We were picked up for our balloon ride at 3:50 this morning. We collected up some other people and then headed to the river. We got on one of the boats, had some breakfast and filled out paperwork. There we met some very nice people from the Maldives and spoke with them about sailing around their homeland someday. They were very encouraging and eventually asked us to visit them if we ever made it there.
Once the Luxor airport tower declared the weather conditions satisfactory we went across the river and were loaded into vans for transport to the balloon launching area. They were blowing up the balloons when we got there. We were in a large basket with a capacity of 32. We only had 26 so there was a little extra room for all. The balloon ride was amazing. It was beautiful to watch the sun rise on the West Bank. The ride was calm, stable and we were never concerned. We couldn’t take our cameras because the army has several installations close to theValley of the Kings and thus doesn’t want people taking high res photos. We were limited to our cell phone cameras. We came down in a farming area and the crew had to pull us away from the active fields so that we wouldn’t damage the farmers crops. Here are some pictures.
After we landed we stopped at a small restaurant to wait for our guide to pick us up. We sat with our new Maldivian friends and had a coffee. After about 1/2 hour Ahmed the Great picked us up and off we went to Valley of the Kings, where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to 11th century BC, rock cut tombs were excavated for the Pharaohs and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom (the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Dynasties of Ancient Egypt).
With the 2005 discovery of a new chamber and the 2008 discovery of two further tomb entrances, the valley is known to contain 63 tombs and chambers (ranging in size from a simple pit to a complex tomb with over 120 chambers). It was the principal burial place of the major royal figures of the Egyptian New Kingdom, as well as a number of privileged nobles. The royal tombs are decorated with scenes from Egyptian mythology and give clues as to the beliefs and funerary rituals of the period. Almost all of the tombs seem to have been opened and robbed in antiquity, but they still give an idea of the opulence and power of the Pharaohs. Here are a couple of pictures of the valley including people excavating.
Our tickets allowed us to go into 3 tombs. Based on Ahmed’s recommendation we went into Ramesses IV, Ramesses II, Merenptah and Tutankhamen (we had paid extra for King Tut). Each one was different but they were all amazing. I found it very overwhelming to think about being inside a tomb which was almost 4,000 years old and a place that optimizes the royal families of ancient Eygpt. Ahmed did a great job of explaining the process of entombing the pharoahs, their beliefs about the after life and what the images represent. We didn’t take pictures but here are some that I found on the internet.
After Valley of the Kings we had some time to kill so we went to an alabaster showroom. They explained how they shape the stone and then they took us into a showroom. We liked a candle votive and were just curious about how much it would cost. We didn’t want to buy it, but were just wondering. Their original price was $80 but we ended up buying it for $20.
Next stop: Queen Hatshepsut mortuary temple. Queen Hatshepsut came to the throne of Egypt in 1478 BC and was the second confirmed female pharaoh. According to Ahmed she usurped power from her step son. Here are some pictures
Rick has been fighting a cold for last couple of days and between that and lack of sleep, he was feeling pretty bad by this time. We were supposed to go to lunch, but he just wanted to go back to the hotel where he took a short nap and then we had lunch. After lunch he slept for most of the rest of the day while I worked on the blog.
I know it’s just the beginning of the trip but it’s hard to image we are going to have another day as wonderful as this. Words can’t describe it.