Egypt Day 4-- Balloon Ride & Valley of the Kings

We had to get up super early this morning for our hot air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings. I had to get up at like 3:45 in order to be at breakfast and get on the bus in time. They did give us a box breakfasts to take with us which I ate in the van on the way over. We crossed the Nile on a boat and then got on another van that drove us to the balloons. We counted about 60 other balloons! It was soooo cool to see everything from the air! We saw so many ruins and burial sites and so many that haven't even been uncovered yet! You could just see the mounds of something that looked like a temple or a tomb or something! We also got to see a gorgeous sunrise over the Nile as well! It's so calm and serene up in a balloon and our landing was very easy too! Our bus met up with us when we finished the balloon ride. We went to a bunch of the places we saw from our balloon, so that was cool! First we went to a BUNCH of tombs-- they all started looking the same after a while! Hahaha! Most of them were for a King Ramses. They were numbered, but it wasn't always consecutive that they ruled. King Tut's tomb was also in the area, but it wasn't open for exhibit. Our guide told us the story of how they found it-- Howard Carter's tent was right on top of it and he'd been searching for it for years. The British government was about to stop funding for the project, but told him he could have 1 more year. One of the servant boys in their crew was out and saw something interesting and he alerted the team of excavators and it ended up being his tomb! So really, we can credit a boy for finding it!! I was amazed at how well the paint on their carvings has lasted for 4,000 years! So wild!! The carvings all tell the story of the journey after death and have deep symbolism of what they thought would happen to them after death. After that, we drove to the temple of Queen Hatshepsut, which we explored for a while and also saw from the air. The top layer of the temple was actually carved out of the mountain, which is pretty cool! Our guide has been so good to tell us all of their theories and stories for what might've happened, but nothing is solid fact. They just have to theorize about things! He is very knowledgeable with the history and has been so interesting! Plus, he's funny and entertaining... he always says, "Off we go!" when it's time to get moving!! He's cute! After lunch, we visited an Alabaster workshop and learned how they carve it. It was so interesting and this time I was interested in getting something. I found a really cute white alabaster bowl. I didn't realize that we could've bargained with him. I was told that in the shops all the prices are fixed, but our guide told us afterward that we could've bargained with them. He did give us a pretty good price though, because Allison bought some things too, and we bought them all together to get a better price. It is really beautiful! I especially love the white color, but it's available in all sorts of colors and looks so pretty if you hold it up to the light! We got back to the boat for lunch and an afternoon at leisure and we went through a lock at Esna and our guide said there was a really cool temple in Esna an he wanted to stop and walk to it, but the captain of the boat said we wouldn't be able to fit it into our schedule with docking at the different ports... we were all kinda bummed about that! But the process of going through the lock was super cool!! We watched the boat get higher and higher as the water rose!!! We played lots of cards and enjoyed some downtime and dinner later on... It was another amazing and surprising day in Egypt!