My donkey and I ride into the Valley of the Kings!

Two rather enormous and impossing statues sit guarding the entry way to the most amazing tombs in the entire world... The Valley of the Kings. 

For centuries, this area is where the ancient Egyptians brought the Pharoahs and other nobels to be burried. It's an incredible area, just across the Nile from Luxor and up into the hills there. Still today they haven't found all the tombs that they think are there, but the ones they have discovered are absolutely stunning! I saddled up on my trust donkey (I will love him, and pet him, and squeeze him, and call him George) and we rode on in!

Funnily enough... I seemed to be the only one who could control their donkey well. George and I took off far down the road and had to both circle back and wait several times for the others who were all being led by their handlers. Hee hee hee. Onward, George!

Sadly, you can't take pictures at all in the main area of the Valley of Kings. They don't want people taking pictures inside the tombs (Again, they've said it's for preservation....but even Ahmed is highly suspect of that...), but so many people have snuck their cameras in to take pictures (Ahem) that they now don't allow cameras into the main valley at all. However, the largest of all the tomb's- Hapshpsut's- is one that you can photograph. 

It's an absolutely impossing tomb that you can see all the way from Luxor, carved right into the side of the hill, 3 stories high. 

They have closed off the lower level for work and preservation, as we were told some things needed repair, but you can see the second and highest levels. The second level is flanked on either side by 2 temples- one dedicated to the goddess of fertility, and one to Anubs, the god of the dead. The top has another temple directly in the center. 

(I also just want to note here... Egypt is very safe, and they are just fine with women who don't have their hair covered. While it's not the norm, it's also not an issue unless, of course, you were going inside a mosque. I have my head covered here simply because it was blazing hot out and there is absolutely NO cover or shade there!) 

The other tombs in the Valley of the Kings were absolutely filled with the most stunning detail I've seen yet in the paintings. I don't know why this isn't talked about more!! I had absolutely no clue that so much was remaining from antiquity- and it's just breathtaking. You can see on each layer of the clothing that's painted on the figures different patterns and colors and textures. The ceiling of blue and "stars" in one of the tombs also clearly had constellations and other astrological markings on it. Each and every hiroglyph was painted in different colors. Feathers were all painstakingly detailed. It was just midblowing to see for me. 

Hapshepsut's tomb had some of this detail still left as well, seen in the pictures below. If you can zoom in to various areas on your screen....it's just stunning. Plus, this gives you some idea of just how colorful the walls really would have been. Remember that the background all would have been white-washed as well as you picture it. Ah! What I would give to go back in time to just look at it for a minute in it's full glory!!!!!!

Hapshepsut was also a fascinating figure in history. She was the only female ruler of Egypt. Although a lot of people would point to Cleopatra to argue, by that point in Egyptian history she was just a figure head. By comparison, Hapshepsut took full power when her brother/husband died. He had fathered a son with a non-royal woman, though never with her. Hapshepsut refused to acknowledge him as an heir since he wasn't fully of royal blood, and assumed the throne herself. However, since women were not regarded as able to rule, she created an entirely new history for herself, saying that she was born directly from the Gods and thus not really just a woman. She then dressed as a man, and in all depictions of her was portrayed with a man's body. Even though she often has the typical beard as well, her statues did still have a feminine face to them- as you can see in each of the statues that guard the columns to the upper level of her tomb. 

She's my kinda gal. Do what you gotta do to rule the damn place!