Valley of the Kings

We got up early this morning, like 4:30 am.  We boarded a boat and cruised across the Nile.  We had breakfast at a farm on the west bank of the Nile.  After breakfast, we went to visit the Valley of the Kings.  The ancient Egyptians lived on the East bank of the Nile, where the sun rose, and they were buried on the West bank of the Nile, where the sun set.  We knew that many of the great pharaohs, queens, and nobles were buried there.  We also knew that tremendous wealth had come from these tombs that included many things now resting in museums all around the world.  We also were told that the west bank of Luxor had something like its own cult society with artisans, architects, temple priests, laborers, and guards – all to help build, decorate, conceal, and protect the great tombs and temples built in this area.  These people passed their knowledge and secrets down for generations through their families.  I don’t know why, but somehow, it all sounded so fantastic and exciting and mysterious and romantic.

We arrived at the Valley of the Kings very early in the morning, to beat the heat and crowds.  But for all the above, I wasn’t prepared for what we saw.  I don’t want to say that it didn’t meet my expectations.  I would probably say that I never imagined it might look like it did.

Look at the pictures I’ve included.  These photos are in sequence as we entered the valley and then as we drove and walked up further into the valley.

It was a stark, steep, scorching canyon.  I kept thinking that our guide must have missed the Valley of the Kings and this was the Valley of the Paupers.  Nope, this was the correct canyon.  This is the Valley of the Kings.  It was once called the Great Place or the Place of Truth.  Royals were buried here as far back as 2181 B.C. and pharaohs were buried here as far back as 1504 B.C.  Why?  This canyon was isolated, easy to guard, and from the Theban plain, this was where the sun appeared to set.

62 tombs have been excavated so far in the valley (as of 2007).  All of them were carefully hidden originally.  Some were hidden much better than others.  The most recent (KV62) was the tomb of Tutankhamen which was discovered in 1922.  Some tombs were open to the public, some were being renovated, and others were closed.

Ramses IV Tomb

The first tomb in the Valley of the Kings that we visited was the tomb of Ramses IV.  It is not considered one of the great tombs, but it has its points that our guide felt were important to see.  Ramses IV (1153 – 1147 BC.) died before his tomb was completed and its pillared hall was hastily converted into a burial chamber.  It was the second tomb discovered and has graffiti on the walls that dates to 278 BC.  (now that’s ancient graffiti)   It was also on the roomy side compared to the pyramids.  The main hall was maybe 12 feet wide and the ceiling maybe 15-18 feet high.  If you look at the first picture, you can see the layout on the sign-board outside of the tomb entrance.  We were going down hill the whole time as we progressed further into the tomb. 

Ramses IV’s tomb had many snakes carved into the walls.  The sarcophagus was very large, like eight feet by fifteen feet and made from red granite.  Most of the ceiling was painted blue and had stars all over it, just like in the picture that I included from Karnak.

I had a major problem in this tomb.  Our guide told us that we could take pictures in here as long as we didn’t use a flash.  But after I took a couple of photos (along with a whole bunch of other people), a guard grabbed my camera away from me before I even saw him (while taking the third photo).  We got into quite a brouhaha before our guide came to my rescue and got my camera back.  It would not have been a problem if I had simply paid the guard a bribe, but by this time, I was done paying bribes.  So I have included a couple of bribe-free photos from inside of the tomb of Ramses IV.

The second picture included is the text of the Book of Nut (pronounced newet).  Nut was the sky goddess.  I don’t know what it says or how you read it, but I liked the color and the figures and I thought it looked pretty good for being painted in something like 1147 BC.

The third photo is also inside this tomb.  This picture is the goddess Nut herself.  I took this picture on the ceiling over the sarcophagus.

Thutmosis III Tomb

The second tomb that we visited in the Valley of the Kings was the tomb of Thutmosis III, who died in 1425 BC.  This was my favorite tomb that we visited.  The planners for this tomb really worked hard and went to great lengths to thwart the cunning of the ancient thieves.  You can see the layout in the first photo.  You need to know, however, that on the placard, the tomb layout looks flat.  It was not flat.

First of all, it was way up at the end of one of the canyons within the valley.   Next, we had to climb way up into one of the crevices in the canyon wall.  You can see this in the second photo.  After we climbed way up that canyon, we climbed down some 90 steps.  At that point, we had to cross a pit which is in the third photo.  Today, there is a bridge to walk across the pit, but in ancient times, there was no bridge.  After that, we entered into the tomb.

The ceiling was covered with stars in this tomb as well.  Most walls were covered with primitive looking stick figures plus snakes, boats, trees, etc.  One ancient stick figure was very clearly signaling “touchdown” much like the referee in American football.  Most of the figures were gods or demigods. 

The burial chamber itself was quite large.  It was oval shaped with curved walls.  It had a quartzite sarcophagus carved in the shape of a cartouche.  Thutmosis’s mummy is now in the Egyptian museum in Cairo.  We saw it when we visited that museum.  He was less than five feet tall.  I got a picture of the burial chamber.  It’s not a very good picture, but it’s probably better than my description.  The pillars on the left side of the photo are in the middle of the chamber.

Again to give you a better idea of where this tomb was located, the last photo was taken as I left the tomb, looking back down towards the valley. 

Other Tombs

We walked around the valley and saw some of the other tombs, some of which were open and some were not.  The first photo was that of Tutankhamen.  While this is not considered that great a tomb by Valley of the King standards, it has received so much notoriety that it has its own separate fee charge to get in.  It’s like an additional twenty bucks US to see it.  We saw pictures of it when they entered it and lots and lots of what was inside it displayed in two museums, so we didn’t go into the actual tomb.

The second photo is of the sons of Ramses II.  It’s listed as being discovered in 1825, which it was, but only six of the chambers.  The greater extent of the tomb was not discovered until 1995.  An American archeologist (Kent Weeks) discovered another secret entrance and has since found over 120 additional rooms.  He speculates that there could be many more still to be discovered.  They may not have this whole tomb sorted out in our lifetime. You can see some of the complexity of the tomb on the entrance sign below. 

The third photo is of the tomb of Ramses I.  He died in 1294 BC.  We went into this tomb.  The tomb went very steeply downhill once entered.  It was not that great a tomb as Ramses I only ruled Egypt for one year.  He did have a very large, high, pink granite sarcophagus.  He also had lots of very big cobras carved into the walls.  This tomb was extremely hot and stuffy inside, much more so than the others that we went inside.  I have to admit that it felt great to get back out into the boiling heat and sunshine when we exited this tomb.

Colossi of Memnon

The Colossi of Memnon are the remnants of the funerary temple of Amenhotep III which was once the largest temple complex on the west bank.  It was believed to have been larger than Karnak.  It had hundreds of statues, gold throughout, silver on the floor, and on and on.  It sat, however, on the Nile flood plain and over the years, the Nile just washed it away. 

The two statues that remain today sit out in a cutout of an alfalfa field.  They are 64 feet tall and massive.  You can see these in the first two photos.

If you look at the background of the second photo and at the next photos, you can see many tombs in the mountain in the background.  Our guide said that the people living here were the people (descendants, that is) who built the pharaohs and royals tombs.  So since they had the knowledge and skills, they built their own families tombs behind where they lived.  This area is just down the road from the Valley of the Kings.  We also visited the Valley of the Queens with its 75 or more tombs, but it was not that different from what you have already seen in previous posts.

Last Felucca Ride

This was our last night and the end of our time in Luxor.  We took one last felucca ride on the Nile which was the highlight of the evening.  We were on the Nile in the evening as the sun was setting.  There is not much to tell about the pictures.  It was a quiet and peaceful boat ride.

Besides being so much cooler out on the water, the sights did make it a somewhat exotic boat ride for us. There was a mist or haze on the water as the hot air of the day met the cooler water of the River Nile.

Later in the evening, we took an hour horse-drawn carriage ride through much of Luxor.  Our guide said that she would never go into some of these neighborhoods, except in a carriage or taxi or something.  The areas didn’t look very problematic to me.  It was really a great look into the locals world.  We didn’t get enough of that on this trip for my liking.  The pictures didn’t come out very well since our carriage was a bit on the wobbly side.

Just for the record, it was 111 degrees today and this was our ninth straight day with the temperature over 100 degrees.  We fly back to Cairo in the morning.

Red Pyramid

We flew from Luxor back to Cairo on this morning.  We had a free afternoon once we got to our hotel.  It was our last full day in Egypt.  We arrived at our hotel at 11:30 am.  We had no plans for the day at that point, but we put one together and quick.  By 12:00 we were in a taxi cab headed across Cairo.  Now what do you suppose our plan was?

Yep, we decided that we wanted to see some more pyramids before we left Egypt.

We were on the east side of Cairo and had to cross the whole city and then cross the Nile into Giza.  At that point, we turned south and drove to Dahshur.  We got to see the Giza pyramids as we drove past on our way south.  The whole drive took us about 75 minutes.

The pyramids at Dahshur were in a military zone until 1996 and parts of the area are still off limits.  Two of the five pyramids at Dahshur had access out of the original eleven pyramids that were there.  The two pyramids with access happen to be the two largest and best pyramids by far in this group.  They are the Red Pyramid and the Bent Pyramid.  Both of these pyramids were built by Pharaoh Sneferu who reined from 2612 to 2589 BC.  Both pyramids are the same height and as such, both are the third highest pyramids in Egypt.  Sneferu was also the father of Khufu, who built the Great Pyramid at Giza.

The Red Pyramid is the world’s oldest true pyramid.  It used to be called the North Pyramid.  It has very little of its limestone casing left, but I still didn’t see why it’s called the Red Pyramid, as it didn’t look red to me.  Both pyramids are 345 feet tall.  You can see a close-up of the Red Pyramid in the first photo.

The next two photos will just be closer up photos of the Red Pyramid. The first one will be of a rough section and the second photo of a section that still has some “face plating” stones.

We waited for the small handful of tourists here to leave and then we had the Red Pyramid all to ourselves – except for the guards of course.  We also decided to climb inside it.  It was 125 steps to get up to the entrance to the pyramid.  You can see the entrance in the next photo. 

The last photo was taken as we stood next to the entrance up on the side of the Red Pyramid.

The passageway into the pyramid was a little over a yard square.  We followed the passageway in about 200 feet.  There were two antechambers offset, one on each side, from the passageway.  These chambers appeared to be red granite and some extremely large stones.  Some stones were ten to twelve feet wide and just as tall and who knows how deep.  The rooms were about 35 feet by 50 feet with a corbelled ceiling about 40 feet tall.  The burial chamber came next and it was a large room with a 50 foot high ceiling.  The burial chamber stone was not as nice as the stone in the antechambers.   The burial chamber also smelled like ammonia.  We enjoyed having the whole pyramid and tomb to ourselves, but it was still very hot and stuffy inside.  It felt wonderful to get back outside of the pyramid.

Bent Pyramid

This is the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur.  It was the Pharaoh Sneferu’s architect’s idea for a smooth sided pyramid.  The stones were laid at an angle (rather than flat as in all the other pyramids) and the pyramid was angled at 54 degrees.  But stress and instability showed about half way up so they switched and started laying the stones flat and reduced the angle to 43 degrees.  That explains the strange shape and also the name.  You can see this in the first two photos, taken at different distances from the pyramid.  You will also notice that much of the Bent Pyramid still has its white limestone casing – more about that later. 

Inside access to the Bent Pyramid was closed.  A nearby pyramid and temple were barely still in existence.  We did have this whole pyramid to ourselves as there were no other tourists here.  We walked all the way around these pyramids.  The guards seem to think we were crazy for even wanting to walk around these pyramids, but as they were no doubt obligated to keep an eye on us, they followed us around.

The third photo is just one that I took at one of the corners of the Bent Pyramid.  I liked the precision and look of the pyramid from this angle.

I tried to capture how this pyramid was different from the others.  All the other pyramids had their stones laid down flat.  The only stone that was angled on other pyramids was the outer edge of the white limestone casing stones.  In the Bent Pyramid, there were no “casing stones” as such.  The outer edged stones in the Bent Pyramid were the casing stones, because they were all laid at an angle.

If you look at the prior photo, I was standing very square to the ground.  You can see the angle of the pyramid and also notice that the stones in the pyramid are not level to the ground. The next photo is more of a close-up, but it’s harder to tell that the stones are not level to the ground, but rather at an angle of 54 degrees.  The third photo is also a close-up, but this time, looking straight up the side of the pyramid. 

Pharaoh Sneferu’s architect obviously made a miscalculation in terms of the stability of his original idea.  But what a long-lasting testimonial to an intriguing architectural idea. 

Back from the Pyramids

As many of you know, I’m usually on the lookout for flora and fauna on my trips.  We haven’t seen too much in the way of fauna so far in my pictures.  We did see some animals but it was nothing compared to the antiquities.  The first photo is a bird that we saw in Cairo.   I just thought that it looked interesting.

The second photo was taken from our speeding taxi on our way back from Dahshur.  We passed miles and miles of date palm orchards.  Egypt must supply the whole world with dates.  As an added note, these farmers were double cropping – they were growing alfalfa underneath the date palm trees.

The third photo was on our drive back from Dahshur, but this photo was taken on the freeway.  The Egyptian drivers pay no attention to lines, lights, signals, or any other mundane traffic parameters – they just drive.  During this drive, our taxi driver discussed politics with us.  He didn’t like George Bush or Hosni Mubarack, both for not taking care of the common people.  It was a great discussion.  The only down side was that he kept getting more and more agitated as we talked.  And as he got more agitated, he drove faster and faster and also more erratic. And during our drive back to our hotel, the traffic kept getting heavier and heavier (3rd photo).  We made it back safe, but I felt like I’d been on an amusement park thrill ride.

Cairo Farewell

This was the end of Cairo and Egypt.  We went out on the town on our last night to the Blue Nile Restaurant in Cairo.  The first photo was taken from the walkway to the restaurant.  It was right on the Nile and on a permanently docked boat.  Our guide told us that the Blue Nile was “the happening hot spot” in Cairo.  She said that “Everybody who was anybody ate at the Blue Nile”. As we were leaving, I questioned her about this statement. I told her that the Blue Nile was nearly empty.  She then told me that “no one” of any importance shows up to eat dinner before 11:30 pm. It was about 9:30 pm as we were leaving the Blue Nile.  Oh well…

The second photo is our bell hop checking in our luggage for the ride to the airport.  Sometimes, the simple things put a smile on my face (like the bell hop’s uniform).

The last photo is just my farewell to Egypt photo.  The Red Pyramid is in the background.  I was standing next to the Bent Pyramid (not in photo). I was feeling at one with Egypt.