Egypt: Valley of the Kings (Luxor)

After realizing that their tombs of their ancestors were being robbed, the pharoahs stopped building pyramids and started building tombs in the Valley of the Kings about 4000 years ago. Even though they were able to hide the entrance to the tombs by rock, almost all of the tombs have been robbed. The only major exception was King Tut's tomb (that's Wade, Joe, and Patrick pictured in front of it) - that they found almost entirely intact.

When you consider all the treasures that were found in King Tut's tomb for a relatively short-lived and unimportant pharoah, you can only imagine how much treasure must have existed for someone as powerful as Ramses II.

It was very hot the day we went to the Valley of the Kings, and we ended up going into three of the 65+ tombs there - only about 15 are open to the public. The first was relatively small, followed by a medium sized tomb, and one of the largest tombs found for a pharoah that ruled for more than 25 years. Perhaps the most amazing thing about the Valley of the Kings is that the wall paintings and heiroglyphics are still intact. You can still see vibrant blues, greens, reds, and yellows on walls that were completed thousands of years ago.