Valley of the Kings

Thursday, January 10, 2008

After breakfast we boarded buses for the ride to Theben and the Valley of the Kings. Since it's located on the other side of the Nile from where our ship was docked, we had to drive over a bridge to get there. During the drive, we saw at least 11 hot air balloons floating in the air over the west bank!

We then entered the famous Valley of the Kings. The rocky landscape reminded me a lot of the Bad Land Deserts East of San Diego.

In the first picture below you can see the reason why the Kings/Pharaohs of Egypt chose this particular mountain for the graves. The mountain in the background resembles in shape and form a pyramid and thus seen as a symbol.

The walls and walkways around the entrances to the graves were not only built to make access for tourists easier, but also in case of flash flooding (very rare occassion) to keep the water from entering them.

We were allowed to visit the inside of only 3 graves of our own choosing, though at least two, among them King Tutanchamun, could only be entered for an additional fee. I of course paid the extra fee, €10, for that one! As warned before hand, it wasn't much worth it since nothing is left there except a replica of the original. But it was interesting that this grave is extremely small, the smallest of all the graves.

I should have made notes of which graves I visited... shame on me, I didn't! I was just too enthralled by everything and busy taking pictures! We were not allowed to take pictures inside the graves, and some day no one may be allowed even to visit them! The moisture from all the bodies visiting there daily are destroying some of the marvelous artwork.

This picture was taken....

at the top of this staircase...

at the entrance to the grave of Thutmosis III.

I couldn't believe I was actually there, in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. And seeing the hieroglyphen first hand was something else!

There is still excavating going on, and perhaps even more graves will one day be uncovered.

This is the central "intersection" where different paths lead to different grave areas and has a "rest stop".

Beyond the rest stop workers are excavating.... there is no passage beyond there for tourists.

The graves are numbered according to the order they were discovered. For example, KV 34 stands for the 34th discovered grave in Kings Valley, in this case Thutmosis III, discovered in 1898.