Valley of the Kings - December 2010

After breakfast with our tour group on the cruise ship we got on a bus and headed to the West Bank of the Nile and the Valley of the Kings.
 

The Valley of the Kings is home to 65 Egyptian tombs that belonged to Pharaohs.  The royal tombs were built into the side of the limestone hills of the mountains and carved out of sheer rock.  The tombs were built deep into the hills so they would discourage tomb robbers from stealing the possessions buried with the pharaohs.  Unfortunately all of the tombs were robbed except for two or three tombs.  One of the tombs left untouched was King Tutankhamun’s tomb which is why today we are able to see so many magnificent ancient artifacts from his reign.

 

Although the tombs were robbed and the treasure was stolen the tombs were still amazing discoveries.  The tombs were covered with ancient art.  The walls were carved with symbols that gave the account of the journey taken through the underworld.  The paintings on the wall were meant to help guide the pharaohs in the afterlife. 

 

As part of our tour we were able to see 3 tombs.  I don’t remember which tombs we saw but I remember the artwork on the walls and how impressive the paintings were in the tombs.  The thing I remember the most about this part of the tour was that we had a little trouble with the guards.

 

I file this incident under the category “boys will be boys”.  When we arrived for our tour in the Valley of the Kings they told us no pictures.  You were absolutely not allowed to take pictures.  Often when visiting historical sites they won’t let you take pictures or use flash photography because they say the flash can damage the artifact. The tombs were very dark inside and had never been exposed to bright light so I believe that was why they had the no picture rule.  Well one of the boys in the group tried to slyly take a few pictures without security noticing.  The bad news was that they had security guards inside dressed in normal clothes that were watching the whole time.  So our friend was busted. 

I don’t remember exactly how the situation ended.  I remember security guards threatened to keep the camera but I think our friend was able to delete the pictures he took and then pay a fine to get his camera back right there on the spot.  I remember thinking at the time that this situation reminded me of Mexico where you can negotiate a bit with authorities.  All in all everything turned out well but unfortunately  not one of us took a picture in the Valley ofthe Kings.