The name of this valley is Ta-Set-Nehru or “place of beauty”. It was the burial place of the wives and children of the pharaohs. There are at least 90 known tombs on the sight. We went into the tomb of Nefertari,the great Royal wife of Ramesses II. We last met them at Abu Simbel. Her tomb was discovered in 1904 by an Italian archeologist. This was important because he had the insight and techniques to save the vivid paintings in her temple. We were blown away. All I can do to describe the experience is show you some of the pictures.

I can’t begin to name all the characters in the painted scenes but I hope to figure it out with some research after I get home. we also visited the temple of Queen Hatshepsut before heading for lunch.

This day also included a felucca ride across the Nile to Gezira el Mozh, an island known for growing bananas and housing a little zoo of a jackal, a crocodile and some monkeys. It was a bit distressing to see the caged animals so I wandered around a bit and noticed a cotton plant. It was much more interesting.

Our next stop was a visit to the Luxor museum. It houses a number of the objects found at the temples of Karnak and Luxor, but I will describe those temples later.

We learned that the broken part of the snout was lost in antiquity. It was repaired when the nose was found when they were dredging the canals. The restorer did an excellent repair and it holds up well, especially when you think the repair was made 1200 years after it was originally carved in 1386 BCE (by the same guy who repaired the sphinx at Giza). The repairer left a text describing that he wanted to save the monuments for humanity.

It was a full and wonderful day. Tomorrow, the valley of the kings!