West Bank Luxor

We crossed to the West Back of Luxor early this morning. There was a chill in the air but it didn’t last long as we began the barren ascent under towering sand stone cliffs to the entrance to The Valley of the Kings, passing the house of Howard Carter en route.

Our driver had told us a little earlier that Tutankahmun’s tomb had been closed indefinitely at the start of the month and we held our breath until the man at the ticket office declared that it was open. However, my hopes of recreating the photo of me taken in 1981 standing on the steps of the tomb were dashed as now all cameras are banned from the entire site including the outside areas which seems a little extreme. However, I had studied the old one and was able to take up the pose on the exact step for Dd to capture in the camera of her mind from her vantage point at the top of the stairs.

Although there were plenty of tourist buses and mini-vans in the car park, the site still seemed empty and we were alone with King Tut’s mummy for several minutes. I had forgotten he was there and it was quite a surprise to look to our left as we entered the chamber and see him just lying there in his glass box.

His entire tomb can only be described as tiny and there are several theories as to why he had not merited a more lavish arrangement especially given that he was himself a pharaoh and the son of one of the most powerful in the line. The fact that, apparently, his mum was also his dad’s sister may have had something to do with it, although incest was not uncommon. We were also alone in Ramesis VI’s tomb widely regarded as the largest and finest; think Buckingham Palace after King Tut’s gamekeeper’s cottage on the Royal Sandringham estate.

Later, we visited The Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut (above) glad that it was only 30C and not the near 50C as on my first visit here.

We also enjoyed driving through the rural scenes of everyday agricultural activities which cannot have changed in thousands of years including bison pulling ploughs, men bent over with hand held hoes turning the soil in fields producing wheat, bananas, corn, sugar cane, hibiscus and alfa-alfa plant to feed their animals. Several times we cross-crossed the narrow gauge tracks of the steam railway which helps gather in the various harvests. That much is new, as is the control of the Nile which allows for several harvests of each crop per year rather than the former annual one after the former great Nile floods.

On our return to the East Bank we eventually found a replacement for Dd’s left-behind bathing suit, and after lunch spent some time beside the pool reading and dozing.