The Road Behind
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Outside of Karnak we walked by a basketball court with some action and it caught Scooter's eye. Then Scooter caught the eye of some players and they called over to him to throw a few balls. Before we knew it, an official game was starting and we seemed to be the guests of honor. We had court side chairs and hot sweet tea delivered by the coach. Scooter was talking to Tarik and a few other guys. We spent over an hour watching the game and Scooter played a pickup game until it was time for the sound and light show back at Karnak.
This show is a bit more expensive at 33EP per person. This was to be our 3rd sound and light show so we were somewhat hesitant to pay the money but we were glad we did. This was the best show we had seen. The narration and explanations were excellent and the first half of the show you walk through the temple looking and listening until you arrive at seating in the back for the second half of Karnak's long history.
After the show , Tarik came to meet us. He had invited us to tea and sheesha pipe at his local cafe. We all took a service taxi to the center of town and walked down a crowded side street lined with small wooded tables and chairs. We sat down and ordered two sheesha or glass water pipes for .50 each. One was a strong manly tobacco and the other a sweet, fruity tourist blend. Puffing a few, I found it delicious. We ate fiteer, Egyptian pizza, a cross between pastry and pizza. We talked very candidly for a couple of hours about America and Egypt.
We made a plan for the West Bank of Luxor. It is a really large area with many sights: Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, Hatshepsut, Tombs of Nobles, Ramesseum and tombs galore. The West Bank can cost a small fortune if your goal is to see everything approximately 200EP so we made our selections carefully using our guidebook. A taxi met us at 6:30 AM so that we could quickly get to the other side for tickets to Nefertari's tomb in the Valley of the Queens. This tomb is reportedly the best in Egypt. A few years ago it was restored and now they allow only 150 people per day in at the exorbitant price of 100EP each, maybe a big rip off. One 20EP ticket is good for entrance into any three tombs in the Valley of the Kings. The Valley of the Kings opens at 6 AM so we toured there first, after we secured our ticket to Nefertari's tomb. again, we selected our 3 tombs from descriptions in our guidebook.
The tombs of the kings and pharaohs were dug and constructed here over a couple thousand years. They were meant to be hidden under the small rocky mountains and never be found by grave robbers then or now. But that didn't work, and these graves have been pillaged throughout history including now. The tombs were built down into the ground with the sarcophagus and treasures lowered in very secretly deep inside the tomb, most having several rooms with paintings of instructions on how to get to eternal life/to the gods. The paintings cover every inch of floor to ceiling although some were incomplete when their intended died and they had to move in as is.
From the Kings we went to the Queens, where we purchased only 1 ticket to Nefertari's tomb. The one that supposedly had been renovated to the tune of 6 million US$. It was excellent, as far as tombs go but we are still trying to figure out where the 6 mil went. We did a quick drive by the Hatshepsut temple then accepted an invitation to tea at the home of our driver to meet his family. Said was very proud of his large house, 3 boys and young wife.
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| This page last changed on 27-Apr-2006 23:38:59 EDT by 70.171.24.221. |
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