Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Tombs of the Nobles






After work one day Mariam got us to stop by the tombs of the nobles which is somewhere on the West Bank near where we work. We went inside a few of the tombs and they are pretty magnificent in a claustrophobia-inducing kind of way. One of them, the tomb of Senn-Nefer (you can google it for pictures) was particularly frightening and beautiful. You have to walk down a long ladder and then climb through a very low corridor where I had to bend over halfway and sort of scoot and the air is warm and stale and it is scary. I felt my heart starting to race at one point and I thought I couldn't breathe. But the ceiling is painted in a grape vineyard and once inside the main part of the tomb, the ceiling goes up some and there are gorgeous painted columns and walls and it is just terrifically beautiful. Of course you can't take pictures so I was going to work out a system with AJ where I would have a panic attack and have to be "helped" out of the tomb, leaving him to take cool pictures. It wouldn't be much of a stretch. Unfortunately we didn't get around to going back so we never got to put the plan into action. Maybe we'll get to go back next year and follow through.

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