Day
12 - Luxor : Valley of The Queens, Dier El Medina, Tombs at Dier
El Medina, Ptolomaic Temple at Dier El Medina and Medinet Habu
 The
most famous tomb in the Valley of the Queens (Nefertari's) is closed
except to those who arrange a very large viewing fee with the Antiquities
Service. Large Corporate donors and exclusive tours are shown the
tomb at what is rumoured to be $5000 USD per group and $1000 per
person. I have no idea what it really is, and I expect that professional
courtesy tours could be arranged if you had the right connections,
but we didn't, and we didn't even try.
The only other tomb I wanted to see hasn't been open
for 30 years, and that is Seti I in the Valley of the Kings. Both
tombs were offered in a tour of "All the Tombs in the Valley"
from the US for about $10,000 per person, as I recall, but after
having done 5 tombs in the Valley and about 10 others, I think you
would have to be extremely fit as well as prepared to pay a bit
(not really THAT much, if airfare was included). Climbing up and
down into tombs is exhausting and becomes a bit confusing if you
don't have something like a book or photographs to remind you of
what you just saw. Such a tour should probably come with The Complete
Valley of the Kings, and maybe then you could keep it all in order
in your head.
Wall carving behind glass -
Tomb of Amen Khopshef - son Ramesses III
Photography is currently not permitted in the Royal Tombs, but
I have included some of the princes tombs in the Valley of the Queens
that we have copyright to. I have to say that photography is actually
a case-by-case thing. If you are alone or just two people, and have
the latest digital cameras that can take adequate pictures without
flash, the guards will sometimes take pity on you and accept some
baksheesh to let you photograph. You should be grateful for the
opportunity. This type of opportunity is not available to those
in big groups or on a regular basis to just anyone who walks up
with a ticket. If you are lucky enough to have pictures of any of
the tombs, use them to promote travel in Egypt. The Egyptians depend
on the tourist business, and at the time they judged you as a safe
and sympathetic person who would not harm the antiquities that they
guard. They would not let you do harm to any tomb for any
amount of money.
After the Valley of the Kings we went around to Deir el Medina,
the Workmen's Village. This Village has been the source of
so much of our knowledge about normal life in ancient Egypt.
When the village was abandoned, the villagers left papyrus
and ostrica with records and drawings. The names and activities
of individuals are recorded and records of the work of excavating
and decorating the tombs were found.
The tombs of the workmen are wonderful things. They are small
but include more normal scenes that the Kings tombs. They are
also beautiful because here the workmen used all their artistic
skill with the constraints of the tomb formats that a King's
burial required.
We saw Senedjem and Peshedu.
We walked through the ruins of the workmen's village over
to the Ptolemaic temple to Hathor that was built just beyond
the village site. This is a nice little temple and well worth
the time it takes to walk over there. There was a guard, of
course, and someone selling a souvenir piece, of course. It
was a little conopic jar made of resin with a jackel head.
I asked the guy to wait and negotiated a price when I left
the temple. I paid 30 EP, he wanted 50 EP.
I suppose you wonder why I include these prices for things?
Well, it's because you only get respect if you bargain and
most people are not used to it. I like to bargain, but of course
I am not the most skilled bargainer they ever come up against,
but I find that the purchase of something with the appropriate
respect on both sides and a little bargaining creates a personal
link between you and that person. Maybe that is why some westerners
don't like to do it. They don't want to get that involved.
But, all in all, if you keep your wits about you, count your
money and enjoy the experience, you come home with some nice
little souvenirs that will always remind you of Egypt. In my
next diary entry you will read about my bargaining with a real
expert, where I certainly didn't get the best part of the bargain,
but ended up with a great story to tell and some pieces that
are quite nice... more later.
Hathor column at Ptolemaic temple
After the Ptolemaic temple we went to have a drink at the
Medinet Habu Cafe which is right across from the temple of
the same name. This cafe is run by a European woman and is
a truely western type establishment. The bathrooms are spotless,
complete with toilet paper, well appointed and no bathroom
attendant.
 We
walked through Mendinet Habu temple which has been impproved
somewhat since we were last here. They were restoring the walls
then. It has alot of color and has some very nice scenes on
the walls. There were bunches of Egyptian school children there
on field trips. Groups of all ages. In fact we saw such groups
at every site. It was good to see. Egyptians are becoming more
and more involved personally with the antiquities, and thus
the major economic factor in their country. Hopefully they
will all grow up to care about the monuments and devise new
and wonderful ways to develop the tourist buisness.
We had lunch at the Mendinet Cafe, and then went back across
the river to the hotel.
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