The get up call was early again for us today although not as bad as some days I guess and Katherine always seems to be up early anyway.  The rest of us dragged ourselves out of bed about 5:45 am.  Ok so its not too early really but its early for holidays!  It at least gave some of us time to inhale some coffee or tea depending on preference before being asked to face the day head on.

Still it could have been worse.  We’d decided on a pick up of 6:30 am.  Originally they suggested picking us up at 6 am.  Some of us said 7 am, some of us agreed to 6 am so we settled at the in between point.  Today we’d arranged for a car, driver and guide to take us to some of the temples.

First stop for the day wasn’t all that special.  We stopped at a little shop on the side of the street to get some water since we all needed it.  That accomplished we headed to our first port of call.

The Valley of the Kings.

Valley of the Kings

We had a little bit of hassle right at the start getting our tickets for the Valley of the Kings.  It was in the order of a change issue and the man in the ticket office not wanting to give us any.  Kind of funny in an annoying way since he kept telling us he didn’t have any yet whenever a local went up he gave up change without any of the arguments we had to have to get change.

Still that sorted we trundled off in trollies down the road to the entrance for the Valley of the Kings.  First up we discussed whether we should purchase the extra ticket that was required to see Tutankhamun’s Tomb.  The ticket you pay at the gate allows the visitor to go to three different tombs but excludes Tutankhamun’s tomb, the cynic in me guesses this is because it is popular so they can rake in a ton of extra cash by excluding it.  We decided against it having seen the exhibit at the Cairo Museum and the guides belief it really wasn’t worth the extra you have to pay to see it.

After a description of what we were about to see and a reminder that we were not allowed to take photo’s or video in the tombs, to protect them from damage we headed into the Tomb of Ramses VII.  Our guide had to stay behind saying that they were no longer permitted to talk in the tombs as that could also damage the fragile reliefs inside.

So we lined up and walked inside, not talking or taking photo’s.  Pity other’s didn’t have any respect at all.  The harried custodians admonishing tourists to put their camera away after trying to sneak photo’s, hard to do when a flash goes off, the tombs are underground after all!  Others ran there hands over the reliefs, pausing to rub the colour to see if it would come off on there fingers and generally talking at the top of there lungs. I was reminded why I detest tour groups.

The Tomb of Ramses VII is small for a tomb of a Pharaoh and we are told it was due to his sudden death so the tomb had to be finished in haste.  There is one short corridor, the burial chamber (originally intended as a second corridor but widened to make it the burial chamber) and an unfinished third chamber.  I was reminded staring at the walls and the reliefs they contained that graffiti has been around for a long time with the walls desecrated with Greek, Coptic and 19th century graffiti.

Next we went into the Tomb of Ramses IV, who’s mummy I found out later now resides in the Cairo Museum.  Once again we were told this tomb was finished in a hurry due to the early demise of the Pharaoh, this time Ramses IV.  I still can not believe that the colour remains on the wall after all these years.  It certainly sends the imagination running wild imagining these corridors, the final resting place of the ancient Pharaohs in all there splendour when they were first created.

Our final tomb for the valley was the Tomb of Ramses I, a small simple tomb again consisting of one small corridor and the burial chamber.  To get to it though unlike the others we had to go down two flights of steep stairs.  One side to go down and one side to go up separated by a hand rail.  We got down in one piece and discovered it was worth it. The burial chamber is beautiful and alive with colour, probably due to being further underground than the others we’d seen.

We waved goodbye to the Valley of the Kings at that point and headed off to see the Temple of Hatshepsut who was one of the few females declared a Pharaoh.  This was done by apparently declaring herself male.

Temple of Hatshepsut
The Temple of Hatshepsut is certainly incredible to see even just driving up the road towards it.  Set as it is into the side of the mountain and with the extensive excavation and restoration that has been occurring since 1891 its amazing.

The three tiered temple was vandalised by Tuthmosis III, Hatshepsut’s stepson, who chiselled out hatshepsut’s name where ever he could.  Although as Lou commented he probably didn’t do it himself but got a minion to do it for him.  Akhenaten removed all references to Amun and early Christians turned it into a monastery and defaced the reliefs.

Despite all that damage done over the years the temple is stunning and once again my imagination took off thinking what the place must have looked like in its day before the damages inflicted by the various vandals and the effects of time itself.

We had a break after wandering around the Temple of Hatshepsut heading to a small cafe off to one side in the shade.  We sat around chatting about what we’d seen that morning so far.  I do not think any of us were disappointed.

Tomb of the Nobles

Next up on the agenda and our last stop was the Tomb of the Nobles where there are over 400 tombs belonging to those who were once Nobles from the 6th Dynasty to the Graeco-Roman period.

We went into the Tombs of Ramose, Userhet and Khaemhet.

Ramose was a governor of Thebes under Amenhotep III and Akenaten.  Userhet was Amenhotep II’s royal scribe and Khaemhet was Amenhoptep III’s royal inspector of granaries and the court scribe.

Unlike the Tombs of the Pharaohs that we’d seen earlier that were inscribed with passages from the Book of the Dead.  The Tombs of the Nobles decorated there tombs with scenes from there daily lives.  It is believed they did this so that the good times they had would continue in the afterlife.

Once again there were no photo’s or video allowed inside the tombs.

After the visit we returned to our flat, escaping from the heat for a time.  That night we all met up for dinner in town at a roof top restaurant overlooking the Nile appropriately called the Nile Hotel.  That night there was Sufi dancing and local music being played so it ended up being quite entertaining.