It was a very early morning for us, up at about 5, brekkies at 5:30, then over to the West Bank of the Nile for the Valley of the Kings. This is where Tut was buried and many of the other pharaohs from a mix of dynasties.
We saw the tombs of Ramses' II, his sons' tombs, Ramses VI, and one other whose name escapes me at the moment. There was a strange custom, our tour guide was not allowed to enter the tombs with us. We would discuss them outside and on the way to them, but he could not enter with us. We had to remember our questions and ask when we exited. At times it was very confusing because there are multiple Gods with the same name, for example Horus, there are good Hori and bad Hori and even Ahkmed was having trouble explaining the differences in them, especially since them appeared the same way on the tomb walls. A human body with a Hawk's head. There are also other Gods whose outward appearance is very similar to Horus, but they are not Horus!
The Egyptians had lots of transformed humans as Gods, the afterlife was governed by a jackal headed man, there is a lioness headed woman, a crocodile headed man, an ibis headed man, etc. I think you get the idea. All of these figures adorn the walls of the tombs and temples. They are guides for the deceased and will show him or her the way through the obstacles that await them.
you can see some of the color that remains after all these centuries.
This particular dynasty developed a style of deep incising in the cartouches. Often these divots were intensely colored.
This is the valley of the Nobels walking down from the tomb where the colors were so bright that you would think that it was painted just yesterday. The ceiling, by design, was wavy and depicted a grape arbor. Vivid yellow, purples, greens, and reds. Just gorgeous!
This was a statue that was just recently uncovered. There are a pair of them just below the valley of the Nobles. They were damaged by an earthquake that happened before Christ was born.
This was a long day of hiking around in the sun. We set sail at 2 PM.
Here are some shots from the boat of the edges of the Nile River.
These are the little boats that ferry people back and forth across the Nile.
I'm so glad that we did not take one of these behemoths.
A bunch of falluccas tied up just south of Luxor.
This was an interesting object. I believe that it is an irrigation pump that pulls water from the Nile for the crops near by.
Looking at the back side of the mountain that forms the Valley of the Kings, Queens, and Nobles
A sunset over the West Bank of the Nile River.
We saw the tombs of Ramses' II, his sons' tombs, Ramses VI, and one other whose name escapes me at the moment. There was a strange custom, our tour guide was not allowed to enter the tombs with us. We would discuss them outside and on the way to them, but he could not enter with us. We had to remember our questions and ask when we exited. At times it was very confusing because there are multiple Gods with the same name, for example Horus, there are good Hori and bad Hori and even Ahkmed was having trouble explaining the differences in them, especially since them appeared the same way on the tomb walls. A human body with a Hawk's head. There are also other Gods whose outward appearance is very similar to Horus, but they are not Horus!
The Egyptians had lots of transformed humans as Gods, the afterlife was governed by a jackal headed man, there is a lioness headed woman, a crocodile headed man, an ibis headed man, etc. I think you get the idea. All of these figures adorn the walls of the tombs and temples. They are guides for the deceased and will show him or her the way through the obstacles that await them.
This was a long day of hiking around in the sun. We set sail at 2 PM.
Here are some shots from the boat of the edges of the Nile River.
A sunset over the West Bank of the Nile River.
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