May 24, 2009 – Day 150 – Luxor, Egypt

Egypt is all about tours. Everyone seems to have a hand in at least five or six enterpirses aimed at the tourism industry. For those who prefer sightseeing alone find it twenty times more difficult than it should be. So as it turned out, it was more economical to take a tour to the Valley of the Kings and surrounding area (a whopping $25 for guide, transport, and all tickets; each sight has its own entrance fee and taxis charge astronomical fees to take you to the area and then wait for you).

Columns amoung the ruins

Despite our unusually whiney group (maybe it was the heat?), we did see some interesting ancient art and history. There was even a 6,000 year old mummified (miscarried) human fetus and some rather puny looking early Christian graffiti scrawled over such skillful Egyptian paintings (this isn’t a slam to any religion, just an observation). Unfortunately the normal baksheesh begging no photo allowed unless I’m getting paid for it “tourist police” were ever present, so very few photos to show for our time.

Valley of the Kings

Statue in the temple

We tramped through the valley of the Kings, Hapshepsut’s tomb (only woman to be buried in the Valley of the Kings–interesting back story there), Valley of the Queens, an alabaster workshop (built-into the tour sales pitch) the Colossus of Memnon in ancient Thebes, and that’s it (I think…). It was an especially hot day, around 105 degrees Farhenheit and we were melty piles of former humans by the time we got back to our ceiling-fan-equipped room of questionable stability while on the HIGH setting.