Qurnet Murai

This picturesque collection of buildings is all that is left of the houses alongside the Theban hills. No-one lives there anymore, and the main purpose for keeping them preserved seems to be for a photo opportunity for tourists who purchase their tickets for the temples and tombs from the nearby ticket office.

Like Qurna, which was demolished 4 years ago, many of the houses are built over tombs, which their owners saw as a source of income for maybe generations, given the prices that antiquities command on the black market.

Hower, some of the tombs actually were living quarters, with the bedroom usually in the furthest part of the tomb - the temperature there being fairly constant throughout the year. Home made electrical wiring, tacked to the walls brought light, but water had to be obtained by regular journeys with old oil drums to a communal tap. Sanitation was non-existent, and the burial shaft of the tomb often became an earth closet.

So, although picturesque, conditions were not pleasant, and the majority of people who were removed from places like this now live in modern housing, with mains water and sewage, and a reliable electricity supply.