Egypt: Day Eight, Part Three

In the backgreound, the Valley of the Kings across the Nile

With our entrance fee, and in addition to the special ticket to the tomb of Ramses VI, we have a right to visit three of the 64 tombs, 26 of which are royal.  I ask Ahmed to suggest which three might be the most interesting.  Armed with all he has just told us, I head off along the many paths, starting high up near the far end.

K14 is the tomb of Queen Tausart (1189 BCE) and her successor King Setnakhte (1186).  As a two-for-one, it’s one of the longest   Also it is remarkably well-preserved, even those some of the scenes are unfinished.  Near the entrance is the lion god with two knives.  And there’s a column with Horus painted in vivid colors, the lotus in his right hand and an ankh in his left, and another with Anubis.  There’s also a frieze of spitting cobras on one wall, the spit represented as little dots, like in a cartoon.  In the burial chamber the ceiling has the Nut depiction with the hours of the afterlife, twelve suns for the day and twelve stars for the night.
  (Anecdote,  On my way down the long corridor, some women coming back up said to me “It’s easy going down, but harder coming back up”.  I told them, “Dying is easy, living is harder.”)
  The second tomb I visit is that of Ramses IX (1111 BCE).  It’s an easy one to visit, not strenuous, and has been restored.  In every tomb, there are people pointing out things to you, and then expecting some bakshish at the end.  Again one dollar bills come in handy.  They also will often tell you that you can take a photo, even though photos are forbidden in any of the tombs.

The third tomb is KV8, Merenptah (1203 BCE), the son of Ramses II, the Great.  This tomb is being restored, due to damage from flooding, but there is still much to see.  There are two of the four original nested sarcophagi, the first of which has a mirror below its raised lid so you can see the decoration inside as well as out.  The corridor seems steeper than the others   The length of the ceiling is covered with a starry sky and astronomical symbols.  When you reach the burial chamber, that sarophagus is quite magnificent, made out of pink granite
  The last tomb I visit is the one requiring a special ticket:  Ramses VI (1137 BCE).  Its multiple scenes depict the stories of the origin of the heavens and earth, and how the sun, light and life were created.  Present are Anubis, the jackal-headed god, to guide Ramses through the gates of the afterlife, and of course Horus, the “good god” who is there to help.  Osiris can always be picked out by his green skin and there’s Isis as a tree with a breast.  Strange.  And the sun god Ra is ever present.  And there are inscriptions in many languages because this tomb has been known since antiquity.  The Copts hid here from the Romans, both leaving graffiti behind.
  The corridors here are wider and higher, which means that if you’re claustrophobic - and luckily I guess I’m not - this is the one for you.  Perhaps because it’s lunch-time, there are few people here, and at one point, while I’m in the burial chamber, I have it all to myself for a few minutes.  Not even a guard; just a pigeon who has found its way in and is trying to find its way out.  Aside from its occasional fluttering, I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere quite so quiet.  (To see the tomb, click on www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT1OehShhJk)

After all this splendor, and for some of us a very early start, the bus takes us back to the Nile where we’re ferried across to our boat-hotel.  A buffet lunch is waiting for us, and as we eat, the boat heads off upriver on our way to Edfu, one of tomorrow’s excursions.  Out of the window, just upriver from Luxor, I see a bridge brightly decorated with paintings of the gods.  There are few bridges across the Nile, which is good for the ferry business.
  Tea-time finds me up on the top deck, reading and talking to another Sandy (there are four of us in the two groups combined - that’s never happened to me before).  At 4:30 the bar up there doles out tea and little Middle Eastern pastries, plus tiny crêpes that one of them takes great pleasure in flipping.
  I notice a Zodiac dinghy moving alongside with us and see that the two men inside are police.  I don’t know whether that’s standard procedure, given past unrest, or whether it’s because Mme. Sadat has joined us, complete with her major-domo and two daughters.  (It turns out to be the latter.)  Also on the boat is Dr Hawass, and the Ambassador of the Dominican Republic to UNESCO.
  At 7 pm, just before dinner, there’s a cocktail where the ship’s three pilots are proudly introduced - one of whom scurries off back to the bridge before we run aground.  The chief pilot is called the raïs, the Arab word commonly used for the leader of a country, and his country is this boat:  the LeFayan.  All these pilots know the Nile by heart, much as Mark Twain said the Mississippi pilots did.  And then Mr. Ambassador pulls out a guitar and sings us two songs before dinner.
  After which, to bed.  It’s been a long day.

Our boat-hotel, Le Fayan