Up again at 5.00 a.m. to meet Hussein at 6. We were early and so was Hussein,and
we made our way to the ferry and across again to the West Bank. Today, our first
visit was to the Valley of the Nobles,
which is the northern sector of the west bank, closest to the Nile.
Here in the hillside are over 800 tombs which were used by priests and nobles of the 17th to the 20th dynasties.
We
were to visit 2 of these, the first being that of Khaemhat who was a royal scribe
and overseer of the granaries.
The tomb itself has suffered from fires, from when the early Christians occupied
the tomb as a dwelling place, and much of the colour has now been lost.
It
is one of a number of tombs built at the time of Amenhotep III and is one of
4 to be decorated with reliefs. The tomb is of a standard T shape and is entered
down a stairway opening on to a hall, on the walls of which are agricultural
scenes. The pictures show the grain being measured, the markets and the docks.
On the front wall is a picture of his wife, Tiyi and of Amenhotep III rewarding
his officials.
The second noble's tomb was of Userhat whose titles were "Royal Scribe",
and " Overseer and Scribe of the cattle of Amun", "Bread counting
Scribe of Upper and Lower Egypt" and "Deputy Herald".
This
tomb is well preserved and contains scenes of many different people. In the
first hall he can be seen with his wife and daughter making offerings to Hathor
and Osiris.
Other paintings represent his work, of recording grain and inspecting the cattle. More scenes show banquets, people playing musical instruments and even a barber. Further into the chapel there are scenes of Userhat hunting and fishing. The final scene shows the opening of the mouth ritual and the coffin of Userhat with mourners following its sacred journey.
This was quite interesting to see as the paintings represented the everyday life of the scribes along with their families, which gives some idea of the culture at the time. These sights were all new to us and really fascinated us. Hussein had told us so much new information that it was difficult to remember it all. The nobles were not actually buried in the tombs, but underneath them. Their coffins were carried down a passageway, usually at the side of the tomb and this was closed off after the burial but the outer part of the tomb was left open for a while afterwards, presumably so that the family could mourn the deceased.
Our next stop was the Ramasseum, Rameses II's, "Temple of a Million Years".
There is not much left of this temple as it was built too close to the Nile
and has been seriously damaged by flooding. It is in the process of being rebuilt
from the original stone that has been found around the site, some of which was
used in other buildings. The remains of the site include a Royal Palace, a large
number of mud brick granaries, and a small temple dedicated to his wife Nefertari
and his mother Tuya.
The granaries are reputed to have dated from the biblical times of Joseph (the dream interpreter).
The pylons are decorated with scenes from the battle of Kadesh, but the flood damage can be seen to at least half way up them. In front of the ruins is the base of a giant colossus of Rameses, which once stood about 69 feet high and would have weighed more than 1000 tonnes. It was the feet of this huge statue that inspired the verse of Shelly's poem "Ozymandias".
The
main building was a typical stone built temple with two courtyards and a hypostyle
hall. The second court which is more complete is flanked by statues of Rameses
being summoned for rebirth with his arms crossed and tightly bound in a shroud
and holding sceptres. Modern excavation discovered a vault under the main mortuary
temple containing papyri with religious texts and magical spells. It is also
thought that there was a school for training scribes at this complex. We wandered
around for a while, taking photos. We were the only tourists around, which seems
a shame because it is an interesting site. Organised tours seem to miss out
many of these temples, presumably because of their state of disrepair, however
there was much rebuilding work going on (very slowly - they don't rush about
round here) so maybe one day the Ramasseum will become part of the regular visits.
Our
final visit for today was the one we had really been looking forward to and
that was Deir-el-Medina
- the workmen's village. Deir el Medina lies in a small valley between the western
slope of the Theban mountain and the small hill of Qurnet Murai. In this village,
known as the "Place of Truth", lived the craftsmen who constructed
and decorated the tombs of the West Bank. The craftsmen worked for 10 days then
had a day off to return to their village and their families. The village is
small and neat with the houses tightly packed together in straight rows. The
workers also built and decorated their own tombs next to the village.
Some
of these are open to the public and are very beautiful inside and we visited
two of these. The tombs consisted of an enclosed courtyard with an entrance
through a small pylon, at the end of which was a small chapel, topped by a mud
brick pyramid. At the back of each chapel was a niche for a statue of the deceased
and a stele inscribed with a hymn to the deceased. The chapel was intended for
the worship of the deceased and the body was buried in an underground chamber
below the chapel.
The
first tomb we saw was that of Sennedjem who had the title "servant of the
place of truth". The tomb is a very simple design, reached by a very steep
staircase with very little headroom and consists of a small room followed by
a burial chamber with a vaulted roof.
The walls and ceilings are covered in beautiful brightly painted artwork depicting scenes of the occupants' family and working life. Paintings include the mummy with Osiris and scenes from the book of the dead, all painted on a background of yellow ochre. When this tomb was discovered it was still in tact and contained the wooden sarcophagus, shawabty figures and pottery, which are now in a museum in Turin.
We
then went into the tomb of Inkerhau "foreman of the Lord of the two Lands
of the Place of Truth". He lived during the time of Rameses III and Rameses
IV. Positions in the place of truth were inherited and Inkerhau's position was
inherited from his great grandfather. 
All
the paintings in the tomb have a yellow background. In the upper chamber there
are scenes from the book of the dead and the book of gates and a scene of Inkerhau
and his wife facing kings and queens. The ceiling has unusual paintings of rosettes
and spirals and cow's heads and sun disks. Another scene shows Inkerhau dressed
in the leopard skin of a priest, with shaven head, and another scene shows him
with his wife and sons and grandchildren.
After seeing these beautiful tombs, Hussein showed us a pit that had been discovered full of broken pottery. From all the pieces found it was thought that apprentices used broken pottery to practice writing. During excavations they found pieces of pottery with shopping lists and personal notes and these items gave the Egyptologists an idea of what life was like in the village.
To
the north of the village is a Ptolemaic chapel dedicated to Hathor. This temple
was built on top of a structure built during the reign of Rameses II. It is
in a good state of preservation. Inside the temple a columned hall connects
with a narrow hallway before opening into three sanctuaries dedicated to Amun
Re Osiris, Hathor and Amun Sokar Osiris. There are also chapels dedicated to
Imhotep and Amenhotep. In later years, when the temple no longer functioned,
it was used as a Coptic Monastery.
During the last 2 days Ray had been talking to Rageeb about the Galabiyas that he and many other local Egyptians wear. Rageeb explained how they were made and how cool they were to wear with their "air conditioning". Ray mentioned that he would like one so Rageeb offered to take him to a Galabiya maker to get one made, so after we had dropped Hussein off, we were taken to a village on the West bank to a local tailor. His workshop consisted of one room of about 8 by 10 feet with a counter full of material at one end and a sewing machine in the middle.
After a bit of negotiation Ray chose some fabric and got measured up for a Galabiya.
This was done without a tape measure; the tailor just stretched the fabric to
various parts of Ray's body and put a little snip in the side. The price was
then bartered to £16 and then they had an English cigarette to seal the
deal. Rageeb then took us back to the ferry.
Our ferryman this time seemed very excitable and as he pulled away from the banks he steered straight into another boat, I presume that the shouting that he was doing at the other driver was not complimentary, however we managed to cross back to the East bank without further incident. When we got back to our room we both collapsed absolutely exhausted for a siesta. A while later we went down to the pool for a swim. It was like getting into a warm bath, the temperature of the water was warmer than the weather back home in England, and that was in the late afternoon.
This evening we decided to eat at the same restaurant as last night, the food was good and there was a lovely view across the Nile and also the beer was cheaper than the hotel.
After our meal we went back to the hotel and into the gardens for a shisha before going into the bar for a last beer. The next morning we had a lie in until 6:00 a.m., we weren't being met until 7:00 a.m.
