During the night my stomach started cramping again - oh, what terrible timing for me to suffer the revenge of the Pharaohs' Revenge, this time complete with fever. Sunday was supposed to be the big finalé, a visit to the west bank of Luxor, and the 5am start time was the last thing I needed.
We started at the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, an impressive building fronted by a long ramp staircase.
As we returned to the bus, we discovered that it had a flat battery. This was especially bad news because the toilet on board didn't flush without electrical power. Eeuuww. After a few minutes of watching the driver travel back and forth carrying various spanners of increasing size, we were bump started with the help of some of the other drivers, and moved on to the Valley of the Queens, where we entered the tomb of Amunherkhepsef, son of Ramesses III, who died at 9 years old. The inside of the tomb was covered with amazingly well preserved painted scenes and hieroglyphs.
The next stop was the most important part of the tour: the Valley of the Kings. By this time my fever had reached a peak and I was ready to drop. I couldn't even summon the energy to carry my camera (normally welded to my person) up the steep paths to the tombs of Ramesses IV, IX and I. I have only sketchy recollection of the inside of the first two, and sat outside the shade for the final one, which (though I didn't know it at the time) featured a fairly steep pair of descending staircases.
The final archaeological site of the day, and indeed the whole tour, was a brief stop at the misnamed Colossi of Memnon.
After that, we had one final stop, at an alabaster factory, where we had a most entertaining demonstration by the workers, followed by a relatively relaxed (for Egypt) chance to shop for those last few Christmas presents amongst the stone sculptures being produced. They also, I was very happy to find, had quite possible the nicest, cleanest toilets in the whole of Egypt - and didn't charge us to use them!
That left us Sunday afternoon to relax.
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