Today will be a big day - The Valley of the Kings Day!!! We were off the Giselle and on the road by 7 a.m. Today is less sunny than we've had, not smoggy, not windy, not hazy, just different. We drove through the town where the carvers of the tombs lived and it is still very populated and life here seems to have not changed a bit in the centuries that have passed. Habibi spoke at length to us on the way to the Valley of the Kings and continued on once we arrived. He will not be allowed to lecture us while we are in the tombs and we can go into any 3 that we wish. Of course he told us the 4 best to tour and also explained that even though we could go into Tutankhamun's tomb (for an additional charge) there really wasn't much left and that the treasures are in the Museum in Cairo. The entrances to the tombs all seem to lead off a trail that weaves its way through the valley and not all tombs are open either because of danger of cave in or current archaeological work occurring.
Between Les and I we went to all 4 of the best tombs. Together we went to Tomb #2 for Ramses IV and Tomb #11 for Ramses III. Les went to Tomb #6 for Ramses IX and I went to Tomb #8 for Merneptah. Because these tombs have been closed for centuries and they are protected from light, wind and the elements, the preservation in them is outstanding. You can clearly see the painted surfaces (the paints are from natural dye sources - plants, ground up minerals, etc and that lasts much longer than our dyes today!) - in some places the walls aren't carved, they are painted and in other places they are carved and painted. But the images are so clear. It was very warm in the tombs, and some of them were a long way down, I really thought it would be cooler in them. The trails used by the tomb carvers to get from the small town to the work sites are still noticeable in the hills. This was a very magical area (I know, I seem to say that about everywhere we go, but... ) you can feel the power and the energy here still.
From the Valley we drove to the Temple of Hatshepsut. This temple from first sight looks like just a front wall carved onto the face of the cliff. But...once you climb all of those steps you can go inside the temple. Very different!! There is much excavation going on here and a lot of re-construction has occurred. It is thought that Hatshepsut is the Egyptian Queen who found Moses floating in the basket in the Nile.
Next we went to the Colossi of Memnon. These 2 statues of Amenhotep III originally guarded Amenhotep's mortuary temple and are all that remain. They are very impressive in height and are currently being worked on - there is a lot of archaeological digging going on in this area as a lot of tombs have been discovered under the roadway here.
Alabaster is found in this area and so it stands to reason that there will be a lot of "Alabaster Stores" here! Habibi took us to one. Whenever Habibi takes us to these "stores" we can be sure that they are the best quality, cleanest, and most reasonably priced. We get an education on the production of whatever art form is displayed and special offers if we purchase. Free soft drinks, tea and very clean bathrooms are available for our use. Habibi corrects the vendors if they try to over charge us and is always available to help us differentiate between the phony and the good quality. After our visit, Habibi presented us each with a lucky scarab made at this store.
Now...back to walk the gang plank onto the Giselle! From Luxor we cruise toward Edfu, going through the Esne Locks. Now here we begin an adventure that I will NEVER forget!! As we approached Esne we knew that we would have a wait before going through the locks - there were other cruise boats ahead of us and of course first come first served. And in this case, lots of fun would be ours during this time of waiting!! Habibi told us today about this experience but words did not even come close to describing this event. The vendors of Esne are very ingenious. They don't wait for us tourists to come to them, they can come to us, no matter where we might happen to be - even if it's in the middle of the Nile River!! We could see in the distance lots of little boats rowing like mad toward us. Here was the approach of the "Floating Market" - this market could be 20 or 30 boats that will attach themselves onto our boat. Small 2 man boats - 1 rower and 1 hawker hooked themselves onto our boat. The rower keeps the boat as steady as he can, and the hawker stands on the prow of the boat and shows shawls, galabeas (Egyptian robes), rugs, scarves, whatever he might have for sale. He engages you in interest for his goods. And don't forget, we are up on the sun deck and they are 4 stories below on the Nile. He yells, "Hey lady", "hey my friend", "what's your name", etc., etc., etc. Whether you are interested or not (and let's face it, we were interested in anything he might be selling) he wraps up tightly, in a plastic bag the goods and then tosses it up into the air. Watching this, you think it will fall right back down to him but in some strange way, as the package gets to our height it just magically swings over, sometimes almost into our hands, but most certainly lands on the floor. This is truly the funniest thing!! My new friend Helen and I were together on deck when all this excitement and noise started. When the first package "arrived" we laughed so hard we could hardly open it. But we soon became expert in negotiating for what we wanted. By this time Les and Ian joined us and assisted in the bargaining. The price began at 750 Egyptian pounds for a shawl/blanket type article - but if you want more the price could go down! And so it went up and down - our offer - the counter offer. The seller didn't want anything to come back to him but money and he kept sending up shawls of different colours (but he knew exactly what he had thrown up to us) and the bartering was vicious! When we offered a low price the seller would put his hands on his hips, shake his finger at us , shake his head and yell "you come up and I'll come down". We'd offer a bit more and he'd shake his finger and laugh - it was such a good show! We finally got the price down to 150 Egyptian pounds for 3 shawls and our little salesman sent us up another plastic wrapped package that we were to put our money into and throw back down to him. This fun was going on all over the sun deck of the Giselle! Some of the packages both with just goods and with money in them were missed by the sellers, but there were a couple of boats behind that were catching all the "missed" bags and returning them to the rightful owner. All of this lasted right up until the moment we were approaching the lock and then we could see them all rowing like mad to the next boat waiting their turn. We did laugh about this spectacle and talk about it for days to come!
We enjoyed a lovely candle light seafood sit down dinner this evening. We all dressed up a bit and enjoyed not having to line up at the buffet.
Tidbits from the day:
- saw a lot of hot air balloons taking off from an area very close to the Valley of the Kings - apparently a morning ride over the Valley is very popular
- today Walid told us about the education system, compulsory military service and the method they use to encourage young people to further their education by finishing school and going on to university, our Habibi certainly always does give us way more than just the facts
- Habibi told us we should have paid 30 pounds each for our shawls. We paid 50 Egyptian pounds a piece and were happy to pay the additional 20 each for entertainment!!! (At 50 pounds we paid $10 Canadian dollars for each shawl - worth it to us!)
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