12/29/09 Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, Luxor

Our wakeup call came at 5:30 and everyone soon assembled in the dining room for an excellent breakfast. I decided that the kitchen must know how to keep food clean so I tried the fruit and tomatoes.

After breakfast, we traversed the lobbies of the 5 adjacent boats to get to the quay where our bus awaited. It was a beautiful morning as we drove out of the city and through the agricultural area up the east bank of the Nile to the bridge. We crossed to the west bank and soon were at the Valley of the Kings cut into the Cretaceous limestone cliffs of the Serai formation. Towering above us was El-Qurn, the natural pyramid-shaped peak beneath which most of the New Kingdom kings are buried. There were a lot of people there already. We stopped to admire the superb 3-D map of the valley which has a fascinating subterranean view of the placement and orientation of all the known tombs. They appear to be constructed along the axes of the major fractures that cut through the adjacent hills.

Our tickets allowed us to visit any three of the unrestricted tombs. Elena, Dean, and I followed Bob, Anne, and Drew to the top of the valley and descended into the tomb of Tuthmose III. The walls are extremely well preserved and decorated with brightly colored historical depictions and hieroglyphics. Anne noted that one showed women in one scene was wearing Minoan patterns. The tomb is large but was surprisingly warm. The outside air felt cool after we climbed the long stairway out of the depths. It definitely follows a part of the rock with numerous closely spaced fractures.
           
From there we walked down to the tomb of Tuthmose IV, bypassing the long line waiting to get into Ramses III. Tuthmose IV died unexpectedly so his tomb was largely unfinished but interesting geologically due to the fracture patterns. We had it pretty much to ourselves. On our way to the tomb we somehow got separated from Bob and Drew. We found them back on the main walk. They had visited the tomb of Siptah and recommended it since it had no line and we were out of time.
           
We entered Siptah’s tomb and crossed over the pit and down a couple of corridors before reaching the burial chamber. It had a somewhat domed ceiling. I pointed out the closely spaced fractures that that ran in two directions roughly perpendicular to each other which would have made the chamber easy to hollow out. To my astonishment, the large sarcophagus was hewn out of Aswan Granite. It had been barged down the Nile and somehow moved up the valley and down into the tomb.
           
We returned to the meeting point about 20 minutes late and Hala shouted, “Okay, Pharaohs, let’s go.”, waving her blue and yellow umbrella. We boarded the bus and went to a stoneware Shoppe, watching a few artisans making alabaster vases. The proprietor tried to tell us that the stuff was alabaster, onyx, basalt, malachite, and lapis. The alabaster and onyx are real but the rest are glazed concrete. With my hand lens, I saw quartz in the basalt and it fizzed with acid. Malachite and lapis glazes covered the green and blue “sculptures” respectively.
           
The onyx is almost certainly from Pakistan although he told me it was from the Sinai – I asked him the price of a beautiful meter-high vase, he said $10,000 with shipping. I kept walking away. By the time we left he came down to $300 and $800 shipping. I said “La shockrun” (No, thank you).
           
The bus made a 5 –minute trip to the temple of Hatshepsut, a magnificent structure set into the Esne shale. A terrorist massacre of tourists took place here in 1997. We toured it on our own in a large crowd for half an hour in the hot sun. Back at the meeting point, I found Drew by himself; he had gotten separated from his parents and found his way back. We returned to the bus. Hala went to find Bob and Anne who were a bit frantic looking for Drew. This is his first trip with us without his red hat!
           
Our group next made a brief stop at the Colossi of Memnon, two large “quarzite” (quartz –cemented sandstone, actually) that were reconstructed from numerous pieces after they were toppled by Christians or Arabs.
           
Our final stop was at the Valley of the Queens where we visited tombs of two sons of Ramses II and Nefertari. Both were interesting and worth the time but we were getting hungry so we were glad to head back to the boat.
           
We embarked on our cruise up the Nile as soon as were all on board and eating lunch. Hala informed us that tonight would be an Egyptian night and hoped that everyone would buy Egyptian gowns for the event.
           
I spent the afternoon on the upper deck beneath the canopy watching the Nile River banks glide by under a clear Saharan sky and drinking wine with Gwyneth, Laurie Ann, and Martha from Grosmont College. Although the river banks are lush it is quite evident that the aridity of the subtropical latitude creates a desert just beyond their limit. Numerous water fowl – king fishers, herons, bitterns, terns, gallinules, and plovers, plied the shorelines and hunted over the surface. Bob, Anne, and I shared a bottle of wine as the sun lowered in the sky. Our boat was one of about 30 cruising up the Nile. It was sort of a slow motion race as each craft jockeyed for position so they would need to spend a minimum of time waiting to pass through the lock at Esne.
           
At 5:00, I gave a 40-minute overview of the geology of Egypt. Everyone attended and it went very well, considering that I had never spoken about it before and had no notes to work from. Mark and Brian showed up in Egyptian garb, inspiring others to go to the boats shop and buy something. I followed suit and got a nice gown and jacket for $15. Hala offered to put makeup on those who wanted to look more Egyptian but I declined.
           
At dinner most people appeared with their new look Chelsea, Monté, and Elena were beautiful; Mark, Curtis, Brian, and Dean looked great. Mark reminded us of a cartoon character. During the dancing afterward, he was bouncing all over to everyone’s amusement. The Finches, Mary Ann, and Suzanne also dressed up as did most of the folks from Lynne and Gwyneth’s groups. We danced, having a good time. When it ended the Brevard students, Ryan and I went up to the hot tub and soaked, talked, and drank beer until about midnight. Mark hid in the towel box and startled a couple of people who opened it for a towel. I went down to my cabin and fell asleep instantly. What an incredible day!