Early this morning, Wayne took Vicki and Tal on a balloon ride over the Valley Of The Kings, Deir el-Bahri, the Ramesseum, and the Colossus of Memnon. It was $200 US to go, and I figured that it wasn't worth it. After seeing the pictures, I wish I went. Vicki offered to take my camera with her and I'm so grateful for that because they turned out so well.
Below is a photo from the balloon of el-Qurna and the "Tombs of the Nobles". (For more photos from the air, click on the picture below)
While they were in the air, the rest of us visited the Colossus of Memnon. The two giant statues are all that is left of the enormous temple that stood there many centuries before. When the group was reunited again, we went to the the temple of Hatshepsut. We didn't view the temple, but we did climb up the mountain that surrounds it. It was very tiring and hot. The loose flat stones that covered the ground were hard to walk on at times, but we did make it to the top. I brought home an interesting looking stone with a fossil in it as a souvinir from the top of the mountain.
I took this picture at about the halfway point during the climb up the mountain. This is the temple of Queen Hatshepsut.
During the climb, I encountered many rough cut tombs. There must be hundreds of them on this mountain. I went inside a few of them, but it was difficult. There is a lot of loose rubble and some of them have a very steep incline. I had a flashlight, but it was still pretty dark. There is a small stone wall blocking part of the entrance to keep people out, but it's easy to climb over. They are empty and relatively un-interesting, so I didn't spend much time exploring them.
Our next destination was the Valley of the Kings. This was a place I have dreamed of visiting all my life. I still can't believe that I was actually there. It seems more like a dream now. In most of the tombs, you are not allowed to use a camera with a flash, so I didn't bother using mine much, because of the lack of lighting inside. In Tutankhamun's tomb, photography is strictly prohibited. He is still there in his sarcophagus and you can see the gold and wood coffin he is in, beneath the glass cover that takes the place of the sarcophagus lid. We also explored the tombs of the pharoahs Ramses The Third, Ramses The Sixth, and Merneptah.
(To see pictures of the valley and tombs, click on the photo below)
