My Trip to Egypt: December 2021

16 Jan 2022 · 5 min

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4:41

In this travel vlog, Lois Letchford narrates a day exploring Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, highlighting the tourist-friendly excavated tombs, especially King Tut’s tomb where Howard Carter once worked, and marveling at the hieroglyphics and panoramic views. The video then shifts to a hands‑on demonstration by a local craftsman named Jamal, who sketches, chisels, and paints limestone using traditional Egyptian pigments such as yellow and brown ochres, explains the waxing step that brings out natural colors, and notes that a piece of this size takes roughly 25 days to complete. Finally, Lois documents a scenic journey down the Nile, departing from the town of Ifu (near Edfu), traveling by carriage to a nearby temple, providing brief, informal commentary throughout. The tone is conversational and enthusiastic, with occasional informal interjections.

Chapters

Hello, I'm Lois Letchford in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. We're at the waiting place. We've just finished, you know, 2 hours walking through tombs and King Tut's tomb, the place where Howard Carter stood and did a lot of excavation. Phenomenal hieroglyphics and phenomenal tombs today. The Valley of the— the Valley of the Kings Panorama going around. Modern day, they've excavated them out so it's easy for tourists to come and enter. Pyramid at the top so they could come to this place and build their tombs. Going around today full of tourists. Incredible excavation, incredible sights.
Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello.
What is the last step? We need to be waxing them. Why are we waxing To bring out the natural colors. Now I'm going to show you how it works. So the man, he just brought those beautiful images out of fine limestones, sketching on the limestone itself, and then he chiseling. As you can see, so Jamal, he's just doing precise images like the ancient Egyptians' carvings paintings. Even the paints itself, he just extract from an ancient Egyptian material like yellow ochres, brownish ochres like these ones. And once he finished, it's gonna be a piece of art. This size, it needs about 25 days, maybe over than 25 days.
Traveling down the Nile River. Leaving the town of Ifu. Awesome carriage ride here to the temple.
Hitting something, ain't you?
You want me to video you, dear? I shouldn't be surprised, but well, anytime you want me to—