The Valley of the Kings is warm even today. I’ve been in the tomb of Rameses III (no photos allowed). One is my quota for the day. Interesting if one enjoys being crowded together in an elongated unventilated tomb with sweaty enthusiastic tourists.

After the Valley of the Kings we headed for the Valley of the Queens where we would have additional opportunities for oxygen-deprived panic, say in the tomb of one of Rameses’ sons.

I wrote the above paragraphs as I sat in the shade at the Valley of the Queens waiting for the other tour members while the experience was still fresh in my mind. This day would prove to be a very busy one. We boarded our bus early and headed for the West bank and the valley, stopping for a quick photo shoot at the Colossi of Memnon along the road. The next stop was the Al-Deir Al Bahari Temple.

Hatsepshut’s temple greatly interested me because of the little I knew of her in history plus fictional books by P.C. Doherty that used her as a character. One thing we were not told when we visited was that Al-Deir Al Bahari was the site of the 1997 Luxor Massacre in which 58 tourists and 4 Egyptians were killed by Egyptian terrorists.

Since picture taking was not allowed in neither the Valley of the Kings nor the Valley of the Queens these are the only pictures taken during this part of the day.