All I have to say is, they should have let us run the kitchen. Breakfast was terrible. omelets were these rolled up egg thingys with green pepper and onion.

Gladys seemed tired and walking with that crutch probably was a bit tiring also. We boarded the bus for the 3 hour ride to the East Bank. After the 1st hour, I think I was able to get a cat nap.

Valley Of The Kings

The Valley of the Kings was the royal cemetery for 62 Pharaohs, and is located on the west bank at Luxor. The only entrance to this place was a long narrow winding path. This was a secret place, where sentries were placed at the entrance of the Valley, as well as along the top of the hills, in the hopes of discouraging tomb robbers, who had in the past plundered all royal tombs, including the treasures of the Pyramids! Some thefts were probably carefully planned, but others were spur of the moment, as when an earlier tomb was accidentally discovered while cutting a new one and workmen took advantage of the opportunity. This may have happened when KV 46 was found during the cutting of KV 4 or KV 3 nearby. The tombs in the Valley range from a simple pit (e.g. KV 54), to a tomb with over 121 chambers and corridors (KV 5).
The earliest known tomb of the New Kingdom within the Valley of the Kings, is that of Tuthmoses I, who started to use the valley as a royal burial site. It is located in a desolate part of the valley, which is supposed to add greater protection as it was small enough to be closely guarded. The good quality of the stones gave the ancient Egyptians the chance to cut many tombs close to each other.Most of the tombs were found already plundered! A few, like the tomb of Tutankhamen (KV 62) or that of Yuya and Thuyu (KV 46), contained thousands of precious artifacts. Some tombs have been accessible since antiquity, as Greek and Latin graffiti will attest. Some were used as dwellings, or as churches during the Greco-Roman and Byzantine Periods. Most of them have been discovered in the past two hundred years. Some tombs, like KV 5, had been "lost," and their locations only recently rediscovered. The very well known Egyptologist, Kent Weeks, who is still working in the valley, on many projects, among them the Theban mapping project, spent more than 6 years exploring and trying to uncover the secrets of this massive tomb. KV5 is the largest tomb ever found in the valley! Re-excavated in 1995, it contains at least 121 chambers and corridors! Mr. Weeks believes that it was built for the children of Ramses II. On your way to the inner side of the valley,You can see KV5's entrance location (currently closed to the public) Since 1922, and Howard Carter's discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen (KV 62), there had been no new tombs discovered in the valley until, on February 9, 2006, the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt announced the discovery of a new tomb. Designated the number KV63, it was discovered by a joint effort between the University of Memphis (USA) and the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt. This is one of the smaller tombs that have been found, consisting of a vertical shaft with an adjacent chamber at the bottom. Some artefacts have been found, but as this is an ongoing project, the details are still to be released
Presently, there are several archaeological projects currently at work in the Valley of the Kings.

The Valley of the Queens is a place in Egypt where wives of Pharaohs were buried in ancient times. In ancient times, it was known as Ta-Set-Neferu, meaning -'the place of the Children of the Pharaoh', because along with the Queens of the 18th, 19th and 20th dynasties (1550-1070 BCE) many princes and princesses were also buried with various members of the nobility. The tombs of these individuals were maintained by mortuary priests who performed daily rituals and provided offerings and prayers for the deceased nobility.

The valley is located near the better known Valley of the Kings, on the west bank of the Nile across from Thebes (modern Luxor) . This barren area in the western hills was chosen due to its relative isolation and proximity to the capital. The kings of the 18th dynasty, instead of the traditional building of pyramids as burial chambers (perhaps because of their vulnerability to tomb robbers), now chose to be buried in rock-cut tombs.

This necropolis is said to hold more than seventy tombs, many of which are stylish and lavishly decorated. An example of this is the resting place carved out of the rock for Queen Nefertari (1290-1224 BCE) of the 19th Dynasty. The polychrome reliefs in her tomb are still intact.

Hatshepsut (or Hatchepsut, pronounced /hætˈʃɛpsʊt/),[3] meaning Foremost of Noble Ladies,[4] (1508-1458 BC) was the fifth pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty of Ancient Egypt. She is generally regarded by Egyptologists as one of the most successful pharaohs, reigning longer than any other woman of an indigenous Egyptian dynasty.[citation needed]

Although poor records of her reign are documented in diverse ancient sources, Hatshepsut was described by early modern scholars as only having served as a co-regent from about 1479 to 1458 BC, during years seven to twenty-one of the reign previously identified as that of Thutmose III.[5] Today it is generally recognized[by whom?] that Hatshepsut assumed the position of pharaoh and the length of her reign usually is given as twenty-two years, since she was assigned a reign of twenty-one years and nine months by the third-century B.C. historian, Manetho, who had access to many records that now are lost. Her death is known to have occurred in 1458 BC, which implies that she became pharaoh circa 1479 BC.

The Colossi of Memnon

The twin statues depict Amenhotep III (fl. 14th century BC) in a seated position, his hands resting on his knees and his gaze facing eastwards (actually SSE in modern bearings) towards the river. Two shorter figures are carved into the front throne alongside his legs: these are his wife Tiy and mother Mutemwiya. The side panels depict the Nile god Hapy.

The statues are made from blocks of quartzite sandstone which was stone quarried at el-Gabal el-Ahmar (near modern-day Cairo) and transported 675 km (420 miles) overland to Thebes. (They are too heavy to have been transported upstream on the Nile.) The blocks used by later Roman engineers to reconstruct the eastern colossus may have come from Edfu (north of Aswan). Including the stone platforms on which they stand (about 4 metres (13 ft) themselves), the colossi reach a towering 18 metres (approx. 60 ft) in height and weigh an estimated 700 tons each. [1][2][3] The two figures are about 15 metres (50 ft) apart.

Both statues are quite damaged, with the features above the waist virtually unrecognizable. The western (or southern) statue is a single piece of stone, but the eastern (or northern) figure has a large extentive crack in the lower half and above the waist consists of 5 tiers of stone. These upper levels consist of a different type of sandstone, and are the result of a later (Roman Empire) reconstruction attempt. It is believed that originally the two statues were identical to each other, although inscriptions and minor art may have varied.

The original function of the Colossi was to stand guard at the entrance to Amenhotep's memorial temple (or mortuary temple): a massive cult centre built during the pharaoh's lifetime, where he was worshipped as a god-on-earth both before and after his departure from this world. In its day, this temple complex was the largest and most opulent in Egypt. Covering a total of 35 ha, even later rivals such as Ramesses II's Ramesseum or Ramesses III's Medinet Habu were unable to match it in area; even the Temple of Karnak, as it stood in Amenhotep's time, was smaller.

Side panel detail showing two flanked relief images of the deity Hapi and, to the right, a sculpture of the royal wife Tiy

With the exception of the Colossi, however, very little remains today of Amenhotep's temple. Standing on the edge of the Nile floodplain, successive annual inundations gnawed away at the foundations - a famous 1840s lithograph by David Roberts shows the Colossi surrounded by water - and it was not unknown for later rulers to dismantle, purloin, and reuse portions of their predecessors' monuments.

These two, gigantic figures of Amenhotep III were originally situated in front of his Mortuary temple, which was destroyed for unknown reasons! The two colossi are made of sandstone, which during ancient times was brought from Gabal El Silselah. Each colossus, including the pedestal and the crown, is about 21m tall and represents King Amenhotep III seating on his throne, wearing the Nemes, or royal headdress, with the divine cobra protecting his forehead. On the sides of the colossi there is a representation of the Nile god Hapi, bending together the lotus and the papyrus plants, symbolizing the union of Upper and Lower Egypt.

Parts of the northern statue cracked and fell during an earthquake in 27 BC.

This site became a popular resort in the Roman Period. Many famous Romans, and other travelers, wrote verses and poems about these massive statues, and they also left epigrams on the stones.
They reason that they became famous during the Roman period is that they were said to have sung! Some theories attribute this phenomenon to the expansion of the stone, when the sun warmed it during the day, and then the natural contraction in the cool of the evening.

Another theory suggested that the reason was due to the wind reverberating through the cracks. Unfortunately the restoration, which took place during the reign of the Roman Emperor Septemius Severus (193-212 A.D), made the sound stop forever! Yes, sadly, they no longer sing!