Luxor - December 2009

December 19 - Luxor - another 6am breakfast so that we can pack it all in again. Off to Valley of the Kings and went inside the tombs of Ramses III, Ramses IX and Queen Hatshepsut. Again, having Ahmed as our guide was so much more interesting and informative.

The info site - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_of_the_Kings

The photo site - http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=valley+of+the+kings+egypt&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=sgE2S9DtLqeI4ga6spGqCA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCUQsAQwAw

The next stop is the Al-Deir el Bahri Temple - Queen Hatshepsut's Temple - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deir_el-Bahri

Having a guide is always worth it - even if he takes you to an Alabaster factory. Dale had to be ruthless with his bargaining skills, but we found out later that he did well. After lunch we ended up going into a Government Store, where there is no bargaining, and no hassles. We talked to one of the Professors from the University, and he gave us an education in fake vs genuine artifacts, and there we found out that Dale got a fair price for our little pieces of Onyx and Basalt - in spite of the fact that our guide was probably getting a 50% commission.

December 20 - we got to sleep in until 7am as our tours were to start at 8:30am. We did have to pack up and leave our suitcases in the lobby as we were flying back to Cairo at 5:40pm. This gave us plenty of time to visit Karnak and Luxor Temples as well as the Luxor Museum where there was a fantastic display of some sculptures recently unearthed at Karnak. Luxor is also rebuilding the Avenue of the Sphinxes which was a 3km path from Karnak to the Luxor Temple.

Here are some great photos of Avenue of the Sphinxes - http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=avenue+of+the+sphinxes&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=Rws2S-XHLsPU4Qay-4iqCA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQsAQwAA

Plus some for Karnak Temple- http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=karnak+temple&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=ows2S4T8LcvQ4gbO9ayqCA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBIQsAQwAA

And some for Luxor Temple - http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=luxor+temple+egypt&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=SQw2S4byJ9Od4QbZu62qCA&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CB0QsAQwAw

The info on Karnak - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karnak

And the info on Luxor - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxor_Temple

And off we go to the airport and back to Cairo, where we met up with Adam and Natalie at the JW. They had big plans for the next day to see the Pyramids at Giza, the Khan el-Khalili, City of the Dead and Garbage City.

To be continued . . .