Hussein
got our 3 tickets then took us to the covered area to explain about the valley
and to tell us about the tombs. We were awake bright and early whilst it was still dark outside. After a cup of tea we went down to pick up our breakfast box and meet our guide. He was waiting for us in reception and introduced himself as Hussein. The three of us went outside and crossed the road to catch our ferryboat to the West Bank. Hussein introduced us to the ferryman who would take us across the Nile and back for each of our trips. When we reached the other side our driver Rageeb, was waiting for us with his minibus . We climbed aboard and set off for The Valley of the Kings. It was just getting light with the sun coming up over the East Bank but it was quite hot already. As we approached the King's Valley, we saw the early morning balloonists floating around above us. We were more or less the first visitors to arrive and we almost had the train buggy to ourselves.
Hussein
got our 3 tickets then took us to the covered area to explain about the valley
and to tell us about the tombs.
We had already more or less decided which tombs we wanted to see this time and Hussein told us a bit about them. There are only 16 tombs open to the public and not all of them are open at one time. We had seen 3 tombs on our Nile trip so there were not many left to choose from. We chose the most difficult first whilst it was reasonably cool and this was KV 34 the tomb of Thutmose III, which is approached by very steep steps up into the mountainside.
Guides are not allowed in the tombs so Hussein waited at the bottom for us.
Thutmose III was from the Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 18 and ruled as Pharaoh from
1504 - 1450 after Queen Hatshepsut. Thutmose III was renowned for his military
campaigns and his tomb is simply decorated, a lot of the drawings being more
like the stick-figures in a Lowrie painting.
His tomb was never finished and it is said that he wanted it this way because
as long as the tomb remained unfinished he would not die. It was the first tomb
to have a well shaft and also to have the book of the Netherworld ( the Imydwat)
painted on the walls of its burial chamber.
As we emerged from the tomb a crowd of tourists arrived and we had to wait a while to get back down.
It was interesting to see this tomb as Thutmose II was one of the earlier Pharaohs and its simplicity demonstrated how the decoration of tombs had changed throughout the Middle Kingdom.
Our second tomb KV 14 was that of Queen Tausert, and Setnakhte and is unusual because of its 2 burial chambers.
Paintings
show the change in status of Tausert from the royal wife of Seti II to regent
of Siptah. The upper corridors show the queen in the presence of the gods, accompanied
by her stepson Siptah but the lower corridors and the burial chambers are decorated
in a style more appropriate for a king. The tomb was pressed into service for
the hasty burial of Setnakhte, who only reigned for 3 years, and images of the
queen were plastered over and replaced by images of Setnakhte or his cartouches.
The paintings are still very colourful and mostly still in tact.
Our third tomb was KV 16 Rameses I is relatively small and contains the red granite sarcophagus of the Pharaoh.
Rameses I was not of royal blood, but was Vizier to his predecessor, Horemheb,
who had no children to succeed him. The tomb is unfinished, which could be because
Rameses I only reigned for 2 years.
There are some very colourful paintings on the walls despite the small size
of the tomb, which descends downwards in a straight line with the burial chamber
at the end, and three side rooms leading off. This tomb is famous for its paintings
of the book of the gates.
When we climbed out of the tomb we rejoined Hussein and then made our way back to the train and then back to our minibus.
We
were then taken to our next port of call, which was "The
Valley of the Queens", whose original name was "Place of Beauty".
Although about 80 tombs have been found, there are only a few tombs open to
the public here and most of them are actually of Princes and some Priests and
the valley itself is never very crowded. The queen's tombs are not as big and
elaborate as the Pharaohs but the paintings are every bit as spectacular. The
most beautiful tomb is that of Queen Nefertari but it is no longer open to the
public but is opened for dignitaries and Egyptologists who are able to pay £2000
per opening.
As we knew nothing at all about the Queen's valley, we relied on Hussein to advise us which ones were the best to see. He suggested we first saw Queen Tyti's tomb QV 52. She was thought to be one of the wives of Rameses III. On the walls she is called "Chief Royal Wife", "King's Daughter", "King's mother" and "King's Sister". This is because she was buried next to two of Rameses III's sons.
The
paintings on the walls of the main corridor are now faded but were once very
beautiful and show scenes of the queen with Horus and Hathor.
In
the burial chamber itself are paintings of jackals and baboons. The tombs in
the "queen's valley" show paintings related to the family life of
their occupants, whereas Pharaohs' tombs show paintings related to their reign.
Our second tomb was next to Tyti's, QV 44 and was that of Rameses III's son, Khaemwaset. This tomb follows a straight axis leading to a long antechamber with annexes on either side.
Prince
Khaemwaset became a priest of Ptah, but he was also in high office as fan bearer
to Rameses III, even though it is thought that he died young. Many of the tomb's
paintings show him still with his side-lock (which signifies childhood) being
presented to the Gods by his father.
Paintings also show the "book of the dead"with Rameses taking his
son through the gates of the underworld to the realm of Osiris. On the rear
wall of the burial chamber is a painting of the green Osiris between the goddesses
Neith and Nephthys, with the four sons of Horus at his feet rising out of a
lotus flower.
Our
third and final tomb for today was QV 55, Prince Amen-her-khopshef, yet another
of the sons of Rameses III, thought to have died at the age of about 15 years.
The design of this tomb is similar to that of his brother with a straight corridor
leading to the antechamber and then to the burial chamber.
The
main theme shows Rameses III introducing his son, again with the sidelock to
the afterworld. Although he was not a senior son, he is shown as a fan bearer,
standing on the right side of his father. At the rear of the tomb is a case
holding a foetus. It was originally thought that his mother, Queen Tyti, miscarried
on hearing of her son's death and the foetus was buried in his tomb, however
it was discovered that the foetus had been moved into the tomb in the 20th century,
but the story was poignant anyway.
Our next visit for the morning was to the "Temple of a Million Years" of Seti I. Before we went on our walk-about again we decided to tuck into our breakfast box from the hotel. All this walking about gives one an appetite. The box contained quite a feast, rolls, butter, yoghurt, boiled egg and 2 or 3 sweet pastries and a carton of juice. We tucked in but couldn't eat it all, so very soon we were ready to roll again.
There are many temples along the West Bank, all in various stages of repair. We wanted to see this one because we had read a lot about Rameses II and his father Seti I.
Seti
dedicated this temple to the god Amun-Ra and it was meant to compliment his
other great monument- the hypostyle hall at Karnak. Originally the temple was
surrounded by a mud brick enclosure facing east towards Karnak. There were originally
3 sections and at the front were the massive pylons, now destroyed. Just inside
there were 2 large sphinxes but now all that remains are the pedestals, but
these bear inscriptions of Seti I and the names of countries and cities that
were considered enemies. There are still many bas reliefs on the walls and the
hypostyle hall is still standing. The temple is mainly built from sandstone
and is therefore not well preserved but many subsequent temples were based on
this design.
By the time we had walked around for a while and taken plenty of photos it was getting very hot so our visit did not last very long. We gratefully climbed back aboard our air-conditioned minibus. Whilst we had been away, Rageeb had been in touch with Jane and they had arranged for us to go back to her flat. We found out as time went by that everyone keeps in touch by mobile phone, it seems to bee the Egyptian way of life now.
Jane welcomed us into her flat and gave us a very welcome glass of mint tea. We had a little chat then she showed us round one of her flats, it was really spacious and held up to 6 people. There was a small swimming pool outside and the view looked out over the fields. At £160 rent per week for the flat it is a tempting possibility for our next visit to Luxor.
Jane offered to take us out to lunch in the local village and as our minibus driver was still hanging around he dropped us off a few hundred yards down the road at a small hotel. Jane was obviously a regular and she settled us down at a table in front of a huge air conditioning unit, and we were given a menu. We were shortly joined by Jane's 15 year old daughter, (15 going on 30) who kept us entertained with her ideology about the oppression of Egyptian women. She certainly opened my eyes, I thought the Egyptians were becoming more modernised in their ideas but according to this young lady the women were still very much subservient.
It was a very interesting lunch and I could have sat and talked to them all day. Sadly it was time to go and Jane called a local cab - a covered landrover with seats down each side and no back door, and dropped us off by the river to catch our ferryboat back to the East Bank.
We were both shattered after our early start so we had a short siesta then Ray had his appointment with his masseur. While he was away I went down to the pool for a swim, then sat in the shade to read my book for a while. When Ray came back he was quite impressed and his shoulder felt a bit better. When we returned to our room we got a phone call from the couple we had met the night before asking us if we would like to join them for dinner.
We met them about 7 ish and walked over the road to a restaurant at the side of the river. This became our favourite eating place for the week with good food and reasonable price. They also had lovely cooling fans installed, which sprayed water as well and with the heat continuing into the night it was very welcome. We ate and had a couple of drinks and a good chat, eventually returning back to the hotel. We did not want to be too late up as we had another early start next day, however it was well after midnight once again.
