The Nile Cruise - Day 2

We had a very early start (5:30am on the alarm) to leave from the boat to travel by bus to the Valley of the Kings. The advantage of this was that the hot weather hadn’t really kicked in and the tourist numbers were lower. Ray had told me that in Luxor (where he’s from) if you want to do any building, the National Museum of Antiquities does a site survey including drilling pilot holes to see if you will be building on anything of particular historical significance. As we drove through Luxor and out into the Valley of the Kings, it was pretty clear that anywhere you drop a pick you’ll find something of historical value!

Howard Carter's home,
at the entry of the Valley of the Kings

The Valley of the Kings was extraordinary. It was everything I imagined (except for the tarred road that led you everywhere); short, steep valley walls of rock and rubble; barren, hot desert. There’s a natural pyramidal hill at the end of the valley that lends a solemnity to the whole place. The tombs we visited—Ramses IV, Ramses IX, and Thutmose III were a complete surprise! After being in the tomb in the pyramid, I didn’t expect the tombs to be lined, walls and ceilings, with vividly painted hieroglyphs. And they were so vivid and richly coloured. The whole effect was genuinely breathtaking. It was interesting too that in spite of all the wonder, close inspection of the hieroglyphs showed that the workers painting the inscriptions often went outside the lines! Apparently, the more time they had to complete the tomb, the more careful they were, but even in those with much time, there were glyphs where the paint was not only in the inscription.

The overall impression of the Valley of the Kings is the extraordinary lengths they went to in burying their dead kings; huge tributes and a huge industry of workers constantly building tombs.

The Alabaster Family

We left the valley to proceed to a local village where we were entertained and then fleeced at an alabaster factory. These guys (a family, purportedly) had a song and dance act that was highly entertaining and very polished. The shop help a huge array of alabaster, onyx and limestone carvings, including some that were very old, and some that were found around the place and so were quite ancient (apparently). They were at great pains to emphasise “no hard sell” but their techniques suggested that their version of hard sell involved kneeling on your chest and beating you about the head with the item, because they were very attentive! I bought two pieces of moonstone (it glows in the dark after exposure to light) and paid too much for them, although less too much than the basalt pieces from Khan Ghalil!

From the alabaster shop we went around to the temple of Hatsuhtep, which is being re-built over time by the National Ministry of Antiquities. This is an extraordinary building that can be seen from a long way off and is built into the foot of the same range of hills that defines the Valley of the Kings (the other side, obviously).

Nile View from Hatsuhtep's Temple

In what is becoming a pretty easily detectable pattern, this temple is majestic, awe-inspiring, and required unbelievable amounts of effort and skill to construct. The inscriptions here still show some of their original colour. Some of the statues to the gods still have all of their features. The colonnade is just a wonderful place to be. The view from the top level of the temple back down the valley to the Nile is wonderful. I am starting to notice, though, that temples do start to look a lot like each other. The trick seems to be to find the unique or uniquely special thing about each one. (More on this at Kom Ombo temple.)

Colossi of Memnun

After the temple, we were driven around to the Colossi of Memnun, statues built in the Greco-Roman period (so only 2000 years old!), trying to associate the conquerors’ powers with Egyptian deities. These statues are in substantial disrepair (not surprisingly) but are wonderfully impressive nonetheless.

We were returned to the boat about 1pm and sailed at 1:30pm. I was genuinely in d’nile (as I am as I write this too). We had lunch immediately we returned and then I returned to my cabin to write up blog entries and them sleep. For a guy on holidays, I’m getting a lot of early mornings in!

Welcoming Party in my cabin!

The sleep was great! Then I went up on the deck to watch the boat go through the lock at Esna. I’d missed the sunset, partly because it appears to happen very quickly here. One moment, the sun is above the horizon and the next, it’s gone and darkness has fallen. I’ve tried to capture some photos of the lights of Esna and the lock. As I’m relying on my phone, I’m hopeful but not wildly confident that they’ll turn out ok. The lock was interesting and fun, in spite of the constant refrain of the touts. (See separate entry on that.)

After a short cocktail party (one free drink), we had dinner, and then I retired for the evening, as I was feeling quite tired and pretty ordinary. This meant that I had to forego the Bingo Party scheduled that evening. Imagine my disappointment! It turns out that in the middle of the night, I found out why I was feeling so ordinary. It seems I’ve managed to catch/feed myself some stomach bug and I woke with strong stomach pains that were followed by a brief, traumatic visit to the head. I went back to bed and slept again, but repeated the performance with less dramatic effect in the morning. I’m pretty disappointed about that, as you might imagine. I’ve been quite careful about what I’ve eaten and drunk. I think it was drinking a whole bottle of the water from the boat, which I’ve subsequently discovered is heavily chlorinated and not recommended for drinking. A fellow passenger has provided some Imodium and I’m feeling better after taking that, although I’m staying in ‘safe’ eating and drinking territory at the moment.