October 21 - Friday
After breakfast we are off to the Valley of the Kings.
Diana and Norm are missing she has gone to the hospital.
Once again an amazing drive. Note the buildings with re-bar
sticking out of the top. The plan is the first generation builds
a house then the next generation can add a floor for themselves
and the next and the next up to four stories. Also an
interesting thing is we see all these apparently uncompleted and
partially occupied apartment style building. Turns out you can buy a condo
and have it finished the way you'd like - double pain windows,
different wall layout, etc.
This may be where we took a pharmacy
stop. I don't think I went into this pharmacy.
We got a glimpse of a graveyard. I
think they might not use coffins for burial. It all looked
pretty crude.
The Valley
of the Kings was quite remote.
Not a tree or blade of grass in sight. Of course the plan was to
make it difficult to rob the graves. Seeing the pyramids and
such of the Old Kingdom were raided these pharaohs wanted to
protect their tombs. Tombs were built here from about 1500 to
1000 BC. There is a mountain that looks sort of pyramid like
which may have encouraged use of this place. Apparently the
geology here is less then perfect for this sort of project.
Deb forgot her hat so we decided to buy one here. She grabbed a
hat similar to mine. The guy said it was 5000 pounds (~$50). I
said no. He said 3000. No. I pulled out a 500. He grabbed it and
we were having a tug-of-war when Deb said "never mind". He said
"500". I let go of the money and away we went. Unfortunately it
didn't fit her very well and looked a bit like it had been run
over by a horse carriage or two.
We had a special ticket to get into
the Ramses VI tomb plus three other tombs. Tutankhamen's tomb is
here. We were advised there isn't much to see in King Tuts tomb.
In all 63 tombs of various ranking people are here. Only about
11 have been studied. About six are fixed up and open to the
public.
We don't have pictures because it wasn't allowed. We visited
Ramses VI tomb and three others which I don't remember at this
moment.
Back to the ship. We found a fun towel sculpture
in our room. We began cruising up the Nile - south. We relaxed and watched the passing scene.
Guys come up to the boat and try to sell
stuff.
Movie
Extras
We were happy to see Dianna back at
dinner.
A wedding boat came up beside us. Movie. I think we were
waiting to go through the lock.
To bed.