After a tasty buffet breakfast at the hotel, our first stop was to a shop that hand carved alabaster and other stones native to the area. A crew of four people demonstrated how the carving is done. Alabaster is a hard, translucent stone that comes in three colors. To carve vases, cups, bowls, etc. by hand, they put a block into a hole in the ground and use a special hand drill to make a hole in it. They continue drilling until the hole is the right size, then hand chisel it down to the correct shape, then sand and polish it. Hand carved alabaster is incredibly light weight and opaque enough to use as a lampshade. They had a few machine carved pieces there, as well, which were much heavier. They also had a lot of carvings in black and green stones that are also native to the area. The sales guys here were also really pushy. We went outside to get away from them, only to be hit up for money by the guys who did the demo.

Many of you Americans are probably wondering when we see the pyramids, assuming they are located in Luxor since the famous pyramid shaped casino in Las Vegas is named Luxor. Sorry guys, the casino is misnamed. The pyramids were burial tombs that were popular with the Old Kingdom Pharaohs, who ruled in the north, and had fallen out of favor by the time the Middle Kingdom began, which ruled from Thebes (Luxor). The Pharaohs of the Middle and New Kingdoms were buried in elaborate underground tombs in the Valley of the Kings, which was our next stop. It was just a short bus ride to the entrance from the alabaster shop.

Up until Egypt built a sufficient dam in the early 70’s, the Nile flooded every year. The flood valley it created is green and fertile. There is literally a visible line where the flood valley ends and the desert begins. It goes from green and cultivated to dry, dusty, sand hills with absolutely no vegetation in an instant. The pharaohs carefully chose their burial spot just beyond the reach of the floodwaters, very close to line. The Valley of the Kings is located on the west side of the river. The sun rises in the east, so the people lived on the east side of the river, and temples for the living were made on the east side. The sun set in the west, which meant a place of death. No one lived on the west side, though an elaborate necropolis was built there for the afterlife. In addition to the Valley of the Kings, there is a Valley of the Queens, and burial sites for other nobility (neither of which we went to).

We pulled into the Valley of the Kings parking lot and filed into the visitor center. There was an informational movie playing in the corner, which we didn’t watch. In the center was a model of the narrow valley and surrounding hills, showing the entrances to the tombs they have discovered within the hills. What is cool is that the display was suspended, and you could see models of the tombs under the ground. There are 62 total, but only a handful are open at a time. The open ones are rotated regularly, so to see them all, you’d have to go back every day for weeks.

We exited out of the back of the visitor center and rode a tram up a not too steep hill to the drop off area. The “valley” is only about as wide as a large sidewalk in between two large sets mountains made from what looks like loosely packed dirt, though in reading about the excavation process, it sounds like it is solid rock under the layer of dirt. The entrances are fairly obvious openings located just off the main path.

The first tomb we entered was for Ramses IV, located near the drop off point. No cameras are allowed in the tombs, so sorry guys, no photos. The entrance led to a long corridor that gently sloped downward. It is about as wide as two people. It was crowded inside, and one line moved single file deeper into the tomb and next to us, there was a single file line of people moving out of it. From the moment you set foot inside, every inch of the walls and ceiling are carved and painted with brightly colored, ornate hieroglyphic designs. Being in the dark for all these years, the paint has been preserved. This is probably exactly what the temples looked like in their hey-day. Unfortunately, taggers had gotten to this monument, too, and the scars on the paint were even more obvious and painful to the eye. We moved deeper and deeper. The long hall opened into a small room, and through it on the open side was a bigger room. At the back of the larger room is a long, low area where the body had been laid to rest. In the center of the large room is a large granite sarcophagus (outer coffin, akin to the cement boxes they put wood coffins in today before burial) made of granite, with the exterior carved, but not painted.

The next tomb was for Ramses I. The people who were coming out as we went in were huffing and puffing, so it was no surprise to find that it was a very long, steep walk down to the small room the tomb was in. Part of the corridor was a staircase, part of it a ramp. The corridor was not decorated. In the small room, the walls and ceiling were painted, but it didn’t look like they were carved. The artwork was just as intricate as the first tomb. Off the room on three sides were smaller areas that almost looked like low closets. Like the last tomb, a granite sarcophagus sat in the middle of the main room.

The third tomb was for Ramses III. It is definitely the largest and fanciest of the three. The corridor into the tomb is very long and gently sloping. Interspersed along the corridor are a number of what we think are storage areas carved into the sides of the corridor. In a couple spots the corridor turned, and at these turns there were closed off areas that looked like they may possibly be additional full size rooms. We followed the seemingly endless corridor through a large room with pillars, then through two tiny rooms before we got to the big room at the end containing more pillars and the sarcophagus in the middle. Like the first tomb, every inch of the walls and ceiling are both carved and painted with brightly colored, intricate artwork, including the corridor.

The ticket only allows you to go into three tombs, and King Tut’s is excluded from the three. A ticket into King Tut’s tomb was an extra $16 each. The guide gave us enough time to visit King Tut’s tomb if we wanted, but he warned us it was a huge letdown. The Egyptians started working on a Pharaoh’s tomb as soon as he came to power, and worked on it for years and years. They carved these caves out by hand, and just the excavation alone took years before they could even start on the décor, which also took years. King Tut came to power when he was nine, and died at 18, likely by murder. He was a very minor pharaoh, and his tomb reflected it. The only reason he is so well known today is because his is one of the few tombs that has been found intact.

The entranceway is another very sharply dropping corridor, with both stairs and a ramp, though not as long as Ramses I. It leads to a small room, and off of that another small room, with a low little closet off each room that is closed off. In the first room is King Tut’s body is under glass. The muslin strips have been removed. You can see his head and his feet. The middle portion of his body has a white sheet draped over it. The body is pitch black, literally skin and bones, with all muscle and fat gone. A couple of his toes are crumbling. His body is tiny, maybe 4 feet long. In the next room was the granite outer sarcophagus, and inside it, under glass, is the very famous gold inner sarcophogus whose image is synonymous with Egypt. Only two of the walls in the entire tomb are painted, and there are no carvings. The paintings are not nearly as intricate as the other tombs. Lucky us, there was a local there harassing people for money and he latched on to us. He wouldn’t leave us alone and when we tried to leave, he blocked the exit half of the corridor. We actually walked out the entrance side of the corridor (fortunately for us, no one was coming down) to get away from him. Eric was really annoyed. He reckons that if you have to pay extra to get into the tomb, it should be a hassle free area. As we left the Valley of the Kings to board the bus, we had to walk through a long line of pushy vendors.

The next stop was a temple called Djeser-djeseru (Sacred of Sacreds), built by Hatshepsut, ancient Egypt’s only female pharaoh. The site is”¦

To be continued”¦