Day 4 - June 24, 2008

Today we got to sleep in until 6:30. Thank goodness because it was non stop the whole day. We got a real taste of Luxor as we drove along the Nile passing charming farms and ruins. Our first stop was the Colossi Memnon, the grand entrance to the City of the Dead. We continued on to the Valley of the Kings where we saw the tombs of Ramses IV, VII, I and King Tutankhamon. Awesome sights but painfully hot within. The paintings and hieroglyphics were impressively well preserved. We saw the mummy of King Tut. He looked pretty good someone who was over 3200 years old.

We next got a private showing of how alabaster is mined and made into beautiful décor. At the Alabaster factory our tour mate Emily was offered 10,000 camels for her sister Liz’s hand. Ahmed was quite nice and rather attractive. Emily decided not to take the “deal” so she will return home without a future brother-in-law.

We continued through to the Valley of the Nobles where we could view the Tomb of Queen Hatshepsut. However our main interest in this area was Pit Tomb 33, where it is believed to once have contained the manuscript that we now know as The Book of Abraham. Our excellent guide Gabriel finagled the workers into letting us get up close to this normally prohibited area.

Our next stop was the Rameseum Temple, where we found the name “Lebolo 1820” engraved in the stone. Lebolo’s nephew, Michael Chandler sold four mummies to Joseph Smith. Little did Chandler know that Joseph would find papyrus scrolls we now know to be book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price. After which we were able to learn how to make papyrus. It is amazing stuff and nearly indestructible. Next we sailed across the Nile River in a felucca, which is fancy word for sailboat. We also learned we had a celebrity in our midst. Gabriel was found in the Luxor Newspaper.

After a quick lunch at the hotel, we got to explore one of the ancient wonders of the world, the Temple of Karnak where we explored the pylons, admired the obelisks, and deciphered the hieroglyphics along the way, and who could pass up a chance to gain some extra luck to by running around scarab three times. This place is super amazing.

After the amazing Karnak we had a pleasant evening wondering through the Temple of Luxor as we imagined what it might have been like to be there during the glory days of Egypt.

We ended our day by racing through the streets of Luxor in carriages, 2 dollars a person “just for us,” who could pass that up. We all agree that Luxor is a charming and enchanting city.

After the fun carriage rides we went back to the hotel for more food. We felt like all we were doing that day was walking, eating, and drinking (bottled water). With a quick bathroom run we were off to the airport for our 11:15 PM. We arrived at the airport and were able to rest for a few minutes prior to our flight. Pretty much we all slept the one hour flight and the next thing we knew we were approaching Cairo.

We got back to our hotel 1:00 a.m. to catch a few hours of sleep before starting again.