Valley of the Kings

The day began with a boat ride across the Nile to visit the West Bank and the Valley of the Kings.

We saw the Colossus of Memnon on the drive and many signs of tomb excavations on the hillsides.

At the entrance to the Valley of the Kings we were transported to the tombs by mini-train. Our first tomb visit was Ramses IV. This tomb has been open since antiquity. It was discovered many many years ago and was the 2nd tomb discovered.

Pharaohs were buried with 365 statues of servants, one for each day of the year. Next was the tomb of Ramsey III.

The last of our tombs was Merenptah, which had a nice deep and steep walk down to the actual burial cavern.

Howard Carter who discovered Tutankhamen’s tomb, built a beautiful estate overlooking Thebes.

The tombs we saw today were found before the Greeks arrived, so that makes their presence known since 400AD. Tutankhamen was found in 1922 and he was the 62nd tomb found. Since him only 2 tombs have been discovered, but they are still looking because they are fairly certain that Nefertiti is buried here. We went into King Tut’s tomb in”78 so because there was a hefty fee to get into it, we passed on it this time.

Following our visit to Thebes (Greek for Valley of the Kings) we stopped at an alabaster manufacturing facility.

Our last stop before lunch was the temple of Queen Hatshepsut. She was an unusual female Egyptian leader. Of course just like today there was quite a bit of resistance to that. Maybe that’s why her tomb ends up not being in the actual Valley of the Kings, but rather on the other side of it.

We lunched late today and after that finally had some slow time which we enjoyed up on the sundeck. The boat left on its journey south at 5:00 and finally after being sandwiched between other cruise boats we were able to see out the window and enjoy some of the scenery.

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