Egypt - Valley of the Kings

The Valley of the Kings

I mean, where to start.  I thought yesterday was overwhelmingly incredible.  And yet, it is in the shadow of today.   Today’s brochure description was:

This morning, travel by coach to the west bank of the Nile. See the Colossi of Memnon and visit both the Temple of Hatshepsut and the Valley of the Kings, where many pharaohs were buried, including Hatshepsut, Amenhotep I and Tutankhamun. Experience the renowned local hospitality of Egyptians during a visit to the village of Geziret Bahirat. Connect with the community and share bread with the Bahirat family, as they regale you with their fascinating stories of daily life. Visit Luxor Temple which was unearthed by Mariette in the 1860s, before returning to your cruise ship and sail via the Esna Lock to Edfu, for your overnight stay.

I mean - that sounds like a lot.  And it was.  But it didn’t go in quite that order and it feels like the lead was buried lol.

Inside King Metenptah's Tomb

We started early at the Valley of the Kings.  Honestly - this could’ve been the whole day and it still would’ve been absolutely incredible.  It is, unremarkable on approach - a road through the desert packed with holes/caves.   But what’s in those caves is where the magic is.  Guides aren’t allowed in the tombs, so our guide would tell us what we were about to see, what to look for, and said to take photos of anything we had questions about,  Then we’d go in on our own.  Said guide was also good about paying attention to where the other groups were, so in all but one we basically had the place to ourselves.

You could go into three tombs with the entrance fee and we paid extra to also see King Tut’s.  Overall the visit is limited to two hours, although that didn’t appear to be being enforced (likely due to the lack of tourists).  This is to protect the tombs from damage due to too many people breathing in them.  This is also why the guides aren’t allowed to enter - they have to do their spiels outside, so people will keep moving inside.

I mean, idk what I was expecting,
but this was so much more than whatever was in my little brain

The first one we went into was the Tomb of Ramses the 3rd.  We had it almost entirely to ourselves - at times we had whichever area we were in entirely to ourselves, which was absolutely incredible.  The last bit is blocked because they’re still restoring it, but the available section well worth a wander.  There were two side areas - one of which you could walk though, and the other you could see but not go in.  Amazing colours - everywhere.  Very important to remember to look up too as the ceiling was a deep blue with stars the whole way.   

Part of the scene from The Book of the Dead

The guide recommended looking for some particular scenes - one was from the Book of the Dead.  The blocks on the ramp are the sarcophagus being lowered into the underworld. The snake is a guardian who connects the soul to the physical mummy (maybe? I'm fuzzy on this) and protects the pharaoh in the afterlife. The snake has legs and a human head because he needs to be at least human to be an appropriate guardian. The one he's talking to is a goddess (sorry - didn't catch which one) who is also there to help protect as well….  Take that all with a grain of salt as was told to me with many other things before we actually went in and I was too excited to be paying enough attention. I got better on the other tombs!  I’m sure Google could tell you more.  But yeah, very very cool.   There are cutouts that were for shrines (that are also fully decorated), and extra rooms that I didn’t catch what they were for but enjoyed exploring.  Just wow.

Being under another tomb likely protected Tut's.

Next we went into King Tut’s tomb, because, that’s what you do ;).  😂 ironically it would prove to be the smallest and least impressive of all of them, but what was interesting is that it was dug out beneath another tomb, which is part of how they think it avoided being found by grave robbers (well, prior to the British ;-P).  However, the interesting thing here is that while everything he was buried with is gone - mostly now in the new Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo - his mummy is still here, albeit in a climate/humidity-controlled box.  

King Tut

The colours were still incredibly vibrant, the artwork extremely clear.  The story that stuck in my head about this one was about the baboons lol.  There are 12 of them, representing the 12 hours of the night (the Egyptians loved their symmetry), and each one is a guardian for the King for one hour of his journey, before he could be reborn with the sun at dawn.  Because baboons make a lot of noise / are very active at sunrise this was seen as  celebration of the sun god Ra, light overcoming darkness, etc etc.   So there’s your randomness from this tomb.  

Some of the colours, and - of course - the baboons

We also learned about who the four people were, alas - apparently baboons are far more interesting cause for the life of me I don’t remember ;). This tomb we were literally the only people in it for a few mins, then joined by a couple others.  Not exactly a crowd!

Lots of stairs into King Metenptah's tomb!

Next we visited King Metenptah - this one had the most stairs (our guide checked that we’d be okay w that before sending us in) but also the biggest space and gorgeous arched ceiling in the big room with the sarcophagus.   They had one of the coffins open part way down the stairs so you could theoretically see inside (I found it really hard to see on the angle we were on and didn’t take any photos, but the concept was at least interesting.  

King Metenptah

Common themes with the others include every surface inscribed - including the blue/starred ceiling; what looks like more than one room (although we could only go in the one); and some incredible extant colours (red eagles on the ceiling were incredible).  

Every suface.  In most cases, size = importance of both the figures and the part of the story

What was different was how deep underground it was and the size and shape of the huge chamber.

The space was HUGE

The last one we got to visit was Ramses the 4th.  This was by far my favourite and I was glad the guide saved it for last.  To the point that when I was almost out I turned around and went back for another look.   There were more people in this one but still enough space to navigate and get (almost) people-free shots if you were patient.  There was one hallway we couldn’t go down but still stunning so at least one photo of what we could see.   All sides of all spaces except the floors covered and incredible, almost unbelievable, colour.  This one also had a fairly large chamber - not quite as big as the one before but still significant.

The room that was blocked off
You can see the cutouts for alters (also decorated_ and the colours that never faded.

Always remember to look up!  Stunning ceiling art

Before the rest of today, the coffin itself would've been fascinating.  
Now it's outshone by the tomb itself.

Even the hallway was incredible

More pictures just cause of the last tomb just cause:

So yeah, suffice to say it was an incredible experience.  Unbelievable how it's lasted.  

The only minor annoyance is that the guards in all the temples were spending their time trying to convince tourists to pay them - usually for photos, at least one for a cardboard fan (that they didn’t ask you if you wanted, just shoved in your hand as you entered and then expected both it AND a tip back when you exited), or occasionally access to where you’re not supposed to go.   We declined all (except we fell for the fan one once, but not again).  These tombs were hot, and if they had been crowded I could see it being a potentially less positive experience.  But for our day - these were beyond incredible.  Wish I’d gotten to see Hapshetsut’s tomb as well but it’s currently closed due to structural instability.  Booo.  To be fair, it’s also apparently not quite as interesting, but she’s the only woman there so I felt I should at least visit ;).  However, the next stop (and next blog post ;) was her temple!