An audience with the King (Tut)…

We first visited Egypt several years ago; however, we were on the Mediterranean coast and toured Alexandria and Cairo (Giza). At that time, we were disappointed that the country, at least what we saw of it, was so depressing. Although we loved visiting the pyramids and the sphinx and the sights of Alexandria, we had no real desire to return. The country we visited was not all that inviting – neglected infrastructure, trash, garbage, and debris everywhere, half-built and unfinished piles of rubble-looking structures in all directions.

An interesting aside regarding this last issue – that of the unfinished look to the country. Apparently, according to Egyptian law, property taxes cannot be imposed on unfinished structures. Therefore, most people build a ground floor, or first story, and intentionally build short sections of columns, with rebar sticking out, above the initial story. If they build another story on to an existing structure, they do the same partial assembly on yet another floor. Almost without exception, it looked like every building we saw was in some way “unfinished.” A rather innovative way to live without paying any property taxes.

The three shots above were taken from a moving bus. I have tried to show what we saw as we passed through a residential district. You may be able to pick out a small white spot above the blue door in the right-hand picture. That is a dish antenna. Almost every building had one or more dishes hanging off of it.

That was almost ten years ago. Today we visited another part of Egypt, Safaga on the Red Sea coastline, and traveled inland to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings.

Unfortunately, not much has changed. Egypt is still a country polluted by neglect. It has no real economic engine aside from tourism. Although it is in the oil-rich part of the world, it has not, or cannot, exploit that resource. Simply put, a country cannot run on tourism while figuratively failing to bathe and put on clean clothes.

Even though we were well into the tourist season, there were few tourists at any of the places we visited. Most of the Nile River cruise boats based in the Luxor area appeared to be idle. There were literally dozens moored side-by-side along the riverbanks all along the waterfront.

The good news is that we had a full day tour (a very full day getting up at 6:00 AM and returning at almost 9:00 PM) to Luxor City to tour the Luxor Temple and then on the the Valley of the Kings for our audience with King Tut. The long day was necessitated by the fact that because our dock was at the port of Sagafa on the Red Sea (bummer: it is as blue as all the other seas…) it is a good three-hour bus ride into Luxor on the Nile.

At Luxor we spent about an hour at the Temple. Although it was an interesting stop, I lost a lot of what was said in trying to get past the combination of my hearing ability and the guide’s accent. She was a delightful lady who spoke quite good English, but with all the crowds and background noise, I just couldn't keep up.

The two montages above are samples of what we saw. I have tried to include people in most of the shots to provide a scale factor. The temple was absolutely amazing! The two lower right-hand pix in each montage are examples of how the hot dry air has preserved so much of the beauty of these antiquities. The two lower pictures in the second montage are of the Avenue of the Sphinxes, the road connecting the Luxor Temple to the Temple of Karnack (which we did not have time to get to).

After touring the Luxor Temple we were taken to the Luxor Sonesta St. George Hotel for a wonderful buffet lunch. We also had a chance to regroup from the heat of the city.

After lunch we drove to the west side of the Nile River and proceeded to the Valley of the Kings. I was very disappointed to learn – as were many of our fellow travelers – that cameras had to be left on the bus or checked at the gate. Although most of what could be seen above ground was not terribly interesting, it would have been nice to have a few pix to at least set the scene. We were told that although they had no objection to above-ground pictures, they could not trust visitors to strictly heed the rules. So we all had to pay the price for those few who choose their own self-interests above staying within the rules. The issue is that flash photography has a deteriorating effect on the frescos within the tombs.

A shot from the parking lot of the Valley of the Kings. We had to leave our cameras in the bus from this point.

In any event we proceeded up the long, hot, dusty, hot pathway to our first tomb stop: Ramses VII. We entered the tomb via a well-constructed stairway and ramp system that took us almost directly into the burial chamber. The walls were alive with frescos, hieroglyphics, and carved decoration. It was amazing to realize that these were original and were over 2500 years old. We proceeded to walk around the sarcophagus and back out again. The entire visit took only about 15 minutes since there were no amateur Ansel Adams’ stopping every 6” to take pictures.

Then on to the next tomb: Ramses IV. This was almost a repeat of the first visit, except that the stairs and walkway down to the tomb were longer and the tomb was more elaborate in decoration than the first. This walk-around and gaping took about 20 minutes.

Our final “regular” tomb visit was to that of Horemheb, one of the later Pharaohs. This tomb was placed much deeper and was more elaborately laid out than the first two tombs. We were cautioned that the sarcophagus was a long walk down steps and ramps. By this time, many of our number were just too worn out to make that effort. It was hot, dusty, hot, and not much humidity. I mentioned hot – the air temperature was over 105 degrees.

Yours truly determined to go all the way – and I did! I even managed to make it back up on my own steam. The walk down took almost 15 minutes along a series of steep ramps and stairs. At the “bottom” was the sarcophagus and several rooms for the Pharaoh’s treasures. I counted 180 steps along with the ramps as I inched my way back up. The walk back up took much longer.

Those first three tombs were included in the price of admission. Several of us paid extra to see the final resting place of King Tutankhamun. There is a very interesting story that goes with this tomb – both in its placement and discovery. I will not be telling that story here, except to mention that this is the only one of the tombs currently open at the Valley that still contains the actual mummy. Suffice it to say that Bonnie and I made our way to the burial chamber down yet another set of steps and ramps; however, these were not nearly as long or as steep as the others. Tut was buried much more shallowly than most of the others.

At last: face to face, or at least face to mummified body, with the legendary ruler of all Egypt. The Boy King, as he was known, was believed to be only about 17 or 18 years old when he died. There is an interesting theory that he was murdered. In any event, we viewed the actual mummy in a glass case. It was still swaddled as it had been found even though it had been thoroughly examined by Carter and others after its discovery. In another glass case was the outer gilded sarcophagus. Tut was buried in a solid gold coffin that was put inside a gilded wooden coffin that was then put inside another gilded wooden coffin – three layers in all. We viewed the outer layer. It still had most of its gilt and signature blue paint. All in all, we had about ten minutes with both displays.

After walking down the hot, dusty, hot pathway back to the entrance and the air-conditioning of the bus, we went for two final photo ops: The tomb of Queen Hatshepsut – the Queen who would be King – and the Colossi – giant sandstone sculptures that once marked the entry to the valley.

The tomb of Queen Hatshepsut. The picture on the right was a "no-zoom" to show how the temple is carved out of the mountain rock.

The Colossi - guardians of the tombs.

A long day capped by another three-hour bus ride back to the ship. We are pleased that we did that trip, but we now feel that we have seen (coupled with our earlier visits) what we wanted to see in Egypt. It is so sad that a country so rich in cultural treasures – not just the ones we saw, but their entire history – is so bereft of any ability to govern itself.

Tomorrow we sail up the Gulf of Aqaba to Aqaba City for a sojourn to Petra – Jordan’s Treasure. Stay tuned…