Valley of the Kings

hermion
hermion
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Disappointing and Crowded

  • May 31, 2009
  • Rated 2 of 5 by ShannonBrooke from Somerville, Massachusetts
Disappointing and Crowded

After the balloon ride, we met up with the rest of our tour group to tour the valley of the kings. Now, I had been imagining it the way I had seen it in countless National Geographic specials - cresting over the hill on a donkey, as the sun rises, with an empty valley stretching before us, having to find the dark tunnels where the tombs are. But it's more like going into Disney World's version of Egypt. There is a big bus parking lot. Then you can take the tram to the tombs - we chose to walk. With your ticket, you can visit up to three different tombs. Unfortunately, ours were predetermined by our guide, even though he didn't enter them with us. He seemed to choose all the ones with really long lines.

Entering them was like...like going to the New England Aquarium during school vacation week. You walk in, face pressed up to the glass, behind which are the carvings and paintings. Everything has a nice hand rail and the downward slope has little steps to help you gain traction. Anything interesting is naturally blocked off from access. I'm sure this is all for the good of the tombs, but it doesn't exactly make you feel like Indiana Jones.

Queen Hatshepsut's temple would have been really cool too, had it not been covered with millions of tiny people. It's a huge huge site. There's a tram here too because most fat-ass people can'tbe bothered to walk the short distance from the parking lot to the site. I'm sorry if I sound cynical but this is how I was feeling that day. The crowds are unbelievable and everyone is in a huge tour group. Our small group of 15 is dwarfed by these other groups, and their giant flags and clipboards with which they lead their cattle around. I was so overwhelmed by the tourists that I couldn't enjoy the ruin. You couldn't stand and watch something without people pushing around you, surging like a tsunami. It was impossible to feel any real peace in what should have been a very peaceful place.

It was however very cool to learn about Queen Hatshepsut's life, including her trading expedition into sub-saharan Africa. She seems like quite a woman.

Overall, the Valley of the Kings did not live up to my imaginings, from all those television specials. I imagined riding up to the tombs in a donkey or camel, and entering them with a flashlight. Unrealistic, but nevertheless, I did not expect long lines, crowds, and being rushed through.

From journal Nepenthe in the Nile

Editor Pick

One Day in the Hereafter

  • March 31, 2009
  • Rated 5 of 5 by MALUSE from Goppingen, Germany
When we were in Luxor in Upper Egypt 28 years ago, we crossed the Nile by ferryboat to get to the West bank (called Thebes by the ancient Greeks) from where a bus took us to the Valley of the Kings. This isn´t done any more, a bridge was built 7 km downstream 10 years ago and now it´s a bus ride all the way.

A bridge, what else is new? Luxor had 30 000 inhabitants when we were there in 1975, now it has 350 000. We passed some villages, saw children on their way to school (10 years are obligatory, nearly all children do go to school according to our Egyptian guide), in the canal taking water from the Nile to the fields people did not wash their clothes, dishes and themselves any more, the many new houses and the remaining mud huts were covered with satellite dishes. Aswan with the High Dam is not far and there´s electricity in abundance. Private cars still seem to be rare in rural Egypt, we saw lots of share-a-ride taxis for the people and donkey-drawn carts for the transport of goods.

The first stop was at the two colossi of Memnon which look as if they guard the entrance of the Valley of the Kings, one of UNESCO´s cultural heritage sites, but they used to guard the entrance of a temple which has now disappeared. Ancient Greek travellers (tourism is an old phenomenon in Egypt!) believed the statues resembled their God of the Dawn, Memnon. At sunrise the northern statue would emit a haunting musical sound, according to the Greeks it was Memnon greeting his mother; modern prosaic people claim the phenomenon was produced by the early morning change in temperature. Be it as it may, after a well-meaning Roman governor repaired the statue in 2 AD the voice was never heard again.

We arrived at our destination at 9 am, too late to experience what we liked so much on our first visit, namely, the wonderful early morning air, the finest air imaginable, completely dry (it never rains in Upper Egypt)! The Brits knew that already more than a century ago, responsible for the beginning of mass tourism was Thomas Cook who, in 1869, led a small English group of travellers through Egypt; 20 years later the Cook organisation was capable of organising a visit of Egypt for 1 000 tourists simultaneously, rich people suffering from asthma and rheumatism were happy about this.

We left the bus at the bus station with a small bazaar and a restaurant which hadn´t been there the last time and changed into a taff-taff, an engine pulling some wagons up to the entrances of the tombs, completely superfluous, tourists could walk the short distance and a first class air pollutant, but what can we say, quite a lot of people have got a job there now.

Tourists don´t normally go to the Valley of the Queens nearby although there are 75 tombs (in contrast to the 64 in the Valley of the Kings), but they´re smaller and only a few are open to the public. Why are there so many tombs at all in this part of the country? The pyramids near Cairo were built much earlier, later the pharaohs discovered that some of the hills near Thebes had the shape of pyramids and decided to get buried there, the tombs could be hidden and wouldn´t be discovered and robbed (or so they thought). The whole area looks like a Swiss cheese what with all the openings scattered irregularly over the hillsides. All tombs have been discovered by chance up to now, how many there are all in all nobody knows.

The day a pharaoh was crowned work on his tomb was begun. Assuming that life in the Hereafter would be longer than in the Here indescribable effort went into the preparation for the afterlife. It took two years to dig and cut a tomb into the sandstone and decorate it; we know all this because hieroglyphic texts describe the procedure. The tombs are approximately 5m high and 3m wide, the longest is 200m long, I didn´t get an attack of claustrophobia although many visitors were inside. I´ve got photos from the drawings on the wall from our first visit, now taking photos is forbidden because the flashes are harmful to the colours, in some tombs there´s a glass panel in front of the walls. Good! The Egyptians should have introduced these measures long ago!

The drawings and reliefs on the walls show the pharaoh on question, the gods he believed in and worshipped, his family and his servants doing what they used to do in the daily life of the Here, the hieroglyphics describe his life and heroic deeds. The hieroglyphics are like the letters of the alphabet, my favourite one is a snake with a fat belly, head raised, sporting two hare-like ears (in one temple I saw mouse-like ears, maybe the craftsman was dyslexic, heehee), it represents the letter F. With advancing age I´ve noticed a dwindling interest in historical details in me, to be honest I don´t care too much which Rameses did what and when and why, I enjoy the atmosphere, see the architectural achievements as works of art and admire the craftsmanship. You can find me standing in front of a wall imagining a worker 3 500 years ago sitting on a scaffold chisel and hammer ready to ‘tell’ (Who? When the tombs had been finished they were sealed never to be opened again) what people imagined would happen after death. We see the gods weighing a heart, monsters – head of a crocodile, body of a lion, back of a hippo – waiting in case the heart will be found too light, decapitated figures who didn´t make it walking feet up, bleeding stumps hanging down under a line dividing this world from the underworld.

But not everything was grim in the Here as the following inscription shows : ´How beautiful is the Temple of Amun when the day passes with festivities like an intoxicated woman sitting outside in front of her room, her loose hair on her beautiful bosom.´

Sadly, tourists destroy what they come for, breathing and perspiration make the walls of the tombs damp and favour the development of algae and mildew destroying the paintings. Archaeologists have found out that before a tomb is opened in the morning humidity is 5%, late in the afternoon after thousands of tourists have passed through, it´s 74%. They demand a temporal closure and a rotating system so that the tombs can ´recover´, however, up to now this sensible idea hasn´t been realised yet. Will people abstain from visiting King Tut´s tomb, the only one ever discovered intact which contains one of the three gold sarcophagi (the others are in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo)?

The last time we crossed a hill on foot after visiting the tombs to get to the temple of Hatshepsut, one of the few female pharaohs, but this isn’t permitted any more after the terrorist attack in 1997 in which 57 tourists from different countries and three Egyptians died. Now there are armed soldiers everywhere, not only near the temple, they´re everywhere in Egypt. Do tourists feel safe because of their presence? Not really, but what else can the government do? The season after 9/11 was dead and the country´s economy suffered severely, but surely they is no guarantee that terrorists won´t strike again. We went there by bus and tuff-tuff (again) and admired the terraced temple, one of ancient Egypt´s finest monuments, 3 500-year-old, partly carved into the limestone cliff, the temple itself and the surrounding hillside have a warm yellow-brown colour, wonderful against the deep blue sky. The temple has been reconstructed by Polish specialists, purists say all reconstructions are bad and should be forbidden, I´m grateful for them, though, my imagination isn´t vivid enough to built a complete virtual temple out of some fragments of columns.

Of course it’s possible to travel in Egypt individually but most tourists go there in organised groups, we did so, too. Because of this I’m unable to tell you the entrance prices as everything was paid by our guide. The prices can’t be high, though, nothing is really pricey in Egypt, even if tourists have to pay higher prices than Egyptians (which I find OK considering the wages we and they get).

On our way back to Luxor we visited an alabaster factory and saw the craftsmen working with the material. I´m not a great buyer of souvenirs, but I bought a beautiful, simple vase which I got home to Germany safely and which is now standing in the living-room reminding me of our visit to Egypt.








Editor Pick

The Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Nobles

  • January 26, 2009
  • Rated 4 of 5 by NiceGinna from Evanston, Illinois
The Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Nobles

There are 63 tombs in this location with more expected to be discovered this winter! Only 8 are open at any one time and the admission ticket allows you to choose 3 to visit. The ticket for King Tut's tomb, which houses his mummy, is an extra fee (100 LE). We chose our three and were amazed at the vibrant colors inside; sadly no pictures are allowed. The tombs are decorated from floor to ceiling and from front to back; in the back stood the sarcophagus which held the mummy. Side rooms would hold all the riches that were buried with the King. Most of the tombs were looted long ago. King Tut's tomb was under another tomb; when the tomb above was robbed, no one realized there was another tomb below and that is why we have the magnificent remains from King Tut's tomb. He was actually a rather minor king, having lived only a short time; you can only imagine what riches must have been left in the other tombs of the more important kings!

The artifacts from Tut's tomb are in the Museum of Antiquities in Cairo and include the famous golden mask, several beds, several chariots, lots of jewelry, jugs which had contained oils and wine.

Nearby we visited the Valley of the Nobles to visit the tomb of Ra-Moses (1700 BC) who was the mayor of Thebes during the reign of Akhenaton. This king turned away from the worship of many gods to the worship of one god, who was pictured as the rays of the sun. The tomb was left unfinished because Ra-Moses moved away, following his king, and the tomb was never used. The wife of Akhenaton was the famous Nephertiti and his son was King Tut. After Akhenaton's death, worship of multiple gods returned, probably because the Priests benefited, and his image everywhere was destroyed.

In all the tombs raised relief, the most difficult and time-consuming decoration, was done while the King was still living and healthy. When he was older or more sickly, sunken relief was used to hurry along the work. Painting was done after his death, since that was the quickest form of decoration. From the date of his death until he was entombed was 102 days: 72 days to mummify him and 30 days of processions.

On the decoration, a leopard skin indicates royalty. The bare breasts of the women indicate motherhood - the women did not appear bare-breasted in life. In ancient times, Egyptians wore white for mourning; black was introduced later by the Romans.

From journal An Unforgettable 10 Days in Egypt

Editor Pick

The Valley of the Kings

  • February 18, 2008
  • Rated 5 of 5 by Drever from Ayr
The Valley of the Kings

Four hours by coach from the port of Safaga escorted by armed police brought us to the imposing temple of Karnak at Luxor. A previous terrorist attack had led to a tightening of security. The inconvenience though was forgotten as we viewed this the mother of all religious buildings -the largest ever it covers 200 acres. For the ancient Egyptians population this could only have been the place of the gods.

The temple sits on the banks of the river at the site of ancient Thebes, a city that reached its glory under New Kingdom pharaohs with a million inhabitants. The temple built over a period of 1,500 years is one of the greatest architectural achievements ever. Nearby is a similar but smaller temple – Luxor. These are linked by a two-mile Nile-side promenade (once entirely lined with sphinxes).

The sprawling complex of temples at Karnak is the result of generations of pharaohs expanding and enriching the site to please the gods and increase their own status. Over the centuries, the Karnak and Luxor temples grew ever more magnificent by the addition of a succession of pylons, courts and halls. Builders included Tuthmosis III (ruled 1504-1450 BCE), Amenhotep III (1386-1349 BCE) and Ramesses II (1279-1212 BCE). The latter known as Ramesses the Great, was a prolific builder particularly enamoured of large statues of himself.

Temples of ancient Egypt were theatres in which pharaoh and priests performed symbolic rituals and held festivals to honour the gods. In return, the gods gave life and order to the land of Egypt. Deities worshipped often changed over the span of the Egyptian civilization, or appeared in different forms. In New Kingdom Egypt, the god Amun became the greatest of the gods. Regarded as a creator deity, he became assimilated with the sun god Re to become Amun-Re. The pharaohs themselves were heads of state and a divine link between the gods and people. Walls and columns in the temples carry carved and painted reliefs showing kings’ military exploits and interactions with gods.

The temple is approached through ranks of ram-headed sphinxes lining a processional avenue leading to a towering gateway, through walls that stand almost 147 feet high. This leads to the Great Court containing the Temple of Ramses III. Two colossi of him guard the way into the spectacular 54,000 -square-foot Great Hypostyle Hall crowded with 134 towering stone columns, some reaching 80 feet and measuring 33 around them. It is still the largest room of any religious building in the world

Finally come dimly lit chambers that include the holy inner sanctum dedicated to the temple god and accessible only to the pharaoh and priests. The area of the sacred enclosure of Amon alone is 61 acres and would hold ten average European cathedrals. St Peter's, Milan and Notre Dame Cathedrals could be lost within its walls. In addition to the main sanctuary there are several smaller temples and a vast sacred lake.

The mother of religious temples indeed!

From journal Red Sea Celebrations

Editor Pick

Valley of the Kings

  • February 15, 2008
  • Rated 4 of 5 by Liam Hetherington from Manchester, United Kingdom
Valley of the Kings

The eastern bank of the Nile was associated with the rising of the sun and hence life in the minds of the ancient Egyptians; it was there that their towns and temples were largely sited. In comparison the western bank was the domain of the darkly-aspected god Set, associated with the setting of the sun and death. This is why tombs were often located to the west of the Nile, whether we are talking of the Tombs of the Nobles across from Aswan, the famous pyramid fields from Giza down to Dahshur... or the infamous Valley of the Kings.

It was not just pharoahs who were buried across from the ancient capital of Thebes (modern-day Luxor). There is a Valley of the Queens to its south, there are tombs of high-ranking nobles and functionaries - even the craftsmen and artists who worked on the funerary arrangements were allowed their own tombs by Deir el-Medina, their encampment. But it is the Valley of the KIngs that is most famous. The discovery and excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922 - an event that made worldwide headlines in the age of mass media - is the most memorable event, but its other tombs had been sealed, robbed, and reused for millenia.

Visits to the tombs are strictly regulated. Often some are closed for restoration, or just to give them a rest - every single visitor adds to humidity levels which can damage the dazzling artwork the ancients left behind to extol their glories.

A LE70 ticket lets you access the Valley, and allows entrance to three of the open tombs of your choice. At each your ticket will be punched - if you are lucky enough not to get it punched you effectively gain the opportunity to visit another. A guide or a guidebook is useful to enable you to decide which you want to see, as they have different qualities - some are deeper, some are more brilliantly decorated, some have more convoluted lay-outs. A board tells you which tombs are open on any given day. On my trip I saw the tombs of Ramses IV (brilliant decorations, including a feted ceiling mural), Ramses IX (showing how wall art had deteriorated from its high point), and Tuthmosis III (a tomb so laden with traps that it seems straight out of Indiana Jones). Certainly Ramses IV and Tuthmosis III's tombs are ones I would recommend without a shadow of a doubt. I will go into them in more detail later.

Entrance to the fabled tomb of Tutankhamun is covered by an additional ticket that costs LE80. You need to decide before you enter the Valley whether you will want to tour his tomb. The reports I had read stated that there is not much to his crypt other than its fame; his tomb was hurriedly constructed and not architecturally great, and all his grave goods were on display in Cairo where I had seen them. All that there was to view was his plain stone outer sarcophagus. I and the rest of my party decided not to stump up the extra LE80.

Once inside the valley we wished we had decided otherwise. Film crews found good spots, reporters did their pieces to camera, and we spotted Dr Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities bustling by in a hat (our guide was very dismissive of Hawass, accused of monopolising all progress in Egyptology and making himself a fortune off the back of it). It turned out that that morning, Sunday 4th November, the badly damaged mummy of King Tut himself was being returned to his tomb, where he could be viewed by vistors. It made frontpage news across the world in a way that his exhumation had 85 years earlier. And we could have been there on this historic day! Oh well!

The vistors centre at the start is well worth looking at. It has a superb glass diorama showing the topography (above and below ground) to the complex. A tourist train takes you up to the tombs themselves, though I chose to walk. The Valley is well paved, winding down bare sandstone gulleys. Occassionally security men could be seen atop the canyon walls, modern day guardians of the dead. The landscape is otherwish desolate and bone-dry - truly a place of the dead.

RAMSES IV - My first stop was actually one of the first tombs you come to, just off to the right of the main path. This tomb has superb artwork, the colours still glowing after all these years. If this had been an Indiana Jones filmset the audience would never have bought it - everyone knows tombs are dark and grim and forbidding. But the walls here and cheerful in their daisy oranges and whites, incised with heiroglyphs and technicoloured geese. These decorations were not pristine - patches were missing, and parts were overlaid with Coptic Christian symbols (figures of saints etc), as this was one of the earliest discovered tombs. In the tomb proper you find a gant granite kaaba of a sarcophagus, inscribed with magical spells. Above, the ceiling is decorated with one of Egypt's most famed images, the twin depiction of the goddess Nut (night)swallowing the sun after it had floated down the river of the day that issued from her nether regions. I would class this as one of the Valley's 'must-see' tombs.

RAMSES IX - The artwork here was indicative of the decline of artistry over the years. The frescoes here were two-dimensional rather than highlighted carvings. A steep corridor leads down to the pharoah's burial pit. On my visit the place stunk of turps as restorers were at work in here.

TUTHMOSIS III - The tomb of Tuthmosis III, the great innovator who (according to our guide) established the media, the secret police, and a whole host of other 'firsts', really WAS like something out of an Indiana Jones film. Down the end of the Valley there is a narrow ravine. A modern staircase now climbs to a high cleft in the rockface. Here an entrance leads down into a passageway. Traps are evident - you come across a deep pit which you cross via a bridge. This brings you to a hot vestibule. From here stairs lead down to the tomb proper, an unusual rounded chamber decorated with tiers of stick figures. His actual sarcophagus remains in situ, its lid slightly elevated. With a torch you can peer under the lid to see a depiction of a goddess who would have 'held' the deceased safely. Again, the spectacular setting and evidence of protective traps make this, in my opinion, a 'must-see' tomb.

From journal Sunrise, Sunset: 24 Hours in Luxor

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