A Walk in The Theban Hills

As a part of the Aegyptica story we are walking in the spring sun across the Theban scarp. The scarp dominates the west bank of the Nile at Luxor. Called Thebes by the Greeks , Luxor was for hundreds of years the home of some of Egypts greatest Kings and Queens and Egypts ancient capital..
The creation of this amazing cleavage once shook the earth to its roots, bits of it are still falling and litter the path. It is a sharp sudden drop and in places there is only a metre or so in which to walk.
The scarp forms a back drop to the Temple field and dominates the view from the Hot Air Balloons in the early morning. The cliff top path, like a white pencil line, is a highlight to the luxuriant green of the ancient inundation running back to the Nile.
Within the hills are valleys wherein lie the New Kingdom Tombs of the Kings and Queens of ancient Egypt and some of the great Courtiers. And perhaps a pretender or two. The majority of tombs open today are from the 18, 19, and 20th Dynastys.
The path runs between Dier el Madina, I like Medina but the vowels are not important and who knows how to pronounce it anyway, and the wonderfully restored temple of the great Pharaoh Queen Hatshepsut. There are many tracks and some lead down to the Valley of the Kings. We are going to walk from Dier el Madina and as we go we can look down into The Valley of the Kings and out to the Nile and the inundation. Our way up is steep at the beginning but reasonably short, with a few hundred steps to test our fitness. At the end as we go down to Hatshepsut it is more of a trial, the rugged path the slippery scree and the drop straight down to the forecourt.
There are guards buildings along the way and the young Egyptian soldiers run water up to them as they have done for thousands of years. They and the artisan artists who used these paths in ancient times provide company as we walk. The ancient presence is a palpable thing for those of us who dream .
We get our bearings from the Balloon and make a start at Dier el Madina, perhaps the Worlds first purpose built Industrial Township.
Addendum : Experimental panorama DeM Valley May 6th 2008
Experimental panorama Valley of The Kings June 23 2008.For technical chatter on this Pano go to : https://pbase.com/galleria_rusticana/the_panorama_society ( 17 Nov 2008 )