We woke around 6am and went for breakfast on the rooftop of the Susanna. Several of our travelling companions were already at breakfast and we all started wishing each other Happy Christmas. Some had even wore Santa hats much to the delight of everyone. The view from the top of the hotel was amazing, we could see the valley of the kings in the distance, and several hot air balloons floating above.
Straight after the breakfast we walked over to the river side, passing the avenue of sphinxes, and climbed on board a small passenger boat which took us over the river Nile. On the other side we met up with the rest of the group that had been up in the hot-air balloons. One by one we were paired up with a donkey each. We were given a basic instruction how to make the donkey go and stop, and then mounted up and we were off. People in the group started to name their donkeys with names like Shrek, George and so on but I couldn't think of one. My donkey was full of energy and immediately took the lead. Try as I might I could not control it, it just went exactly as fast as and where it wanted. It took everyone else a while to catch up and for the handlers to slow my donkey down. We went for a short while and then turned off the tar road onto a dirt road running next to a canal. It was a pleasant ride, the sun shining and the green fields on our right hand side, rural homes and children playing on the left. Occasionally my donkey would stop for a bite to eat, but was generally eager to stay right at the very front of the queue. Mostly we were in hysterics about the antics of our donkeys, occasionally they would bray loudly or try to bite each other. My donkey spotted another donkey on the side of the road and went ballistic, I think it was trying to mount it but the other donkey started kicking with its back legs. Somehow I managed to stay on but perhaps it would have been better for me jump off. After this I called my donkey Boss, because he was running the show. At the end of the road we dismounted and got in the back of two waiting bakkies (Mo called them "caputs") which took us to the Valley of the Kings.
It was 9am by the time we finally got to the entrance. The most disappointing thing was that we were not allowed to take any photos while in the Valley of the Kings (VoK). We ran the tourist gauntlets and suffered through the security checkpoints. We spent a few moments in the visitors hall where the main attraction was a 3D model of the valley of the kings, showing where the tombs were dug into the mountain. The tombs are numbered KV1 to 62, where 62 is the last one discovered and is that of King Tutankhamun. Just outside the visitor center we bought some additional tickets for the tomb of Ramses VI (50EGP) before catching a car train a short distance to the shelter at the base of the tombs, and yes another security checkpoint. From there we walked a little bit further passing several tomb entrances on the way before stopping in the shade for Mohammed's explanation of the Valley of the Kings.
Mohammed told us that years ago there used to be a hike in the area but it was stopped when tourists passed out in the heat. Also, that years ago before the revolution there were extremely long queues to visit any of the tombs. The location of the VoK were chosen for three reasons, namely the mountain was pyramid shaped, it was remote and hard to access and it was high above the Nile flood level. Mohammed explained a bit more about the artwork found in the tombs, and that it was based on writings in a set of books, the book of the dead, book of gateways, and the book of Imyduat.
The book of the dead includes a chapter on the final judgement when the deeds of a person are weighed and they either go to heaven or hell. The ancient Egyptians reasoned that a person would need their body in the afterlife and so they mummified them. They learned the process of mummification from nature, when bodies buried in the sand naturally mummified due to the extremely dry conditions. When people wanted to be preserved but not buried in the sand, it was necessary to invent another way to mummify. The Egyptians experimented, and eventually came up with the formula to mummify a body by removing the viscera through a cut in the flank and placing them in canoptic jars, removing the brain through the nose or breaking the skull at the back, and then packing the body in natron salts to dry it out. The heart was also mummified and placed back inside the body. The Egyptians believed the heart as the center of intelligence, and would need this in the afterlife. The lids of canopic jars were decorated with four faces, that of Horas, a person, Anubis, and a baboon. The Egyptians believed that after a person died, their heart would be weighed against a feather, on the scales of the wings of Maat, goddess of justice and truth. If the heart was heavier then the person would not have any afterlife because they were bad. All the gods would be present at the trial, Thoth the scribe would present the record of the persons life. This is all described in the book of the dead.
The book of gates, details the the 12 hours of night, how the Pharoah would have to go through 12 gates each time struggling and defeating demons and enemies. The book of imiduat describes the journey of the sun during the night. Mohammed explained a bit more about some of the scenes, how we would always see the king making offerings before the various gods, and gods blessing the king. A significant detail on the ceiling of some tombs we would find depiction of sky goddess Nut. Nut is shown swallowing the sun, it passes through her stomach and she gives birth to it on a new day. The scene is often mirrored, one side showing day the other night. The colours used in use tombs were white, yellow, red, black and blue, which made the tombs look amazing. Apparently egg white was used to fix the colours.
We proceeded right to the top of the canyon and clambered up a steel stairwell that took us up to the entrance of the tomb KV34. Tuthmosis 3 was very intent on keeping his tomb safe from robbers & enemies, and chose the most inaccessible spot in the valley. We proceeded down the steep stairs in the tomb and crossed over a bridge in the first antechamber which was decorated with stars on the ceiling. Beyond we entered another antechamber, with two pillars at the center. This room was decorated with 740 deities. What was interesting was that the figures were merely painted onto the plastered walls and not carved as in other tombs & temples. This room was a form of diversion to confuse grave robbers and prevent them from finding the actual tomb. We made our way into the burial chamber, shaped like a cartouche, and over to the sarcophagus made of red sandstone. The guard had a flashlight and was shining it inside but it was hard to really see much detail. We turned to study the walls and the incredibly detailed artworks with scenes from the Book of the Dead. It was actually too much to take in at once. Again the ceiling was covered in yellow stars on a blue background. We made our way out and onto the next tomb.
The next tomb we visited was that of Tawosert, KV14. This is the largest in VoK with two burial chambers. The first is that of Queen Tawosert and is decorated with scenes from book of gates and book of caverns. Of note was the final scene from book of caverns of the sun god in manifestation of beetle, disc, and ram headed bird with massive outstretched wings. Sethnakht usurped and enlarged Tawoserts tomb and built an additional two passages and pillared hall for his burial and this is where his granite sarcophagus stands. The tomb of Sethnakht was decorated with astromical scenes on ceiling and book of gates on the walls. We marveled at the state of the tombs and how well preserved the colours were, and were also overwhelmed by the amount of detail and information in front of us.
We visited the tomb of Merenptah, KV8 the deepest in VoK. It contains five corridors, two halls and several side chambers. Merenptah was the 13th son of Ramses 2 who succeeded him in his 60s. The tomb has been open since antiquity and has Greek and Coptic graffiti. The corridors are decorated with scenes from book of dead, gates and Imyduat. The Pharoah was originally buried inside four stone sarcophagi, three of granite and innermost out of alabaster. In a rare mistake by Egyptian engineers, the sarcophagus was too large to fit through the entrance and the doors had to be hacked off.
By this stage we were starting to get tired but still needed to visit Ramses 5 & 6, KV9. The tomb was sacked early after completion and the mummies of the Pharaohs moved to that of Amenhotep. The artwork and colors in this tomb were in amazing condition and were simply dazzling. The now familiar scenes from the books played out on the walls in technicolor. The corridor ceiling was decorated with a long and detailed depiction of the sky goddess Nut in gold and blue. There was also a scam of the weighing of the heart which we had been searching for. The burial chamber was decorated with a superb double image of Nut framing book of day and night on the ceiling. This nocturnal landscape shows the goddess consuming the sun at the end of each day and giving birth to it each morning. The walls are decorated with various deities and the sun gods progress through the night and the gods who help him against the forces trying to stop him from reaching the dawn. In the lower chamber lie the smashed sarcophagus of Ramses 6.
From the valley of the kings we drove in our "caput" trucks to the temple of Hatshepsut, where we were again taken in a small electric "train" trailers closer to the site. The temple was again built by Hatshepsut to try to prove she was a man, and also the offspring of the gods. She sent her young step son away to "study" so that she could rule Egypt in his place, and invented a story that the god Amun-Ra had disguised himself as her real father (Tutmoses III) and had intercourse with her mother, thus she was born as a daughter of the gods. To make people believe this, she enlisted the help the priests. She took the high priest as her lover, and made his brother the army general... The temple itself was quite different to other temples we had seen, with a rectangular shape and three levels, each with pillars. We walked around and up to the top layer, here Julian showed us a secret room where we found what looked like a altar and some more inscriptions.
We rejoined the group at the coffee shop and we all agreed that this was one of the least exciting of the temples we had seen. It was getting late and we were hungry, but we needed to make one more stop - the alabaster factory.
Mohammed introduced the owner of the factory and shop, it was all in his home. He showed us the different stones: brown and grey basalt, sandstone, limestone, and the most beautiful, white and brown alabaster. He also explained how to spot imitations, like soapstone, and very black stone which street vendors claimed was basalt. He showed how they hollowed out the alabaster by hand, and how beautifully it glowed when a light was placed inside, and the difference between hand carved and machine carved alabaster. Then we were given drinks and we walked around the shop while some in the group did buy. Julian practiced his photography skills with our camera. The prices were quite high - 70 EGP for a tiny (really tiny!) scarab and 225 EGP for a small cat statue...
On the way to lunch, we quickly stopped at the Colossi of Memnon, which used to consist of many statues making up a temple. Sadly now, only two are left and they are not in great condition. They were made of red quartzite and represented King Amenhotep III.
We drove a bit further into the village on the West Bank and walked into a four story house for our lunch with a local family. We were introduced to Ahmed and his lovely family. He and his wife, kids, brothers and mother all live in the house together. The bottom floor is reserved for the grandmother, so that she always gets to see everyone. We sat at a long table and were served a feast of pita, baba ganoush, chicken, beef stew, delicious tomato and dill potato bake, veges in tomato sauce, finished with mint tea.
Chris really wasn't feeling well due to a bad reaction to some medication, so some of us had a look around or played with the lovely children while we figured out what to do. Eventually we left him and Julie behind so that Mo could come back for them. We headed back to the hotel and to Moses the jeweler to pick up our cartouches, which we were all very happy with. He wished us merry Christmas and spoilt us with karkardy (hibiscus) tea and a lovely silver scarab pendant as a gift.
We had a quick walk through the souq and then met the group for our farewell dinner. We went to Al-Sahaby lane, almost right next to the hotel and sat in the lane (they also have a rooftop). I decided to try something different and since it was cold I ordered "sahlab", a hot drink of thickened milk with chocolate sauce and nuts and roasted coconut shavings. It was quite yummy but since it was so thick it had to be eaten with a spoon rather than drank, it was like having dessert before dinner :)
We ordered small meals to share, since we had had such a late lunch. We had beef moussaq'qa (a Greek inspired Egyptian dish) and tabouleh salad, finished with Egyptian coffee. Mo told us a little bit about the 2 revolutions they had had in Egypt, the first in 2011 where they got rid of Mubarak and replaced him with Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim brotherhood, and the second in 2013 where they weren't happy with Morsi. The current president was an army general and was asked by the people to step down from that position to run for president, he seems to be doing a good job and the people are happier, so we hope that things will be calmer in years to come.
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