October 26 - Wednesday

We took small boat ride across the river to meet the bus.

We went to the temple of Medinet Habu. The mortuary temple of Ramesses III. Another amazing sight of temples and fabulous decorations. I had an interesting trip to the bathroom here. A group of school children were touring.
Extras

We then went to the Temple of Deir el-Bahari. The complex was built by Mentuhotep II then added to extensively by Amenhotep I and Hatshepsut.  It's seated quite high up on a mountain. We ran the gauntlet of shops and got on a shuttle to the temple. Quite an amazing layout. It's considered one of the "incomparable monuments of Egypt". Amazing colors from over 3400 years ago. Apparently 20th century reconstruction has screwed up the site.

Hatsheput is a female pharaoh. Usually depicted with a beard to get respect. She became pharaoh in 1478 BC.

These things are just too big and complex and mind boggling to do any decent description which why I reference Wikipedia so much.
Extras

The tram driver signaled me to sit with him. He had me drive the tram - the steering was totally worn out. I gave him a buck or so.

Back on the bus.

We drove to Deir el-Medina which is a workman's village for the people who worked on the Valley of the Kings. It's sort of on the back side of the mountain, about a 20 minute walk to the Valley of the Kings. It was quite complete. Piles of notes on clay give a very detailed view of life at the time.

This is where I went back to the ship and Deb took a rather expensive side trip to the Valley of the Queens and Nefertari's tomb. She was the first wife of Ramesses the Great. Perhaps the largest and most spectacular tombs in the valley. The colors are outstanding. Apparently no pictures allowed.

On the way back they stopped to look at this excavation.

Back on the boat and dinner with Norm and Dianna.

Later there was a belly dancer and a whirling dervish. Movie. They were both good. The dervish obviously was mostly an entertainer he had a two part skirt that also lit up. He would seperate the parts and spin forever. Entertaining.

Bed time.