The Valley of Kings!

 Continues from Luxor Temple: The Dazzling Preservation of a Culture

We’d been picked up in the early morning to visit the valley of Kings. It was our first travel across the Nile since we started our sail. We passed many half constructed houses on the way. Nariman explained that most of the natives leave their houses half constructed for their next generation to build a home of their own.

The scenery started to change from the lush green foliage at the Nile banks to the barren mountains. On both sides of the road, Theban hills glistened under the hot sun. We anticipated a hot day as the previous day but, never a worse one!

We reached gates to the Valley of Kings within half an hour of our drive. Beyond the gates laid, vast stretches of land that had once been the burial ground for royalties in Egyptian New Kingdom. As of then, there were 63 tombs, out of which three were open to visitors.

Theban Hills

Cameras and personal vehicles were not allowed beyond the gates. As we finished the procedures and waited for the tram to transport us to the tombs, I looked around. Here lay the tombs of the historical figures in Egyptian culture. Many archaeologists and Egyptologists made this area as their haven... Many of the tombs had been opened and robbed off treasures; the major being the tomb of King Tutankhamen!

The tram came to take us to the tombs. We passed the twisting roads under the Theban hills and reached a crowded place.  Nariman explained that owing to the arrival of Nile cruises, the number of visitors on that place would cover more than nine thousand per day. However, being an off season, visitors are less on the day compared to the other days.

We were to visit three tombs in the valley of Kings.  At first we visited the tomb of King Horemheb numbered as KV57 (Valley of Kings Number 57). No guide would come in to assist us and we had to maintain silence inside the tombs. King Horemheb was the last King of the 18^th dynasty. Paintings depicting scenes from Egyptian mythology gave some clues to the beliefs and funerary rituals of the period. 

Entrance to the Valley of Kings

The next tomb that we gained entry into was that of Ramesses VI numbered as KV9.  We had to enter the narrow path resembling the entrance to the tombs inside the Pyramids. The decorative images were in a well preserved state than those of King Horemheb’s tomb. Ramesses VI enlarged the tomb of Ramesses V to make it his own. The tomb though thoroughly robbed and excavated gave an idea of the opulence and power of the rulers of the time.

Finally, we reached the tomb of King Tutankhamen. The entry fee is much more than the fee into other tombs. We were definitely interested in this tomb than others since we had a glimpse of the treasures that this tomb had once consisted.  The mask of Tutankhamen, his gold bed, gold chambers etc. at the Cairo museum had boasted the majesty of its owner.

The tomb had an entrance corridor, staircase, antechamber and burial chamber. The paintings were not stretched to all walls. Even after being robbed of its treasure twice, the tomb still holds the affluence of the boy King.

The tombs where the excavation continues...

When we came out of the tombs, Nariman explained to us about the curse of Pharaohs.  It seems many people who had aided in opening the tomb of King Tutankhamen, died of mysterious accidents. Howard Carte, who was the principal leader of the excavation of King Tutankhamen’s tomb, suffered many mysterious hardships. A cobra that resembled the cobra at King Tutankhamen’s crown had once hunted his pet parrot. Jackals of the same type as Anubis that guarded King Tutankhamen’s tomb came in front of him for the first time in over thirty-five years of explorations in the valley. Yet the explorations continue...

We came out of the valley thoroughly exhausted. As we had started to drive back, I just thought! How would the majestic royalties would feel if they were aware that their personal burial grounds and their well kept wives’ burial grounds being peeked on everyday by countless foreigners over the years?

Continues in The Woman Power in Ancient Egypt-Queen Hatshepsut