Day 3 - luxor west bank

valley of the kings

alabaster workshop

temple of Queen Hatshepsut

Colossi of Memnon

A day to visit the west bank of Luxor before heading south on River Nile.

valley of the kings

The tip of the mountain has a natural pyramid shape, which was believed to help the pharaohs’ spirits reach the heaven in similar ways as the pyramid.

The first tomb - king/pharaoh Rameses IX. Each king’s tomb is a separate site; the designs are somewhat similar in tunnel width and wall art, but they vary in shapes, size, depths and burial area.

The artwork starts out intricate, then stops abruptly, then continues with lower quality art near the placement of the tomb.

It’s believed the king ran out of money to pay the master artisans so the work stopped, then quickly hired cheaper labor to complete the work before his death.

This is where the tomb was actually placed.

The tomb of king Rameses III. His tomb was very big and well preserved.

These are the ancient Egyptian letters.

They started digging his tomb, ran into another King’s tomb, and had to reroute the tunnel. This is where they ran into another tomb and had to reroute the path.

Third tomb - King Merenptah. It was the deepest. They even had a fake burial chamber with a fake coffin in the middle to deceive tomb raiders. I guess it didn’t work.

The mummy of king Merenptah was in here.

The famous tomb of King Tut (Tutankhamen). It was famous for being the only tomb discovered that was not destroyed and raided by tomb raiders, so the treasures they found were one of a kind.

King Tut's body is moved back here. This is the only body in the entire Valley of the Kings, the rest have been moved to museums.

King Tut was actually not a good king, he became king as a kid and was killed at the age of 18.

His tomb was plain and not as nice as many others. Many believe that the high priest that married his widowed wife also stole his royal burial site and gave him this one instead.

The Valley of the Kings in Luxor is where pharaohs of many generations were buried, including the famous King Tut’s grave. 65 tombs have been discovered here so far; King Tut was #62.

alabaster workshop

All the pieces here are made with traditional manual methods.

This is how they hollow out the containers.

The tour continued to an alabaster shop to see a demo. This shop wasn’t too pushy, but the prices were ridiculous. The demo was entertaining enough.

temple of queen Hatshepsut

The columns here are actually for support, not for show.

In addition to shady and pushy street vendors, even workers at these official sites try to trick visitors by offering help then pressuring for tip.

Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, the most powerful queen in Egyptian history. She ruled Egypt for 20 years.

Colossi of Memnon

Last stop - Colossi of Memnon, the third largest monument in Egypt. They’re still excavating at this site.

Back on the Cruise

Back on the ship. Our ship finally departs from Luxor to head south to Edfu.

View from our cabin.

Having a drink with our tour guide. We have 13 people in our tour group including the four of us. Everyone is super nice.

We went through a lock where our ship enters a chamber, is raised, and continues south. It’s a way to control water level and avoid flooding.

Gotta give these guys credit for creativity. These small boats latch onto cruise ships and try to sell scarfs by yelling at the passengers. I saw them throwing products in plastic bags up to cabins.

The MS Mayfair, our cruise ship, was fantastic. The boat is great and the service is exceptional. The people in our group made the trip unforgettable.