We woke up around 8:30 am and met our driver, Sayd outside our hotel at 9 am for a trip to the West Bank, and to visit the Valley of the Kings. The 20-minute drive was amazing. We saw banana trees, corn, and other crops being tended by farmers and their donkeys. We also saw snippets of village life characterized by women hanging laundry and buying food, children running around helping or riding donkeys, and men either walking to work or to one of the small side street cafes.
When we finally arrived, we headed straight for the welcome center, bought our tickets, then jumped on the trolly to the entrance of the valley. We were disappointed to find that they are extremely active in the prohibition of photograph-taking.
For a period of nearly 500 years (16th to 11th century BCE), The Valley of the Kings was the final resting place for scores of Pharaohs, including King Tut. The tombs have been painted with scenes from Egyptian mythology, the entire book of the dead, the book of spells, etc, which gives the visitor some clues into ancient Egyptian culture and tradition. However, most all the tombs themselves are empty, as they have been robbed of their treasures, and Pharaohs.
Tutankhamen's tomb was "discovered" by Howard Carter in 1922, and was completely filled to the brim with items that took almost 10 years to carefully remove and transport to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Tutankhamun's tomb had been entered at least twice, not long after he was buried and well before Carter's "discovery". I remember reading something once about one of these entries or maybe the artifacts being linked to Rosslyn Chapel...hmm. The outermost doors of the shrines enclosing the king's nested coffins were left opened, and unsealed. It is estimated that 60% of the jewellery which had been stored in the "Treasury" was removed as well. After one of these ancient robberies, embalming materials from King Tut's tomb are believed to have been buried in another tomb within the valley. The valley became famous in the 20th century for the discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb, which coincides with rumors of the Curse of the Pharaohs.
Below is a photo is his funerary mask made of solid gold, which we will see when we get to Cairo.
After sweating profusely visiting the tombs, we headed back to Luxor to meet up with our friend Ahmed to have some tea, coffee and smoke :)
Our driver Siyd, is Ahmed's cousin. He was extremely generous to drive us around for very little money in his taxi. We stopped at little coffee shop, we'll let the pics and video speak for themselves. We loved it!
When we finally arrived, we headed straight for the welcome center, bought our tickets, then jumped on the trolly to the entrance of the valley. We were disappointed to find that they are extremely active in the prohibition of photograph-taking.
For a period of nearly 500 years (16th to 11th century BCE), The Valley of the Kings was the final resting place for scores of Pharaohs, including King Tut. The tombs have been painted with scenes from Egyptian mythology, the entire book of the dead, the book of spells, etc, which gives the visitor some clues into ancient Egyptian culture and tradition. However, most all the tombs themselves are empty, as they have been robbed of their treasures, and Pharaohs.
Tutankhamen's tomb was "discovered" by Howard Carter in 1922, and was completely filled to the brim with items that took almost 10 years to carefully remove and transport to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Tutankhamun's tomb had been entered at least twice, not long after he was buried and well before Carter's "discovery". I remember reading something once about one of these entries or maybe the artifacts being linked to Rosslyn Chapel...hmm. The outermost doors of the shrines enclosing the king's nested coffins were left opened, and unsealed. It is estimated that 60% of the jewellery which had been stored in the "Treasury" was removed as well. After one of these ancient robberies, embalming materials from King Tut's tomb are believed to have been buried in another tomb within the valley. The valley became famous in the 20th century for the discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb, which coincides with rumors of the Curse of the Pharaohs.
Below is a photo is his funerary mask made of solid gold, which we will see when we get to Cairo.
Our driver Siyd, is Ahmed's cousin. He was extremely generous to drive us around for very little money in his taxi. We stopped at little coffee shop, we'll let the pics and video speak for themselves. We loved it!
Our driver Siyd
Ahmed, from the Hotel Gaddis
Heidi's first and only hit...
After this little adventure, we went back to the hotel and rested for a while, then prepared for our Felluca trip to Banana island with Siyd, whos uncle owns a few boats for sailing the Nile. Coming up next....Stay tuned
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