A tour

I decided that I really should go on at least one tourist type tour to see what it’s like. The fact that it only cost $15 did help the decision, as well as the fact that my taxi driver and I never did find a suitable day/time to meet up. There was one other person from my hotel who was going as well, and we stopped at another of the budget hotels on the way over. The van was jam packed by the time we set off.

We first stopped by the valley of the kings and bought the tickets. There is a small uhm, perhaps you could call it a train, being hauled by a tractor that you take up to where the tombs start. Egypt seems to be setup for really out of shape or lazy tourists, which is nice if you have a few places to hit all in one day. We first stopped at the tomb of Ramses IV. The guide gave an explanation outside of the tomb then we went in. Unfortunately the tomb was packed with far too many tourists (I really do have to try this at 6am) but the walls had amazing paintings on them, and the roof was even more amazing. The roof had designs of Nuit all over the place, as well as that pretty blue sky and stars you see all over temple and tomb ceilings in Egypt. There were some similarities between the tombs and temples. There was Horus and Isis carved into the wall as you walk in, then scenes of daily life and offering scenes further along. The actual granite stone sarcophagus was still in the tomb, but without the mummy in it (the mummy is resting unhappily over at the Cairo museum). The next tomb we went to was for Ramses VI, then over to the tomb for Ramses 1. The tomb for Ramses 1 was the most interesting of all. The tour only consisted of 3 tombs, but I really wouldn’t have minded seeing about 3 more. The tour guide told us a bit about each tomb before we went in.

Then we took the little train back, and took our tour van on over to the Hetachutsip temple. Our guide told us that if we wanted to say the Queen’s name and remember it, we could just say “hot chicken soup” really fast. Tacky. Apparently the Queen had a giant temple built, well more carved into the side of a mountain really, which is quite handy if you are building a temple, just take a bit of stuff out instead of building from scratch. It is a three tiered temple, which is in pretty good shape considering that it is 7000 years old. After Queen Hapchitsup died, her younger brother (who some think may have offed her) went into the temple and scratched out all of her cartouches so that her name isn’t anywhere to be found in the temple. He also took the head off of one of her statues.

Unfortunately at this temple they don’t actually let you into the temple, but only partway in which is really too bad. They have all of the best stuff blocked off such as the inner sanctuary, as well as some nicely painted wall areas. This temple had the square pillar design in many places, as well as some regular round pillars in the more inner parts of the temple.

I had met someone on the trip with a much nicer camera then myself, and I had forgotten my camera (arg!), so I have quite a few photos of me at this particular temple. With this temple, it is the ultimate in catering to tourists who can’t walk further then half a block, with a little train that takes you up the road right to the front of the temple, to save about one long block of walking. Of course I wouldn’t have minded if they had one of those over at Karnack the other day, so perhaps I shouldn’t laugh too loudly.

Then it was over to the Calluses of Memnon. Well I had already seen these statues, but I was able to get a photo in front of them this time. I look like a tiny speck standing in between them they are so large. I think the guide said 25 meters high. We (of course) were also taken by an alabaster factor *again* (that’s the 3rd I’ve been to now) and I bought a tiny statue of Horus that looked to be hand carved and had a lot of feel to it. Since I’d already seen how they make the alabaster stuff, I just walked right in before everyone else, and the owner decided to show me his antiquities. One of the items he showed me was this round stone that was carved a certain way, and I said “hey I have one of those”... well in the end he told me he would give me $200 british pounds for it! Unfortunately I had left it back in Edfu since I figured it was really too large and heavy to take all the way home with me . Mine was about twice as large as the one he had. I wonder if the maid threw the stone out, or if I could contact the hotel and have it mailed to me? It was from my trip to El Kab.

All in all, the tour was OK. The guide wasn’t as good as the private guides I’ve had, but I should have expected that considering the price difference, and that this was a budget tour. Also, I have more information on the tombs in an excellent book on Luxor that I picked up then the guides talk about anyways. I tend to find guides worth their money when they tell me a bit of lore about the temple or tomb that I didn’t already know, and that I can relate to magic. Fortunately I have had much luck during my trip, and have had guides that knew enough to help me along these lines. The guides today however gave no such tidbits, but for less then it would have cost me to take a taxi to the west bank and back, that was OK.

I also found out why all these very young Egyptian men have been flirting with me (well besides the apparently Egyptian men’s lack of manners. What do you expect when men can take more then one wife, but women can’t take more then one husband, besides far too many single men). The person I met today asked how old I was, and when I said 38 he asked me to prove it. He had guessed me around 23 at most!