Valley Of The Kings

The Valley of the Kings 

Strangely, one of my favourite stops on the Nile Cruise was a bleak hot desert valley. There is no town there, no magnificent temples or cathedrals, and not even any water, but it was fascinating. This was the Valley Of The Kings.

For years, the Egyptian Kings tried to outdo each other by building bigger and more elaborate Pyramids for their burial sites. Finally one wise advisor suggested this might not be the best idea. It was Ok to design elaborate tunnel systems into these pyramids, to outwit grave robbers, but really, it is hard to hide a giant pyramid, and once you are dead and buried the next King is more concerned with deciding how his eternal resting place is going to outshine yours. This advisor suggested he had found an ideal spot for a burial site. It was unknown and far away from known cities. He suggested digging elaborate tombs carved into the mountain and then simply cover it over to keep the location hidden. In the middle of nowhere the tomb would be safe. To make it more secure, he designed an entire city of just the workers who had no contact with the outside world and their entire world would be serving the king to dig his tomb.

Going Down Under the Mountain

It didn't quite work out that way, because there are over 63 known tombs in the Valley of the Kings, so obviously it did not stay hidden, and indeed most of these tombs were discovered and robbed, but the famous discovery of King Tut's “Untouched” tomb, was here in the Valley.

The Valley Of The Kings remains however, nothing but a winding desert valley between mountains. There is nothing there but the tombs. Today they are uncovered and marked, but you can imagine how this would have appeared to be nothing but a desolate desert valley to anyone coming across it. There are no elaborate temples or monuments to the Kings, just a quiet place of eternal rest.

Visiting The Valley Of The Kings, you can descend into seven of the tombs, and they really are impressive inside. A simple unadorned entrance leads down carved and elaborately decorated shafts leading to rooms under the mountain. Often there are false passages, blocked tunnels, and side tunnels, all leading to a deep final burial chamber for the Kings. It is interesting to watch the walls as you descend. Often they start out with wonderful carved and painted walls, but the deeper you go the plainer they get. In many cases the kings plans and elaborate designs outlived him, and many of the tombs were not finished when he died. King Tutt's for example is a very simple unadorned and relatively shallow tomb, because he died a young man and there was not time to excavate an elaborate deep tomb.

Cruising the NIle

Cruising The Nile

The Nile River is said to be the lifeline of Egypt, and without the river, Egypt could not exist. The country is one massive hot desert with a thin strip of green running through it nourished by the Nile. If you visit Egypt, you are never going to be far from the Nile, so taking a Nile Cruise during our visit to Egypt seemed a good idea.

Pumping The Nile

The number of cruise ships in Egypt is amazing, all along the river they are moored in spots four or five deep. Unfortunately, most of them sit rusting and sad with fading paint, shredded canvas awnings and torn indoor/outdoor carpeting. When we arrived at “our” ship it sat beside the Nile surrounded by these unhappy looking dockmates. Later I questioned our guide who told me that prior to the revolution most of these ships would have been carrying tourists up and down the river constantly, but the tourists have been scared away so the ships were mothballed, waiting for things to improve, but it hasn't yet.

Tombs Along The Nile

The cruise began in Luxor, which although smaller than Cairo, it is still a large city, so it took a while before we started to see the real Nile. But as we went further and further south the scenery got better and more interesting. In many areas there were sandstone mountains and in other areas almost jungle like areas of greenery. These green areas were never very wide however, and the further south we went the narrower these strips got. Sometimes the desert came right to the riverside. There were always little settlement not far apart, but there were also areas of green.

Prime Real Estate

Our boat did not move very quickly up the river, giving us plenty of time to watch the Nile scenery drift by. We saw longer sections without the ever-present mosque towers announcing their presence throughout the country. Other areas were quiet sections inhabited by only cows, donkeys and people living in simple reed huts, quietly tending family plots alongside the life-giving Nile. I will say that no matter how far south we went, there was always some sign of people. After all, the Egyptians only have these tiny green strips to live comfortably, so few were wasted.

Unfortunately no matter how remote the sections of the Nile were, there was usually one sign of civilization. The boat might be slipping through a section appearing to be nothing but green palms, but then “Put-put-put” would echo across the river. In those quiet remote rural areas, there is no power grid but water still has to be pumped from the Nile to grow the crops so the quiet was broken by the sound of diesel engines running pumps which pumped the water from the Nile into the surrounding fields, trying to stretch the strips of green as far a possible.

Our cruise ended in the city of Aswan. With the building of two massive dams, navigation of the river stops here. This is a beautiful city with most of it built just on the east bank of the river, providing a lovely desert view across to the west bank. A nice place to terminate our Nile Cruise experience. In fact this is where Ms Agatha Christie ended her Nile cruise and stopped to write her book “Death On The Nile”.

Felucca

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Feluccas on the NIle

A Felucca is the name for a particular kind of boat used on the Nile in Egypt. It carries a single triangular sail hung at an angle from a single mast. Because they do not have a serious sailboat style keel, they are used mostly in calmer waters, such as rivers. They were the predominant means of transportation on the Nile for many years, and are still in use today, but mostly as a tourist ride. They are an ideal size for large river, and are easy to manoeuvre with just one person, but will accommodate a good group of people.

The "Crew"

On a pleasant Egyptian evening we booked a felucca for a sunset ride on the Nile. Wine, beer, chicken wings and pizza were packed and the boats are all well suited for this type of activity, with comfortable seating around the edges and a large table for food and drinks in the centre.

Fill my glass again . . .

The pilot pushed us away from the pier, and we were off on our Nile felucca ride. The boat has no motor, depending on the quite steady breeze blowing off the desert to power our craft. This is a leisurely trip, no frantic trimming of sails, running back and forth, or balancing the boat by hanging off one side. It is calm, relaxing and peaceful, with the pilot sometimes leaning back holding the tiller with his legs as he helped us sample the chicken wings and pizza. A popular evening activity, the Nile was filled with feluccas gently sailing back and forth across the river as we waited for sunset.

Sunset on the Nile

As the sun set in the west, and the drinks and food were slowly depleted, we watched the skies darken with evening and we made our way back to the dock, another great travel experience. I was reminded once more of the quote from “The Wind In the Willows” by Rat,  "There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats"

A Great Egypt Evening