And at this point I have to go into the pros and cons of taking one of these cruises. First I recommend that you take the full 7 night trip to Aswan and back to Luxor because you get to see more, and as an extra plus being on board ship you do not have to worry about finding breakfast lunch, and dinner.
And the biggest plus it getting a guide thrown in for free, (well not quite, because you have to tip him at the end of the cruise!).
On the downside you have 200+ people all doing the same sightseeing trips, along with the other cruise ships doing the same itinerary, and this tends to make for crowds wherever you are going, and also limits your time at each place. But it depends how ''in depth'' your want your experience to be, and how interested you are in it all....
The Valley of the Kings is probably one of the most famous sites in Egypt after Giza, every man and his dog goes there....... The ticket you have (pre-purchased by the guide so you don't have to queue for a ticket), allows you entrance into three tombs. Which tombs varies daily because they are not all open at the same time. Entrance to some of the more famous tombs, like Tutankhamun's and
In other words you can expect a lot of people
around....
To be going on with some more pictures of the treasures from King Tut's tomb on display in the Egyptian Museum...
And the best of luck fighting your way through the tourist bazaar when you go in and out from the main gate to the car park, if you are sneaky there is a way around it!
On the day I visited there was a new tomb opened for the first time, that of Ramasses IX, which had never been open before so I got a bit of a treat there! The tomb of Seti I was also open that day but it is a long deep tomb with lots of stairs and I don't do stairs so I was happy to forego that one and spent some time talking to our guide instead. (Guides are not allowed inside the tombs by the way). And don't worry if you are a bit claustrophobic like me, most of the tombs have high ceilings, are airy, and have lots of lighting and the wall paintings and hieroglyphics are so interesting it will take your mind of things!
Leaving the Valley of the King's heading for the Temple of Hatshepsut we pass by an alabaster workshop, quite a lot of these tours include visits to papyrus or linen workshops, you don't have to buy anything and quite often the free coffee is excellent! From a distance the Temple of Hatshepsut is impressive and has some things of interest, according to our guide, not least of all is the fact that the people we can see running about on the surrounding cliffs are soldiers from the army base over the hill.
Hatshepsut ruled Egypt as a man but was actually a woman, her tomb is in the Valley of The King's rather than the Valley of the Queen's, possibly I would imagine because she was a ruler and not the wife of a ruler, if you see what I mean...
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| Me in my Howard Carter hat looking every part of the ecccentric... |
Last stop of day 1 is the Colossi of Memnon quite spectacular in themselves and part of the history of the surrounding area much of which is now lost. Perhaps one of the interesting features is that the stones used came from a quarry near Cairo 420 miles away, and supposedly are too heavy to have been brought via ship on the Nile so would have come overland.
Returning to the ship I find this ensconced on my bed.
