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Today we crossed the Nile and headed to the Valley of Queens, the Valley of Craftsmen and the Valley of the Nobles (we visited the Valley of Kings on day 10). These are all on the west bank of the Nile. Since the sun rises in the east the east bank of the Nile is associated with the living while the west, where the sun sets, is associated with the dead.
On the way we passed this village - many of the houses are built on top of ancient tombs - they use the tombs as cellars.
At every site there were plenty of vendors trying to sell post cards, clothes, statuettes and the like. We didn't find them too aggressive - we've certainly experienced much worse in Asia.
This is the Valley of the Artisans. Some notable artisans are entombed here but you are looking at the remains of the town where the artisans lived. From here they would trek over the hill to work, for example, in the Valley of the Kings, coming back here for the 'weekend'.
In the Valley if the Queens is the beautiful tomb of Nefertari, wife of Ramses II. This tomb has been closed for years following vicious fighting in the queue (only 100 people were allowed to visit each day) so this photo was taken from a book.
There is a fabulous website here made by the team who are excavating the area. It includes a satellite photo of the whole Theban necropolis area.
After trudging our way along these muddy banks to get to our boat we were starting to wonder whether we had been overcharged for our trip.
This guy parked his boat under our cabin and started throwing clothes in through the open window. Needless to say, Catherine bought lots of stuff.
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