The Valley of the Kings

When the long-awaited day to visit the Valley of the Kings finally arrived, it dawned bright and clear. I had opted to skip the early morning hot air balloon ride over the valley but several members of my group had already departed in the darkness at 4:30am. By 7am, those of us who had slept “late” were on our way to pick up the ballooners and head to the valley, across the Nile from where our riverboat was docked in Luxor. 

The ancient Egyptians generally buried their dead in a necropolis on the west side of the river. During the New Kingdom (1570-1070 BCE), pharaohs were no longer building pyramids to house their tombs. In fact, the pyramids at Giza were already more than 500 years old by this time. Egypt had grown from a kingdom into a virtual empire. The New Kingdom pharaohs wanted to build protected tombs for themselves in hidden locations and they found such a location in a valley located in the shadow of a pyramid-shaped mountain. The ancient Egyptians believed that this area was guarded by a powerful cobra goddess. 

 

To date, 65 tombs have been discovered in the Valley of the Kings and there are probably more whose entrances are still hidden. Beginning around 1500 BCE, thousands of workers labored to build the tombs. Given the wealth of treasures buried along with the mummies, it’s perhaps no surprise that workers not infrequently became tomb robbers.

 

Many Egyptologists believe that the earliest tomb in the valley is KV-20, where the pharaohs Thutmose I (ruled late 16^th to early 15^th century BCE) and Hatshepsut were originally buried. (The mummy of Thutmose I was later moved to another tomb in the valley.) The burial chamber in KV-20 is accessed via a downward sloping corridor that includes a 90-degree turn. Other tombs, especially later ones, were built with straight access down to the burial chamber.

 

During the late 13^th and early 12^th centuries BCE, Egypt was under frequent attack by various seafaring raiders known as the Sea Peoples. Also, during the reign of Ramses III (early 12^th century BCE), Egypt experienced a large-scale invasion which resulted in a group of newcomers settling in Egypt. All of this contributed to the weakening of the New Kingdom. It was against this background that many of the later tombs in the Valley of the Kings were built. 

 

The stone in this area is a clay limestone, which doesn’t lend itself to carving. Therefore, most of the decoration in the tombs is painted. Hussein explained some of the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians to help us understand much of the painted imagery in the tombs. The ancient Egyptians believed that there were two different worlds – the world we live in, and the underworld, a dangerous landscape that every soul had to pass through on its way to the afterlife. The journey to the afterlife was complicated. The underworld was divided into 12 regions corresponding to the 12 hours of the night. To pass through, the deceased had to use magical spells and passwords that were found in texts that were written on papyrus rolls and on the walls of the tomb. (One such text is The Book of the Dead.) At each stage in the journey, the deceased had to meet a new challenge. Failure at any stage meant not being able to attain the afterlife. The journey ended in the Hall of Truth where the final judgment took place. The god Anubis weighed the heart of the deceased against a feather of Ma’at, the goddess of truth and cosmic order. If the heart was lighter than the feather, the deceased was welcomed into eternal paradise. However, if the heart was weighed down by sin and heavier than the feather, it was devoured by a demon.  

 

Despite all the helpful information Hussein provided, I couldn’t interpret everything I saw in the tombs. However, I definitely appreciated the beautiful colors and designs that decorated the walls and ceilings. 

 

Tombs are open to the public on a rotating basis, so on any given day, only certain tombs are open. The first tomb we were able to visit was identified as KV-2. It was the tomb of Ramses IV, a pharaoh of the 20^th dynasty, who ruled for six years during a time when Egypt was experiencing an economic decline. As soon as we walked in, I was struck by the vivid colors on the walls and ceiling of the entrance corridor. 

There was more decoration as we continued down to the inner chambers. 

 

This scene is from a text called The Book of Gates. It shows a solar boat with the king making an offering to the gods. 

 

The second tomb we visited, KV-6, was built for Ramses IX, also a pharaoh of the 20^th dynasty. This scene comes from about halfway down the entrance corridor. 

The scene of the “opening of the mouth” ritual was found in one of the inner chambers. 

Here are a couple of other scenes from KV-6. 

 

Next, we visited KV-11, the tomb of Ramses III, one of Egypt’s greatest kings. It’s one of the largest tombs in the valley and it’s filled with stunning artwork. The tomb has a long corridor with numerous side chambers.  

The scene below shows the king (the figure on the left) presenting incense to the god Osiris (the figure on the right). Osiris is usually represented in black or green – black to show the fertility of the land or green to show the plants that are growing there. Also, note the stars on the ceiling. 

 

Next, we see Osiris being pulled back to life after he is killed by his brother Seth. 

 

There are many scenes with snakes, or serpents, in KV-11. As guardians of the underworld, snakes are featured in two of the funerary texts that guide the deceased to the afterlife. 

 

It wasn’t only kings who were buried in the valley. Important priests and other notables were also buried there. Actually, the tomb where Tutankhamen is buried was originally intended to be the tomb of the high priest. Tutankhamen died quite unexpectedly at the age of 19. (Some believe he was murdered.) Since there hadn’t been time to prepare a tomb for him, he was buried in a tomb that had already been built. 

 

The last tomb we visited was Tutankhamen’s. Since it wasn’t intended to be a royal tomb, it was smaller than the tombs we’d already seen. In addition, the only part of the tomb that was painted is the burial chamber. After searching for five years, the tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922. It still contained all of the objects that a pharaoh would need in the afterlife, such as chariots, furniture, weapons, food offerings, jewelry, etc. The treasures are now on display in the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, near Cairo. But Tut’s mummy still resides in the tomb’s burial chamber.

Baboons represented wisdom and were associated with the god Thoth.

 

Tut's mummy

There could be more tombs in the valley and we stopped to observe workers clearing out some bedrock, searching for a hidden entrance. It’s a backbreaking job. 

 

We walked back to our bus through a shopping arcade that Hussein jokingly called the Valley of the Vultures. 

 

Next, we drove to nearby Deir el-Bahari to see the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut. The mortuary temple is where the body would be prepared before being transported to the tomb. The temple of Hatshepsut is set at the base of towering cliffs, near the entrance to the Valley of the Kings. 

By the way, Hatshepsut means “princess number one.” When I was frantically using the microphone feature in the Notes app of my iPhone, “Hatshepsut” came out as “hot chef soup.” 

 

Hatshepsut was the daughter of King Thutmose I of the 18^th dynasty. In the New Kingdom, when the pharaoh died, the man who married the woman with the most royal blood would become the new pharaoh. Hatshepsut was in her early teens when her father died. To keep the royal bloodline strong, Hatshepsut was forced into marriage with her younger half-brother, Thutmose II. They had a daughter but no sons. When Thutmose II died at a young age, Hatshepsut served as regent for the infant son of Thutmose II by a secondary non-royal wife. This nephew of Hatshepsut would later marry his half-sister, the daughter of Hatshepsut and Thutmose II, and thereby become the pharaoh Thutmose III. Confusing, isn’t it? 

 

In reality, Hatshepsut ruled Egypt for over 20 years. In statues, she is often pictured wearing male attire and with the false beard of a pharaoh. Her reign was marked by peace, prosperity, and remarkable achievements in building and foreign trade. One of her most notable accomplishments was the expedition to Punt, a trading mission to what is today Eritrea and Ethiopia, that brought imports of gold, ivory, exotic animals, and myrrh trees to Egypt. 

 

However, Egypt was a patriarchal society, and upon the death of Hatshepsut, her successor, Thutmose III, attempted to erase her name from history. He wasn’t completely successful and today, many scholars consider her Egypt’s greatest ruler. Her cartouche remains on this column at her mortuary temple. 

 

The temple has three terraces. Of special interest is the second level where we admired the paintings on the walls and ceiling. Since the temple was never covered by the waters of the Nile, the colors remained startlingly bright. 

 

The painting on the left shows the jackal-headed god Anubis. In the painting on the right, Amun, king of the gods, wears a headdress of two feathers.  

 

One of the most memorable paintings was on the ceiling. It shows the protective vulture goddess Nekhbet as a bird with outstretched wings. 

 

At one time, there was a grand avenue of sphinxes leading to the temple. The sphinxes had the head of Hatshepsut, with the headdress and false beard of a pharaoh, and the body of a lion. When Thutmose III came to power, he had these statues removed and broken apart in an attempt to erase Hatshepsut from history. In the early 20^th century, the pieces were found in a nearby quarry and the sphinxes were reconstructed. One was placed in front of the temple while the others were distributed to museums around the world.

Extensive restoration work has been going on at the Deir el-Bahari site for several years. A mud brick Coptic church that was built over the temple had to be removed. The cliffs around the temple were filled with tombs that had been carved into the rocks, but local families who were living in them resisted efforts to vacate them until fairly recently. There certainly is more to be discovered. 

 

After a very busy morning, we left the necropolis and drove back to the east bank of Luxor. Hussein told us the about 65 percent of the city’s population makes their living from farming and resides on the west bank. The remainder of Luxor’s population works for the government or in a tourist-related field. 

 

At the buffet lunch on board the Nefertiti, there were a number of unfamiliar Egyptian specialties to try. My favorite was the Egyptian version of lasagna. It consisted of seasoned ground beef between two buttery layers of phyllo. The authentic way to eat it, picking it up and eating it with your hands, is extremely messy. 

In contrast to the morning, the afternoon was devoted to relaxation. The Nefertiti cruised up and down the Nile while we sat on the sun deck and listened to live traditional music. The musicians played a flute, accordion, tambourine, and a stringed instrument called an oud. 

 

I couldn’t stop taking pictures of the scenery as we sailed along. Seeing all the feluccas made me remember that Hussein had promised that we would travel on the river in one of these traditional Egyptian sailboats. We only had two more days on the Nile, so it had to be tomorrow or the next day.