The West Bank of Luxor

The entire day was spent touring the sites of the west bank of Luxor. We were picked up by our taxi driver (Maradona) around 6:00 a.m. We were desperate to get an early start due to the heat. Our first stop was at the Valley of the Kings. It is a barren canyon home to the burial tombs of at least 62 pharaohs and nobles. It was chosen by the royalty because it was isolated, was easy to guard, and appears to be the site of the setting sun, associated with the afterlife. We got out of our taxi and didn't pay 1 Egyptian pound to catch a little train up the hill as they had no change but we rode anyway. We didn't mind the walk, but wanted to take advantage of the fact that there were only about 10 people around. Some 30 seconds later, the tram stopped at the ticket booth, making the ride up a bit of a laugh.

With our tickets, we were able to go inside any of the 3 tombs currently open to visitors. I had read through my book and had marked several of them off. But walking around for 5 minutes, it became clear that every single one of the tombs we wanted to see or even had the slightest interest in was closed. Angry and bummed out, we thought about asking for our money back, but decided we were there and may as well see some. So, we went insdie the tombs of Ramses I, Tuthmosis III and Tuthmosis IV. These tombs are very different from everything we have been seeing because there is nothing carved on the wals or ceilings. Instead, all of the pictures are painted, and much of the paint is as vivid as it was all those years ago. Although we much prefer the carvings and reliefs, it was interesting to see the painted walls. Our favourite was the Tomb of Tuthmosis III. It was the earliest tomb in the valley to be painted, and everything is painted simply as stick figures, something we hadn't seen. Also, the chamber is oval in shape, another unique feature. I'm not sure what we expected with the Valley of the Kings, but we were a bit disappointed, even though we enjoyed what we saw.

Next we went on to Deir al-Bahri and the Temple of Hatshepsut. Hatshepsut ruled Egypt for over 20 years during a time of peace and prosperity. Many of the carvings and statues of her here at this temple show her with a false beard and the clothing of a man, while others show her clearly as a female. Today, the temple is most famous for the terrorist massacre of tourists in 1997. It was interesting to see the temple dedicated to a female for once.

Our next stop was at the Valley of the Queens. There are at least 75 tombs here, belonging to members of the royal family. Not many are open to visitors, but we went inside 3 of them. They are quite similar to the King tombs with brightly coloured walls and ceilings and little, if any, carvings. The most interesting one was the Tomb of Khaemwaset. He was one of Ramses III's many sons and died eary at the age of about 10. So he is portrayed as a young boy, with his father leading him to the gods of the underworld.

On to more tombs...we next went to a few of the Tombs of the Nobles. There are over 100 tombs scattered in and around a small village. It is a shame because they don't appear to be very well taken care of, and there are no signs or paths, making it almost a necessity to pay a local to guide you to the ones of your choice. Of course, we didn't choose to pay anyone. We spoke to a couple of locals who offered to show us the right way, but as soon as we said we had nothing to pay (as we knew they would ask for it) they became instant assholes. We wandered around until we found the tombs we wanted to see. Mostly they are the tombs of those who worked closely with the royal families. We chose to see the tombs of Sennofer and Rekhmire. Sennofer was the supervisor of King Amenhotep II's gardens, so the entire ceiling of his tomb is painted with grape vines and bright purple grapes. Very beautiful. Rekhmire was a governor, and his tomb is full of paintings of him receiving gifts from foreign lands, including panthers, giraffes and elephants.

Our next stop was at Medinat Habu, a huge temple complex nearly the size of Karnak. It was built by Ramses III and added to by succeeding rulers. It served as the economic and governmental centre of Luxor (then called Thebes) and was inhabited up until the 9th century AD, when a plague was thought to have hit the town. Most interesting were the reliefs showing the victory of Ramses III over the Libyans, who are tied up at the neck like slaves, and where scribes are doing a body count by tallying the number of severed hands and genitals. It was damn hot and it was a struggle to walk around in the blazing heat, stopping to recover in any shadow that we could find.

Absolutely stuffed by this stage, we made one last stop at the Colossi of Memnon before heading back to the east bank. It is a huge pair of statues built by Amenhotep III around 1350 BC. They are faceless statues rising about 18m high, and are thought to be part of a huge temple complex. Nothing but the statues remain because they sit on the flood plain of the Nile. The ancient Greeks thought these were statues of Memnon, a king of Ethiopia and son of Eos, who was slain by Achilles during the Trojan War.

Hot, exhausted and starving, we could only think of relaxing in a cool place to enjoy a huge lunch. So of course we ended up at McDonald's again. And it was damn good. We went back to our hotel to nap and rest in the air-conditioned room, had a few beers on the roof of our hotel, then walked around Luxor later in the evening when it had cooled down some.