Eternal Nile Day 4
Eternal Nile
DAY 4 - Tuesday, November 30, 2004 - Discover West Bank of the Nile & Valley of the Kings/Queens - Thebes
Our A/C never worked, or did the water drain from our tub, so at 8:30 PM they moved us to another room. The bellboy brought us a fan so we were cool and comfortable last night.
The A/C has been turned off for the whole hotel (5 Star) as it is winter!!! But it is still 80 degrees outside and warmer inside.
Once again our wake up call was at 4 AM and we met in the lobby at 4:55 to take a short bus ride to the river. We boarded a motorboat and were transferred to the West Bank.
We enjoyed a sunrise farm breakfast on the West Bank of the Nile and gained insight into what life is like in Egypt's incredibly poor rural villages. We watched the women bake bread in open stone ovens, we sat at very low tables, and shared typical Egyptian food.
After breakfast we walked along a narrow path over several of the Nile irrigation ditches ending with a visit to a nearby village where we toured a working farm. It was very interesting to see the inside of the home and its adjoining stable and talk to the farmer and his family of 8 daughters.
One of the better looking young ladies told our guide that I was so handsome and looked just like Mel Gibson. She did want to know who my wife was. I gave her a large tip for a picture we took together arm in arm. She then wanted to know if I had a baby (son)!
The bus had crossed the Nile at its only bridge and it was waiting for us so we hopped in for a short trip through the desert hills of Thebes and the Valley of the Kings. This land is so arid, not even sage brush grows here.
There is almost no rain at all. Maybe one day a year and then it is just a few drops. We could be walking on the surface of the moon!
Luxor, on the West Bank, is a hilly area that was once the necropolis of ancient Thebes. We visited two distinct complexes of funerary monuments: the Valley of the Kings, with its 64 tombs of the pharaohs, and the Valley of the Queens, with 57 tombs of royal family members.
Many of the tombs here are chiseled deep into cliff sides. And the tombs aren't only for human mummies. Pets in ancient Egypt were often considered a part of the family, and archaeologists have found perfectly preserved pets in some of the tombs.
One tomb contained a baboon mummy, elegantly dressed and sporting hena-dyed nails, and another tomb held a sacred ibis—a species now extinct—swathed in an elaborate wrap of burial cloths layered in geometric patterns. It was only 7:15 AM and there were already many buses here.
Shahinaz got our tickets and we went through security, off to explore the ancient burial grounds of the pharaohs at the Valley of the Kings. A small diesel powered train took us deep into the gorge where we saw the expanse of tombs. Our general admission ticket allowed us to visit three tombs so Shahinaz suggested Ramses IV, VI, and IX.
She gave us a brief historical overview and we could see that the hill side were honeycombed with hundreds of tombs, many of famous pharaohs. The first tomb we visited was Ramses VI. We waited in line and walked through a wide tunnel and could see the incredible carvings and hieroglyphics on the walls and ceilings as we traveled deep into the granite hillside.
The colors are still unbelievable vibrant; blues, yellows, dark reds, and browns. Our next adventure was to the Tomb of King Tutankhamun which is very small with many parts undecorated. Yet the burial chamber has brightly painted pictures with his gilded coffin and remains still inside.
Next we visited Ramses IX and then on to Ramses IV. We wondered if one hour would be enough time on our own to see the three tombs and then King Tut, but we were fine and had a leisurely time because the only one that had a line at all was Ramses VI - the most elaborate and colorful.
We took the trolley train back down at 9AM and met the bus. Our next stop was the Valley of the Queens. There are over 40 tombs here but very few have been excavated and only two were open to tourists. We visited these two, one for a young prince and the other for a young wife - Queen Titi.
On our way out of the valley we passed local villages and saw very primitive homes built into the side of the mountains over the antiquities. The government is trying to move these people to do more excavation and restoration.
Our next stop was an alabaster factory where we were able to watch the production of souvenir carvings. Of course, there was an opportunity for buying and many of our group chose to take advantage of this opportunity.
We made several stops to take photographs and stopped at the pair of massive, 64-foot-tall statues of Amenophis III, their eyes cast in the direction of the Nile. Known as the Colossi of Memnon, the statues are made of yellowish sandstone quarried from the hills above Edfu.
The statues were given the name Memnon in the Roman imperial era, after a soldier who died in the Trojan war. The north colossus was once famous for emitting a musical note at sunrise, which Romans attributed to Memnon crying for his mother from the afterlife.
When damage to the statue was repaired by Emperor Septimius Severus, the music suddenly stopped—and scientists have never learned what caused it in the first place.
We crossed over the Nile using the bridge and dropped off several people at our hotel. The rest of us went to a local gold and silver artisan shop where we watched them make the famous and well known cartouches.
At 12:30 we returned to the hotel for a free afternoon. We had lunch at the hotel coffee shop and then returned to our room to rest a bit, get some sun, and take care of the usual pictures and notes.
Tonight we met at 5:55 for dinner at the hotel, a tempting buffet and then departed for the Temple of Karnac again for the sound and light show. We traveled by horse and carriage (corniche) to the site.
When the show was over we returned to our hotel as some of us have another very early morning for the balloon ride over Luxor.
Winter Palace Pavilion - - - Meals: B & D
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