More splendid than I could have imagined. B-b-b-b-b-breath-taking!  Such natural beauty in the cliffs.  It was once an ocean and Naga picked up fossilized clam shells off the road for us, cephalopods that are 500 million years old. We drove over and took a boat back since it is literally right across the way from the hotel.  First we saw the touristy tomb of Ramses IV, lovely but not that well kept up.  A long tunnel, two chambers...then we saw Amenhotep II, father of Akenaton's tomb.  So sorry we couldn't video!  But took plenty of pictures! Getting more interesting! In this style you go down a bridge over the shaft or well dug to keep tomb robbers out (ha) into a room and turn left and go down again.  Wow! We spent the money to see the tomb of Tutankhamun, which is so tiny you can't imagine all the treasures fitting into these three tiny rooms. Lovely paintings though and of course the coffin and mummy (hidden).  After reading howard Carter's book it was wonderful to soak in the atmosphere, could have spent an hour.

Then we climbed up a high cliff to the crevice that leads to Thutmoses III's tomb, down and to the left and down and down again, it was so hot.  Wow!  2 great huge rooms...We then went to the double tomb of Tawosret and Sekhnat...that was grand - no one was there...the tourists all stay in the first tombs and once you walk to the back of the valley all the tombs are empty practically and for a little baksheesh Naga got us into way more than the allowed three.  This tomb was beautiful and so serene.

Then we headed over the the Valley of the Queens for the piece de resistance, the restored tomb of Nefertari, the Queen of Ramses II.  The Getty Foundation spend 6 million to restore it - it's costs extra but it worth it since it may be closed down soon. WOW!  The backgrounds are all white and the paintings look as fresh as if they were just 100 years old.  Met the guard Safoud who looks like Erroll Flynn and stole my heart.  He speaks no English (but I gave him my card and he called through a translator after 9/11 to express his condolences and offer to marry me - no kidding). Well the tomb is NOTHING like the pictures, you can't imagine.  I could spend days in these tombs.

All of the tombs were so so hot that when you came out you felt like the outside was air conditioned! We drank so much water.

Then we wento Deir El-Medira the town of the workers, that has been excavated - so cool! - I really need to go back with a guide on a cooler day and find out about their homes -  and I crawled into two lovely small tombs of the artisans.  I was the only one with strength left to go in another tomb but I am so glad I did!!! These are so different and so beautiful.  I was able to video here...then the hottest sojourn of them all....

The Temple of Hatshepsut which was absolutely magnificent, built right into the cliff.  Not much left in terms of color but many reliefs and the famous Queen of Punt, the fat little lady and her tiny donkey.  We saw Ozymandias from afar, and wished we had strength to visit this the Temple of Ramses the Great.  This is why we must return.

We stopped in Qurna, the town of the tomb robbers, now famous for their stone carved statuettes (i.e. fake antiquities) and bought some lovely things: a cat, Sekmet (the lion goddess) and saw plenty of roaming goats and farmers with donkeys.

Our group:

Sarah: in her 20's, wants to be an Egyptologist, soon to be married, red blond hair, Egyptian tattoos and a pierced tongue, dragged her sister on this trip

Emily: the dragged sister, younger, a receptionist, very funny, misses her Mom and America terribly, the comic relief

Ken: 74, dry, ironic, deaf, a wanderer, dislikes Naga telling him what to do, is always getting lost, just recovering from a divorce after 47 years of marriage, former military man, sole purpose in taking the trip: to go into the pyramid

Naga: 42, married, 2 boys, lives to work on a sugar and caffeine high, loves Egypt and the desrt, totally hooked up, a big charmer with a huge ego, loves to hold the girls' hands, high fives you and use your spray water fan

Richard: Trip coordinator, geologist, retired, painter of Egypt, fussy, can't get around much anymore, young wife, travels to Egypt twice a year, knows the ropes

Jean Cocteau on Egypt, 1949:

The more I walk along, the more I listen. The more I move around the columns, the more I experience the feeling of a dark world which fastens on to ours and which will not loosen the suckers through which it takes it's life.  Whatever it may cost, they find it necessary to confirm their existence, to perpetuate themselves, to incarnate, to reincarnate, to hypnotize nothingness and to vanquish it.  Fists closed, eyes wide open and fixed. The Pharoahs march against the void, put it to sleep, braving it's powers.

To Day 13

To Photos