Nile Cruise: Valleys of Kings and Queens

The tombs of the Pharoahs and their families are located just outside of Luxor on the barren fringes of the Sahara Desert. Sited under a pyramid like peak with the sun symbolism portrayed by its shape, these resting places are much more sohisticated and elaborate and buried much more deeply than I had imagined. In the Valley of the Kings we visited the tombs of three Pharoahs: Ramses III, IV and IX. The sarcophogi lie at the end of long elaborately decorated passage ways with small antechambers dotted along the inward route: in these were housed the necessities for the journey in the afterlife. Keeping a watchful eye over the thousands of tourists swarming through the tombs, high in outposts along the desert ridge line, the Tourist Police maintain their armed vigil against the possible threat of terrorism: an accepted part of tourism here given that in 1997 58 tourists and 3 policemen died in a terrorist attack in Luxor. From the Valley of the Kings to Deir el-Bahri, the monumental temple designed by Senmut for Queen Hatshepsut, to the Valley of the Artisans (home of the workers who constructed and engraved the tombs in the Kings and Queens Valleys and who were led blindfolded to work and back so they were unable to reveal the tombs locations) and on to the Valleyofthe Queens. The warmth of the desert sun was a welcome addition to our tours through these oppulent and majestic structures. Only two tombs were visited in the Valley of the Queens(Nefertari's Tomb is closed to general rifraf like us!):The Tomb of Queen Tyti and of the 12 year old Prince, who died too young to be buried in the Valley of the Kings, Amen-Hir-Khopshef. And back to the boat for a sail south to Edfu.