Valley of the Kings--From Above

8:00:00 AM Out And About Global 6 Comments

I am finally caught up on laundry, I have edited about 500 photos and am now ready to begin blogging our trip to Egypt.  Egypt was amazing, sometimes uncomfortable, often hot, and so worthwhile. Many have asked if we felt safe.  The answer is a qualified yes. I will speak more about that later, but for now it suffices to say that at no time did I feel in danger and the Egyptians want you to know it is safe to travel to there. One of our guides pled with me, "Please go home and tell your American friends it is safe to travel to Egypt!"


One of my favorite days of the whole two weeks was the day we visited the Valley of the Kings--the famous valley where King Tut was found in 1922 by Howard Carter. The tombs are brightly colored and inscribed with the most amazing hieroglyphics.  Unfortunately, you aren't allowed to photograph inside, in fact, you are not even allowed to take your camera into the valley.
We began our day at 4am with sunrise balloon ride over the valley, it was AWESOME!  It was our first balloon ride and I was a bit nervous, but it was so smooth and peaceful up in the air that my fear soon abated.  Viewing the valley from above offered such a unique perspective.  We could see several temples including the Temple of Hatshepsut, rock cut tombs, unexcavated ruins and flew directly over a modern village. As we flew overhead we passed children walking to school, some ran up to their rooftops to wave at us.  We got a birds eye view into their gardens, barnyards and fields--I loved it!
The main cash crop growing in the fields is sugar cane, but other crops include alfalfa, wheat, and corn.  The contrast between the green of the fields and the brown of the desert is stunning.  Water is now pumped from modern wells and channeled to the fields.

The ride lasted about 45 minutes ending with the smoothest landing I could have imagined.  I was prepared for a jolt or bumpy landing, but we literally skimmed the surface of the earth as if landing on a cloud. We landed in a field littered with broken potshards--Our guide told us archaeologists have only excavated maybe 50% of what lays hidden in the earth.  Those potshards are a sign of that.

Enjoy the birds eye view from our hot air balloon, I sure did!