Egypt - Day 7

Friday, July 30th
The next morning we made our way to the Valley of the Kings. Again shown around by our best guide of the trip, Marco (an Egyptian with a random Italian name), we explored three tombs. Hmmmm... I don't know if I even remember which. Ramses (?), Tutmoses (?), and...? At any rate, they were great. Having seen lots of temples that were monumental in stature, yet eroded over the years, the fact that these retained their colors definitely set them apart. The tombs themselves were located within a pyramid shaped mountain on the west bank of the nile, since the setting sun in the west symbolized the afterlife (all of the other temples and houses were on the east bank). The tombs were begun as soon as a new king took power, therefore the longest ruling kings had the deepest and most extensive tombs. In all cases, there would be an opening, corridor, and crypt, with the larger ones including side rooms, stairs, and additional corridors. The walls of all but the oldest were plastered, carved, and painted, helping the king to appease the gods and prepare for the afterlife. The mummification process was done in order to preserve the body, since the belief was that you would become resurrected, using your body once again. The burial masks, shaped to look like the kings when they were alive, were placed on the mummies to help guide the spirits so that they could find the king.

Outside of the valley we moved along to the Valley of the Queens. Not as large and grandiose as that of the keys, these tombs may have surpassed them in terms of preservation of colorful wall paintings. Sadly, we were unable to enter the greatest tomb, that of Ramses II's wife, Queen Nefertari, since it is ongoing a never ending restoration.

And speaking of queens, we then travelled to the Queen Haptshisupt Temple. She was one of only two woman who ruled Egypt. In fact, she gained power and convinced the people that she was able to reign because she created a story in which Amun Ra (the sun god) took control of her fathers body and impregnated her mother. As a result, she said that she was not a normal woman, but instead, a child of the gods themselves. Beyond this, she kept the power over her 10 year old step son (who also happened to be her nephew and son in law, due to all of the intermarrying of brothers and sisters) for 20 years. Needless to say, he wasn't too happy by the time he gained power. As a result, many of her inscriptions and images were scratched away by him.

On the way back to Luxor we briefly stopped at two enormous statues, known as the Collosi of Memnon. The are in ill repair and are covered with pigeons, but are pretty cool nonetheless.

Upon arriving in Luxor, we had many hours to kill. It was only about 3 pm and we were not going to be picked up to go to the train station until 8:30 pm. So, we will wandered back down the road to a pizza place that we had visited yesterday. Simple, but much better than expected. It hit the spot yesterday and we hoped it would do the same today. While waiting, I went just across the road to visit a shop that I had also been to the previous day. In a week where the majority of the people that we came across tried to pull a fast one on us (which is too bad, because we met many really nice Egyptians), the shop keeper was awesome from the get go. Without hesitation, he told us the true prices, not the tourist prices... or even worse. His name was Ahmed, and I instantly felt good about buying from his small, family owned convenience store. In fact, he was from that exact area and had grown up in the apartment above the shop.

So, as we waited for pizzas for a second day, we bought sodas and sat upon his step. We talked a bit and when the pizzas were ready, sat back down. By now, his buddy Ahdam had come on by and the five of us were talking. Moments later, they invited us into the back of the counter, setting up a couple of plastic soda crates on the floor so that we could comfortably sit down and eat. Not only that, but then they pulled out a few more sodas and despite our brief protests, gave them to us on the house. For a while we just talked and had a great time.

Now, Ahmed was jacked, in a body builders way. And Ahdam was even more jacked. They were a bit surprised that none of us worked out, instead choosing to play volleyball, rugby, tennis, football/soccer, and cricket. But, I think it was Dan, all of a sudden decided that we should all have an arm wrestling contest. First up was Billy vs. Adham. After a bit of a struggle, Billy went down. Ahmed could not go, so next up was me vs. Ahdam. After a quick start, I beat him with my right hand. And yes, I'm fairly certain that I either got lucky or he let me win. So, switching to left arms, he wore me down and won. At this point, Ahdam was too tired to go against Dan, which I think was Dan's plan from the get go, but all of a sudden, in stepped another Ahdam. This new Ahdam was the most jacked of all. He went head to head against Dan and after making believe he was going to lose, triumphed pretty easily. I was next, and there was more of the same. And finally, as you can guess, Billy lost in the same fashion. Fun stuff. Definitely an experience beyond the travel books and one that I won't forget.

Wow, this is getting to be a long entry, but it seemed like so much happened while we were there. We went for a walk around town and ended up finding a cheap cafe right next to Luxor temple where we stopped for a beer. After a long celebration for graduation last Friday, this ended up being my first beer since. An Egyptian Stella, it was cold and hit the spot. But interestingly, this was not a quiet and relaxing break. Right next to us was a motley crew of older Brits. The four of them chatted away with each other and soon brought us into their conversation. Seriously, they were characters to say the least. Thick northern accents, having lived in Luxor for a while, they talked and talked. And, although it ticked off my Aussie counterparts, one of them just couldn't believe that it could be winter right now in Australia.