Our first day in Egypt continued after the visit to Rameses II tomb with a visit to the Valley of the Kings. The weather was beginning to get rather hot by this time and it was very pleasant to go down into the coolness of the tombs. We saw 3 different tombs but didn't go into Tutankhamon's as the queue was very long. I was fascinated by the quality of the paintings on the walls and sides and even the ceilings had been painted with stars and dark blue paint.
Our guide was excellent at explaining the different styles of sculpture and the tops of the columns were interesting for all their varying styles.
We left the valley of the kings at midday and headed back to the boat for lunch, having been sightseeing since 6 am! After lunch we were back in the coaches to go to Karnak to see the famous temple which took us most of the afternoon. I loved the hall of columns there, carved with different scenes from the life of Rameses II. This statue towered above us and the small person at the base is his wife Nefertari, about normal human size.
Then we toured a papyrus factory where we were persuaded to purchase their hand made pictures. I did buy a few which appealed to me but I would prefer to have been able to buy some blank paper for myself!
Our last visit was to the temple of Louqsor which had been timed to take place at sunset and wow, what an experience! The whole place was bathed in golden light which continued after sunset with floodlighting. More fascinating stories from Tarek and hundreds of photos of course. This is a copy of my favourite photo of the head of Ramses with the light casting beautiful shadows, drawn on papyrus.
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