You may be relieved to read that the postings on Luxor and the Valley of the Kings will be somewhat shorter mainly because photography is prohibited inside the Site never mind the tombs! Although I bought a DVD that includes some 14,000 pictures of the ancient sites in Egypt I cannot of course transgress the copyright but selecting a few to show you. Neither was I going to buy a poor quality guidebook from you know how. So the only information I have is from the Cruise Brochure but I’m sure that for those of you who would like to know more you Google or Wikipedia can supply all the information that you want to know.
The photo is about as close as you are going to get to the Valley of the Kings in this Blog!!
Having run the gauntlet of the vendors and protected the very pretty young Bulgarian lady from the Boutique on board, who was acting as an escort from, being bought for 100 camels (!) probably only in jest but pretty frightening for her – we took the battery powered train for the 300 metre climb to the first tombs.
The Valley of the Kings is situated on the west bank of the Nile close to the ancient capital of Egypt Thebes – the Luxor of today. It is where for 500 years tombs were constructed for the Pharaohs and nobles. 62 tombs have been discovered to date in this ‘City of the Dead’ but only 11 are currently open to enter. There are potentially hundreds still to be discovered. The tombs are carved into the rock and downwards to the chamber where the Sarcophagi were placed together with many treasures representing everything that would be required on the journey to the after life.
Many you will have seen or be familiar with the treasures recovered from the Tomb of Tutankhamen, only found because the entrance to this particular tomb was concealed and the contents had, therefore, not been ransacked by tomb raiders – that often happened in many cases shortly after the tomb was sealed.
The tombs were begun the day the Pharaoh was crowned and construction went on until the day he died. This explains why the tomb of Tutankhamen is so small since he died – if I remember correctly in his early twenties. His tomb is open to visit but hardly worth it because it is so small and the treasures are now in Cairo Museum.
No one really knows how the ancient Egyptians managed to tunnel so far into the rock. No evidence of flames from candles or oil lamps has been found in any of the tombs. One theory is that they used mirrors to reflect sunlight inside and another, and more controversial theory, is that the Egyptians had electricity in some form.
Whatever the answer the tombs are impressive structures, the deepest penetrating 180 metres down into the rock and all decorated in hieroglyphs and art painted with mineral dyes that look as fresh today as they did when completed.
I had a chance to go into 3 of the tombs. The decoration is mind blowing in its detail and beauty and what it must have been like when containing the treasures to accompany the Pharaohs to the afterlife one can only speculate about. The engineering and mining of these tombs is a marvel and reflects the intellect of this ancient nation and leaves one wondering just how much they understood in comparison with today. It makes, in my opinion, the current situation in Egypt all the more sad and poignant.
Just to continue this cultural them for a moment the ancient Egyptians worshipped the supreme god Amun who is also connected with the sun God Ra, and in Greek and Roman times Zeus and Jupiter. They certainly understood the Sun as the giver of life. Many of the stories and legends that interconnect the ancient gods reflect similar stories to those found in the Old Testament and are thought by some to be the ancient origins of Christianity. Our Guide, who held a Masters Degree in Egyptology and who was currently writing a Doctorate told us that studying the ancient religion had turned her to atheism so obscure were some of these legends and stories. Again it is just too much to take in so this whole area will be a source of further thought and research for me.
So having visited 3 tombs we ran the gauntlet of the vendors with Christiana, our lovely Shop Assistant now firmly married to Johnny the Photography Manager – who refused the rapidly escalating bids of camels for his wife!!
Our next stop was the Nile for Lunch on a Felucca.
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