Egypt's Valley of the Kings, part 1

Back to our trip, y'all! The next stop in Egypt was the famed Valley of the Kings. We started with a photo stop at the Colossi of Memnon. 

These twin statues depict Amenhotep II (14 century BC). Made from blocks of quartzite sandstone, they were erected to stand guard at the entrance of Amenhotep's memorial/burial temple. However, very little remains of the temple today due to annual Nile flooding and an earthquake in ancient times.

Next, we visited the Temple of Hatshepsut. Designed as a mortuary temple for one of the few and most famous female pharaohs of ancient Egypt, this was built on the backside of the valley of the kings. 

Hatshepsut's stepson became pharaoh after her death, so it's believed he's the one who defaced her images in the mortuary temple and removed all record of her rule. She was virtually unknown in ancient Egyptian history until about the 1820s. 

As you can see in several pics, some of the paint is still readily visible in areas of the temple where it's more protected from the elements.

The view from the top terrace is really pretty. You can see how far the greenery of the nearby Nile river extends towards the final resting place of ancient pharaohs. 

As we looked up in the hills around the temple, you could see other burial chambers carved out of the rock that are still being found in modern day excavations. On our way to Luxor and Karnak in the afternoon, we dropped by to see some local stone craftsmen at work. I bought a moonstone Queen Nefertiti - it glows in the dark - as well as an alabaster cat.

Since they weren't too heavy and were wrapped in at least 5 layers of bubble wrap encased in duct tape, I decided to get them home in my carry on tote. Which shouldn't have been a big deal even though I knew we had four more flights on this 17 day jaunt until we were home. 

Sure enough, EVERY airport in Egypt, Jordan and the US seemed to think I was toting a pipe bomb... based on the shape of the cat/how it showed up on the scanner. After the first go-round, I was like yeah, I know, it looks suspicious when they all gathered around to take a look and confer about what it might be. I had to wrestle it out of its protective package in three different countries. Once it was unwrapped, it was given the all clear. But the Egyptians were extra suspicious. Thankfully we were still traveling with our Egyptologist and he was able to explain in rapid fire Arabic to the Egyptian equivalent of TSA that the alabaster cat was NOT some priceless antiquity we were trying to sneak out of the country.