Day 184 - Valley of the Kings, Temple of Hatshepsut
Thursday, January 3rd, 2019.
Today we got up early because we started our tour at 8:30am. We hired a private tour guide with a van for all of us. Our first stop was the Valley of the Kings. A normal ticket entitles you to visit three tombs, you choose which 3 to visit -- except King Tut's tomb which costs an extra 250LE, and the tomb is the smallest and contains nothing but his mummy since everything has been moved to the museum in Cairo.
Our guide's name was Osama and he seemed professional but not as enthusiastic as Mo, who was our guide in Cairo. Mo referred us to Osama. He gave information with his very strong accent which at first seemed easy to understand but after a while, I think he lost some of his students.
I’m not sure if you want to hear about the tombs and the Egyptian beliefs as we heard and more or less understood them. I mean for that, you can always look it up on the internet or watch a documentary.
In any case, we admired the impressive tombs in the Valley of the Kings. In ancient Egyptian mythology, the sun rose in the east making the east was the side of life and rebirth. It set in the west, so the west was the side of death. That's why the city is in the east and the tombs are in the west. The village of workers who made all the tombs were not allowed to go to the west and they spent their lives building the tombs for their pharaohs.
We saw tombs of different sizes and depths. We learned that they started the king's tomb the moment they became king and when they had sons, they started those tombs as well. That’s why each one has a different number of chambers. Ramses III's tomb was very deep because he lived 63 years and had dozens of children. The walls are covered with hieroglyphics that tell the king what he needs to do to navigate in the underworld.
It was very impressive and fascinating. I wish I had more time to read about the Egyptian culture and mythology but I feel like I can’t catch up with anything. People might think that we have a lot of free time but truly we don’t. We are constantly planning, researching, looking for food, preparing meals, doing laundry, so much that we don’t have time. Or maybe I shouldn’t speak for all because Gregory always seems to have time but that’s only because he is always doing research.
Anyway, we finished visiting the tombs a few hours later. I forgot to mention that the queen of Belgium was visiting the valley at the same time we were there. She was in the tomb of Tutankhamon and no one was allowed in while she was there so a crowd had formed, waiting to go in. When she came out, my mom ran to take a picture with her. I should have run with her but I didn’t see the point to try to take a picture with her. My mom got a picture of her back!
Afterward, they drove us to the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. A uniquely designed temple that the female king had built for the 70 days of ritual before her burial in the valley of the kings. Unfortunately, it was not well preserved, mostly because her successor/stepson/nephew, Thutmose III, destroyed all images of her!
The guide gave some explanations but by then I think we were all done to the point that my mom didn’t want to climb all the stairs and waited for us sitting downstairs.
The guide was going to give us a break for lunch but we told him that we were done! We were super tired so we agreed to finish tomorrow. They dropped us at our apartment and had lunch at home. Afterward, some of us took a long nap, had tea, and I enjoyed my mom.
Today we got up early because we started our tour at 8:30am. We hired a private tour guide with a van for all of us. Our first stop was the Valley of the Kings. A normal ticket entitles you to visit three tombs, you choose which 3 to visit -- except King Tut's tomb which costs an extra 250LE, and the tomb is the smallest and contains nothing but his mummy since everything has been moved to the museum in Cairo.
Our guide's name was Osama and he seemed professional but not as enthusiastic as Mo, who was our guide in Cairo. Mo referred us to Osama. He gave information with his very strong accent which at first seemed easy to understand but after a while, I think he lost some of his students.
I’m not sure if you want to hear about the tombs and the Egyptian beliefs as we heard and more or less understood them. I mean for that, you can always look it up on the internet or watch a documentary.
In any case, we admired the impressive tombs in the Valley of the Kings. In ancient Egyptian mythology, the sun rose in the east making the east was the side of life and rebirth. It set in the west, so the west was the side of death. That's why the city is in the east and the tombs are in the west. The village of workers who made all the tombs were not allowed to go to the west and they spent their lives building the tombs for their pharaohs.
We saw tombs of different sizes and depths. We learned that they started the king's tomb the moment they became king and when they had sons, they started those tombs as well. That’s why each one has a different number of chambers. Ramses III's tomb was very deep because he lived 63 years and had dozens of children. The walls are covered with hieroglyphics that tell the king what he needs to do to navigate in the underworld.
It was very impressive and fascinating. I wish I had more time to read about the Egyptian culture and mythology but I feel like I can’t catch up with anything. People might think that we have a lot of free time but truly we don’t. We are constantly planning, researching, looking for food, preparing meals, doing laundry, so much that we don’t have time. Or maybe I shouldn’t speak for all because Gregory always seems to have time but that’s only because he is always doing research.
Anyway, we finished visiting the tombs a few hours later. I forgot to mention that the queen of Belgium was visiting the valley at the same time we were there. She was in the tomb of Tutankhamon and no one was allowed in while she was there so a crowd had formed, waiting to go in. When she came out, my mom ran to take a picture with her. I should have run with her but I didn’t see the point to try to take a picture with her. My mom got a picture of her back!
Afterward, they drove us to the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut. A uniquely designed temple that the female king had built for the 70 days of ritual before her burial in the valley of the kings. Unfortunately, it was not well preserved, mostly because her successor/stepson/nephew, Thutmose III, destroyed all images of her!
The guide gave some explanations but by then I think we were all done to the point that my mom didn’t want to climb all the stairs and waited for us sitting downstairs.
The guide was going to give us a break for lunch but we told him that we were done! We were super tired so we agreed to finish tomorrow. They dropped us at our apartment and had lunch at home. Afterward, some of us took a long nap, had tea, and I enjoyed my mom.
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| The remains of the Funerary Temple of Amenhotep III, commonly called the Colossi of Memnon |
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