Things to Do in Middle East And Africa

The undulating terrain of “The Valley of 1,000 Hills” lies within easy reach of Durban and offers year-round diversions, making a particularly welcome summer getaway from the humid coast. A typical visit might find you eating exotic crocodile steaks, watching a Zulu ceremony or taking tea in the lush tropical garden of a Catholic monastery.

The heritage steam train known as the “1,000 Hills Choo Choo” departs from the town of Kloof and lets you experience the region much as it was in the 19th century after English settlers opened it up as a trading route. Horse-riding is another popular activity here, and for the particularly energetic, there are two annual marathons – the ultimate outdoor step class.

Creating the Valley of the Kings was no simple undertaking: a small army of builders, engineers, engravers and other workers was required to carve the dozens of tombs out of sheer rock over the centuries.

Naturally they all had to be housed somewhere, ideally not too far away. But it was only with the discovery Valley of the Artisans (or Deir el-Medina), around the time of the opening of Tutankhamun’s tomb, that we learnt more about their living conditions.

The outlines of the “workmen’s village” are still clearly visible, and extant reliefs offer a fascinating portrait of everyday life. All of this makes the Valley of the Artisans a pleasant change after countless monuments glorifying the pharaohs and their morbid fixation on the afterlife.

Whether it’s zipping down a water slide at the Wet N’ Wild park, or experiencing marine life underwater from a viewing platform at Sea World, uShaka Marine World is one of the largest attractions on Durban’s Golden Mile. Visit the world’s 5th largest aquarium to find dolphins, reef fish, and sharks cruise through waters designed around sunken shipwrecks, and to fly down a water slide, relax on uShaka Beach, and watch as penguins waddle around on the rocks all in an afternoon.

You can also upgrade your ticket to include snorkeling in the lagoon, or travelers with young children can visit the touch pool to feel slippery starfish and sea cucumbers. Although Viator tours do not include these activities, you can purchase separate tickets to dive in the shark tank, feed the rays, or encounter a dolphin or seal.

The Unfinished Obelisk is a huge discarded granite obelisk. Three sides of the shaft, which is nearly 138 feet (42m) long, were completed except for the inscriptions. At 1,168 tonnes, the completed obelisk would have been the single heaviest piece of stone the Egyptians ever fashioned. However, a crack appeared in the rock at a late stage in the process. So it lies where the disappointed stonemasons abandoned it, still partly attached to the parent rock, with no indication of what it was intended for. It does give us an excellent insight into how these massive stone sculptures were made however.

Upon entering the quarry, steps lead down from the surrounding ramp into the pit of the obelisk where there are ancient pictographs of dolphins and ostriches or flamingos, thought to have been painted by workers at the quarry.

The harsh, lunar landscape of the Valley of the Kings is the resting place of numerous New Kingdom pharaohs, whose remains were interred in tombs burrowed into rock. The 60-odd tombs which have been discovered (which may represent only half of the total tombs in the area) are identified by number rather than the name of their original inhabitant, and a handful of tombs are closed at any one time for restoration. Nonetheless there is more than enough to see, and it is better to pick out a representative sample rather than try to see every tomb.

Grave-robbers and museums have nabbed the items which were supposed to accompany rulers into the afterlife, but you can still see the work of some of the finest artisans of the ancient world, who glorified pharaohs in frescoes and wall reliefs. Graffiti shows that this extraordinary ensemble of antiquities was already a tourist attraction for the ancient Greeks and Romans.