The next morning, there was a dust-tinge mist floating
around as we wound our way through the mountains to the Valley of the
Kings. We stepped into the visitors’
center which had a very cool replica that was clear so you could see all the
tombs through and underneath the mountains.
(top picture here)
One place just had steps that went down and down and down. Apparently, archeologists still haven’t found
the bottom, which is kind of cool.
We then got on the standard golf cart tram that took us down
the road to the valley entrance. The
Valley of the Kings was used to bury Egyptian royalty for over 500 years. The tombs are amazing. They are carved everywhere, just like the
temples, but since they are protected from the weather, the brilliant paint is
still present on the walls and it is amazing.
It was probably my favorite stop on the trip just because the tombs are
like stepping through a warp hole back in time thousands of years. Some of the paintings are so well preserved that
they look like they were painted yesterday.
Unfortunately, no pictures are allowed in the Valley, but here
is a panoramic view of it and here is one of
the inside of Ramesses IX, which we got to go through (I think. It looks familiar. I didn’t take notes on exactly which ones we
visited). I’m also pretty sure I remember hauling myself
up this
giant walkway found in the tomb of Taousertet and Sethnakht, and if this wasn’t
the one, it was an equally steep and long climb. We were all feelin’ the burn.
Interesting facts I remember (since I’ve taken far too long
to write this post, most of the details are gone from my brain): Ramesses IX’s tomb, like nearly every tomb in
the Valley, was robbed in antiquity, so there is no gold or jewels inside. However, it also means there is Coptic and
Roman graffiti on the walls. One was a
picture of 2 priests.
Some of the tombs actually did have traps. Nothing like what’s seen in Indiana Jones or The Mummy, but traps nonetheless.
Basically, the entrances are loooong and some are incredibly steep. On the steep entrance about half way down
will be a pit cut into the rock. So, the
grave robbers enter, start to slide down the ramp and end up starving to death
in a hole.
The ancient Egyptians didn’t map out where everyone was
buried and the entrances to tombs were hidden to try (unsuccessfully) to
prevent robberies. Therefore, when the
new pharaoh started excavating his final resting place, the workers would
sometimes run into someone else’s tomb.
Basically, they would say, “whoopsy,” fill in the hole, and change
tunnel direction. This haphazard digging
and zero planning is what kept King Tut’s tomb hidden so well.
King Tutankhamun’s tomb is world famous because it was found
in tact. It was not robbed because the
tomb of Ramesses XI was basically built on top of it. I paid the extra 10 Egyptian pounds to go into
King Tut’s tomb, because “when in Rome,” as they say. Plus, King Tut’s tomb is being permanently closed
to the public this year because they are having trouble controlling the climate
inside with visitor’s going in and out.
The plaster is basically falling off the walls. My Contiki group was one of the last to get
the chance to see the inside.
King Tut’s tomb
isn’t very impressive compared to the other tombs we saw. It is small and less well preserved. The walls are covered in plaster and painted
rather than carved and it is only 2 rooms with a short entrance hall. However, I got to see King Tut
himself. He was a tiny person. Also, having seen the amount of treasure that
came out of that tomb at the Egyptian Museum, I was amazed. That tiny
tomb must have been packed from floor to ceiling.
After finishing up at the Valley of the Kings, we were back
on the bus and off to the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. This temple is pretty amazing and very
different from all the temples we’d seen previously on the trip, and we’d seen
a lot of temples. The temple was built
between 1478 and 1458 B.C. It is very
near the Valley of the Kings and there are even tombs in the surrounding
cliffs. On the way in, you pass two
little frankincense tree stumps. These
were brought by the queen from Punt, an ancient land along the Red Sea, although
historians still aren’t sure of its exact location.
After leaving Hatshepsut’s Temple, we stopped briefly at the
The Colossi of Memnon. They are
basically two giant statues of Amenhotep III that have been at their current
location for 3400 years. They aren’t
really that exciting. They used to stand
at the entrance to Amenhotep’s temple, but that temple was on a floodplain
(poor choice) and is now pretty much washed away.
Our last temple was Karnak, the granddaddy of them all. Karnak is about 1.5 miles away from Luxor and
was once fully connected by the Avenue of the Sphinxes. It was added onto for two thousand
years. As you can imagine, that gave it plenty of
time to grow to an enormous size. My
favorite part was the Hypostyle Hall in the Precinct of Amun-Re. In this area there are 134 columns between 10
and 21 meters tall in 16 rows.
Our last stop for the day was an art gallery that makes its
own papyrus in the traditional manner.
We watched a demonstration on how it is grown, cut, soaked, and woven
into paper. Then we got to look at
paintings done on papyrus. Most were
recreations of scenes from ancient temples or tombs. I, of course, loved the bright colored mostly
blue painting of Cairo that was 500 US dollars.
I talked them down to $300 and bought it. I really perfected my haggling skills on this
trip. I hate it. I much prefer just paying the price on the
sticker, but if I have to do it, you better believe I’m not over paying. The excessive amount of scarves I brought
home on this trip attests to that.
That evening we boarded the bus and drove through the desert
to Hurghada on the Red Sea coast.
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