Sven's travels to Egypt would not be complete without a visit to one of it's most famous places, the Valley of the Kings near the town of Luxor. In the shadow of this pyramid shaped mountain are the tombs of some of the most famous Pharaohs including Ramesses the Great, Seti the First and Tutankhamun.

To prevent further damage to the fragile paint work only a few of the tombs are open at any one time. It is sad that tombs which were in excellent condition when they were found only about 100 years ago are suffering. The damage started when treasure hunters and European travelers hacked images off the walls for museums and for sale to private collectors, and continues today where the huge number of tourists can cause more problems.

In some of the tombs the paintwork is still amazingly bright and fresh after over 3000 years and even where time has taken it's toll there is often still enough left to allow the archaeologists to reconstruct what was there originally.

One thing which amazed Sven was how hot it can get in the valley. There is a shady rest stop about half way but even in there it can be unbearably hot, even for Ostriches who are used to the heat.

Sven's favorite tomb from his first trip is the impressive one of King Merenptah. Merenptah was a son of Ramesses the Great and succeeded his father onto the throne of Egypt. The lid of his huge stone sarcophagus still lies in the burial chamber of the tomb.

Another cool thing about Merenptah's tomb is the condition of a lot of the decoration. Although it has faded slightly over the centuries many of the images, such as this one of the king before the god Re, are in amazingly good condition and help to show what the other tombs may have looked like.