We got up at 5:30am this morning to do our tours before the heat of the day. I still was not feeling 100%, as I had been bed-ridden half of yesterday and was still a little dehydrated (the Pharaoh really showed me who was boss). Luckily, before the trip we got strong prescription antibiotics for just this kind of thing, which I started taking yesterday to help kick it. I decided I would at least try and do some of the tour, and if I felt bad, we would skip the lesser sights.
Our guide took us to the Valley of the Kings first. The history: During the Old Kingdom, kings buried themselves inside the pyramids. This turned out to be a bad idea. The pyramids were basically huge signs for all grave robbers saying, “please come steal me and all my treasures.” Starting with the New Kingdom, Kings got very secretive about their burial spots. Instead of putting their tombs inside a pyramid, they were buried in a mountain that was shaped like a pyramid just west of the Nile in what was then Egypt’s capital, Luxor. This is now known as the Valley of the Kings. Pretty much all of the kings in the 18th – 20th dynasties were buried there (62 tombs have been discovered, some yet to be found). The kings were so secretive about their place of burial that only a few select priests and the workers who built the tombs knew about the locations, and the workers were never allowed to leave this area for generations. Unfortunately, it wasn’t very long after the 20th dynasty before the tombs were discovered by grave robbers anyway, which is why most of the tombs have no treasures in them today. King Tut’s tomb wasn’t discovered here until the 1920s, and was filled with massive treasures (now in the Egyptian Museum). The latest tomb discovery was 3 years ago, and there are more tombs to be found.
Our guide took us to the Valley of the Kings first. The history: During the Old Kingdom, kings buried themselves inside the pyramids. This turned out to be a bad idea. The pyramids were basically huge signs for all grave robbers saying, “please come steal me and all my treasures.” Starting with the New Kingdom, Kings got very secretive about their burial spots. Instead of putting their tombs inside a pyramid, they were buried in a mountain that was shaped like a pyramid just west of the Nile in what was then Egypt’s capital, Luxor. This is now known as the Valley of the Kings. Pretty much all of the kings in the 18th – 20th dynasties were buried there (62 tombs have been discovered, some yet to be found). The kings were so secretive about their place of burial that only a few select priests and the workers who built the tombs knew about the locations, and the workers were never allowed to leave this area for generations. Unfortunately, it wasn’t very long after the 20th dynasty before the tombs were discovered by grave robbers anyway, which is why most of the tombs have no treasures in them today. King Tut’s tomb wasn’t discovered here until the 1920s, and was filled with massive treasures (now in the Egyptian Museum). The latest tomb discovery was 3 years ago, and there are more tombs to be found.
Of the 62 tombs, around 10 are opened to the public. Your ticket only gives you a choice of 3. Our guide, Ahmed, told us his favorites, so we went to those. There are pretty impressive drawings and stories on the walls, giving much insight to the religion and Gods of that time. Overall, the Valley of the Kings is a definite must-see in Luxor. (We don’t have any pictures because they are not allowed to be taken inside the tombs.)
Next we went to the Temple of Hatshepsut, which looked much different than the other temples from that time, with multi-level terraces (picture below).
After that, we visited an Alabaster factory. Many of the sarcophagi throughout the Kingdoms were made of alabaster, and all of the alabaster came from Luxor. This factory has been handed down for generations, and they get their alabaster rocks from just 100 meters away. Below is Kim carving an alabaster pot.
Kim - Alabaster Factory, Luxor, Egypt from Brian Burns on Vimeo.
I was still feeling ok at this point, so we decided to go ahead and visit the Valley of the Queens. The Valley of the Queens was not just for tombs of Queens, but for children, wives, mothers, and nobles. One of the tombs had a mummified fetus in it. That was probably the highlight for me.
We then stopped by the Colossi of Memnon, then headed back to our hotel to relax and beat the heat (and in my case, get well) the rest of the afternoon. 
As we were hanging around the pool later, we were asked to be in a promo for the Sheraton hotel website. They sat Kim and I at a table with fake cocktails and took lots of video of us smiling and having fake conversations and watching the sunset over the Nile. So I guess that was our 15 seconds of fame… you may see us on the Sheraton Luxor website in about 2 -3 months!
As we were hanging around the pool later, we were asked to be in a promo for the Sheraton hotel website. They sat Kim and I at a table with fake cocktails and took lots of video of us smiling and having fake conversations and watching the sunset over the Nile. So I guess that was our 15 seconds of fame… you may see us on the Sheraton Luxor website in about 2 -3 months!We are looking forward to Greece… we fly to Athens at 8 tomorrow morning (another morning of getting up early).
Additional notes/thoughs:
- Luxor is more our speed… we definitely prefer it to Cairo. Laid back, no traffic, and seems safer/cleaner. Its population is only 400,000 compared to Cairo’s 20 million.
- More on driving in Cairo: We just heard a really good Rick Steve’s quote: “Cars stay in lanes in Cairo like rocks in an avalanche.” Perfect analogy.
- As with Cairo, getting a guide for Luxor is highly recommended.
- Don’t get into an argument with an Egyptian over who was the best King. I told our guide that I heard Ramses II was the best King, and he almost took it personally. He said, “Don’t even get me started….” If you were wondering, he is a die-hard Thutmose III fan (and yeah, I’ll agree that taking over 350 cities without losing a battle is a decent resume).
- I most likely got sick from eating tomato our last night in Cairo. Our guide said that no one in Egypt eats lettuce or tomato for this reason (restaurants either do not wash the lettuce/tomato or they wash them with the contaminated tap water).
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