THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS
The next morning I got up and had a large breakfast of...
Fruit
Hashbrowns
Sausages
Vitamins
I felt this would sustain me for the hot weather and all the walking we would be doing. When that was done the four of us in our group went outside to the touring boat that was tied up next to the shore behind the ship. This little vessel would take us to the west bank of the Nile where many of the pharoahs of Egypt and their queens were buried in hidden tombs thousands of years ago. On the way across the river it occurred to me that we had not seen any of the houses of the pharoahs since we came on this trip and I didn't hear anyone mention anything about it. I asked the guide about it. He paused a minute and said that he hadn't thought about that in a while. Then he said that the houses of the pharoahs used to be built along the east side of the Nile. These houses were made of mud brick and that is why they hadn't survived down through the ages. He said that recently they found some of the foundations of some of these ancient houses where modern houses have been built over them. The temples of Egypt are made of stone and so they last forever. Mud brick house only last for a short time.

On the other side we got into a waiting bus and drove the several miles into the interior of the desert and entered into a mountianous part of the landscape. In one of the valleys there are the tombs of many pharoahs of Egypt.

Valley of the Kings Once we got to the site we took a small train to the place where the tombs are. We walked up to one of the tombs that was closed up and the guide gave an interesting talk about grave robbers.
The robbers wouldn't go through the entrance of the tomb they were intending to rob because usually they would be blocked by large slabs of granite. The robbers would tunnel in through the side. After they made it through to the inside of the tomb they would let it air out for about four or five days because the paint and varnish that was used inside was very deadly if you breathed it very long. It took many people dying from inhaling the fumes before they realized they had to air the tomb out before they could go in and rob it. In the olden days this was known as the Pharoah's Curse, now they know it was the paint and varnish fumes that killed them.

He also talked about the paint that was used on the insides of the tombs. First of all they did not mix colors to make other colors in those days like we do today. That technology hadn't been discovered yet. They used only primary colors that were made out of natural substances. They would use a yellow plant to make yellow paint or red dirt to make the color red and so on like that.

Then he started talking about the worker village that is located on the opposite side of the mountains that inclose this valley we were in. The people who worked on these tombs lived in this workers village. Every morning they would get up and some of the pharoah's men would blindfold them and bring them to work in the burial site by a cart pulled by some animal. They were blindfolded so they wouldn't know how to get to the work site so they wouldn't come back and rob any of the tombs or tells anyone else where it was located. They would work carving out a tomb, or carve out reliefs or whatever their job was for eight or nine hours a day. At the end of the day they would be blindfolded again and taken home.

Sometimes the priests were more powerful then the pharoahs. When a priest needed some money he would sell a map to a king's burial chamber to a robber who would rob it and share the spoils with him.

One time a wife and a pharoah lived together. The pharoah died and was put in his great tomb that he had built for himself. The wife remarried. When she died she was put in her orgional husband's tomb. Then when her second husband died he had it in his will to throw the origional pharoah out of the tomb and that his body be placed in it instead. The guide told us this story to let us know of some of the crazy things that went on in ancient Egypt. Things have changed very little from those times.

TOMB OF SETI II
After this little introduction to the Valley of the Kings he said that we only had time to go into two tombs. I had come there to go into Tutankamen's tomb. I didn't know what to expect. I had heard before I came to Egypt that his tomb was empty. I didn't care I still wanted to see it. After his lecture I went up to him and told him that I would like to go into King Tut's tomb. He had already mentioned that it would cost extra to go into it. There didn't seem to be any interest of any other of the people in our group of going into his tomb. I went up and bought the ticket. Then decided to go into another tomb first. I went up a little hill and made my way to a tomb opening at the bottom of a cliff.

Tomb of Seti II It turned out to be the tomb of Seti II. I went inside and noticed all the hieroglyphics on the walls at the entrance and throughout the long hall way. There's a funny thing about me, which I'm sure other people can relate to. Before I came to Egypt I had practically zero interest in the pharoahs and other things about ancient Egypt. I wanted to be interested in these things, but somehow just reading books about it did not appeal to me. I knew if I went there and saw it for myself I would get hooked. That is exactly what happened. Since I came back I've bought over twenty books about 'all things Egypt'. While I was in the tomb of Seti II all I could think of was getting out of there to see King Tut's tomb. So I swiftly looked through all I could in the tomb. I thought to myself, I'd better go down to the end of it otherwise I will regret it for years to come. So I went down to the end trying to look at everything as I went. I didn't even know who Seti II was. I had probably heard of him before but I didn't know anything about him. I walked as quickly as I could back to the entrance promising myself that as soon as I got home I would look up the Pharoah and find out who he was. That is exactly what I did. He was a minor pharoah is one of the things I found out. He was not that outstanding. He has a nice tomb though.

THE TOMB OF TUTANKAMEN
I quickly made my way down the hill to the entrance of King Tut's burial chamber. There were surprisingly few people there and I got right in. I walked down the sixteen steps and went into the descending passageway where I gave my ticket to a friendly Muslim gentleman who pointed me onward toward the doorway that leads to the tomb. On the other side of the door is the antechamber. I entered the antechamber and looked to the left and saw the mummy of Tutankamen in person lying under glass. I was extremely surprised by this, and also amazed. I'm not someone who likes to look at dead bodies. I usually avoid looking at dead people but

Outside of Tutankamen's Tomb for some reason I didn't mind looking at this mummy. There was a white sheet covering his body and you could only see his head and feet. There were fans blowing on the glass to keep the heat down. I looked at all this for a few minutes and then turned to the right and walked about ten steps to the burial chamber where the golden sarcophagus lies. This is the inner casket that the king's body was until he was discovered in the 1920's. I looked at the painting on the wall that I had read so much on and had seen pictures of.

Inside of Tomb of Tutankamen Safisfied that I had seen Tut himself and his golden coffin I ascended the stairs of the tomb and back into the scorching sun. I walked across the way to a shaded area and waited for the rest of the group to come back. I told the guide earlier that I would wait for them there. After a little while they came down the hill. After I made sure the guide saw me I melted into the crowd and we went back to the bus and continued with the tour.

THOUGHTS ON TUT

When I got back from Egypt I read a book called "The Tutankhamun Deception" by Gerald O'Farrell. This book tells another story about how King Tut was found. According to the author the whole discovery was a hoax. Many details were uncovered such as the origional lid was removed from the sarcophagus and another one was put in it's place to hide the real idenity of the person in the coffin. This was done because the Egyptian government had made some new rules giving the finder of Egyptian treasure only a small percentage of their find and the government now taking the lion's share. The result of this was the falsifying of many things in this case so that all those who were involved in finding this treasure stole many things and rearranged things so they would come out with more then the Egyptian wanted them to have. The whole book cast some serious doubts about what the public was given as the truth about this discovery. It is not really known if this is the real King Tut. It could be someone else. As for the paintings on the wall of the tomb. For being five thousand years old, the paint looks very fresh. The author of the book believes that Carter was the one who painted it. He was an artist in his own right. He spent a number of years re-doing things in the tomb before it's supossed discovery. Anyway, maybe this is why not many people were in the tomb the day I was there.

ALABASTAR VESSEL MAKING FACTORY - Alabastar is a cream-like translucent stone.

Now we were off to a factory to see how alabastar is worked to make different kinds of vessels. First we saw a demonstration on how these pieces of art are made. The stop was designed to give us a chance to buy something. It was a nice rest where we could enjoy a nice cup of tea and sit down for a spell before heading over to the Tomb of Hapshepsut and the Valley of the Queens.