Day 4: Valley of The Kings, Hatshepsut's Funerary Temple, Swimming, Faluka ride, Camel Ride

This is what I woke up to! The NILE! Our resort.. and it was nice as seem below... was right right on the shore.

Today was an Incredible day again! It ended waaaay too late and started Waaay too early this morning, but it was totally worth it. We ate breakfast over looking the Nile as the sun rose. Now who in the world gets to do that? I don't understand how we got so blessed.

On our bus ride to the Valley of the kings we saw so so many hot air balloons, wouldn't that be cool to see the nile from a hot air balloon! This land is so so so beautiful!

We headed to the Valley of the kings bright and early.
Valley of the Kings
1. describe the area where the valley of the kings was situated.
west side of memphis where sun died each day. under a pyramid shaped hill top.
2. explain why only the tomb of king tut escaped the tomb robbers. 

entry shaft of his tomb was covered by debris from a later tomb which was dug just above it. 

I had no idea what to expect in the day. We walked into the main building and saw a transparent mountain that represented all the tombs underneath. It got me excited to see all these actual tombs!

The peak to the right of the picture is supposed to represent a pyramid. The Pharaohs decided not to build pyramids for each king so they found this valley and Thutmose I was the first king to establish his tomb in this ravine and all followed thereafter. There are 63 tombs/chambers in this valley. Crazy! We got to go in about 5 of them and saw all the intricate hieroglyphics and paintings of their life. It was a pretty cool place to see, but very sweaty. You know those times where you pretty much can't think of anything else besides being hot and sweaty? Yeah, this was one of those. It started at 9:00 am. Too early if you ask me! The tombs didn't have any circulation, so hundreds of bodies in all the tombs made a perfect environment to sweat profusely. Now my complaining is done, it really was so remarkable the elaborate way that the kings built their burial tombs. The bigger the tomb meant the longer the king reigned for.

We couldn't take pictures inside, or there would be a LOT more on this post!

We got to see all the famous kings tombs, but King tuts tomb was my favorite! This tomb is such a big deal because the other tombs in the area had been explored/robbed except his. A worker found a rock and kept digging figuring out it lead to stairs. Someone took over and found his tomb! This was first dug up in 1922. The reason for taking so long, was because the robbers were raiding all the tombs and he was such an insignificant king they just piled up everything on top of the opening to his tomb. 

He served as a king from age 9-18 and a short little guy! We saw his actual body in his tomb, kinda morbid but interesting to see his real skin and bones!

Hatshepsut Funerary Temple
1) Where is the cemetery of Thebes located? Why?
            The West Bank of the Nile
2)What was the main purpose for Hatshepsut’s temple?
            Funeral Temple
3) Who was Hatshepsut’s father? Her first husband? Second husband?
            Imperial pharoah     

Father: Thutmose I

First Husband: Thutmose II

Second Husband: Thutmose III

4) What was the policy of erasure? Who initiated this policy?

The new pharaoh erased his predecessor’s name on monuments and replaced it with                         his own.

A pharaoh would conduct erasure to suggest to later generations that they should be recognize for the achievements that had been completed by former rivals.

5) Hatshepsut did not encourage conquest by war. Explain what she did encourage during her reign.
            Promoted Egypt’s commercial relationships, particularly with Africa.
6) What is significant about Pit Tomb 33?
            Some LDS scholars suggest that it cold be similar to a tomb where the Book of Abraham papyri were found.
Next was queen/king Hatshepsuts Funerary Temple. What a beauty! It was MASSIVE! Wait, i've decided everything here is massive. This woman that built this crowned herself king. She wanted just as much power as a king did, so she took matters into her own hands and reigned in their place. In all of the paintings and carving on the walls she is represented with pharaohs crown and an artificial beard. This is our woman power picture of our Brother muhlesteins class.

Poor Jamie, She got 46 bites on her legs. Cherysh putting ointment on them In Queen H's place. 

One of the many lovely faces of katie! Notice in the back ground the green landscape? This is the night and day difference of where the nile reaches.

Jacquelin, Myself and my favoritest Matt!

Some of the remains of queen H's funerary temple. Jess is in the middle licking every monument we go to.

Meg found this in the bathroom... Treasures everywhere!

Caleb and I at the entrance of a funerary tomb.

On the Nile Faluka Ride! So fun, and our guys worked so hard to get us going anywhere on the river! All of us couldn't wait to ride a camel!

We got off the boats and heard all this gurgling, reached the top of the hill and about 50 camels were all sitting there... FOR US TO RIDE! We waited our turn to get on one and it was difficult and scary when the camel stood up. My camels name was Casanova with an awesome leader Achmed. This was probably one of my favorite things from the whole trip because he talked to me all about the culture. I found out the most common names for men here are Muhammad, Achmed and Abdul. He told me so so much about the culture and about his life. Oh it was amazing. We walked along the nile into some local villages. I just wanted to all adopt them and give them running water and yummy food. They lived in such poverty.

I wish i could have gotten Charles expression as we saw the camels... He kept repeating over and over, "No way, No way, NO WAY! with the best expression on his face.

Scared for my life right about now...


The adventures on the ride.

Casablanca and I! I wanted to kiss him, but he had too bad of breath!

Exhausting day!

the boats we were on.

We then headed to "The Suke" Which is the local market place. I've never been attacked by vendors like we did. We had to be downright mean in order to get them to leave us alone. We crossed a road and saw the local side of town. So so much better. We could see how people really lived. The tourist part was paved and so organized, but when we got to the local side there was trash everywhere and dirt roads. We saw live chickens being sold, big slabs of meat hanging to sale, some guy looked like he was going to be beat up. There was a whole clan of men following him and his shirt had been ripped off. I loved to see the local life!

A variety of pictures from out adventure. From top left, myself with a half-headed manequene, Jamie indulging in WAY to many vegetables she looked drunk, Justin found a scorpion ring that we were on a hunt for a cheaper price all night. Jamie, Megan and Justin in the taxi. Craziest ride in a car in my life. The middle of the Suk, can't you see the store owers just on the prowl? Jacqueline and i kickin it in the back seat of the taxi. He had Shrek sun protectors! I submit life can't get better than that. Megan, Myself and Jacqueline in the local part of the suk.

We got back and everyone had the daily "Coke Night" We ran to grab something from the main building and came back with Justin flying through the air trying to catch his balance and splashing into the pool. Both ended up sopped.  Sooooo hilarious!