January 14

Today we visited the Valley of the Queens and the Valley of the Kings. These are the burial grounds for the royal tombs. This particular site was chosen because of the pyramid shaped figure on the top of the mountain. (The pyramids were no longer being constructed in the Middle Kingdom because of the lootings.) The construction of these tombs began as soon as the person was born, meaning sometimes that construction was not finished when the person died, as with the tomb of Ramesses IX. The reason King Tut’s tomb is so famous is because he was not famous; therefore the looters left his tomb alone and it was in almost perfect condition when it was found in 1922.
To me the most striking aspect of the trip today is the difference between Egypt 3000 years ago and the Egypt today. The wealth of Egypt in the time of the pharaoh that allowed them to build such elaborate and beautiful tombs contrasts sharply with the poverty that persists today. At every site we visit we a hounded by vendors trying to sell us postcards and figurines and sometimes they can be quite aggressive. When we took a simple rail cart up to the valley of the tombs, a vendor hopped on the side and hung off the edge, all the while trying to sell his postcards. It is very sad, actually. What’s worse is that in order to get around these vendors, we have to be almost rude. I am so used so looking people in the eye or even giving a cheerful smile, yet any eye contact with these vendors and they see it as an opportunity to sell me something. Even when someone, besides our guide, explains some feature of the tombs means, we are expected to pay them, whether or not we asked for the explanation. What happened to Egypt? The Roman Empire? What happened when Rome fell?
The religion of ancient Egypt includes a lot of concern for the afterlife. It is fascinating to me how different peoples of different times focus on what comes next (be it heaven, reincarnation, etc.). It seems an inherent human longing for some sort of life after this one. There is a desire for this life to count towards something in the next. Some of the images of tombs we saw today portray the final judgment, where the heart of the deceased is placed on scale and weighed against the feather of justice. Even the Egyptians thousands of years ago wanted the actions of their present lives to count towards some better future—a reason to be “good” in this life, a reason for meaning. Some people may see the similarities in belief systems as evidence of one religion gleaning aspects from a previous one, but I think there is something more to it than that. These common features, I think, reflect a common truth. If peoples from thousands of years ago also desired intimacy with the gods and a reason to choose good over evil then that desire must be there for some purpose. It seems like a meaningful life has been a desire since the first civilizations.
Other things that I’ve observed or that have happened:
There are security checkpoints everywhere, except they don’t even bat an eye when the alarms go off on every person that passes through.
Today in one of the tombs, an Egyptian local walked up to our groups and asked if we were a family. Then, joking I hope, he asked which of the girls he could buy. He said Allie was worth 100,000 camels. Later she got another offer of 20,000 chickens. I think the camel deal sounds better.
We can’t drink the water here because our bodies aren’t used to the bacteria. I think everyone is trying to walk the thin line between dehydration and spending all your money on bottled water.
When the boats are docked, they line them up side by side. This means that if our boat isn’t right next to the shore, we have to walk through the other boats to get to ours. This afternoon we passed though the lobbies of four boats (and weirdly each had a distinct smell) before getting to ours.
Tonight there is a party on the boat where everyone is supposed to dress up in Egyptian clothes and they will serve traditional Egyptian food at dinner. The outfits start at 5 dollars and no one wants to waste room in their suitcase and then carry clothes they won’t wear around Europe for the next four months, so I think we are all going to be party-poopers and pass on the dress up aspect.
I got lucky this week and got a single room on the boat.
If our tour guide isn’t with us when we try to buy water from the guy who is driving our bus, he will try to raise the prices and rip us off.
Its winter here in Egypt, but I probably still got a bit of a sunburn today. The weather is actually really nice, though. It gets fairly cold at night. At midday, when the sun is the hottest, there is still a cool breeze through the mountains. The only time I’ve been all that hot is when we visited the underground tombs.