Hatshep-what?

Hatshepsut, who reigned from 1479-1458BC. She was the daughter of a Pharaoh, Thutmose I, and married her half-brother. They ruled together until he died, then she took over. Apparently she wanted her own daughter to succeed her, but a son of her brother by another wife ended ruling after she died. People say she had a really successful reign, but I can't really comment on that; I wasn't around back then.

This is her mortuary temple, and by the time we got here, I had stopped enjoying then donkey ride. You know what is really awful? Donkey trotting. This one was of the hottest afternoons while in Egypt - usually I tried to be all like, I don't understand why people whine about how hot Egypt is in the summer. It's not like unbearable or anything. Well here, you better believe it was unbearable. Oh well...I wandered around in a daze until I could get some peach iced tea at the cafe nearby.

I have been assured that the paint, both here and in the other tombs we saw that I wasn't allowed to take pictures in, the paint is original. I have some amount of trouble grasping how hardcore this paint must have been, but if the tour guide says so, it must be true.

This is my friend Heather, and Cyrus is the one standing in the back looking awesome with his button-down shirt wrapped around his head. They have these nice vehicle that shuttle you the three block-length distance from the entrance to the base of the temple. One of my tour companions said she thought it was ridiculous to drive such a short distance. Khaled said, "well you know you can walk if you want to." She didn't walk.

These are somewhere else in the West Bank: the Colossi of Memnon - two statues of the same guy, Pharaoh Amenhotep III, and they were supposed to stand guard at the entrance to his mortuary temple, but now they are all that remain. This picture is pretty small, but I assure you, they are MASSIVE.

Luckily we didn't ride the donkeys back, we took these cool trucks!

Jess was having a little trouble with the heat. Zero air circulation in these things; they felt sort of like trucks that should take people to prison.