The Valley of the Kings is set back a couple of miles from the Nile in the desert hills. It's a barren landscape with just rocks, sand, and hills that have been worn down by the wind and sand. The Valley of the Kings has 63 ancient tombs. After realizing the pyramids were easy targets for theft, the Egyptians decided to bury their royalty in underground tombs that they carved out of the rock. Luckily, the priests knew at some point these tombs would be raided, so they moved a lot of the ancient mummies to separate locations. This decision allowed us, a few days earlier, to stare at some of the most powerful and popular pharaohs of the Egyptian civilization in the Royal Mummy Room at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Tarek gave us a brief intro and told us we could enter three tombs. Only fifteen tombs are open to the public, and they rotate them to help distribute the damage. We had the option to enter King Tut's famous tomb, but Tarek recommended three different ones (Rameses I, Rameses III, and Rameses IV), as he thought they were much better than King Tut's. For obvious reasons, no pictures were allowed inside the tombs.
All three tombs were nothing short of AMAZING! Once entering the tomb, there was a corridor leading to the burial chambers where the stone sarcophagus still resides. Some tombs had smaller chambers before the burial chamber where the pharaoh's treasures would be piled. Every square inch (including the ceiling) of the tombs was decorated with hieroglyphics and painted scenes of the afterlife. What was most incredible was the preservation of the colors. Because the tombs are underground, they've been well protected from the elements, and despite being thousands of years old, the vibrant colors look as if they were drawn and painted yesterday. All of the tombs were unfortunately raided by thieves except for King Tut's, since his tomb was cleverly built underneath another tomb (enlarge the picture of the Valley of the Kings map to get a visual of KV62). Entering the tombs was definitely a highlight!
We jumped back into the van and headed to the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, passing lush green fields just down the road from the desolate Valley of the Kings. Queen Hatshepsut's temple was one of the more dramatic temples we visited. It was pretty impressive walking up the ramps to the temple that was situated at the base of the mountain. The temple was in pretty poor shape, but the colors and scenes were still mind blowing.
Just down the road was the Valley of the Queens. It was not an impressive as the Valley of the Kings but still amazing. There was just so much to look at inside the tombs, it was overwhelming. We headed back to the boat for a much needed rest and some lunch.
After lunch, we went to the Karnak temple, the largest ancient religious site in the world. It was constructed by generations of pharaohs over a 2,000 year period to honor God Aman-Ra, the Sun God. The temple grounds cover 65 acres... just massive! The highlights were the obelisks and the 134 huge columns. Walking through the forest of columns made both of us feel so small and insignificant. After wandering around the complex we couldn't help returning to the columns to experience their wonder again. Pictures will not do this place justice!
The next stop was the Temple of Luxor. Tarek informed us that in the ancient days an avenue connected the Temple of Karnak with the Temple of Luxor that was used for religious ceremonies. This avenue was lined on both sides by statues of sphinxes... the Avenue of the Sphinxes. Due to modern construction, only a portion of the avenue remains at the Temple of Luxor.
On the way back to the boat, we stopped at a nice art store and we picked up a large painting on papyrus. Before we made the purchase the store showed us how papyrus was made by the ancient Egyptians. It was pretty fascinating and I'm glad we found something to bring home.
After another great sunset over the Nile, we ate our last meal on the boat and said our goodbyes to Grace and Larry who were heading to the Red Sea the next day. We got some ice cream and watched a belly dancer perform in the lounge. We packed up and headed to bed.
