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Egypt/Italy Tour 2003: Saturday, 19 April 2003
Luxor: West side of Nile, Valley of Kings and Ramesseum
We set off for the Valley of Kings. Luxor was Thebes, known as the city of 1000 gates. We crossed the river by a recent bridge - formerly there used to be a ferry and it took 6 hours for to drive round to the other side. Today was somewhat hazier than yesterday - more like Cairo on the first day. The following is a picture of the Nile taken from the bus.
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Colossi of Memnon
The first stop of the day was at the Colossi of Memnon. These are two statues of Memnon, both 20 metres high, made of red sandstone. These are all that is left of the funerary complex of Amenhotep III.
In the distance are immense bare barren rocky hills towards which we are headed.
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On the way we passed the Ramesseum (to which we returned later).
Temple of Hatchepsut
This temple is in an extraordinary position, set in a semicircle of tall bare rocky cliffs. We approached from directly in front, on foot, walking as usual through bare desert. The first picture (5) gives quite a good impression of it. Image 6 was taken of some people in the distance descending through the barren hills.
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More pictures of the Temple of Hatchepsut. Image 9 is of the strangely-named "gardens". 10 and 11 show the group getting nearer to the temple.
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Two pictures of Hatoor, the goddess of fertility, follow. The Hatooric capitals (14, 18 and 19) show her with cow's ears. Restoration work (16). Ashraf points out the coloured designs (17).
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The next 4 pictures were taken in the Chapel of Anubis, who takes the form of a jackal.
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Ceiling detail: stars on a blue background.
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We then ascended another ramp of stairs to the top level and into an open courtyard. Straight ahead a large doorway with figures of the Queen on either side. This leads to the holy of holies and we are not allowed to enter. Image 27 is a picture taken upwards at the bare rocky hills.
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As we descended, someone noticed this extraordinary rock which looks like a crocodile.
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From the Temple, we again ran the gauntlet of the sellers, who were exceptionally persistent and irritating, and returned to the buses. On the way to the Valley of Kings we passed what was once Lord Caernarvon's house (30).
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Valley of Kings
The following slides show the typical, completely barren landscape (31), a map (32) and the little trains that take you up to the area where the tombs are (33 and 34). These trains are motorised and draw a few carriages each. Then another map (35) and a further picture of us walking the last little bit (36) through the lunar landscape. 36 also shows what appears to be a false pyramid at the summit of the mountain, but I gather it is a natural feature.
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Tomb of Thutmoses III
The combination of the brilliant white rock, no vegetation and the hazy sun meant it was like walking in a quarry.
We visited the tomb of Rameses III, down a ramp into chambers filled with millions of hieroglyphs; whatever their meaning may be (this is quite a study, I'm sure) they are simply beautiful as images in their own right.
To get to Thutmoses III, we ascended a steep staircase (3 pictures) and above the tomb entrance was a plaque in French (40). By now (c.10 a.m.) it was very hot indeed, especially down in the tomb and both Linda and I decided not to go into the lowermost parts and came out.
The third tomb we visited was of Mirempeta. In this case, we went all the way down to a large tomb in a wide room.
Photography was not permitted in the tombs so I have no pictures of any of them.
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Back to the Ramesseum
We got back on the bus and drove to the Ramesseum. By now the weather was hot, the sun dazzling and we were all a bit tired. However, the Ramesseum contained some interesting images, although many were of ruins.
The Ramesseum also contained a statue of Rameses which was 30 m tall, but this collapsed owning to frequent inundations by the Nile. The collapsed statue is shown in image 44; it is believed to be the source for Shelley's Ozymandias.
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On a botanical note, there was a tree of Acacia nilotica and Rob took a picture (45). It is obviously not the subspecies we get in Zimbabwe as the seeds of the fruit are separated by narrower "necks" whereas in ours the gaps are much broader. Subsp. nilotica maybe?
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Another commercial break ..
By now, 12 noon, it was very nice to be back on the air-conditioned bus. We then had another touristy interlude as we visited an alabaster factory.
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The rest of the day
Afternoon was spent relaxing, then late afternoon we walked back into Luxor and visited the Museum. Very impressive, especially the downstairs display of statues found at Luxor. And also not so large as to be totally daunting.
Back to the boat for supper, a briefing from Corrado and then a belly-dancing show. Image 61 shows Sue Brighton, Linda and me doing our best belly-dancing impressions - it's not something I'm about to give up the day job for.
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