Nov 02 – Valley of the Kings

A major bucket list item to check off today…The Valley of the Kings.  Site of the tombs of many pharaohs.  The valley was used over about 500 years from the 16^th to the 11^th centuries BCE. 

Archaeologist have found 63 pharaoh tombs in this valley so far.  The pharaohs started “hiding” their tombs deep in this valley after grave robbers readily robbed the tombs in the massive pyramids of their treasures.  Unfortunately, The grave robbers also robed these tombs as well (except for Tutankhamen’s). 

Map of the Tombs

We only visited a few of the tombs (they begin to look a lot alike after a while).  What was really amazing was that after 3,000+ years the paints were still so vivid.  And it was so amazing that they could dig these massive tombs out of living rocks…with only hand tools. 

We visited the tombs of Ramesses III,

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More Ramesses III Tomb
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Ramesses IV,

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More Ramasses IV Tomb
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Ramesses VI,

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Video 1 inside Ramesses VI tomb
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Video 2 Inside Ramesses VI tomb
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Video 3 Inside Ramesses VI tomb
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More Ramesses VI Tomb
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Ramesses IX

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More Ramesses IX Tomb
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And Tutankhamen.

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Video inside Tutankhamen tomb
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The next stop was the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut.  And what a glorious temple it was with a wonderful backdrop of the mountains.  Hatshepsut was the second confirmed female pharaoh in Egypt.  She reigned for 21 years in the mind-1400's BCE.  She is considered to have had a very successful reign, but she was almost lost to history when her successor tried to wipe out all traces of her. 

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More Hatshepsut Mortuary Temple
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We then had a definite change of pace.  We stopped at a shop where they made alabaster items.  There was a group of craftsmen sitting in the front to demonstrate the making of alabaster bowls (they only seemed busy when the tourists were around...otherwise the looked pretty idle.

And the group did a bit of shopping.  But not too much was bought.  But it was very interesting. 

After a bit of a drive we stopped to visit the Tomb of Sennutem...

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and a second, nearby, tomb.

Nearby was the Colossi of Memnon.  

A nearby archaeological dig.

So many statues and temples and tombs.  But the Egyptians spent a couple of thousand years building them so it makes sense that there are so many of them.

Some of the countryside we saw as we traveled between sites.

The afternoon was spent cruising the Nile.  How relaxing.