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Published: September 13th 2008
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Today was reserved for the West bank sights of Luxor - the Valley of the Kings and related sights. This is where the likes of Ramses and Tutankhamen are buried - far away from the rest of the populace so as to avoid the greedy hands of grave robbers. Strangely though, there aren't any pyramids here - pyramids must have been so 'last millienium' by the time these guys wanted to be buried (the real reason I believe is that too many pyramids were being robbed, so they decided to make finding the Pharoah's tombs harder by keeping everything firmly underground).
Anyway - the Valley of the Kings --- yeah, its a big sandy mountainous area, with lots of tombs. And lots of those belong to various guys called Ramses - must have been the equivalent of 'Henry' in Egypt. Not all of the tombs are open for tourists, and each has an entry fee, so we decided to only see 3. Our guide was a friendly lady, who happened to be an Egyptologist (strangely enough, the guy who ran the souvenir shop at the hotel as also an Egyptologist, and so too was one of the waiters - Egyptology
The temple of Hatshepsut
Level 1 was completely annihilated by her enraged step son on his escapade to rid her name from the world. must pay well). After giving us a brief introduction to what to expect in the tombs, including the meaning of various symbols, such as three-headed vs. one-headed snakes and the location of the kitchen in each tomb (yes they have kitchens for the ghost of the Pharoah), she let us loose to roam the tombs. Guides alas are banned from coming into the tombs, as it used to end up being one large shouting fest when they used to be allowed in.
So the tombs - yes, incredibly spectacular. As per Karnkak - things are preserved extremely well - not retouched mind you - but preserved. We were surprised to discover that hieroglyphics were actually coloured - most pictures we had seen in the past had been sandstone carvings. These tombs were covered by colourful drawings, writings and decoration. Each tomb was relatively small, the longest being about 125m long from memory. Its amazing how much effort they went to burying themselves.
The second stop for the day was the temple of Hatshepsut. She was a crazy woman - she snatched the throne from her step son, claimed to be divinity to solidify her claim, dressed like a
An ominous door
What lay behind that door. Alas, we would never find out. It was probably the security guard's store room. man to further gain respect, and even wore a fake beard. When her step son finally reclaimed the throne, he had so much hatred for her that he caused every sign of her existence to be wiped from Egypt. Thus, everything that bore her names was destroyed or wiped. I thus kind of wondered why the temple of Hatshepsut still existed - considering it was a whole temple devoted to the crazy lady. The temple itself was no big deal. Well, it was nice, but after seeing Karnak and the Valley of the Kings, it looked like the runt of a litter that nobody wanted.
More interesting was the final site for the day - the valley of the Queens. As per the valley of the Kings, except the women and children were buried here. Now, since there were plenty more women and children than Pharaohs, the tombs here were supposedly not as spectacular. And its true - they were simpler. But .... what was great is that the guards here are bribable. In the valley of the kings, you can't take photos, or film. In the valley of the Queens, our good guide told us, you can slip
Our good friend Hatshepsut
I believe that was her face. I wonder how come it wasn't destroyed. the guard a little something, and he may let you photograph something.
Okay, so I'm a law abiding citizen, but I wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to take photos in here. So I loitered and loitered and loitered in one of the tombs until there was nobody and then approached the guard. Alas, I didn't have anything small, so I slipped him 20EGP ($4). He was so thrilled, that he shooed the remaining people in the tomb out, turned on some extra lights, and then proceeded to lead me through the tomb, showing me the best places to photograph. I was so excited (and nervous) that my hands were shaking, but he soothingly patted me on the back, calming me down and telling me not to rush. While I finished up taking photos, he headed back to the entrance to shoo any other approaching tourists. My own personal tomb, all to myself!
So, that was Luxor for us. Quite simply incredible and worth the trip to Egypt. We arrived back at the hotel mid-afternoon, enough time to take a quick swim in the pool before heading to the airport to take our plane back to Cairo.
Something
Wish we had hired a guide to tell us what we were looking at. A side note about the pool - some tourists were so desperate to sunbake that when there were no more pool chairs available, they would stand in the sun in strategic positions. I saw one woman stand for 30 minutes with her arms in the air so that her armpits got a good tan. Crazy tourists!
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