Valley of the Kings, Egypt

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Today we join the cruise...but before we do we are going to see The Valley of the Kings. The Collossi of Memnon was our first stop. It consists of two enormous twin stone statues of pharaoh Amenhotep III and was built in 1350 B.C. In 27 B.C. it was damaged by an earthquake. Next we traveled to Habu Temple and then to Queen Hatshepsut's temple. It was in in great shape and I think is one of the prettiest temples we've seen yet.

Now to the Valley of the Kings...We were able to go in three funerary temples. Ramses II, Ramses III and Ramses IX. It was amazing how many royals were buried in this valley. Their temples were empty and some were very plain while others were colorful. King Tut's tomb was one of the smallest. He died at a very young age so they weren't able to build a very big funerary tomb. Tut's tomb was relatively intact so Egypt was able to take the treasures and place them in the Egyptian Museum. Other tombs weren't so lucky...Most of the treasures were melted down and reused. After our tomb visits we drove to Safaga to join our ship for the cruise. It was on Regent Seven Seas and was an Antiquities Cruise so we are going to see a lot of ruins. Bon Voyage!

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