It turned out that the Valley of the Kings was another "no photo's please" zone. We learned that the reason the valley was chosen was that there was a natural mountain that looked like a pyramid, so they wanted to be buried in the valley beneath it. They were buried on the west bank of the Nile because that represented "death and afterlife" (the setting of the sun; as opposed to the rising sun on the east bank that represents birth and life).
We were able to get into three tombs. It was very neat to walk down the corridors and see the carvings and paintings and know that they were thousands of years old. We found out that the tombs were started when they first became King (just like the pyramids). The tombs were first carved out, plastered, pictures outlined, carved and then painted. If the King happened to die before it was finished they tried to get the painting done at least but sometimes that wasn't even finished. We saw one tomb where everything had been finished and another where they stopped mid way in their work (all at different stages - some walls had just line drawings / outlines, some had carvings and some just pictures painted).
Next stop was the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut (or known by the kids "Hotchickensoup"). She was important because she was the only female ruler. She had to have been one smart cookie to rule for so long. She had the people believing that she was the daughter of a "god" (the only reason she was accepted as ruler) and so she had this temple built to worship that god.
