Valley of the Kings – 20th January 2006

We awoke early once more for a tour of the Valley of the Kings. We had to catch a motor boat across the Nile, which meant first climbing through a half dozen other boats to get into the one moored furthest from the pontoon. Our group met with the donkey boys on the other side who were to transport us to the site. We decided not to catch donkeys to the valley as Maria had had enough of riding animals by this point, and my feet tended to drag along the ground since the donkey isn’t an overly tall creature. Thus relatively safely ensconced in a cab, we rode in style to the valley whilst everyone else struggled with his or her wilful donkeys.

We met Saleh once again at the site entrance and he decided that another from the group would be his wife today, as he wasn’t greedy and didn’t want to deprive me of my wife for another day. This sentiment I agreed with whole-heartedly. After the usual security procedures, which involved walking through a madly beeping gate whilst the guards thoroughly ignored us, we took the short walk to the first tomb which we were to visit. Saleh was not allowed inside the tomb with us, but instructed us on the significance of the various elements within the tombs from outside, using his walking stick and the dusty ground as his chalk and blackboard. His knowledge of the tombs was extraordinary.

We visited a total of three tombs during our trip. The first was the tomb of Ramses IV. All of the tombs took many years to carve out the rock of the surrounding hills, and Ramses IV tomb took eight years just to decorate (according to Saleh – the official line is that it was completely built in eight years, but this seems unlikely considering how long the other tombs took to build).

The second tomb we visited was that of Ramses IX and the final one was of Merenptah. The Ramses tombs were both from the 20th dynasty whilst Merenptah was slightly older – 19th dynasty. Whilst all of the tombs in the valley of the kings were from the New Kingdom, they are nonetheless all over 3000 years old. What is remarkable about them is that they still maintain much of their colour. Every possible surface is decorated in carved, painted pictures and hieroglyphs. In the case of Ramses IX, the hieroglyphs indicate that it took 27 years to create the decorated tomb out of the bare rock of the mountainside.

After ogling at the ancient resting places, we decided to find a resting place of our own – for lunch that is. We jumped back in our cab with Saleh for the journey to the Africa Café. On the way we stopped for a look at the statues of Memnon. The are named Memnon by the Greeks after Agamemnon, although the statues are Egyptian and have nothing to do with Agamemnon.

Lunch turned out to be as delicious as it was extensive. Saleh regaled us with expansive tales covering topics of history, religion, philosophy and arranged marriage. We bid Saleh farewell before catching our speedboat back to the east bank of Luxor.

We had a free afternoon in Luxor which we used to pursue our favourite pastimes, (sleep and coffee – you can work out who did which). That evening we set out after some dinner. We had the cheapest restaurant meal ever. Two restaurant owners were standing next to each other outside their respective establishments beseeching custom. Having them bid for your custom was refreshing. We chose the one who offered free fresh juice and a 20% discount and ate our fill.

After satisfying our hunger, we had a look in a jewellery shop. Maria was interested in the ankhs, a symbol a bit like a crucifix, only with a loop at the top. The ankh symbolises the East and West Deserts, the Nile and the Delta, and like many ancient Egyptian symbols, influenced Christian art.

The shop was something of an anomaly in Egypt. Firstly, the proprietor, whilst very attentive and helpful, was not particularly pushy. He gave us a cup of tea and showed us some of his favourite pieces. He was obviously quite proud of his work. Secondly, the merchandise was obviously of a high quality, something rarely seen in Egypt. Finally the prices weren’t outrageously inflated. After some minor haggling, if you couldn’t afford to pay his stated price, he would let you walk away.

We discovered that the distinguishing feature of this gentleman was that he was a Coptic Christian. Usually I’m not one to use religion as a basis for comparison between people, but there are some basic cultural differences that can only be put down to religion in this circumstance (though the differences are cultural I’m sure rather than because of the tenants of the religion itself). As soon as you step into the Christian quarter of an Islamic city, it is like stepping into another city. The streets are clean. Nobody follows you down the street hawking his wares. The difference is stunning. According to our tour leader, the Christians earn on average 4 times what an average Egyptian earns and live in self-sufficient communities. The shop owner told us that the government doctors the census figures to show that there are only 10 million Christians in Egypt instead of 20 million, out of about 80 million people in total. Certainly I get the feeling that everything the Islamic Egyptians do has the feeling of transience. Nothing is made to last. Repeat custom isn’t valued, only the immediate sale.

Anyhow, we bought a quite stunning ankh bracelet made from silver and semi-precious stones, and Maria is yet to take it off. It is a wonderful reminder of our time in Egypt.

We had to run from the shop to get to the bus to take us to the train. The train left for Cairo at 10:30 pm Egypt time. So we boarded at 11pm. And left about 11:30pm.

Fletch’s tip for new travellers

Nobody in Egypt will do anything for you out of the goodness of their hearts. Either they get a cut, or they expect baksheesh. If you don’t think you want someone to take a cut, then you have to deal with locals directly. Take taxi drivers for instance. You say you want to go from downtown to the Sheraton. All he has to do is cross a bridge – probably 10 minutes walk. So he decides he wants to take a roundabout route across 3 bridges and charge you 4 times what it should be. So you tell him exactly how to get their and that you can see the hotel from where you are and that you won’t pay 4 times the price. So he takes you the direct way, sullen though he has become. When you get to the other end he still demands 4 times the correct price. To deal with this, you look very angry and tell him that his mother would be very disappointed and you shake your fist. This will generally attract the attention of the tourist police. When the tourist policeman moves to intervene the cabby will take any price.

At this point you realise that it’s just easier to get the hotel doorman to organise it even though he takes a cut.