We started on the West Bank. In Egypt the country is considered to be on the East Bank or West Bank depending on what side of the Nile you are on. The East Bank is for Life because that is where the sun is born and the West Bank is for the Afterlife because that is where the sun dies. So basically you will see temples for worship in the east side and tombs on the west side.
Our first stop was the Valley of the Kings which was truly one of the highlights of my trip thus far.
Looks plain enough but hard to imagine the riches that were found beneath these hills.
I have to say the Valley is one of the reasons I came here even though I knew very little about it (you just always hear about it). The Valley of the Kings is home to 63 tombs. There are still 3 missing but archaeologists believe they are there somewhere because of the timeline of certain kings. We only got to visit 3 but they were amazing. It is just amazing the things that they did back then. The Valley of the Kings was only used for about 600 years. It was decided that instead of a Pyramid for each King, they would use one mountain for all. This particular mountain was chosen because it is close to Luxor, which was the capital of Egypt at the time, the mountain forms the shape of a natural pyramid and when the sun sets it forms the top of the pyramid. There is also a Valley of the Queens but we did not visit it. Although there is one women buried in the Valley of the Kings because she ruled as a king after acting as a man. We will talk more about her a little later though.
The Valley is very neat and it is hard to imagine what you will find below the mountain as you walk along the outside of it. There are Kings from 3 Dynasties buried here, and the tombs of each one can be characterized by different things. Dynasty 18 Tombs have small entrance ways, paintings on the walls and ceilings and sand stone coffins. Dynasty 19 have large, straight entrance ways, carvings on the wall and granite coffins. Dynasty 20 have wide, straight entrance ways, paintings and engravings on the wall and heavy granite coffins. It is in the Valley of the Kings that King Tutankhamun or as most of us would call him King Tut was found. He did not rule for very long but is very famous because of what was found in his tomb. Unlike most of the other tombs in the area, King Tut’s was never opened and contents never removed until archaeologist found it. Most of the other tombs were emptied of gold and treasures in around 1190 BC, the time of King Rameses VIIII which was a time of widespread famine and suffering.
So the first tomb we visited was King Thutmes III. This was the oldest tomb we saw. We had to climb some stairs to get up to the opening and then climb back down into the tomb via several flights of stairs before we reached to coffin.
The stairs up to the tomb of King Thutmes III
So amazing to think how many people they had working on these tombs. They would have used copper and bronze tools to dig the tombs. Crushed limestone mixed with water was used to plaster the walls which made it easier to paint. This first tomb had nothing but paintings on the walls and ceiling. The next tomb we visited was that of Sety II. We could just walk straight into this one. No stairs or anything like that. Just engravings of these walls which were really neat. The final tomb was that belonging to Rameses IV. With the engravings and paintings it was really neat. Interesting to know that 95% of the original paintings and colour are still present. All the colour of course was made from coloured rocks mixed with water. You can actually still find some of the rocks and make your own paint if you wanted to. I guess you can tell that we could not take any pictures inside the tombs or you know I would be saying those with you now.
Before I move on I have to say that we had a great tour guide named Sam today. He had more information and stories than I could even believe. There is so much information and am seriously thinking about taking a Egyptian history class at some point in time. I have tried to keep up with the names and dates and places and spellings but some things may be a little off but I am trying to be as accurate as possible. And spellings are really hard to keep up with because it seems the same people and things are spelled different depending on who you ask and what you are looking at.
Me with the Valley
Anyway, once again all I can say is AWESOME but the day was not done….this was just stop number one. History rolls on, the temperature went up and I learned more from Sam than I could have imagined.
The next stop was at The Temple of Hatshepsut. (pronounced Hat-cheap-suit). She was a women who told people she was a man so that she could be king. She is buried in the Valley of the Kings.
In order to be king, a person had to be the son the king and his mother had to be the primary royal wife. Thutmes II was set to be king after his father’s death however he was only 4 years old. People still wanted him to be king since he was his father’s only son but his mother was not the Queen (I believe she was the third wife). He acted as King for a few years until Hatshepsut (who they consider Thutmes’ aunt although she was his father’s primary wife….are you confused yet?) took over the throne and ruled for 21 years. Thutmes II eventually took the throne back by marrying his step-sister and ruled as king. At this time Thutmes II ordered everything for Hatshepsut destroyed as we saw later in the day. This temple was not destroyed completely because it was built for a god and that could not be destroyed.
Looking out on the Luxor Valley. That looks like water in the background....but it isn't
I am a tourist so had to have at least one tourist like picture.
On this side of the river you will also find the Valley of the Queens and the Noble Tombs. In the Noble Tombs you will find priests, high priests, scribers and many others…..but no commoners.
The Tomb of the Nobles.
The next stop was Karnuk Temple.
A full view of the temple and me in the entry way.
It actually is an incomplete temple as the King died before it was completed and nobody bothered to finish it. The place is massive though. Left behind are some of the reminisces of how the great walls of these temples were built. The Egyptians would use mud blocks, building up the pile as the wall got higher. Once the wall was completed the mud blocks would be taken down as each section of the wall scrubbed.
They left this here even after the restorations so that people can see how it would have looked during the construction phase.
I wish I could remember which king the temple was being built for. I want to say Tutankhamen because he did not live very long but I am not sure. I will have to look that up later. (PS Christmas gift ideas…Egyptian history books).
Below are a few more shots form Karnuk Temple
Wouldn't be Egypt with there wasn't a random animal sleeping somewhere.
After Karnuk Temple we got some free time….well we had an hour to eat, re-hydrate, some of us checked into our new hotel (we left the cruise ship behind this morning) and then back on the bus to one more temple. Not everybody made it but like I said before I am not missing any of Egypt because of cost or because I am tired.
This was the view from the roof of the hotel in Luxor
Our last temple of the Day was Luxor Temple. Please note that by now it is 1500 (3pm), it has been around 44 to 45 C (111 to 113 F) for most of the day and it is nearing the end of our trip so I don’t blame anyone who decided to stay behind. This was the life Temple for Rameses II. He was an interesting pharaoh. He had 8 royal wives but it is believed he may have had 65 wives in total. He had 198 sons and at one point married one of his daughters. I posted a quick shot of it a few days ago as we were making the trip to Awan but today we got to explore it and Sam was along for the ride to give us all the information.
The group of us who made it out at the entrance to the temple.
Me inside the temple. The shadows were really weird at this time of day so getting pictures was hard.
A shot of the sun I stared into all day long.
The temple was also used for a short period by King Tutmantamen. You can tell when it changed as Rameses II used granite for his statues where as King Tut used alabaster and sandstone.
Around 200 AD the temple was also used by the Romans. They used bricks for several areas of the temple to construct other sections. Because of this you will find areas where portions of the Egyptian art are upside down or something like that. The Romans’ concern was where the bricks went not reconstructing the art.
This is Sphinx Avenue. At one point it was 3 kilometres (1.9 miles) long.
And thus ends a very long day. The group is going its separate ways tonight. Caroline, Liz, Alan and the others have left by bus to head back to Cairo and the end of their tour. There are 11 of us left who will continue on a few more days in Hurghada before heading to Cairo for the end of the tour.
Julie
No comments:
Post a Comment