Egypt - Part Two

Ancient Egypt

We essentially had only about 6 hours in and around Luxor to have quickie tours of all of the amazing things that can be seen in that part of the Nile River Valley. That is not enough time to really see any one of these sites in any detail. However, we were able to stop at all the major sites and my dear wife and I were able to descend into 4 tombs in the Valley of the Kings.

There are over 60 major tombs in the Valley of the Kings, which was declared a World Heritage Site in 1979. Our tour included a ticket that gave us the right to go into any 3 of the currently open tombs, except for King Tutankhamun’s tomb. To enter Tut’s tomb you required a separate $20 ticket and it was optional. We entered the tombs’ of Ramesses III, IV and IX and shelled out the extra $40 to go into the tomb of King Tut. Each tomb we entered offered something different. For instance, the tomb of Ramesses IX, which was over 100 meters deep, was only decorated half way down its length. The Egyptologists believe that that is because he died before it was completed.  All of the tombs we entered had some great artwork adorning the walls of the hallways and other associated chambers and they also contained graffiti from Latin, Greek and Coptic graffiti artists.

King Tut’s Tomb was very different. The artwork was the least elaborate of the four tombs we visited and only adorned one small chamber. They say the reason for the less elaborate decoration in the King Tut tomb was that he died at age 19 and he did not have the time that other pharaohs had to build an elaborate resting place. The thing that set the Tut tomb apart though is that the mummy is still there lying ‘in state’ behind a glass partition. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed in The Valley of the Kings and our guide recommended we leave cameras in the bus so that they could not be confiscated.

When we came out of the Valley of the Kings our next stop was the Temple of Hatshepsut. Queen Hatshepsut ruled for about 21 years and she was one of the most successful female rulers.  We did not have time to go inside the temple and I was sort of glad because it was stinking hot and I needed a break after the tomb visits. Mrs. Gym though had all kinds of energy that day and would have run me into the ground if we did not have to stick together in our tour group.

Next on the itinerary and down the road from the temple was the Colossi of Memnon. These twin statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III have stood for over 3400 years. It was interesting to see an Egyptian farmer right next door to these ancient statues harvesting wheat with a hand scythe. It was feasible that he was doing the same work that his ancestors were doing when those statues were being built using the exact same tool. The only difference was that his ancient ancestors were not wearing jeans and a red logoed t-shirt.

We then crossed back over to the east side of the Nile for a one-hour tour of the Temple of Luxor and the The Avenue of the Sphinxes.  These are just spectacular. I will let the pictures and their captions tell the story.

We are currently sailing through the Suez Canal on our way to the Mediterranean Sea and then to our next port of Ashdod, Israel. I will have some pictures for you later of the canal crossing.

Temple of Hatshepsut with the Valley of the Kings located directly
behind the temple and on the other side of that limestone ridge

Colossi of Memnon (they are bigger than they look)

Wheat field next to Colossi - grain is cut with a
hand scythe in 40 degree C heat and the guy is in blue jeans.

Colossi with Valley of the Kings over the ridge behind (they are looking over the Nile)

In the ruins of the Temple of Luxor a very odd thing exists.
A mosque was built on top of a Coptic Christian Church.
When the mosque was built the ground level was just
above the bottom row of windows which were
windows in the church. Darn Muslims! 

Avenue of the Sphinxes just outside of the Temple of Luxor

Entrance to the Temple of Luxor. Note that their was a pair of
obelisks here originally. As it turns out they were both
gifted to France but it was so difficult to move the first one
that the French left it in Egypt.
The matching one is in Paris.

Some guy lined his shower with the missing pieces...just kidding, but who knows

There was a roof over this at one time

This was roofed as well

This is cool. It is an area of the temple that Alexander the Great
had his people do some touch-ups centuries after the original work

A guy needed this piece for around his hot tub

A single sphinx

A future Pharaoh