Around Africa: Part Twelve

In which I explored the Valley of Kings

18.12.2023: Tour Day 7, City 9

I woke up at 6am, watched a lot of hot air balloons from my window. All the Egypt explorers had left the cruise early morning for the balloon ride, except for me, Sameer, Ragini and her son Nikhil. I got ready packed my bag and had breakfast at 7:15am. 

Post that I strolled one last time on the whole cruise, played two pool games, one with Sameer. Everyone was back by 8:30am. Luggage was assembled at the reception area as we were disembarking the cruise. I waved goodbye to Marina and Jwacky. 

Luggage was loaded in the bus and we set off again for the road journey. We reached our first sightseeing for the day at 10am.

The Colossi of Memnon

These are two massive stone statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, which stand at the front of the ruined Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III, the largest temple in the Theban Necropolis. The twin statues depict Amenhotep III in a seated position, his hands resting on his knees and his gaze facing eastwards  towards the river. Two shorter figures are carved into the front throne alongside his legs: these are his wife Tiye and mother Mutemwiya. The side panels depict the Nile god Hapi. We further drove to the Valley of Kings and reached there by 10:30am. As usual we passed through a spread of souvenir shops. We got the tickets scanned and were to board small cars to reach the valley. There was a model of the valley, describing the location of tombs and to which king or pharaoh it belonged.

The Valley of Kings 

It is a wadi sitting on the west bank of the Nile, opposite Thebes and within the heart of the Theban Necropolis. There are two main sections: the East Valley, where the majority of the royal tombs are situated; and the West Valley, otherwise known as the Valley of the Monkeys. The royal tombs are decorated with traditional scenes from Egyptian mythology and reveal clues to the period's funerary practices and afterlife beliefs. We visited three tombs in the East valley. We had to walk down through the sloping staircase in each tomb. And guess what the actual mummies are moved to the Royal mummies section in the museum at Cairo.

Tomb KV14 is a joint tomb, used originally by Tausert and then reused and extended by Setnakhte. The original decoration showing the female Tausert was replaced with those of the male Setnakhte. Pictures will help to better understand the path from sloping entry to the tomb.

Entry to Chamber F

Horus and Anubis before two figures of Osiris

Burial chamber 1

Book of Cavern showing the reappearance of the sun at dawn

Burial chamber 2

Tomb KV8 was used for the burial of Pharaoh Merenptah. The burial chamber, located at the end of 160 metres of corridor, originally held a set of four nested sarcophagi.

Burial chamber 

Tomb KV6 is the final resting place of the Pharaoh Ramesses IX. Running 105 metres into the hillside, the tomb begins with a gate and a shallow descending ramp followed by three successive stretches of corridor. The first of these has four side chambers – two on each side. At the end of the corridors come three chambers. The first of these is decorated with the Opening of the mouth ritual. The second chamber contains four large columns.

At the far end of this chamber, a ramp slopes down to the burial chamber, where the pharaoh's sarcophagus was placed (the floor has a rectangular section carved out to accommodate it). 

Burial chamber 

The ceiling is vaulted, and is decorated with splendid pictures of the goddess Nut. The side walls show scenes from the Book of Caverns and the Book of the Earth. The far wall depicts Ramesses on his barque, surrounded by a host of gods. The yellows, dark blues, and blacks used to decorate this chamber are visually striking and unusual among the tomb decorations in the Valley.

Done with the exploration, we got into the small cars and left the valley in the scorching sun noon. I wished we could visit the Valley of Queens too. We drove ahead to the Titiarabi Alabaster factory.

Alabaster is a mineral and a soft rock used for carvings and as a source of plaster powder. Calcite alabaster is known as Egyptian alabaster, which describe either a compact, banded travertine stone or a stalagmitic limestone colored with swirling bands of cream and brown. We watched the demo of how the rocks are cut, shaped, polished and then carved upon with designs. 

Then we visited the showroom of artifacts and had tea, coffee, lemon juice. The artifacts were worth admiring. Done with this, we drove ahead to the Hatshepsut temple at 1:15pm. More on the temple in the next post.

Read next: Around Africa Part Thirteen