The public ferry costs 1 Egyptian pound and goes from near our hotel right to the Temple of Luxor. It's quite crowded with locals and we were the only foreigners on the boat. We sat up front, behind the pilot, and when he saw me he gestured for me to sit in the captain's seat and drive the boat! I was happy to oblige and, with his help, steered us across the river, to the amusement (I hope) of everyone on board.
Luxor Temple is one of my favorite monuments in Luxor. As opposed to Karnak, which is a mishmash of buildings built over fifteen hundred years and very hard to figure out, Luxor is the product of two pharaohs, Amonhotep III and Ramses II. There is a beautiful colonnade, a huge sun court, wonderful carvings, including some of Alexander the Great when he was pharaoh, a very tall obelisk and many huge statues of the pharaoh who is everywhere, Ramses II. We were the only tourists there for over an hour as we went early in the morning, when the big tour groups are eating breakfast.
Afterwards, we wandered down to the Winter Palace hotel; the old, beautiful hotel that is first class all the way, and had a breakfast of delicious French pastries and coffee. We then wandered through the souk and we found the store of our friend Omar, where last year I bought a really cool statue of a hippo. Omar wasn't there, but we saw his brother. This time I bought a 'shabti' a small figure in the shape of an Egyptian coffin, hand carved and painted. Beautiful!
"At first I could see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle flame to flicker, but presently, as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold - everywhere the glint of gold. For the moment - an eternity it must have seemed to the others standing by - I was struck dumb with amazement, and when Lord Carnarvon, unable to stand the suspense any longer inquired anxiously, "Can you see anything?, it was all I could do to get out the words, "Yes, wonderful things." - Howard Carter, 'The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun', 1923
On the ferry ride back we met Hussein, a nice guy who is a taxi driver. We set up an afternoon with him to take us to the Valley of the Kings. We started in the West Valley, where there is one open tomb, of the pharaoh Ay, the man who succeeded King Tut to the throne. You have to drive about 3 kilometers up a dirt road and on the way, a man came out of a hut to flag us down. He was the Keeper of the Key, the guard of the tomb. He got in the car and was telling us that we were the only tourists that had been up there all day. At the tomb, we passed by a group of Italian archaeologists, who had been working in the valley for awhile with their Egyptian counterpart.
The tomb itself was quite nice, way down a corridor a couple of hundred feet. It has a beautiful sarcophagus and the walls were decorated with the pharaoh and many gods.
When we came out, our guard said he had a panorama to show us. So he guided us up a narrow cleft in the valley to a level area with a gorgeous view of the whole area. This land is as stark and dry as it gets, without any plant life whatsoever. But the geology is amazing, with many huge boulders that have tumbled down the valley over the millennia. You can also see big water channels, which are created by the occasional flash flood that happens here.
"...we alight, however; climb a steep slope and find ourselves on the threshold of No. 17. 'Belzoni-tomb', says our guide... Belzoni's tomb, as we know, is the tomb of Seti the First. I am almost ashamed to remember now that we took our luncheon in the shade of that solemn vestibule, and rested and made merry, before going down in the great gloomy sepulcher whose staircase and corridors plunged away into the darkness below, as if they led straight to the Land of Amenti." - Amelia Edwards, 'A Thousand Miles Up the Nile', 1876
Afterwards, Hussein drove us (he has a classic 1978 Peugot) to the main area of the Valley of the Kings, where we only had time for three tombs. Seti I has been closed to the public for decades, but was just recently opened, although it costs $60 to go in there. But with our Red Pass, we can go in it once per day. This is the largest and what many people consider the most beautiful tomb in the world. You go down a huge corridor over three hundred feet, with several chambers on the way down. The entire length is covered with beautiful carvings, most with their original colors. But the most amazing place is the burial chamber, a huge vaulted room with the most incredible painted scene on the ceiling of the night sky envisioned by the Egyptian religion. Gods and goddesses are everywhere, including the crocodile god, Sobek, riding on the back of the hippopotamus god, Seth. The walls are also covered with amazing paintings and the columns of the adjoining room have breathtaking carvings of Seti being greeted by different gods. And this is all beautifully lit by thousands of small lights, beaming up from the floor, which shows off the carvings to a great effect. These pictures are all taken from the internet, as you can't take your camera in the tombs.
"Death will slay with its wings whoever disturbs the peace of the Pharaoh." - Inscription in King Tutankhamun's tomb.
We also had time for King Tut's tomb and Ramses V/VI. Tut's, after seeing Seti's, is totally underwhelming. Just a couple of small rooms, the only one which is decorated is the small burial chamber, where they have left one of the original coffins in. It's amazing to think how many items were found here by Howard Carter when he discovered this intact tomb in 1922.
Our last tomb of the day was Ramses V/VI, who were brothers. Here we had a very nice guard who took us down the long distance to the burial chamber. We were the only people in the tomb and the guard, Abdul, from the nearby village of Gurna, told us many things. When we got to the chamber, another marvel with a fantastic ceiling, he went under the small railing and up into the forbidden area next to the wall. He beckoned us to come up there and without trepidation we followed him. He took us around the broken sarcophagus of the pharaoh and pointed out all sorts of gods and goddesses on the walls. It was obvious that Abdul wasn't just a regular guard, but a lover of Egyptology, who had learned the subject by a lot of studying.
Afterwards, we returned to our new hotel, the Marsam. This is an old hotel, well over one hundred years old, owned by an old family from Gurna, who were well known back in the day as some of the best tomb robbers in the area. But now they have turned to a more respected and legal profession in hospitality. The hotel is a couple of miles away from the Nile and is a place where you will find archaeologists having their lunch. Our room is great, with rather hard beds and a sitting room. The windows are small, which is very traditional here because of the heat. The food is excellent and, as is normal here in Egypt, there is always way too much.
The blue ceiling must be fabulous! Reminds me of the ?Saint Chapelle Church in Paris with the blue walls. So glad you are having such a fabulous tour of these places. thanks for your blog tour.
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