Valley Of The Kings & Queens, Luxor & Karnak
Trip Start
Sep 29, 2007
1
161
221
Trip End
Ongoing
Luxor,
Nile River Valley,
Egypt
Saturday, October 18, 2008
The next day was spent doing some intensive sightseeing, certainly enough to give us what they call around here, Pharoah's Fatigue
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. We visited the East and West Banks of The Nile river and this included The Valley Of The Kings, The Valley Of The Queens, The Temple Of Hatshepsut, The Temple Of Karnak and the Luxor Temple, there was alot to see. There was mass tourist activity in this area and it was almost like an ancient Egyptian theme park complete with mini trains moving people around.The Valley of the Kings is a valley in Egypt where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th century BC, tombs were constructed for the kings and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom. They built them here so they could be hidden from grave robbers because a giant pyramid to put a tomb in is a little bit obvious. The valley is known to contain 63 tombs and chambers (ranging in size from a simple pit to a complex tomb with over 120 chambers). We visited three of these including Ramses I, III and IX. The royal tombs are decorated with scenes from Egyptian mythology and give clues to the beliefs and funerary rituals of the period, many in colours. Photographs are not allowed inside the tombs so i pilfered some from the net of the things that we saw. All of the tombs seem to have been opened and robbed in antiquity, but they still give an idea of the opulence and power of the rulers of this time.
In modern times the valley has become famous for the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun (King Tut) whose tomb gear we saw at the museum in Cairo
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. The entrance fee was high for entering the tomb so we gave the offer some bakeesh to a tomb guardian method a go and were refused. There is not much to see in there anyway. I am feeling a little strange about traipsing around in tombs anyway. The mumies freak me out too. There is even supposed to be a curse surrounding these things. The Curse of the Pharaohs refers to the belief that any person who disturbs the mummy of an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh is placed under a curse whereby they will shortly die. Many tombs of pharaohs have curses written on or around them, warning against entering. The belief was brought to many people's attention due to the deaths of some members of the team of Howard Carter, who opened the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922.The Valley of the Queens is where wives of Pharaohs were buried in ancient times. Along with the Queens many princes and princesses were also buried with various members of the nobility. The tombs of these individuals were maintained by mortuary priests who performed daily rituals and provided offerings and prayers for the deceased nobility. This necropolis is said to hold more than seventy tombs, many of which are stylish and lavishly decorated. Queen Nefertari's tomb is here. Many of the tombs are in restoration and visitation is limited because the sweat and vapours from people's breath ruin the drawings inside.
We also visited the Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut (hot chicken soup) which is situated beneath the cliffs at Deir el Bahari
18m high statues
. The temple is dedicated to the sun god Amon-Ra and resides beside the mortuary temple of Mentuhotep. The fairly modern looking temple lies at the foot of and is partly cut from some rugged limestone cliffs of nearly 300metres high and is one of the finest monuments to see. There were three floors to explore.The temple of Karnak is an impressive complex of ruined chapels, sanctuaries, kiosks, pylons and obelisks dedicated to the Theban gods and the pharaohs. Again, lots to see here. The main structure, the Temple Of Amun is the largest religious building ever built. There is a three kilometre long paved avenue of human headed sphinxes that once linked this building with Luxor Temple. We wandered around in awe over this massive complex and then headed into the middle of modern Luxor City to visit the Luxor Temple where we found it lit up and spectacular, a good finish to the day's sights. There is a 24 meter high pylon at the entrance and two colossal statues of Ramesses III that are seated. There is a 25 metre tall pink granite obelisk and shrines plus beautiful pillars. On the way home we bought some cartouche jewellery that you get your name engraved onto in heiroglyphs. In Egyptian hieroglyphs, a cartouche is an oblong enclosure with a horizontal line at one end, indicating that the text enclosed is a royal name. We must be careful not to lose them though because in ancient times the Egyptians believed that if they fell into the wrong person's hands then that person could have power over the bearer of the name.
There were so many random tourists of the day, it was difficult to pick one.
We visited an alabaster workshop where i was able to barter down some raw, unpolished and organic alabaster bowls for putting tealight candles in
little scarabs and Alabaster bowl
. Alabaster was used in ancient Egypt for canopic jars and various other sacred objects. The day after all that adventure we were tired so had a cruisy day around Luxor City. The day started when we checked out of our lush hotel room only to be told later that we had day access to it and could have spent the day watching movies in bed. The worst part of it was that we had wanted to sleep in this day but had accidentally woken and eaten breakfast at 6am thinking it was 10am, no wonder nothing was open. Our el cheapo travel alarm clocks had let us down again and we have two of them set just in case. I think they are getting together to gang up on us. We were so tired that when there was an accidental fire alarm set off during the night, we had rolled over and gone back to sleep rather than check if we were being evacuated. Too bad so sad. We took a very cheap horse and cart ride around the city and checked out the produce market. We bought a feral child who had followed us around all morning some ice-cream then later saw him with a fully packed lunch box he had snared from a packaged tour tourist. Sneaky little man. We couldn't find anything 'safe' to eat so went to McDonalds (what are we thinking) and ordered a double Mc Fish burger. We gave some glitter pens to a friendly young girl who was fanning flies away from the bread her mother and her were baking.
We walked around Luxor having interesting conversations with locals until Nadine had the bright idea of hiring another horse and cart guy for an hour to see the areas surrounding Luxor
raw Alabaster bowls for candles
. It was a great idea until the young driver started to 'grope like an Egyptian'. The trip started okay and we ventured out through some farms where there were workers tending wheat crops and many goats and cows. Kids ran along next to the horses asking for gifts and bakeesh and giving us leaves. We threw some pens out to the nice ones. The driver was a little bit crazy and Suzy his horse was run a little bit too fast. Nadine was seated next to the driver and once out of the city, the driver kept putting his arm around her even though he was fully aware that we have the phantom husbands back in Australia. The wandering hands were getting annoying and when he tried to get into the carriage section where i was sitting i had had enough. For some strange reason i started to shout the NZ Haka that goes ho ri te! ha ho ripe! ka mau! hi! Ka mate! Ka mate!!!Ka ora! Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora! then followed that up with a jaguar roar Roaaaaaaarrrrrrrrr!!! but the guy was still trying. We got back into town, paid the driver a very small amount that he was lucky he got and then got the hell away from the guy. Do Western women really go for this? It's hard to believe they do. We checked out Cleopatra Street and bought some inexpensive, Bedouin inspired jewellery, some little blue scarabs and one of the very tacky Egypt snow domes that covers tiny pyramids and a Tutunkaman's death mask with gold glitter when you shake it
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. We stocked up on the budget traveller's staple, kushari dish before the suave Jamel drove us to the train station whilst pumping out Egyptian pop music from the stereo in his sports car that we suspect his Australian wife purchased for him.The first class, overnighter train from Luxor to Cairo was not the same standard of train we had taken in the reverse direction. The carriage was basically an old sleeper room from which the beds had been removed. In their place was two banks of three seats facing each other. Luckily, we only had two others in our cariage so we were able to get some sleep in. There was an Egyptian guy and a Nigerian woman who were quiet most of the time. I heard some Yanks in another carriage complaining that they had seven people in a carriage built for six but no-one else was moved to ours. The gods were shining on us and we feel this is a sign that we don't have The Curse Of The Pharaohs. Joy.
Some random pieces:
* Nadine's Spork (travellers plastic fork / spoon combination in one utensil) is broken yet she won't let it go, there is no handle left and i think it has two prongs left. Time to go, Spork.
* We badly need eyedrops, hand disinfectant, quality moisturiser, an eybrow wax and a haircut and colour. Some basics are really difficult to obtain. There is only henna available here and no hairdressers for women who are not supposed to show their hair in public. I have cut my own fringe in a ridiculous way and Nadine has an overgrown mohawk.
Ramses IX tomb - Valley Of The Kings
I had to cut my two hair extensions out and also cut the genuine dreadlock out due to it's feralness. * Our scabies/ bed bugs / camel rug bugs / mosquito bites have gone away. I now have a sty in my eye and am a poet.
* All the travellers around us have been sick in Egypt with the pharoah funnies, except for us (touches wooden penis on ancient Egyptian fertility statue on computer desk) and this gives me the idea that our stomachs are now strong and confirms our self-given status of 'hardcore' traveller.
* You never have enough memory cards for your camera
* I wouldn't survive without my ipod
Lame Joke of The Day:
Why were ancient Egyptian children confused?
Because their daddies were mummies.
