Luxor, Egypt...

In all fairness, while the room in Luxor was NOT fancy, the food was pretty good, and we didn't get sick, so I really have no reason to complain. It was right on the Nile, and we had a great view from our room. Those are Nile cruise ships. Not at all Egyptian, and designed for foreigners to travel all of Egypt in comfort and luxury. The sails and masts you can see sticking up are the sails of "faluccas," traditional Nile boats. We took a sailboat ride at sunset one evening. It was beautiful and relaxing, but then we always feel that way about boating!

The little guy on the right was very typical. We could get one of those carriages from our hotel and then tour the city and see things we couldn't get to very well on foot, like the market where the locals shop, rather than the tourist market. We went out with a group of people from our tour and hailed three of these carriages. They took us around the city, through the real market, and past people's homes. Then they stopped at a touristy store selling papyrus and all other types of Egyptian souvenirs. The drivers get a commission on everything the tourists buy for bringing people in, so they have no incentive to leave quickly. Even when we were trying to get out of the place, they dawdled, hoping we'd go back in and buy more. Everyone begs for money. They offer to let you take their picture because they want you to pay them. There is so much poverty, even the little children would run alongside our carriage signalling us to give them money for food. It was heartbreaking.

It never rains in Luxor. When we were there, they were having a bit of a heat wave, and the temperature, we think, was up in the 90's. Luckily, we could get back into the air-conditioned bus when we finished at the sites.

The Valley of the Kings is just as described by Amelia Peabody. (Elizabeth Peters' novels) The hills are sandstone. A small museum stands at the mouth of the Valley, and there is a little train you ride up the road to get to the tombs. We couldn't take pictures inside, and only a few of them are open right now to tourists. The other night there was a special on Egypt on the Discovery Channel, which showed the inside of one of the tombs we got to see. It was the tomb of Seti I. What is amazing is the colors of the paintings are still intact. Primarily using red, blue, yellow and green, they painted pictures of the afterlife and all the things the king would need to meet the gods and gain eternal life. The Egyptians were obsessed with the afterlife. I have a few theories on this. Noah's son, Ham, married a daughter of Cain, which means she was black, so all of their posterity were black, too. Ham's daughter, Egyptus, is who discovered Egypt. I think that Ham had the priesthood and the endowment, and his posterity wanted it, but couldn't have it. So they imitated it. When you tour the tombs, there is much symbolism. LDS scholars refer to it as "the Egyptian endowment." The depictions are of the king talking to the gods, wearing ceremonial robes, and other things we recognize. It was fascinating. Obviously, they never had the temple as we know it, but they built temples as monuments to the gods that were supposed to aid them in their journey to eternal life.

Here you can see the tombs. It's a road with supported entrances to each one. Historically, most of the tombs had already been emptied by the time archaeologists arrived in the 19th century. The only tomb discovered completely intact was King Tut's tomb,by Howard Carter in 1922. He was an unimportant king because he only ruled for about 10 years, and died when he was 19. His tomb was small and difficult to find, and robbers had buried the entrance while digging out other tombs nearby. Because all of his treasures were still inside, it became very famous. Most everything is on display in the Cairo Museum, but King Tut's mummy remains in a case inside his tomb. You can see his face and hands and feet--everything else is shrouded. Thank goodness!

Below is a picture of tomb excavation that is still going on. See the Egyptians in their traditional robes, carrying the baskets of dirt and rocks. I think the work is still done all by hand in the old 19th century way. I thought everything had been dug, but apparently there are still discoveries to be made!