Valley of the Kings & Karnak

Grand backdrop

Lovely berth

Port security

Sugar train

If you pump ...

You get this

Convoy

Nobles' tombs

Cruise staff

No cameras!

Valley of the Kings

Family outing

Luxor

Local taxi

Nile cruise

Painted lintel, Karnak

Aerial view

Obelisk decoration

Tie your donkey here!

Carved deeply, so no-one can erase

Unfinished Ptolomaic

Ready for carving

Colussus

Sacred lake

New axis

Mud brick ramps and unfinished columns

2 km sphinxes

Irrigation canal

Part excavated

Heavy weapons

Sunset

The ship drew into Safaga at first light, so it was another early start to see us alongside the charming phospate berth, so typical of QM2’s allocated moorings! The stark mountain backdrop reflected the heat as we set off in a convoy to Luxor, about 31/2 hours’ drive away under police escort, each bus having its own security guard.

The countryside changed from mountain to desert and back to fertile irrigated farmland as we approached the Nile. Life is as harsh as can be in this continent, with 40% of the Egyptian people earning less than $2 per day.

No cameras are allowed in the Valley of the Kings, on penalty of $150 per photos taken with the added penalty of deletion of all the images on the camera as well, so we certainly left ours in the bus! This is an impossibly dry and hot place, the sun beating off the rock and scree, so it’s no wonder the decorations are as perfectly preserved as they are. Recent events in Egypt have destroyed tourism, so although there were over 20 coach-loads from the ship, we had the entire Valley to ourselves and had time to investigate 3 tombs – Rameses IV, Rameses I and Rameses III. It’s impossible to describe these places, excavated from the solid rock and painstakingly decorated with stories from sacred texts and records of the achievements of the occupant. The paint is almost as fresh as the day it was applied, despite years of abuse and neglect. The Hieroglyphs are so complicated one can see why it took the Rosetta Stone to work out the meanings – essentially they are elaborate fonts for the Ancient Egyptian written language. All the recovered valuables are in Cairo, so only the tombs and their decorations are to be seen now.

After lunch it was off to the Temple of Amon-Ra at Karnak, originally joined by an avenue of parallel sphinxes over 2km long to that at Luxor. This avenue is currently under excavation and Luxor itself is to be declared a museum in its entirety so that the whole can be re-discovered. The Karnak temple is the largest columned temple in the World and was the first ancient monument to be declared a World Heritage Site. Words and photos can’t convey the enormity of this site, but the thought that it was constructed over a period of thousands of years puts it into perspective a little! How did they cut and erect such huge pieces of rock and then carve the decorations so finely in granite? No steel tools, but the arrises are as fine and the polish as smooth as could be done with modern equipment. How did they erect obelisks without blocks and tackles or hydraulic cranes? The guides had lots of theories, mostly involving huge quantities of sand and the last, unfinished pylon has traces of the mud brick ramps used to slide the blocks to the walls.

Altogether an amazing, hot and long day with so many images to reflect upon as the bus returned to the ship at a speed more F1 Red Bull than really necessary! A night-time departure put us on track for the short hop across to Sharm el Sheikh on the Sinai.

Val