Luxor: West Bank

The next morning Ali Baba, our driver, picked us up and headed to the West Bank, where all the tombs are located. We had met Ali Baba at the airport and, during our drive to the hotel, he convinced us to hire him for our two days at Luxor. It was very convenient except that he had a huge crush on Nicole, who he kept calling Nicola. Every day he asked her to join him for coffee after Ramadan and for a stroll on the Nil. Nici was quite the hit in Luxor. I was even offered 10,000 camels for her. I was glad that I had on my grandma's wedding ring to quickly ward off any unwanted advances. Nici, unfortunately, got the brunt of it.
We started our tour of the West Bank at the Collossi of Memnon (I think Amenhotep)

followed by the Valley of the Kings, which has the tombs of the pharaohs. We visited the tombs of Ramses I, Queen Tausert/Serthnakht, and Tuthmosis. Our favorite was the second tomb, which had a huge arched chamber halfway through it and the most impressive hieroglyphics and artwork. Even early in the day, the tombs were like saunas. They would not let us take pictures so here is a picture of part of Queen Tausert's tomb that I downloaded from the internet.
Our next stop was the temple of Queen Hatsheput.

There were several very cool reliefs carved into the walls and statues of the Queen. Like most places, there were tons of touts who wanted to point out pictures that you would have eventually found yourself for a small baksheesh (tip). It was really offputing. It happened so much that we started all of our conversations with any of the locals at the temples with "No money, we have no money". Only a few still chose to "guide" us.


Next up, we visited the tombs of Sennefer and Rekhmire at the Tombs of the Nobles. Sennefer was really cool, with vines painted across the entire ceiling. Again, I couldn't take pictures so here are a few from the internet.

I did sneak a picture of Rekhmire, which was essentially just one giant hallway.



We crossed the street to snap a few shots of Ramesseum before heading back to the hotel to relax by the pool.

Later that night, I treated Nici to a massage to thank her for all that she had done for me on the trip. It was a strange experience. The massage itself was strange, mostly just rubbing without any pressure and a few strange stretches. But after the massage the women who performed them joined us in the dressing room, insisted on helping Nici put her shirt on, and told us that if we wanted to tip them, we needed to tip them directly because the men would take the tips away from them. We didn't mind, but it was another indicator of how women are treated in this Islamic society.