Valley of the Kings, Alabaster, and Crazy Merchants

This entry is about Day 9, Thursday 12/9

After our three glorious days on the Nile Cruise, we woke up early to check out at 7am and headed to the famous Valley of the Kings, which I have been looking forward to since before the trip! The Valley is located on the West Bank near Luxor and is home to 63 Royal Tombs, including that of Tutankhamen. The reason these tombs were built into the mountains of limestone in this location was because the ancient Egyptians eventually stopped making pyramids because of grave robbers. They decided to hide tombs to make them harder for people to find, which is definitely the case because they are still discovering new tombs to this day! Those who worked on these tombs had to live in the West Bank to secure the fact that nobody would expose the location of these tombs.

The first Tomb we visited was that of King Thutmose III, which we learned was a very important king because he was the first King to say that he wasn’t a God, rather he was a human being just like everybody else (until Ramses II who said he was a God, an it seems to me he must have been very into himself!). His tomb was one of the most recent that was discovered. It was located much higher up in the mountains than the rest of the tombs, therefore it makes sense that it was harder to find. We had to climb up a number of stairs to get to this tomb, and once we entered we had to climb down into it. We learned that the Egyptians preferred building the tombs downward because it was as if they were closer to the underworld that way. This tomb was small compared to many others, but it was an interesting one because it looked a lot different than any other hieroglyphics we had seen; they weren’t carved into the stone, rather they were painted and looked sort of like stick figures. The sarcophagus was still inside as well which was cool to see. This sarcophagus was shaped like a cartouche (the object Egyptians wrote names in). Archeologists also learned about funeral ceremonies from this tomb.

Next we visited the Tomb of King Ramses III, which was much bigger that that of Thutmose and the colors were very intact. Because many of these tombs had been suffocated in the mountains for thousands of years, they were preserved in great condition. This tomb contained the book of the dead, which shows a scale measuring the heart of the king against a feather, and if the heart is lighter they will go to paradise. We also visited the tomb of King Ramses IX, which was very similar in size and had amazing hieroglyphics. This tomb wasn’t finished in time for the death of this king, so there is evidence that it was rushed. These tombs were much bigger than that of Thutmose III because they ruled for a longer period of time.

Finally we saw the tomb of King Tutankhamen. We learned that this is the second smallest tomb in all of Egypt, but is the most famous because it was so intact when it was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922. Inside the tomb we were lucky enough to see the mummy of King Tut as well as the famous golden sarcophagus everyone is familiar with! The reason his mummy was there was because there is a 5 year study being done on the mummy to see how they can better preserve it, so the mummy was incased in a glass box with a numberof sensors around the tomb. The scenes that surrounded the sarcophagus were pretty perfect and were also painted as opposed to carved inside the stone. Unfortunately we weren’t aloud to take pictures anywhere in the valley, but trust me, it was extremely cool.

Next we visited the Temple of Hatshepsut (or Deir el-Bahari, which means “Northern Monestery) who we learned was one of the most famous Queens in Egypt’s history. We learned that she was one of the first people to create a botanical garden in Egypt, and they know she did so with many imported plants from Africa. There are even remains of the trees she had in front of her temple from thousands of years ago!

After this we went to an Alabaster Shop. Alabaster is a popular stone that they have in Egypt and you can buy many statues and figures made of this material. We got to see some people hand crafting many objects, and some people even bought things from the shop. After this we had lunch with “home style” Egyptian cooking. The food was very good, but I wasn’t able to splurg because my stomach hasn’t been my best friend these days.

Finally we arrived at our next hotel, the Steigenberger Nile Palace Luxor, which is a very beautiful hotel, but no free Internet! (I will be on as soon as I can to finally post these entries) After check-in we went on a sailboat on the Nile for about an hour or so and it was very relaxing. We played games and sang songs and got to watch the sun set.

After we got back to the hotel, Professor Ghaly took us to a local market, which is 3km long! It was a really great market and they had everything I’ve been looking for. I got a bunch of scarves and shot glasses (yea Andrew and Liv I’m thinking of you!). It was really nice finally getting some gifts, but the merchants were crazy! They all made me smell their spices and they would chase me down the street if I didn’t want to buy anything from them! All I have to say is, window-shopping is IMPOSSIBLE in Egypt. If you stop and gander at ANYTHING, you will regret it if you’re not that interested! (Refer to Ben’s blog for specifics on occurrences in the market)

Once back at the hotel a bunch of us ate at an Italian restaurant in the hotel, which was awesome, and I immediately passed out when I got to my room. This trip is EXHAUSTING, but it’s worth the beating my body has been taking.

Edfu Temple, Afternoon off, and Party at Night

This entry is about day 7 of the trip, Tuesday 12/7

This morning at 7am the cruise docked at Edfu where we saw the Edfu Temple. This Temple was created at the time when King Ptolomy XII, the last Greek king of Egypt, ruled and therefore there was a significant Greek influence in the architecture. Zack told us that this temple was completely buried in the sand for thousands of years, and therefore was preserved and is still in terrific condition today. The temple was mostly devoted to the Egyptian God Horus, God of Protection. He is symbolized by the falcon, so there were a number of falcon statues all over the temple. He is also symbolized by a falcon head with a human body, and that hieroglyphic was in a number of places as well. Zack also told us that the people who discovered this place spend 40 years deciphering and publishing all the hieroglyphics in the temple! (Random note* There were really adorable stray cats here, as a matter of fact there are a ton of cats at most of the places we go and they look different; They seem to have bigger ears, smaller bodies, and piercing eyes!)

After an hour or so we went back to the cruise ship for breakfast, which was so good because they had an omelet station (woo!) We had the rest of the day off to relax on the cruise ship, which was fabulous; The top of the ship had a pool and a bunch of lounge chairs so it was great getting some sun.

After dinner the whole group of us had a party in the cruise lounge where we played games and danced and had fun with each other. It was a very cute group bonding experience. There was also a belly dancer and those spinning dress things again (I really have to find out again what it is called). This was the first day we had some down time and it was great, but I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Memphis, Step Pyramid in Saqqara, & Not feeling very well

Day three of the trip did not start off very well to say the least. I woke up with a terrible stomachache so decided I needed to take it easy with the food. Lets just say I wasn’t feeling better as the day went on.

We started our day off in Memphis, which was the first capital of Egypt, to see some of the oldest artifacts in Egypt. Memphis became the capital of Egypt when the upper and lower regions were brought together to become one nation. Zach told us that over 30% of these artifacts belonged to King Ramses II. Two of the statues we saw there were of him. The large colossus of him was made of limestone and one of the biggest statues in Egypt. They were extremely impressive considering how old they were and the condition they were in. Here we also saw the alabaster sphinx, which is the second largest sphinx in Egypt.

After we left the site of the ruins, we went to the Imhoptep Museum in Saqqara, which was a necropolis for the city of Memphis. There we watched a short movie about the complex, and we saw some amazing artifacts. We even saw a mummy that was in amazing condition! Most of the artifacts there were around 5000 years old. It was truly incredible.

Next From there we went to visit the step pyramid of Kind Djoser, which is the very first pyramid ever built in Egypt. We entered the site through the Funerary complex of Djoser which had a lot of columns and was made of beautiful stone. The step pyramid we learned is the first man-made stone structure in the world! The entire complex was designed to imitate a city and is surrounded by walls made of limestone with many doors, but almost all of the doors aren’t functional because the complex was designed for the afterlife. We learned that the Egyptians cared more about their next life then their current one, therefore everything they had with them at their grave would be brought to the next life with them. They also believe that their spirit could occupy any object thatcontained the face of that person after death, and that is why so many statues were made with heads of the pharaohs. The step pyramid was very cool, and here I learned how to use the panoramic feature on my camera!

We went to the Tomb of Mereruka and the Titi Pyramid which were both very cool. The Tomb was filled with hieroglyphics and drawings of things that people did in everyday life. Archeologists apparently learned a lot about daily life in Egypt from this tomb. Some of the drawings still had color on them and the detailing in them was amazing. The pyramid was very cool as well. Once inside we were able to see hieroglyphics taking up literally all the space on the walls. There was also a sarcophagus here too, which almost freaked me out until I found of there was no mummy inside (The mummy from the Imhoptep museum really freaked me out!)

After this we went to a carpet school where Egyptian children learn how to make hand-made carpets out of wool and silk. These carpets were extremely beautiful and very expensive. Some of them cost up to $35,000! (Yes dollars!) They really were beautiful oriental carpets, but unfortunately I’m just a college student so I didn’t feel I would have a good place to put such an elaborate piece of art!

Finally we made it to lunch (yes we did all of this before lunch!) where there was a buffet. At this point my stomach was only getting worse so I didn’t eat much, but was very cool about this place we went was they had a baby lion you could take pictures with! (In addition to a bunch of other animals) I saw some shot glasses that some merchants were selling, but they weren’t quite up to Andrew’s standards (still looking Bro!)

Finally we made it back to the hotel for a little rest, which I definitely needed because my stomach as well as my head were in agony! Luckily I got an hour-long nap before we went to the sound and light show at the Giza Pyramids. The show was decent, but it was pretty cool seeing the pyramids lit up at night.

When we got back to the hotel Ben and I split a single portion pizza because the two of us really haven’t been able to eat much (he isn’t feeling well either). Tomorrow we are leaving this hotel and will be taking a sleeper train to our next destination. Tomorrow’s itinerary includes some Mosques and Churches, which are supposed to be beautiful. Ghaly told us that we wont have internet on the train so I don’t know when I will be posting my next entry, but stay tuned!