less crowded (I can't recall the name of this pharoh - they're all starting to blend together). This tomb was unique in that there had been a fire inside the burial chamber and so the color of the wall decorations became monochromatic in browns, but the art work was some of the best we'd seen. And, the fact that it wasn't as crowded allowed us to enjoy it more.

Queen Hatshepsut's Temple

After visiting the Valley of the Kings, we went to Queen Hatshepsut's Temple. This time, both Olivia and Avery decided to sit it out. This Temple was a funerary temple which is why it is located on the West Bank. Most Temples are on the East bank of the Nile, where daily life occurred. The West Bank was reserved for the Tombs and the After-life. Montaser told us the story of Queen Hatshepsut, the only woman who ruled Egypt for any length of time -- 21 years in all --and her step-son Thutmes III whom she'd banished at the age of 9 in order to ascend to the throne herself. Thutmes III returned at the age of 30 (21 years later) and his anger with his stepmother led to the destruction of many of her monuments. But this temple remains and holds quite a commanding view over the valley and the Nile.

The Queen herself

Our last stop was the Valley of the Queens: this valley being reserved for the wives and children of the Pharohs. Interesting that compared to our prior two stops on the tour today, it was hardly crowded. Yet, we found the decorations inside the tombs equally pleasing.

It was 2:30pm by time we were back on the East Bank and checking in to our hotel. Aside from the cruise, the checking in process always seems to be protracted for one reason or another. One reason is that unlike in Europe where you just hand over your passports, here they insist you fill out your own paperwork - one per person - essentially replicating the information inside the passport, which they then photocopy anyway. A peculiar process. Today, we had a problem about the location of our room -- actually a suite, but with the bedroom just one floor off the street. They way the Egyptians incessantly use their horns (and even if they didn't) we worried it would be loud. The strange part is that when Josh specifically asked about the location, the receptionist told him it was not on the street -- as if she thought we wouldn't notice when we went up to the room?? There is continually an issue with communication here as there are relatively few people, even in the hotels that speak English well. Yet, they are so eager to please, they often just say “yes” when it later becomes clear they didn't understand a thing you had said. To make a long story short (again) we kept the room, as the alternatives offered were worse.

As we were getting ready to head down to the pool, we realized that we’d left Avery’s crocs on the cruise boat. It took a few phone calls but our rep. was able to retrieve them and drop them off at our hotel. For a moment, I thought we had a crocs curse, having lost (one) of Olivia’s on our vacation in Puglia.

We enjoyed the pool in the late afternoon and the sunset over the West Bank was particularly pretty today. After another long nap for Avery, we headed out to a late dinner. Montaser had recommended a couple of restaurants across from our hotel and we chose one called "Smiley." It was clean, nicely decorated, and the food was good.