Scorching in Luxor

We arrived in Luxor early in the morning after a freezing night of partial sleep on the felucca boat. We jumped right into the sightseeing, stopping at the Edfu Temple which was covered with awesome inscriptions on the walls along with several examples of the Egyptian alphabet. The next temple was Kom-Ombo Temple which also had amazing inscriptions (sorry, a little fuzzy on the details due to lack of sleep and birthday celebrations). Then it was off to our hotel in Luxor for a nap and dinner.

The next day was a BIG day, a very hot day, and our last full day all together in Egypt. The day started at 5am where we went for a hotair balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings during sunrise. It was our first time in a hotair balloon and it was incredible just floating over the famous Valley of the Kings while the sun was coming up over Egypt. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience. We added another mode of transportation to our list and grabbed donkeys to take us on the one hour ride into the Valley of the Kings. Not to brag, but my donkey (aka. the batmobile) was the leader of the donkey pack. It was SO hot that day in Luxor, around 104 F, so we were all very appreciative when we got back into our air conditioned bus. At the Valley of the Kings we went into three of the tombs, all of them had tons of inscriptions and paintings- a lot of the original paint coloring is still intact which is insane when you think about it. The sheer size of the tombs gives insight on how powerful the rulers were at that time. The Valley contains over 60 tombs and chambers and was the main burial ground for major royal figures of the Egyptian New Kingdom. To think that King Tutankhamen is the only tomb that has ever been discovered fully intact, just imagine what else is below the surface in Egypt? They estimate that only 25% of the Egyptian treasures have even been discovered... We ended the day with a group dinner- getting our last fill of Egyptian food, some of it I will miss and some I hope to never see again. Then next day we flew to Cairo for a day before we embarked on Jordan.