Description: Our visit to the Valley of the Kings surrounded us, of course, with great excitement. These were the great burial grounds that were established by the 18th dynasty (1549 BC) when the Kings decided to abandon Memphis as their capital City. It continued to be used right through to the 20th Dynasty (1069 BC) and it’s hard to think, that despite tomb robbers these burials have retained much of their original beauty. The art work that waited for us below the ground was intensely beautiful 7 in amazing condition considering its age.
Egypt’s rulers abandoned the pyramid tombs (more of them in a later review) and began cutting their burial chambers into the limestone rock in Thebes. It doesn’t go un-noticed, however, that overshadowing this huge cemetery is a naturally formed pyramid reaching upwards to the heavens. So although the rulers abandoned the man-made pyramids they never discarded them as highly significant shapes.
Work began on the royal tomb as soon as they got into power and it is believed that they were normally very influential in the way it needed to be (a wee bit morbid). However, the general layout was very similar with corridors, antechamber and sarcophagus chamber and always the aspiration was that they would remain intact following the death and burial of the ruler. Our guide suggested that construction took at least 6 years and although King Tutankhamen is notorious (because of Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter’s discovery in 1922) he recommended that we didn’t explore that tomb. Apparently it’s not as well decorated as the others. Obviously we followed his advice and will check out King Tut’s paraphernalia in the world famous Cairo Museum.
"It was important to remember", our guide said "that the site at the time was much more hidden than it is today". So we tried to imagine everything without the man-made access paths. Difficult but I think we finally got there as we blocked off the sight of outstretched hands of the locals as they begged for cash or tried to sell us some unattractive trinket. We did recall that thousands of people laboured permanently on this site so I guess they have returned in their drove to work here once again!
The building of the tombs would have increasingly become a nightmare as time went on as the network of tunnels would be likely to get in the way of existing tombs, but as we understood there were only a few that were abandoned because of this problem.
We visited the tomb of King Setnakht with its two burial chambers and a clear indication that Sentnakht had usurped the king for whom the tomb was originally built, King Tausert. It was a long walk down the wooden footpath with fantastically bright and clear decoration on both sides of the tunnel. We saw a clear and fascinating book of the dead, by which the King could successfully navigate his way to the after-life. The walk wasn’t that strenuous despite the fact that the descent was a fair distance. But we weren’t hurrying and on the return we saqw much more than our descent.
The tomb of Ramesis the ninth was equally beautifully decorated with decorations including the book of the caverns in the descending corridor; the opening of the mouth ritual in the first chamber that we came to, and the book of the earth in the burial chamber. Of course the ever present book of the dead was there in all its glory.
Finally we visited the tomb of Rameses the forth where we saw Coptic graffiti (so it’s not a modern invention) near the entrance corridor and an intriguing conversion of a pillared hall into a burial chamber. Perhaps the King died before they could complete the intended burial chamber!
All in all we’d seen three fantastic tombs so well preserved from the rigours of time that we left staggering with amazement. The art work was intriguing and of high quality and the colours bright and impressive. Superlatives escape me. Just superb and it really needs to be experienced to be understood.
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