The tombs open off the main road with simple driveways into them. They have a simple wooden marker to tell you which is which.
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On the west bank of the Nile River across from Luxor, is the
Valley of the Kings. On the east side where the sun rises is a place for the
living, the west side where the sun sets is a place for the dead.
The Valley of the kings is a desolate place in the desert and was the cemetery
for 62 pharaohs. The only entry to this place was a long narrow winding
entrance. This was a secret place, where, in the past, sentries were placed at
the entrance of the Valley in the hope of discouraging tomb robbers.
Not all tombs are open and officials occasionally close particular tombs for
restoration. The style of the tombs did not change much throughout the 500 years
that the Valley was in use.
Ramesses VI's tomb has a magnificent burial chamber in which lie the broken
remains of the large stone sarcophagus. Along the length of the chamber's
ceiling are two images of the sky goddess Nut, which depict both the swallowing
and rebirth of the sun disc. The Sun was very important to the Ancient
Egyptians, it was what gave life.
The Egyptians believed that "To speak the name of the dead is to make him
live again." They certainly adhered to that when building the tombs. The king's
formal names and titles are inscribed in the tombs as cartouches. There
are also many images and statues of the buried kings.
The Valley of the Kings is dug into a natural pyramid - the kings still needed
to be able to climb up to the sun for the next life, but building their own
pyramids as in earlier times was not as safe, they were too obvious and open to
attack so they selected this site because of it's shape.
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The coaches have to stop someway out of the valley. Access is then via these little "trains". An old airport baggage tractor and a WW11 jeep have been spotted being used to pull the carriages and they were all painted pretty colours which seemed rather out of character for the area. |
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The long,
winding road runs right into the end of the valley. There is a row of well
spaced single electric road lights and a tarmac road these days, but you
can't help but wonder how on earth they managed to build it, hidden, without
road or cover from the sun, in ancient times. The tombs open off the main road with simple driveways into them. They have a simple wooden marker to tell you which is which. |
Queuing for the
entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb. His mummy is still here but his
artefacts are all on display at the Cairo Museum . |
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A team of
archaeologists are still working on the site, there are several kings whose
burial places have not yet been found.
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Photographing the inside of the tombs is not allowed. You can buy sets of postcards there. The train drivers sell them but the tourist police do not get their commission out of that. The police want tourists to buy them from specific stalls so that they get a slice of the money. A train driver loses his four or five sets of postcards as they were confiscated by the police. As soon as the police leave him he will serve the same postcards from the funnel of his vehicle where he has more hidden. |
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| Queen Hatshepsut's Temple On the western bank of the Nile between the Valley of the Kings and the
Valley of the Queens this three-tiered temple was found beneath hundreds of
tons of sand tens of centuries after its construction. |
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| Hathor shares
this temple site with Queen Hatshepsut who has the smaller temple
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The Banks of the Nile ~ The Valley of the Kings ~ Messing about on the river ~ Aswan ~ Pyramids ~ Lord Kitchener's Island ~ Luxor from the air ~ The Nubian Museum ~ Luxor and Karnak ~ Abu Simbel ~ Kom Ombo ~ Edfu and Philae ~ The Desert Landscape ~ The Nile Adventure ~ Homes ~ Esna and Edfu Town ~ Miscellaneous Pictures ~ Home
