Egypt Day 2: Colossi of Memnon, Valley of the Kings, Deir El-Bahri

Our morning began at the Colossi of Memnon, two massive statues of Amenhotep III where Will gave his report. In Roman times, an earthquake caused one of the two statues to "sing" when the sun came up leading to its nickname of Memnon, "bringer of the dawn."  Tourists from the Greco-Roman world came to hear the singing and left behind graffiti inscriptions in Greek and Latin all over the legs. Clemente wisely brought along a pair of binoculars, so even though we couldn't get as close to the statues as we wanted, we could still read the inscriptions.

Foot/leg covered in Greek and Latin inscriptions

The street vendors at Karnak and Luxor had been annoying but the guys at the Colossi were so much worse. I literally ran away from one trying to sell scarves who chased me all the way back to the bus. I would have bought so many more souvenirs if those guys hadn't been so incredibly obnoxious.

As we drove away from the Colossi, Margie had the driver stop because on the side of the road were ongoing excavations and this super cool crocodile sphinx! It's a shame his head was missing though.

At the Valley of the Kings we had to board a motorized train to get from the entrance to the site. More vendors descended upon us including one tenacious kid who jumped on the back of the train. For the entire ride he asked me to kiss him and tried to sell us scarves or something. There were no pictures allowed at the Valley of the Kings and we were told to leave our cameras on the bus so I don't have any pictures even of the exterior. Our tickets allowed us into three tombs and I bought an extra ticket to see King Tut's tomb. The paint in all four of the tombs was amazing. So many figures all over the walls and ceilings and all brightly and beautiful painted. The larger tombs included long hallways and side corridors, all also painted. It was all rather breath-taking, literally, considering the number of steps down into some of the tombs!

We then hurried on to Deir el-Bahri, site of Queen Hatshepsut's mortuary temple. Again, I felt a little like I was on some sci-fi desert planet.

Leslie gave her report on Hatshepsut and Hathor in the "Hathor chapel" part of the temple, surrounded by relief sculptures of Hathor on the walls and lady-headed columns.

Note also the figure of Bes around the Hathor-cow's neck!

Afterward we dispersed to explore the other parts of the building.

When we got back to the boat for lunch, we discovered the newest towel sculpture, a lotus flower.

On the top deck, we spent time relaxing before hearing Jack's report on Manetho, Stephanie on the Hyksos and Chariots, and Simon on the finds at Oxyrinchus.

Meanwhile, guys in boats tried to sell things to the passengers. They tossed the merchandise up in plastic bags, into which one put one's money, then tossed the bag back down. 

Later that night, the boat arrived at the lock at Esna, where we had to wait in line behind other boats. When it was our turn, we floated into a space that filled with water so that we were higher up, matching the height of the water on the other side of the lock. It was pretty cool!